Nokia and Orange gear up for mobile hard drives

3GSM 2007

Nokia and Orange have signed up to offer Seagate's new portable hard drive to corporate and consumer customers.  

The 'Dave' hard drives are about the size of a pack of playing cards and will be available in sizes ranging from 10GB to 60GB on launch this summer using one or two 1.8in drives.

The devices communicate with phones and cameras via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to record data on the fly.

"If you lose a handset with sensitive corporate data you have not just lost a device worth a few hundred pounds, you have potentially lost millions," said Rob Pait, director of global electronics marketing at Seagate.

"With this drive you can store it in your bag and, even if you lose the handset, your corporate data is safe. It is all about getting data off the mobile and into a secure environment."

The drives only allow one person to connect at any time to eliminate the possibility of 'bluesnarfers', or wireless sniffers, intercepting data. Extra encryption can also be developed by third parties since the platform is open.

Orange UK is going to be launching the drives in the UK this summer under its own branding for corporate customers. Nokia is planning to offer it to corporates and consumers.

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