Dataplay is a digital storage medium created by the company of the same name. According to the FAQs on the website (http://www.dataplay.com) the devices which support this technology will be released starting in 2001 (now). Each DataPlay disk is the size of a quarter and can store up to 500 megabytes. The disks are write-once. Dataplay also created a reader (which is to be incorporated into other consumer devices) called "Dataplay micro-optical engine" which is supposed to have a "very-large" buffer and work 10 hours on a single AA battery. As far as I can tell there are no real devices out there at his point in time that use this technology, even though it has been show-cased on 2001 CES - vapourware.

More info @ www.dataplay.com

DataPlay is also the name of my new mp3 player. Not surprisingly, it uses the dataplay media discs described in the above writeup. Produced by Classic, a very excellent mp3 player manufacturer, this device is available at Circuit City for $199.99. Mine came with a $30 rebate as well. It contained 1 DataPlay disc and there was also a pack of 3 more discs for $34.99 available.

So far, I would consider this a really good form of storage medium. It is worth mentioning that the dataplay disc is two-sided, with 250 megs of storage on each side. The DataPlay mp3 player is packaged with software required to play any stored mp3s, but as far as I can tell you can also store a variety of files on the dataplay disc for purposes of transfer. When the mp3 player is connected to my computer via USB, it appears as a separate drive number. However, any music I placed into it didn't register when the player was activated.

One small setback I have discovered concerning the dataplay discs is that they are hard to label... they are tiny, and the small white paper sticker on the otherwise transparent discs is even tinier.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.