Agere's BluOnyx: Box of Wonder

When I first heard of Agere's BluOnyx, I thought it would be nice to offload a bunch of media to the little box for pocket streaming. Cute and handy, I thought, but of limited use. I was so wrong.

I got the opportunity to meet with several representatives of Agere at CES 2007. In addition to the discovery that Agere is pronounced "a gear" and not "a jeer," I was introduced to a fascinating little device.:

It turns out Agere's BluOnyx is a little box of wonder.

Size comparison to a UMPC and an N800 Tablet

The Concept:
In a nutshell, the BluOnyx is a box about the size of a deck of cards with smooth edges, two buttons, an SD card slot, and mini-USB port. It is intended to be a personal content server over Bluetooth, WiFi, or mini-USB. It will be available in either Flash or Hard Drive models from 1 gig to 40 gig.

Slightly thicker hard drive version

The Execution:
This is where it all gets fun and interesting. First of all, the BluOnyx has no interface except power and Bluetooth pairing buttons, but it does push a Java interface out to the operating device. From there, the user can configure public and private folders, sharing, discoverable settings, and more. Here are some possible use scenarios:

• Streaming more media to your mobile phone than Flash cards can hold.
• Synchronizing your recorded TV from your Media Center so you can watch it on your Smartphone.
  
• Sharing the media from your mobile phone with others.
• Carting your save-game files from your home to your friend's.
• Bridging the gap between your cell phone and your gaming device.
  
• Use in an automobile permitting all passengers to enjoy different media on different devices. (take a look at the Nokia promotional Mustang below. They have N800 Internet Tablets in the rear seat headrests. The BluOnyx could serve each of them different content.)
  
• A medical or engineering office storing client files in the office and hand them to the next "on call" employee.

Nokia's Promotion Car: I imagine it would love the BluOnyx

But wait! There's more! (The following is for tech/nerds)

• This is actually an embedded computer with an open-source operating system. They're working on VxWorks and Linux for this device.
  
• Even without an integrated display, it can push it's interface to the "client" devices. Imagine interfaces in Java, Flash, HTML, or an other type of service any developers want to develop for it.
• The SD slot is SDIO. Hackers: Start your engines.
• The device itself is DRM agnostic. As long as you have a license to play media on the "client" device (your laptop, PDA, smartphone, Media Center PC) you can use the BluOnyx as storage.
  
• The device is identical across storage media and price points. The 40 gig hard drive version and the 1 gig flash drive version have everything in common except storage size.
• Up to 7 simultaneous Bluetooth clients can access the device at once, all controlled by access levels set by the master user. (Correction: I initially reported that up to 8 simultaneous clients can connect, but I invited Agere to review this artcle and they sent a correction. The theoretical maximum may be as high as 16, but by default the limit will be 7 to make sure each client has enough functional bandwidth after the Bluetooth overhead)
  
• SMB services are in there, too.
  

Very thin Flash memory BluOnyx

Who is Agere again?
When Lucent split up in 1999, two new companies were created: Avaya and Agere. Lucent took over consumer products, Avaya took business systems, and Agere took microelectronics. Knowing this (I was a consultant for Lucent/Avaya during the split,) I didn't expect a consumer electronics device to come out of Agere. I brought that up in the interview and it was quickly made clear how this happened: Agere developed all the individual components and finally got the vision and focus to put it all together. Agere is heavily integrated in development of all three major subsystems: Storage, Application Processing, and Connectivity. With all the hardware developed in-house, they have the advantage of not only knowing the drivers in depth, but the hacks and tweaks for each to know how to best talk to each other. The average consumer won't know the difference except to experience a more reliable product, but developers and hackers will love the "open" innards.

What Convinced Me:
While I was sitting there, listening, and taking notes, one of the engineers took a video of me scribbling on my tablet with his Nokia phone. He shipped the file off to the BluOnyx over Bluetooth then over to the PC. He showed me the video. While phone-to-PC isn't impressive all by itself, substitute "phone" and "PC" with a gaming device, USB-to-go device, Bluetooth or WiFi device, and suddenly your whole media world gets easier.

Final Notes:
This device is geared for around Q3 or so this year. It may come through partnerships such as phone manufacturers or cellular carriers as well. While no official price is here at the moment, they're trying to stick with a close goal of $99 for one gig flash, $150 for 12 gig 1.8" hard drive, and $250 for a 40 gig hard drive version. Be sure that I will be paying extra close attention to this one.