Comments on: Does new hard drive foreshadow 100GB iPod?

Toshiba's 100GB 1.8-inch hard drives will begin shipping next year, which could lead to larger storage capacity for Apple's music device.
Photo: Toshiba's little hard drive

[Charleston Charge]

Nope

My prediction is that as the hard drives increase in space, Apple will decrease the capacity of the iPod. Do I smell the release of the 10MB iPod soon??

[siouxmoux]

100GB iPod?? I Say No Deal.

100GB iPod?? I Say No Deal Howie. I am still waiting for 2TB Wide Touch HDTV screen to come out

[ballssalty]

100GB iPods? Don't you mean 100GB Zunes?

I can't believe this article didn't even think that Microsoft may have bought out the supply as part of their deal with Toshiba making the Zune? This has been a strategy Apple has used for their iPod's. It's part of the reason why there has been no major competition for them in the hard drive DAP market. But now that Microsoft has partnered with Toshiba, it's quite possible Microsoft is going to turn the tables on Apple.

[masterbreez]

What's a Zune?

I doubt that... Toshiba knows where the money is... a product that
moves and will sell through... anything else they do is iceing on the
cake. Look for the MS product to follow the leader, as usual.

[ewelch]

Yeah, right

Like Toshiba can sherk their agreement with Apple? They'll just
ramp up the production a bit to cover Zunes. Microsof will be lucky
to sell 1/10th of what Apple will over the next year.

Hope Toshiba wasn't foolish enough to favor Microsoft. All the
Plays-For-Sure-Maybe-Used-To partners are sure smarting with
the advent of the Zune stabbing them in the backs. But what's new?
That's the MS business model.

[grdaven]

Would be a dumb move for Toshiba

Zune will not sell a million units until June as stated on this
website. Microsoft and it dollars could not pay Toshiba enough to
lock the drive up when Ipod will sell 14 million units in a quarter. It
right now is just dollars. Remember Toshiba killed the sales of
their own player just to get in bed with M$ so their most likely not
even breaking even making the Zune.

[CindyPixie]

New video ipod

Do you think there will be a new ipod early next year with a
bigger screen? I'm waiting to buy a new ipod, and wondering
what your thought are.

Thanks,

[Ryo Hazuki]

Same Apple fanboys' excuses

Yes, and then Apple fanboys will say screen size is very important and that the new iPod is not bulky considering the screen size.
Until then, the iPod's screen size is just perfect and the Zune is bulky.

[crue24]

How is this a news story?

Let me get this straight...as hard drive capacities grow larger, Apple
is going to put larger hard drives in the iPod? Wow!!! Who would
have ever guessed that one? This guy may be on to something...
Crazy speculation about new product updates and features is one
thing, but an article that states the blatently obvious? What editor
approved that?

[crue24]

One more thing...

...if this is true, then maybe laptop manufacturers will start putting
larger hard drives there too...and maybe desktop manufacturers
will do the same as those capacities increase too!!! I know I'm
flaming but maybe if the people who write these articles see
flaming they'll put a little more effort into coming up with the next
story...

[Ryo Hazuki]

Apple fanboys

It's just to fill Apple fanboys' huge ego, since Apple hasn't released aything (not even an iTunes 7 patch) in the last 7 days.

[iwn730]

wow awesome 100gb ipod

100gb means more movies and a lot of room for ipod linx

[SimonMackay]

Not just for iPods!

Hi all!

The idea of the 1.8" 100Gb microdrive isn't just for the iPod! I would reckon that this idea could go towards the high-grade high-resolution digital cameras so that there is the ability to acquire more high-resolution movies and digital images.

Another application could be high-capacity secondary storage in PDAs, UMPCs and other "very small form factor" personal computers. This would suit those machines that are pitched as "laptop replacements" for example. To some extent, manufacturers could easily make very small USB external hard drives that road warriors use as a tool for "mirroring" their laptop computer's data.

With regards,

Simon Mackay

[TexasTrouble]

I don't have 25,000 songs!

Right on, racking up more than 30 minutes of video recording can happen in well, 31 minutes, on a miniDV camcorder. I can't wait to have a 100GB+ Camcorder.

[Ryo Hazuki]

Is the iPod the only device that uses these drives?

I though laptops and many other mobile devices (Zune included) used these drives too.
Looks like it all comes down to Apple for CNET.

[jones_8099]

First off?

First off this is just the sign of a slow news day. Secondly laptops
can already come with large capacity HD and Zune isn't selling well
enough to be a household name yet (not implying that it won't
succeed). Also I'm guessing you don't read CNET very often
because they post stories that are both pro MS and pro Apple
relatively equally. Which is why fanboys from both camps complain
when they post articles that deal with the one they hate.

[Penguinisto]

Prolly because the Zune will be dead by then ;)

In all seriousness though, the word "iPod" surfaces not because of institutional bias or zealotry, but because the biggest and most readily-named ISV to use these devices would be... Apple and their iPod.

Laptops use (physically) larger drives - unless it's a Sony Vaio or some specialty mini-notebook thingy, there wouldn't be much use for this little critter in laptops now (most likely due to data transfer speeds).

Other mobile devices? not cell phones. Blackberries are (IIRC) flash-based. PDA's might (though IIRC most of those are flash-based too), but how many of those get bought nowadays?

/P

[Seaspray0]

Request for news

I think the big news of the story here is a 100 GB 1.8" drive. I also ask, "what's the primary use of these drives?" The answer is the portable MP3 player market, of which ipod is the leading brand. So, yea, the headline does tie in... not spectacularly, but it does.

As far as directing requests to c/net, what's going on in the digital tape arena? Is digital tape being replaced by small hard drives? We used to back up our data on a CDR in the 90's. In today's world, that would take several hundred CD's (today, they're treated like the floppy disk). What is going to be THE backup storage device for the home user of the future? Tape? Optical disk? Magnetic hard drive? How about a story, cnet?

[jones_8099]

I personally?

I personally backup my data on DVD-R's and an external HD. CD-
R's don't give enough storage and flash drives are still expensive
for one of adequate size. Ultimately I would prefer to back up to
large flash drive (no moving parts to break).

[TexasTrouble]

Holographic Storage

I keep waiting for Holographic storage but every time I look it is always "just a few more months".

[ipod_mods]

100GB iPod is already here

At iPodmods.com, the 100GB iPod modification is already under way, using that particular Toshiba Hard drive. The mod can be installed on a current 80GB iPod with no cosmetic changes, or you can soup up the 30GB, but it requires a new back panel in able to make it fit. All in all, for those of you who max out the storage capacity with music and videos (myself included), its a great step to take to keep your library down to one device...for now. (The new HD should be rated at about 25000 songs or 125 hours of video using the Apple standard)