Player with usb 3 host capability?

Imo it would be cool to have a player that could be hooked up to a usb 3 flash drive or a usb 3 hard drive, and give people an opportunity to have a huge music library accesible to the player. Since so much storage would be available, perhaps this could also be a video player. I guess such a device and compact usb flash drive could still fit in a shirt pocket, with the usb flash drive connected by a short cable. Perhaps it could run Android. 

You can already do that with the SanDisk Media Drive and stream wirelessly (via WiFi) from the drive to your smartphone, iPad, etc.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/wireless/media-drive/

I have a 32GB one  and it also has an SD card slot for even more storage. No, it doesn’t work with any of SanDisk’s dedicated mp3 players, but with more and more people having smartphones already it’s a way to have a huge database of music and/or movies at your disposal withour any cords getting in the way. :smiley:

WIFI eats up plenty of power though, and gives much lower battery life. Besides which, I am talking about something portable that fits in a pocket. Fast 256GB usb flash drives are now cheap.  That is why I like the idea of a player as a usb host. 

The SanDisk Connect Wireless Media Drive indeed easily fits in one’s pocket.  And there is a similar, companion product from SanDisk, the SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick, also pocket-sized.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/wireless/

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The WMD will stream up to 8 hours on a charge. Maybe not long enough for a 14-16 hour flight to Europe or Austrailia from the States, but certainly good enough for the majority of people’s needs. And as Miikerman said, it is plenty small to fit in a pocket; 2.6" x 2.6" x 0.54". The Wireless Stick is its baby brother.

I use it frequently with my iPhone 5S & JayBird Bluebuds Sport wireless bluetooth earphones when going on walks. I don’t have to waste storage space on my phone with music files. I only wish the app for it had an EQ or would work with the iPhone EQ or other 3rd-party ones. I generally listen to my music with a flat repsonse, but there are times when a little boost of treble or bass would be nice with certain songs.

I’ve also used it to stream old TV shows & movies ripped from DVD’s to my iPad while flying. I think it’s great.

Those are expensive though and have very limited battery life of only 5 or 8 hours. For example, the 128GB wireless stick is $100, while a 128GB usb flash drive is only around $30, and isn’t limited to 5 or 8 hours of power. In addition, using WIFI on the player reduces the player’s run time considerably. 

Some want to attach an external usb 3 hard drive with a few terabytes of data on it to a portable player.

I did find these interesting articles about Android devices. 

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/clever-adapter-connects-usb-accessories-to-your-android-device/

https://www.androidpit.com/usb-otg-what-it-means-and-how-to-use-it

Yep, one can’t have everything . . . .      :wink:

It was great to know I got interest :smiley: