Datel to launch 4GB hard drive for PSP (Update)

[wraggster]

Another article about the soon to become reality Hard drive for the PSP:

from GI.BiZ (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12159)

Datel is to launch a new bundle that is designed to increase both the battery life and the storage capacity of Sony's popular PlayStation Portable handheld.

The bundle will include a hard disk drive which slots into the handheld's memory stick port to offer 4GB of extra space - enough for around eight movies, more than a thousand MP3s and a huge number of pictures and game saves.

It will come with the X2 Battery, which replaces the PSP's default battery and is said to last for twice as long - up to eight hours on a single charge, according to Datel. The bundle will also include a USB cable for connecting the PSP to a PC.

There's no word on pricing as yet, though the X2 Battery is already on sale in the UK for GBP 34.99. Online retailer Lik-Sang is taking preorders for USD 249.99 but warns customers that "The current price is only the best bet available at our bookmaker right now, it could go up or hopefully down."

Datel has yet to confirm a European release date for the bundle.

[psycx]

I had an email from darkplanets.com saying:

We can now confirm the following:
It is a physical hard drive (Micro Drive) not solid state/flash memory.
It does connect with a small cable to the memory stick slot

More info- http://www.darkplanets.co.uk/datel-4gb-harddrive.asp

[F9zDark]

But at 4gigs for a proposed price of 250 USD, that is ridiculous and one might as well wait for a 4 gig memory stick...

The only good thing that would come out of this is hacking it to take larger HDs, which I bet will be on the horizon soon after its release.

[jimjamjahaa]

i like the sound of the batery. if they develop a stand alone battery that fits in with the original looks of the psp then i will get it, but 4 gig.... its big, but not *that* big... what could you do with that that you couldnt do with a 1 gig mem stick?

i will hold out for a uber memory stick i think. they'll have a break through in technology soon enough, and fit 20 gig in a space that small, and ill be happy :D

[kyus]

any intelligent person will wait for the usb hdd adaptors a few teams (xecuter and onyx) are working on currently. I think 80 or 120gb that costs less than datels 4 will make the datel adopters very unhappy indeed.

[shangrula]

the max 2 battery is availble seperatly, look anywhere and you'll find it :)

as for a IDE and other adapters, they are all around the corner. People wont miss out on developing hardware like that for the PSP/aka softmod game booting, multimedia machine hehe

[VFerg]

I dont think the price is to outragous. You get a 1 gig memory stick for *around* 100 bucks and for 4 you can get it for 250 and also a battery that doubles the life. Thats not to bad and if I actually had anywhere near that amount for spending on stuff like this I probably would, but do you really think they will have 80 gig drives for psp and cheaper then 250 bucks? I highley doubt it will fit in the memory card slot, or it will be strapped on somehow making it really a bother to deal with. But hey thats just me~

[shadowprophet]

Allright lets wax evils for a seconed :mad:
Whats outragous is the psp hasnt been on the market for even a full year yet,
Sony has already prooven to the world that us (die hard video game fans )
Are really just suckers with money:mad:
And as if the golden milk cow memstick market wasnt enough now they want to throw even more over priced unnecessary junk at us:mad: and we'll buy it cause need I remind you , weve prooven to sony were just that gulible and will buy there crap. cause we just love our psp (that much ):mad:

I remember back in the day the gameboy had so many useless upgrades. that if you bought them all and used them in perfect harmony. the poor gameboy looked somthing simmiler to a flux compacitor for the delorin in the back to the future movies:mad:

My point is. they spend all this money . (our money ) the money we paid them for there worthless little addons and doo-dads. on makeing what ! another ps2 hard drive? Now all we f-ing need is for them to throw final fantasy xi on it and call it a day.
*f- it im done. My psp does all I ever wanted it to.. not another umd not another comercial game.

Ps. If you got the preception that im angry your right. If they spent half the money on makeing good games for the damned thing as they do on worthless unnecessary bullshit maybe we would see some decent games on the damned thing :mad:

I mean look for just a seconed. The homebrew scene has always been my diggs. But for the first time ever in a consoles cycle. The homebrew scene is more popular then the comercial market! WHATS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE??

THERE ARE NO GREAT TITLES OUT THERE. oh sure you can say well what about this and what about that. but you know as well as I do. Where is the resident evils ? the final fantasys? you can even bring up grand theft auto. well go ahead and bring it up. You all know grand theft isnt one of the legendary titles!! its all about copying a really great idea over and over again untill were all sick of it.

Ps AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

F**K -IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

[F9zDark]

I dont think the price is to outragous. You get a 1 gig memory stick for *around* 100 bucks and for 4 you can get it for 250 and also a battery that doubles the life. Thats not to bad and if I actually had anywhere near that amount for spending on stuff like this I probably would, but do you really think they will have 80 gig drives for psp and cheaper then 250 bucks? I highley doubt it will fit in the memory card slot, or it will be strapped on somehow making it really a bother to deal with. But hey thats just me~


Dood, so you would pay the price of a brand new PSP for a f***in battery and whopping 4 gig harddrive??

Screw that! The battery is worth maybe 50 bucks and 4 gigs of HD space is worth all of about 2 dollars. I could buy a 350 gig hard drive for 100 dollars LESS than that!

I'll wait for Memstick to IDE I think. Or will wait until someone else hacks this 'addon' to accept any size hard-drive. Then maybe I'll buy it, when I know I can strap on a 350 gig hard drive and be good to go.

[Plude220]

This Website says the release date is 20/10/2005 Does something sound odd about that date??? Kinda like it doesnt exist. As far as I know thiers only 12 months in a year. Am I right or did I miss something?


http://www.darkplanets.co.uk/datel-4gb-harddrive.asp

[SCAAMMM]

It's the european date system. 20th October 2005.

[shangrula]

This Website says the release date is 20/10/2005 Does something sound odd about that date??? Kinda like it doesnt exist. As far as I know thiers only 12 months in a year. Am I right or did I miss something?


http://www.darkplanets.co.uk/datel-4gb-harddrive.asp
lol, the amercian date system is that one that makes no sense.

Also shadowprophet you got a bit too much anger there m8, it's only a games console :)

[ace_t]

Well for a start it is a UK website, and as you are probably not aware (by your comment), us Brits quote the date different from you Yanks.

DD/MM/YYYY rather than your MM/DD/YYYY

Makes it quite confusing some times!

[leggy]

As usuall all new products are overpriced but eventually the price will plummet.

Afterall, the PSP hasn't been around long.

Give things time and I am sure decent, cheap harddrives will come along.

[Hevyduty]

Just wanted to make sure people know that you can do some of this stuff already. If you have a USB On-The-Go (OTG) storage device, you can transfer data back and forth from your PSP and the USB device.

Certain MP3 players can do this, as well as some USB hard drive enclosures. Of course, there are some limitations:

* The USB storage device must be USB OTG capable, as mentioned before. This means it can run in USB host mode.
* The USB device must have it's own power source (i.e., the PSP can't power it through the USB cable)
* The USB device must have an LCD screen/interface so you can select the files/folders to transfer to and from the PSP.
* From the PSP, you can't run files directly from the USB storage device. You have to first transfer the files to the memstick on the PSP and then you can use them.

So if you already have a big memstick, you could just load up your MP3 player or portable HDD with gigs of content and hit the road. After watching a movie on your PSP, you could delete it from the memstick and transfer a new movie on there.

Here are a couple of links for the interested:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000253044889/

http://www.supermediastore.com/apacer-share-steno-cd311-with-40gb-5400rpm-notebook-hard-drive.html?WT.mc_id=frooglehardware

And those are only a couple of options. You can find more if you Google.

Another interesting device is the Macally Sync Box II. This thing is a USB OTG brigde that can transfer files between any two USB devices, like your PSP and a card reader or a common flash drive.

http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/syncbox2.html

In the long term, I like the idea of the USB HDD cables those teams are working on, especially if they allow you to run files directly from the USB storage device.

In the short term, I think an immediate breakthrough would be a way to run the PSP in USB OTG mode. Then the PSP could be the intelligent device sucking down files from any USB storage source. It annoys me that my super powerful game system just sits there like a lump when it's in USB mode.

Obviously, the Datel product has some advantages over the above options, particulary a full 4GB block of usable data. But in the end, I think it's too expensive, too slow, too small, and it makes your PSP too ugly.

[ace_t]

And why would anyone even consider buying this at $250, if you do a froogle search, you can pick up a 4gb Pro Duo for $300, which will most likely drop in price very soon. So you can achieve the same storage without the bulky add ons making you PSP into a bloody tank!

[shadowprophet]

lol, the amercian date system is that one that makes no sense.

Also shadowprophet you got a bit too much anger there m8, it's only a games console :)

Ah ya gotta overlook me somtimes shangrula :rolleyes:
Some days are better then others :D

And that beside the point.
You know what really makes me angry?
The fact that as upset as I am/was at this whole hard drive x2 batt thing.
Im dieing to have them, I know its a money scam. I know that in true sony tradition the psp hard drive will have little to no support.

And if there is any truth to the growing anxity in the far outreaches of my mind, The psp hard drive will be a trap.

First off you will have to update to some un exploitible bios version to use the damn thing (who knows by then 4.5 or somthing) eithe way. Bye bye emu collection. Then there will be some type of drawback to the copying of umd's onto the hd. (that is to be expected tho) But it wouldnt suprize me any if they figure out a way or block it entirely to where people cant run videos from it.
Its true that it is just a console. But so was the ps2. I was one of the few suckers that bought final fantasy xi thinking wow a ps hard drive, what possibilities could it hold.

The truth is other then the few hacks that exisist for it. its useless.
To anyone that bought the ps2 hard drive, Im sure there disstrust of sony in this respect has us just a little more then scepticle :(

[urherenow]

Then maybe I'll buy it, when I know I can strap on a 350 gig hard drive and be good to go.

Can I please have some of what you're smoking? A 350 gig hard drive is bigger than the PSP. And where is the power for that thing going to come from? You sound like an 8 year old idiot. the 4GB drive is a MICRO DRIVE that will be encased in a shell that will make the left side of the PSP match the contour of the right side (with the x2 battery installed). and it's only a cable that goes from the device into the memory card slot.

Some other poster above seems to think that the micro drive will directly plug in to the memory card slot. as if... :rolleyes:

Also, some people here miss a major point (asking what you can do with it that you can't do with a 1GB duo) a UMD is a max of 1.8GB. What you can do with it is play ALL games from the device which while slow (if it is slow), will still be faster than a UMD, and do this without ripping anything out of the game at all. Sure you can find a 2GB memory card on line if you look hard enough but with a 4 GIG device you know you can fit no less than 2 FULL games on the sucker and still have room for a bit of homebrew.

Firmware to disable it? Impossible. It's designed to look like a memory stick pro duo (the flat ribbon cable plugs into the memory card slot, ya know?)

Think people! :cool:

[Darkshard]

All of the complaints for this product are indeed valid, but remember, some might find more use for this than others.

Only reason I wouldn't want the USB HDD function is because I really don't want to be bothered with taking my USB device or computer wherever I go. This isn't a laptop or something like that, I want as few seperate accessories to carry as possible.

Bulky? Ugly? If you want fashion with you system, then go buy a Gameboy Micro, that's pretty much the iPod of handhelds anyway. Personally, I feel the PSP is too thin for its size, the HDD and the battery can double as handgrips, so it'll feel more like a console controller than say an oddly shaped digital camera.

Basically what I'm saying is, I want this product because it is a fully portable option that not only gives you more memory than the rest, but you also get the battery with it.

Not to say I hate the USB HDD idea, that'd be a lot of ripped gam-- er... music to fit on it. lol

[shangrula]

just togo a bit offtopic, shadowprophet, I loved my hard drive on my ps2 ;)

I also had no idea u can get 4gb duo's for $300 I hate america for ot's low prices on everything. Over in the UK that thing would probably be more like $600+

edit: can't see any duo's on froogle for $300...nono

[shadowprophet]

When we go a buy a dvd player do they care what we play in them?
For that matter when we where kids and bought GI joes and transformers,
did they care if starscream was kicking cobra commanders ass ?
The point is. Some people look at the psp like its a toy,
Some people look at it like its a palm top computer,in either respect,
Dell hasnt brought out an update to stop emulation on there systems?
You know why? cause there interested in selling computers. What we do with them in our buisness.

Sony sends out a console and forces these updates on us. People may see it different. But you dont hear them snipping at the music industry. you can copy a music cd and play the hell out of it on the thing. and the movie industry. The thing just encurages for some to rip there favorite movies and music on to it. However at the very beginning of every movie. the FBI warning that comes up sais copy righted. for private use only. the move and sound track are copy right protected. however sony hasnt staved this market from us. And yet they enforce the system lock out. to make it closed source.
But in truth its no different then a pc a vcr or a dvd player.

Once we buy it its ours.
They dont have the right to tell us how we can use them.
Or perhaps they do. either way. They dont have the right to force updates on us. When we bought the system. We bought it to play psp games.
However we find a feature/ exploit we really like and sony doesnt. so to play newer games we must give up that exploit. This is sony welching on there system they sold us. If the psp 1.0/1.50 cant play a umd right out of the box without us being forced to update. then there advertising is FALSE! its supposed to play psp games right? But to play them we must give somthing up? This makes people scared and some people angry. Because if I had to update my dell to not play emulation before I could have internet access
this would be concidered an un-justifyed act of aggression aginst the end user? Would it not?
Im sure there are bleeding hearts, that will say, But emulations wrong.( Then what the hell are you even doing here. 75% of all homebrew is emulation or a direct port. and that,that is not emulation or a direct port Is unique and and rare).
Well I got news for ya, Even the goodie goodie bleeding hearts that eat this site up play emulation and i'll tell ya another secret.

Most of them dont own the orig carts. I got one hundred and fifty five roms, to that I own like maybe thirty of the orig carts to, Say what you will but your just like me and you know it.
sure im goeing out on a limb here, and no one else will step up to the plate.
But for somone to have all those orgi carts. and systems. then why would somone play a slower choppier version of somthing they already have in perfect form.
sure its neat. But this whole cracking down on us gamers. Is really just a reflection of the power the big guys have over the average person.
Its the digital equlivent of war. Power and greed dont go hand in hand.
Perhaps I am wrong . But even as wrong as I might be. You cant take ones right to choose between right and wrong away. Thats what im upset about.
The freedom to choose. Sony Nintendo Microsoft Sega. They have so much power They can make the choice for us. And we dont even get to choose.
The pc market does nothing to stop you from useing emulation other then the slap on the wrist. Thats wrong thats a no no. But sony in all its pomposity
and greed. takes This away from us. Somthing They really have no right to do once the systems already released and out on the market,in my opinion anyway.

Sure I rant and I rave and I look like an angry fool.
But nobody ever won a dissagreement/agrument/war but being submissive and hideing. there cracking down on us putting the pressure on us.
Dont we have the right to even take a stand?
Well i dont know what everyone else thinks. But I dont hide in the shadows. I dont run away. and im not submissive.
I play games I buy games, And I even play emulations of games I never owned and didnt buy. Because the truth of the matter is I have given my share of money to the industry. But no one video games fan can own it all.
emulation is the only answer in some cases.

You know, perhaps I am one of the bad guys, One of the people that reflect poorly upon an honest homebrew comunity.
or perhaps im just the only one of us. Thats just plane sick of these big companies telling us what we are and arnt able to do inside our own homes with our own consoles.

[urherenow]

Shadow...

Do you know of ANY game right now that absolutely won't run on a 1.5 now? I'm talking after using said exploit to launch the version changer and make your PSP think it's a 2.1. I don't really know which games check for it but I haven't had any problems yet.

I'm just as pissed about the whole thing as you are but Sony does have a valid reason to do this. Put yourself in the shoes of Sony's investors. What happened as soon as homebrew was up and running on the PSP? Exactly... UMD dumpers followed by UMD Launchers, followed by UMD Emulators. As much as they probably HATE emulation (a hatred that started with Bleem, I suppose), their sole reason for this is probably to prevent the pirating of the games.

[agnot]

Does anyone know how much it costs Sony to make a PSP? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm actually asking. Traditionally in the console world, the system itself is a loss leader, meaning they lose money on it with the idea that they'll make it up on software sales. If Sony is losing money on each PSP sold, and these PSP owners are just using it to run homebrew, then it doesn't take a genius to figure out this is bad for Sony.

In any case, the comparison to Dell doesn't hold water. Dell's business is to sell systems. They have no real interest in what you run on them. Sony, on the other hand, has a vested interest on the software you run on the PSP, since they make money on each game sold.

[PSP_Newbie]

Does anyone know how much it costs Sony to make a PSP? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm actually asking. Traditionally in the console world, the system itself is a loss leader, meaning they lose money on it with the idea that they'll make it up on software sales. If Sony is losing money on each PSP sold, and these PSP owners are just using it to run homebrew, then it doesn't take a genius to figure out this is bad for Sony.

In any case, the comparison to Dell doesn't hold water. Dell's business is to sell systems. They have no real interest in what you run on them. Sony, on the other hand, has a vested interest on the software you run on the PSP, since they make money on each game sold.
thats the way i always figured it

[Jdemon]

RE:This Product.
If I didn't already own 2 1GB memory cards and an extra battery it would be worth it. 4GB certainly holds more than enough games/movies/music/photos for the PSP for me. And lets try and keep some perspective here...this is a 3rd party accessory. Things like this will be poping up like cocaroaches.

RE:Sony
The biggest dissapoint is still the poor quality comercial games. Starting with Metal Gear Acid being a damn card game. I'm hoping games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 will start to pave the way for better games, but only time will tell. I'm afraid that the long term effect if this doesn't improve is that PSP's life is going to end up being very short. And the cost of new releases is unacceptable, $50 for Marvel Nemesis...when it's down to $30 I'll think about it.

[Darkshard]

RE:This Product.
RE:Sony
The biggest dissapoint is still the poor quality comercial games. Starting with Metal Gear Acid being a damn card game. I'm hoping games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 will start to pave the way for better games, but only time will tell. I'm afraid that the long term effect if this doesn't improve is that PSP's life is going to end up being very short. And the cost of new releases is unacceptable, $50 for Marvel Nemesis...when it's down to $30 I'll think about it.

I do see some potential in future releases, even some that are close by. :x X-men Legends 2, Untold Legends 2, Monster Hunter PSP... okay so I'm all about the RPGs, but still, there's fun to be had. I just hope some titles get as much downloadable content as Wipeout does, I swear I'm in love with their support for the game. :D

[F9zDark]

To Shadowprophet:

I do not think Sony's main issue with homebrew is emulation of old school games and old school consoles. But UMD loaders and pirated games are their main concern. At 50 dollars a piece for a game if Sony sells 2 million games world wide thats 100 million dollars they have made.

Now throw in the ease of ripping UMD games and now the ease of loading them. I don't think any of the games for the PSP hit even 1 gig, so one doesn't even need to buy a huge memory card to play them (thus also affecting Sony's profits...)

I do believe it should be our right to do what we want with our PSPs. Why should Sony tell us how to use our PSP? Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Mercedes, Volvo, etc don't tell us how to use our cars when we buy them. Sure modifications to the vehicle can void the warranty, but that is the case for many, if not all, consumer products.

I recall the PS2 Linux Kit, which seems to show that Sony has some sympathy for homebrewers. But I cannot say that their methods are completely unfound. The PSP has been out in the US for less than a year. And since the DS really is no competition, it doesn't really matter much, but I believe, that the PSP was meant to serve the dual role of not only bringing Sony to the handheld market but to also keep Sony 'in the running' until PS3 hits. Xbox 360 will have a huge headstart on PS3 and it seems only natural that Sony would take as long as it is on PS3 because it has another money maker in the market.

Piracy thwarts Sony's efforts highly. Emulation, I doubt has any affect on this, but outright piracy does. And I can see why Sony would want to stop it in its tracks.