DAPreview is onto something when they ask portable media companies to start accepting standard 2.5-inch hard drives as a swappable media format. It only makes sense—hard drives are going to remain an order-of-magnitude larger than flash for the foreseeable future, they’re relatively inexpensive (especially since movie playback works just fine from slower, cheaper 4,200RPM drives), and they aren’t particularly heavy or unwieldy (if you’re carrying around a video player, you’ve already committed yourself to bag). This MP4-010 from Citiwide Technologies embraces the idea, but it’s probably not going to be released in the States anytime soon.
Removable batteries are en vogue—look at the Creative Zen Micro and the Sony PSP—so why not swappable hard drives?
Player with removable, replaceable hard drive [DAPreview]
