Google employee imagines iPod that can hold all videos

November 28, 2006 By

A Google employee can see the day (about 12 years from now) when an iPod or cell phone will come along that will hold all the world’s videos. Yes, even those big ones I’ve been putting on the ScobleShow.

The thing he doesn’t see (or isn’t including in his calculations) is that the world’s video available is growing exponentially every few months. Why? Cost of production. Today with a $4,000 camera I can create better video than even a $50,000 camera could back in the 1980s and using a cell phone camera I could create video that would have been impossible to create just a few years ago.

But, either way, my sponsor, Seagate, is positioned well in this trend.

I see a day when every home will have 10 or more hard drives. Heck, in mine I’m already up to 10. Two in my MacPro. Three external. One in my PVR that’s coming on December 12th (yes, we’re finally hooking the HDTV up to a satellite dish). One in my Voodoo machine. One in my Sony Vaio. One in my Xbox. One in my Thinkpad.

I’m going to get a RAID drive set for archiving my videos, too. That’ll mean at least two more hard drives.

How many hard drives do you have?

Filed Under: 1
  • Gingibergs

    I have 8, 5 in my workstation, 1 in each laptop and an external one. Planning on adding a few very soon.

  • Gingibergs

    I have 8, 5 in my workstation, 1 in each laptop and an external one. Planning on adding a few very soon.

  • http://gandhi.wordpress.com/ Mihir Gandhi

    I have 4 – 2 in my desktop, 1 external USB, 1 in laptop. Ironically, I thought I had way too many HDD’s !!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    I forgot about the two Zunes I have sitting in my house.

  • http://gandhi.wordpress.com Mihir Gandhi

    I have 4 – 2 in my desktop, 1 external USB, 1 in laptop. Ironically, I thought I had way too many HDD’s !!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    I forgot about the two Zunes I have sitting in my house.

  • http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/ gwhiz

    Our three XServes = 6 drives. The XServe RAID has 12 drives (three RAID 5 slices). One drive in each PowerBook. Five external drives and two iPods.

    Total storage capacity is flirting with 3 Tb. LOTS of video strung about all of the above (including some of yours/PodTechs on my PowerBook… keep up that QuickTime goodness! :)

  • http://disenchantedtech.wordpress.com/ disenchantedtech

    My feeling is that in the future you wont have much of an internal disk at all in such devices.
    All content you have a license to view / listen to will be stored online and streamed to your handheld device on demand via wireless / satelite etc. You’ll have a small internal disk for buffering for when you go through tunnels in the train but no content will be stored on the device, it will just always be connected.
    The space saved by not having a disk will be used up by battery space.
    So yes, your device be able to show any video but it wont actually be held on the device.

  • http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/ gwhiz

    Our three XServes = 6 drives. The XServe RAID has 12 drives (three RAID 5 slices). One drive in each PowerBook. Five external drives and two iPods.

    Total storage capacity is flirting with 3 Tb. LOTS of video strung about all of the above (including some of yours/PodTechs on my PowerBook… keep up that QuickTime goodness! :)

  • http://disenchantedtech.wordpress.com/ disenchantedtech

    My feeling is that in the future you wont have much of an internal disk at all in such devices.
    All content you have a license to view / listen to will be stored online and streamed to your handheld device on demand via wireless / satelite etc. You’ll have a small internal disk for buffering for when you go through tunnels in the train but no content will be stored on the device, it will just always be connected.
    The space saved by not having a disk will be used up by battery space.
    So yes, your device be able to show any video but it wont actually be held on the device.

  • yamahito

    10 in my server (8 in raid5, 2 in raid0)
    3 in my main machine (2 raid0 (system) 1 general storage)
    1 in my laptop
    1 in the TV machine
    1 in the mac mini
    0 in my router (unles CF drives plugged into IDE count ;) )
    Total: 16 (plus some spares..)

  • yamahito

    10 in my server (8 in raid5, 2 in raid0)
    3 in my main machine (2 raid0 (system) 1 general storage)
    1 in my laptop
    1 in the TV machine
    1 in the mac mini
    0 in my router (unles CF drives plugged into IDE count ;) )
    Total: 16 (plus some spares..)

  • http://salubri.journals.ie/ Salubri

    At last count:
    3 in my desktop
    1 in my laptop
    1 laptop drive in a little home rigged external
    3 in a desk drawer (archived junk that I should really sort through and put on one bigger drive)
    1 in an ICY box for swapping in and out (should really invest in a nice 250Gb external at some point…)

    So 9 in all… Umm that’s not good – even if 3 of those are pretty much defunct and should be put in a museum I should still get organised!

  • http://salubri.journals.ie Salubri

    At last count:
    3 in my desktop
    1 in my laptop
    1 laptop drive in a little home rigged external
    3 in a desk drawer (archived junk that I should really sort through and put on one bigger drive)
    1 in an ICY box for swapping in and out (should really invest in a nice 250Gb external at some point…)

    So 9 in all… Umm that’s not good – even if 3 of those are pretty much defunct and should be put in a museum I should still get organised!

  • http://salubri.journals.ie/ Salubri

    Disenchantedtech has a good point by the way…

    A story I spotted today suggests that at least someone thinks there’s a market for a PC without a HDD: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/28/linutop_touts_linux_web_pc/

    Why don’t we all go back to the Sinclair PC200 (Amstrad PC-20 for you folks in the US) the first PC I ever had… Didn’t need a HDD then either ;-)

  • http://salubri.journals.ie Salubri

    Disenchantedtech has a good point by the way…

    A story I spotted today suggests that at least someone thinks there’s a market for a PC without a HDD: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/28/linutop_touts_linux_web_pc/

    Why don’t we all go back to the Sinclair PC200 (Amstrad PC-20 for you folks in the US) the first PC I ever had… Didn’t need a HDD then either ;-)

  • Russ Henry

    Are you a computer pac rat? Why not have a rat drive that archives things not used in 1 year. Less is more. Feng chewwy or Zen and the art of archiving. Just don’t put your Yin videos in with your Yang photos.
    Dooey touch my mustache. ; )

  • Russ Henry

    Are you a computer pac rat? Why not have a rat drive that archives things not used in 1 year. Less is more. Feng chewwy or Zen and the art of archiving. Just don’t put your Yin videos in with your Yang photos.
    Dooey touch my mustache. ; )

  • -gary

    24 active in my house. Most of them are full time while others like in the Xbox and laptop get some occasional use.

  • -gary

    24 active in my house. Most of them are full time while others like in the Xbox and laptop get some occasional use.

  • http://www.timothycooper.com/ Tim Cooper

    I’m more interested in the Satellite you’re hooking up to your HDTV…who are you going with, Dish or DirecTV?

  • http://www.timothycooper.com Tim Cooper

    I’m more interested in the Satellite you’re hooking up to your HDTV…who are you going with, Dish or DirecTV?

  • http://chrisgonyea.com/ Chris G.

    Right now I have:
    80 GB in my Macbook
    60 GB in an 3-year-old PC laptop
    120 GB external HD that is used for backups

    However I want to get Network Attached Storage unit in the future.

    Data storage has to be done better in the next few years, especially with all of the music, TV Shows, and Movies people have (or will have). The solution is not to have a dedicated server (which for geeks is usually an old computer with a bunch of extra HD’s).

    Instead, I see a future where we can buy an easily expandable network attached storage device for homes. Whenever you need more space, you can just plug in a hot swappable HD or an external HD and the system automatically recognizes it and starts using it. Then you can go into backup programs (such as Apple’s Time Machine) or other programs (such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.) and EASILY select where you want data to be stored.

    Whatever the case, backups have to be made easier, because with all of the DRM we have, it is not feasible to buy new copies if your house burns down or if a HD fails.

  • http://chrisgonyea.com Chris G.

    Right now I have:
    80 GB in my Macbook
    60 GB in an 3-year-old PC laptop
    120 GB external HD that is used for backups

    However I want to get Network Attached Storage unit in the future.

    Data storage has to be done better in the next few years, especially with all of the music, TV Shows, and Movies people have (or will have). The solution is not to have a dedicated server (which for geeks is usually an old computer with a bunch of extra HD’s).

    Instead, I see a future where we can buy an easily expandable network attached storage device for homes. Whenever you need more space, you can just plug in a hot swappable HD or an external HD and the system automatically recognizes it and starts using it. Then you can go into backup programs (such as Apple’s Time Machine) or other programs (such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.) and EASILY select where you want data to be stored.

    Whatever the case, backups have to be made easier, because with all of the DRM we have, it is not feasible to buy new copies if your house burns down or if a HD fails.

  • http://hauntingthunder.wordpress.com/ Maurice

    Hmm

    80g +400G external and 60g in laptop realy must look at a nas

    I think your right about storage 1080p video takes huge amounts of storage – and doesn’t Google know the rules of Computers you can’t eaver have to much performace,dasd ect eaver

    Reading the article its yeat another marketing puff peice for micropayments ie 99cents a song -well yes its woking now sort of…… But when people start losing several k of content they’ve paid for I can see a backlash coming a few years down the line.

  • http://hauntingthunder.wordpress.com/ Maurice

    Hmm

    80g +400G external and 60g in laptop realy must look at a nas

    I think your right about storage 1080p video takes huge amounts of storage – and doesn’t Google know the rules of Computers you can’t eaver have to much performace,dasd ect eaver

    Reading the article its yeat another marketing puff peice for micropayments ie 99cents a song -well yes its woking now sort of…… But when people start losing several k of content they’ve paid for I can see a backlash coming a few years down the line.

  • http://jonpatch.wordpress.com/ Jon Patch

    Reminds me of the article I saw in the 1960s predicting that if TV added any more networks or channels, they’d run out of movies to show as there wasn’t enough production capacity.

    Primary computer: 800Gb RAID-0, 250Gb external backup
    Secondary computer: 160Gb, 80Gb, 40Gb (see a pattern here?)

  • http://jonpatch.wordpress.com Jon Patch

    Reminds me of the article I saw in the 1960s predicting that if TV added any more networks or channels, they’d run out of movies to show as there wasn’t enough production capacity.

    Primary computer: 800Gb RAID-0, 250Gb external backup
    Secondary computer: 160Gb, 80Gb, 40Gb (see a pattern here?)

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  • http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/ webomatica

    Hmm, does that include all the user created content too? Seems like the rate of creation will pick up as the storage price decreases, too.

    Maybe some people will just leave a camera on, recording everything they do 24/7.

  • http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/ Webomatica

    Hmm, does that include all the user created content too? Seems like the rate of creation will pick up as the storage price decreases, too.

    Maybe some people will just leave a camera on, recording everything they do 24/7.

  • http://gregsvideoblog.blogspot.com/ Greg

    You can have a bizillion ipods and they still won’t be able to “play all the videos in the world”.

    See, ipod only plays .mov, m4v and mp4 files. The ipod does not play the scooble show. The ipod does not play most videos, unless the creator saves them in an ipod format.

    The ipod is lame.

  • http://gregsvideoblog.blogspot.com Greg

    You can have a bizillion ipods and they still won’t be able to “play all the videos in the world”.

    See, ipod only plays .mov, m4v and mp4 files. The ipod does not play the scooble show. The ipod does not play most videos, unless the creator saves them in an ipod format.

    The ipod is lame.

  • http://ideaburger.blogspot.com/ Jayakumar Haiharan

    Hi Robert

    You were not joking!

    Here are my STORAGE DEVICES

    One 2 Gb samsung desktop HDD
    One 6.2 Gb Hitachi desktop HDD
    One 80 Gb Seagate desktop HDD in an external USB casing

    One 100 Gb Western Digital HDD in my Compaq Presario laptop
    One 40 Gb Hitachi HDD in a USB casing (This came in my laptop, but I upgraded later)

    One 256 Mb Flash Drive on my key chain
    One 128 Mb Mini SD card in My Cellphone

    That’s eight on last count. Now, how do I use them?

    I don’t touch my desktop these days, so the 2 Gb and 6.2 Gb drives are gathering dust.

    The 80 Gb Seagate is for archiving – mostly anything that my 13 year old son Sriduth won’t need in a hurry.

    The 100 Gb Western Digital is in constant use. That’s in my laptop. And the 40 Gb HDD in a usb casing is my laptop backup.

    I use the 256 Mb flash drive to take work home. The 128 Mb Mini SD card has mostly Cellphone camera images, and music.

    Jay, from Bangalore

  • http://ideaburger.blogspot.com Jayakumar Haiharan

    Hi Robert

    You were not joking!

    Here are my STORAGE DEVICES

    One 2 Gb samsung desktop HDD
    One 6.2 Gb Hitachi desktop HDD
    One 80 Gb Seagate desktop HDD in an external USB casing

    One 100 Gb Western Digital HDD in my Compaq Presario laptop
    One 40 Gb Hitachi HDD in a USB casing (This came in my laptop, but I upgraded later)

    One 256 Mb Flash Drive on my key chain
    One 128 Mb Mini SD card in My Cellphone

    That’s eight on last count. Now, how do I use them?

    I don’t touch my desktop these days, so the 2 Gb and 6.2 Gb drives are gathering dust.

    The 80 Gb Seagate is for archiving – mostly anything that my 13 year old son Sriduth won’t need in a hurry.

    The 100 Gb Western Digital is in constant use. That’s in my laptop. And the 40 Gb HDD in a usb casing is my laptop backup.

    I use the 256 Mb flash drive to take work home. The 128 Mb Mini SD card has mostly Cellphone camera images, and music.

    Jay, from Bangalore

  • Richard

    *lol* .. I immediately thought by myself ‘there’s no way in h*ll that I have like 10 harddrives in my house’. Well, I started counting. PC: 3, Mac: 1, Sony Vaio: 1, Xbox360: 1, Ipod: 1, Ipod-mini: 1, Tomtom-navigator: 1, Mediacenter: 1. Yep .. 10!

  • Richard

    *lol* .. I immediately thought by myself ‘there’s no way in h*ll that I have like 10 harddrives in my house’. Well, I started counting. PC: 3, Mac: 1, Sony Vaio: 1, Xbox360: 1, Ipod: 1, Ipod-mini: 1, Tomtom-navigator: 1, Mediacenter: 1. Yep .. 10!

  • http://www.psfk.com/ Piers Fawkes

    Gotta agree with disenchantedtech. We’re going to be pulling our entertainment media from some big server farm in the air. Not actually physically owning it ourself.

  • http://www.psfk.com Piers Fawkes

    Gotta agree with disenchantedtech. We’re going to be pulling our entertainment media from some big server farm in the air. Not actually physically owning it ourself.

  • http://concretewerk.com/weblog Fred

    40 MB external to use with my Mac Plus (legacy data)
    80 MB external to back up the 40 MB
    Over 30 x 100 MB Zip carts (are they hard drives?)
    NOTE: The above are all MEGABYTES, not Gigabytes!
    1 GB HD in 7600 PPC used as Zip/floppy station
    3 GB HD pulled from laptop, kept as static backup of bootable OS 9 to restore old laptops
    6 GB HD pulled from tower, also bootable
    30 GB HD pulled from laptop, in bus-powered external case, used to transfer video files
    30 GB HD pulled from tower, bootable OS X
    120 GB x 2 + 1 x 40 GB in G4 tower, awaiting redeployment to non-profit
    MacPro Intel with 250 GB & 500 GB drives
    External 500 GB for backup
    External 350 GB for backup
    External 250 GB for EyeTV PVR files
    External 160 GB for iTunes server
    Assorted small HDs in assorted ‘retired’ laptops

    Hmm. I think I have too many drives, not counting the failed ones. Time to consolidate and hit the local recycling depot.

  • http://concretewerk.com/weblog Fred

    40 MB external to use with my Mac Plus (legacy data)
    80 MB external to back up the 40 MB
    Over 30 x 100 MB Zip carts (are they hard drives?)
    NOTE: The above are all MEGABYTES, not Gigabytes!
    1 GB HD in 7600 PPC used as Zip/floppy station
    3 GB HD pulled from laptop, kept as static backup of bootable OS 9 to restore old laptops
    6 GB HD pulled from tower, also bootable
    30 GB HD pulled from laptop, in bus-powered external case, used to transfer video files
    30 GB HD pulled from tower, bootable OS X
    120 GB x 2 + 1 x 40 GB in G4 tower, awaiting redeployment to non-profit
    MacPro Intel with 250 GB & 500 GB drives
    External 500 GB for backup
    External 350 GB for backup
    External 250 GB for EyeTV PVR files
    External 160 GB for iTunes server
    Assorted small HDs in assorted ‘retired’ laptops

    Hmm. I think I have too many drives, not counting the failed ones. Time to consolidate and hit the local recycling depot.

  • max

    I’ve got 3 external hard drive, 2 portable thumb drives, plus the drives on 3 of my PCs so that’s 8 and I’m not even that big of a techie… Biggest pain in the neck has been trying to access that stuff when I’m on the road, or hell, even when I’m at home. I hate having them all laying around my desk! Not to mention the number of powerstrips that requires which is an eyesore. I’m planning on retiring the older (smaller) external drives in favor of a big ass 500 GB drive and consolidating the data… Also using a mionet to access those drives from work and it’s been handy http://www.mionet.com – anyone else find a way to link all this stuff up in a way that doesn’t require a degree in computer science?

  • max

    I’ve got 3 external hard drive, 2 portable thumb drives, plus the drives on 3 of my PCs so that’s 8 and I’m not even that big of a techie… Biggest pain in the neck has been trying to access that stuff when I’m on the road, or hell, even when I’m at home. I hate having them all laying around my desk! Not to mention the number of powerstrips that requires which is an eyesore. I’m planning on retiring the older (smaller) external drives in favor of a big ass 500 GB drive and consolidating the data… Also using a mionet to access those drives from work and it’s been handy http://www.mionet.com – anyone else find a way to link all this stuff up in a way that doesn’t require a degree in computer science?

  • http://pantydoctor.wordpress.com/ pantydoctor

    I have one in my back-up pc two in my main and an external Maxtor one touch. If you count the one in my Sky Plus, one in my xbox and one in my dvd player then I have a total of 7. I cannot see technology allowing you to store every film that is out there, not the whole film, maybe the first few seconds and when you start watching a wireless connection allows catch-up a little like Sky plus

  • http://pantydoctor.wordpress.com/ pantydoctor

    I have one in my back-up pc two in my main and an external Maxtor one touch. If you count the one in my Sky Plus, one in my xbox and one in my dvd player then I have a total of 7. I cannot see technology allowing you to store every film that is out there, not the whole film, maybe the first few seconds and when you start watching a wireless connection allows catch-up a little like Sky plus