Agere's BluOnyx portable Bluetooth media streamer for your phone

So the portable media usage scenario we hear most about around these parts looks a little something like this: user has cellphone, user has portable media device, user wishes portable media device could be integrated into cellphone so user only needs to take with them one device. Enter, oddly, Agere's new oxymoronically named BluOnyx device. By way of Bluetooth, SD card, or USB, users load up their BluOnyx -- which, conceptually, could come with between 1 and 40GB of space, would be roughly 85 x 54 x 6 or 15mm, and cost between $100 and $250 -- with content, which is in turn wirelessly transferred via Bluetooth to the user's cellphone for playback, effectively reducing the devices carried from two to, um, two. Granted, we do think being able to easily broadcast video to everyone (or just your specified friends) in your vicinity via Bluetooth, or quickly backup our phone to a portable hard drive are interesting ideas, but we're not entirely sure that novelty is enough to get you to leave your media player at home. Especially not when its replacement is another device which is better suited for helping to faster run down your phone's battery while watching video on a screen undoubtedly smaller than your media player's.

[Kurt MacD @ Dec 18th 2006 5:29AM]

Well, the initiative for the idea is here, but using bluetooth connectivity to "stream" media to your celly would undoubtedly use more power than a memory card and would defeat the purose, but if it offered more capacity than what there is in memory cards for the cell phone itself, then go for it, it wouldn't be that bad of and idea in that case.

[artifex @ Dec 18th 2006 5:40AM]

I'm confused as to how BluOnyx is an "oxymoron" for a device that looks black and has glowy blue bits, in at least the version you displayed at the top.

[Harshdeep Singh @ Dec 18th 2006 6:12AM]

I would still prefer to carry something like my iRiver U10 with me - similar size, better resolution, less strain on phone's batteries.

Btw, the ah-too-perfect sparkle on the front right edge could've been made to look less photoshopped :)

[Digitalosh @ Dec 19th 2006 3:38AM]

All would be nice.... if we didnt have crippled bluetooth

[blargman @ Dec 19th 2006 3:44AM]

Agere says the next generation of BluOnyx will add Wi-Fi capability

[blargman @ Dec 19th 2006 3:40AM]

i wonder what the battery life is on this. i think this makes a nice replacement to my external hd i take with me everywehre. Its wireless and battery powered, so I can use it on my pc or anyone else can thats in the vicinity. If the battery is good in this, I think its something I've wanted for a long time. The ability to control it thru a phone is kinda cool, altho I don't know that I'd use that part of it. if only they made a car stereo head unit that interfaced with something like this, that would be awesome! I hope to see rev2 with better battery and 80gb. Don't let this product die Agere!, this is truly innovative in my opinion.

[blargman @ Dec 19th 2006 3:48AM]

although wifi isn't really usable for hat this is for. its a hands free nas, bluetooth has the logic built into the protocol, to allow you to control it from any device. what we (and agere) really needs imo, is bluetooth v2, with faster transfer. 3mbit(1.5 usable), was decent a few years ago, but not anymore.

[chris @ Dec 19th 2006 3:52AM]

engadget, sry but erm, "for your phone", its a NAS device, thats bluetooth and battery powered. If the battery is decent on this thing, it looks pretty sweet to me. Bluetooth is proving to be actually usefull, instead of just enabling ppl to annoy me with their headsets.