Detachable HDD? Solution for MS's HDD issue -- and it ain't software!

[Acert93]

Xpod or iBox ... some funcky MP3 players

The 360 can already be used as a terminal for MP3 downloads and the in recent Kameo video they are accessing an iPod to get music for their game.

MS could charge $200-$300 for a nice little MP3 player. They would get both gamer and non-gamer sales, but I imagine it would be hot hot hot among 360 users. It would also give them a head-on competitor with Apple and [gasp] be a really fair competition. Sure, they are leveraging another device, but they are also giving customers real value as well!

The Console HDD has been waiting for a killer app for 5 years now. Xbox's was underused, PS2's died a death of a thousand deaths, the DD64 was a no show...

Maybe the solution is in the hardware and media (MP3s... maybe even movies?) and not in game software?

Maybe the iTunes thing is a great idea and would allow MS to use the idea to truly branch out into profitable "microtransactions".

Now that would have created a killer buzz for the HDD addon So, when is MS gonna hire me? Sony? Nintendo? . . . Atari? . . . Infineon? [shudder]

So would you buy an Xpod?

 

[jvd]

i don't know if usb would be fast enough for loading up textures and what not .



Otherwise i wouldn't . I already have a 300$ ipod

 

[Acert93]

i don't know if usb would be fast enough for loading up textures and what not .

I was meaning in the HDD slot; you know, use some funky SATA (or whatever they are using) adapter on the slot that plugs into your xPod. Kind of like a Palm PDA works (docs) or a USB-to-SATA/PATA connection. Those are pretty cheap in those external HDD enclosures.

Also, my USB 2.0 external HDD is pretty fast overall. Not as fast as my other drives, but acceptable.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Wasn't it rumoured before the official xbox360 specs that the detachable 20gig HDD would at the same time be functional as a compact portable music player.

It would have been cool if the HDD was a stylish mini 20Gig hard drive, but I guess there would have been a problem of which connector to use, would an usb2.0 have been too slow? A proprietary connector or SATA would have made it difficult to transfer files from PC without some docking bay/adaptor accessory... but hey, that would've given them one mor accessory to sell for $49.99

 

[jvd]

I dunno mabye

 

[Ty]

Rabid, that would be a wicked cool idea.

 

[V3]

Before E3 announcement, wasn't there a rumour that the Hdd woul be MP3 player as well ?

 

[Uncle]

Before E3 announcement, wasn't there a rumour that the Hdd woul be MP3 player as well ?

Yeah, and it was pretty hilarious as well. Some snowboarder claimed that he had been drinking with some important MS guy and he slipped something about the xPod. I think I remeber the word Spong for some reason as well.

 

[Inane_Dork]

So would you buy an Xpod?

Never, but I can see such a device being potentially used. Used for static storage, not caching. I don't think that's the right way to go about caching. But yeah, saved games, DLC, patches, mods, music, etc. all sound like good options.

But if MS ever enabled using my XP PC's hard drive as storage, that I'm down with.

 

[PC-Engine]

It would be nice if Xbox 360 could use a USB mass storage device for caching whether it's a HDD or flash drive.

 

[Guden Oden]

i don't know if usb would be fast enough for loading up textures and what not .

USB-connected harddrives, that while generally slower than firewire and dependent on the quality of the bridge chip, do typically show sequential transfer rates of upwards of 35MB/s and access times of around 15ms. That's typically less than a tenth than the access time of an optical drive and more than 2.5 times faster data transfers of a 12x optical too.

Flash performance would be underwhelming though, especially write performance is often rather crappy; single-digit MB/s is common. Not to mention the wear on the flash media of course...

 

[jvd]

USB-connected harddrives, that while generally slower than firewire and dependent on the quality of the bridge chip, do typically show sequential transfer rates of upwards of 35MB/s and access times of around 15ms. That's typically less than a tenth than the access time of an optical drive and more than 2.5 times faster data transfers of a 12x optical too.

Aren't these faster spinning drives and with more cache though ?



Anyway . I can see ms wanting more money to make the big games basicly require a hardrive. Making halo 3 load rediclously slow or throwing out loads of free content on it that you would need a hardrive to store it .

It could be a way of getting the installed base bigger. If they do 85% premium and 15% core doing something like above with a few games could most likely bring that 85% up to 90-95% and drive at least more devs to caching


well anyway here is the real way to fix it

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0471771805.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

 

[mesyn191]

If the detacheable HDD can double as a portable MP3 player a la iPod where do you put the batteries? Those laptop HDD's draw a lot more power than the micro drives that the iPod uses you know, so the battery pack would have to be fairly large to power it for any length of time unless MS has a fair amount of flash RAM built into the detacheable HDD as well...

 

[scooby_dooby]

It's also interesting to note that Apple has had it patent application denied because of a pre-exisitng MS patent, the end result could see Apple paying royalties on it's own product!

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/8997/Microsoft-Invented-the-iPod/

"Although this patent doesn’t affect the right for Apple to sell the iPod, Apple might have to pay Microsoft royalties for every iPod it sells. More interesting, Microsoft could sell its own iPod variation as long as it does not infringe in any patent granted to Apple. Lawyers could also reach an agreement between both companies so Microsoft could use Apple patents and vice versa.

Earlier this year, Microsoft tapped Robbie Bach, Chief Xbox Officer and Senior Vice President of the Home and Entertainment Division, to revamp the company's digital-music strategy and compete better with Apple and its iPod, iTunes music service. "

 

[scooby_dooby]

If the detacheable HDD can double as a portable MP3 player a la iPod where do you put the batteries? Those laptop HDD's draw a lot more power than the micro drives that the iPod uses you know, so the battery pack would have to be fairly large to power it for any length of time unless MS has a fair amount of flash RAM built into the detacheable HDD as well...

It would have to come with an attachable screen/interface that you would purchase seperately. That could house the battery pack or betteries.

 

[mesyn191]

It would have to come with an attachable screen/interface that you would purchase seperately. That could house the battery pack or betteries.

Thats kinda the problem though, that detacheable interface/battery back would have to be huge, heavy, and expensive to run the HDD for any reasonable length of time...

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Scooby... don't think about the patent having any sort of connection to an XPod. The patent issue does nothing more than illustrate the idiocy that consists of the USPTO. A sad little a sadistic reality, but what can you do right? Pray Europe doesn't screw up like the rest of us, hopefully. Anyway, that's offtopic... point is just because MS has patent to screw out Apple, which will most likely be overturned due to prior art issues, doesn't mean they can now make the "XPod". There are lot's of other Mp3 players out there besides the iPod, nothing's been holding MS back from doing it already... well, aside from failure...


If you want more info, you can get a general gist of the ideas by reading the endless rantings of slashdot readers at the links.

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=158607&threshold=1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=158903&threshold=1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change