In an obvious attempt to generate buzz, mobile stealth startup Modu is circulating the teaser video below about its soon-to-launch product. (Perhaps in advance of a launch at Demo next week the Mobile World Congress in February?). We’ll bite and help spread the video because of who is behind the startup. CEO Dov Moran sold his previous company—M-Systems, which pioneered the concept of the USB flash drive—to SanDisk for $1.6 billion in 2006.
Now what’s Moran up to at Modu? The company recently changed its name from InFone Tech, an Israeli startup that raised $20 million in June, 2007 from Gemini Israel Funds and Genesis Partners.
Since Modu is inviting speculation as to what it is all about, here is mine: it looks to me like a mobile device, or possibly a broader platform, based on a removable flash drive that can be swapped from your cell phone to your car to your MP3 player to your laptop. Taking your music with you in a Modu flash drive would be one obvious application, but maybe the startup has grander ambitions than just music. Can you figure out what Modu does from the video below?
Update: I’ve received more information that suggests this is a cell phone/flash drive. That is, it has cellular capabilities and you can store your music, pictures, videos, and contacts on it. Plug it into your car and it becomes your phone and music player on the go. That device you see at the end of the video is the default device that you snap the flash drive/phone into. It has a one-inch screen is supposedly very power-efficient.
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Can somebody help us guess what we try to do?
Goes out of business?
It’s a waterproof USB memory device for people who work on Mobile Offshore Drilling Units to enable them to safely transport memory to and from dry land?
Ha ha.. thanks..
it goes in your alarm clock, phone, car, computer, some type of gps device?, and possibly more
WOO another point for Israel! Down with Silicon Valley!
@6 why would you say “down with Silicon Valley”?
How does that help startups in Israel?
It’s a trinambulator.
It’s an SDK that they’re hoping will enjoy wide adoption.
Good thing all the money we are sending over there in support goes towards something!
It’s a mashup of ipod and google maps with social networking features. I expect a lot of ajax, amazon services and ruby.
I bet it’s a modular USB device. you configure or buy new modules to add to it (MP3 player, phone, contacts, pedometer, remote for a thermonuclear device etc)
@6
What a telling comment. Go F yourself.
As for what Modu does, it’s a Telephone on Chip with a USB adaptor. You take the little chip out and slide it into a handset, can take that out and put it in your car, your laptop, your bike, whatever has a USB interface can be turned into a phone.
Looks like a device that would store data across a variety of devices. The data would then be available to other applications as a storage source for preferences and data analysis. For example, it plugs into your back and monitors you workout data. This would allow you to track your mileage. It appears also linked to your shower? Maybe it keeps track of all preferences, so when your shower gets turned on, it remember what temperature you like the water.
iPhone clone, based on http://www.modumobile.com/jobs.html
“InFone is developing an innovative product for the cellular market.”
Looks like a portable address book, alarm clock and possibly even full operating system on a PCI card with RAM.
It’s a hardware social-networking and CRM device. It stores contacts (along with addresses, phone numbers, etc.), a calendar for keeping track or appointments and other things, and basically helps you manage and gets things done faster and more efficiently.
“They are focussed on creating new technology for cellular communications.”
“Developing an innovative product for the cellular market.”
“A flash-based phone with all the functions like pc music browsing video camera etc.”
“It appears that Dov has sharpened the focus of his new company. Infone-tech has morphed into Modu. Based on unsubstantiated rumors and wild guess-work, I suspect they are focussed on mobile opportunities in emerging markets.”
“Looking over the Modu job listings, a number of jobs refer to developing for a “unique cellular system. There are also references to jobs related to a SDK, software development kit. This would seem to imply they are developing some kind of platform that others will be able to write programs for.”
“…thinking about the (last) company name “Infone-tech.” This might have referred to a technology/product to be “In-Fones” or “Inside Phones” or alternatively a technology to put phone technology inside other devices. Another interpretation is that “Infone” was short for “Info-fone” or “Information-Phone.””
“Information Phone could be interpreted as a smart phone or a phone with data functionality like the iPhone or Android-based Phone. It could also be a module which would turn a phone into a smart phone.”
“Such an interpretation ties back nicely to the the speculation that they are developing “ a flash-based phone with all the functions like pc music browsing, video camera, etc.””
Courtesy: G.Y.M
infone - more like a “phone” that’s “in”…
@8: you may be right. Perhaps a retro-incabulator.
iPhone clone — except modulizable by user..
Here are some photos - http://drop.io/moduphone
Taken from the Jobs section of the site, it seems they need a team to even deliver this, seems like the move of, let’s see if they want it, otherwise we won’t build it.
They probably have nothing but an idea or a very early prototype.
Sure people will want one if it’s free — ads-sponsored by Google, let’s say
Obviously it’s a water purifier.
it seems that is an ID system that will store all of your info, including phone agenda and that kind of stuff (email, passwords, health stuff, etc…)
i would love to have one of those and have it stolen and next thing you know i have an army of clones with my same id, (who said that the clone wars was sci fi?)
Man, I thought it was going to be a hard one, too.
Clearly it’s ‘you’ — some kind of personal storage / id device that carries all your personal details / etc everywhere.
It’s another company that will fail.
Pre-launch promotion is a pain, and Modu did a great job here.
Modu is video buzzing
I agree with @26 on what the product is.
Erick, whatever it is i want one! You should ask for a few to be passed out to TC readers. make it happen dude
It’s a tiny mobile phone that is a USB device.
Looks like a cellphone backend that you can plug into multiple types of frontends. Probably maintains contact and other metadata that each frontend device can access along with the wireless voice/data transmission functionality.
The LifeDrive? But will it store my WoW character information?
Comon guys. Its a life device.
Think about engagd.com, the thingy that lets you lifestream and generate an APML file. Tada! Thats what it is, its a lifestreaming device that basically lets you store your life.
it’s a superkaliphregeli-stick that gives pleasure in all aspects.
It’s a portable flash drive with an open set of standards around personal data storage (media, contacts, work docs, everything), which allows various device manufacturers to incorporate the standard to read/write to the device.
It is also connected to the WWW via EDGE, 3G, or WiFi which opens up a lot of possibility to device makers and potentially to creators of web services — but this portion may be closed/owned by Modu.
In it’s initial form it will be sold with a cell phone shell to consumers, with the promise of more devices to come.
-Blake
Universal portable personal data storage and retrieval device. Sorts data by category: contact information (e.g., phone numbers), email messages, email attachments (e.g., maps), perhaps other content (notes, memos, to-do items, MP3). Docks to dedicated mobile phone(s) and to its own dock, plugs into ports on other devices. Probably has its own software on board. Logs data by device/source, date and time. Intended to replace other devices, so that the user only needs the Modu and the phone. Intended to compete with the iPhone and iTouch.
Curious about the form factor — not a USB. Might be PC only — no slot for it on a MacBook, for example. Possibly in danger of being or becoming a “toy” for a niche market.
Well they got to TC…they must be doing something good
it is called convergence. bringing all platforms (web, mobile,…) together using one smart mobile device. the mobility in this case has less to do with a mobile phone. it is rather the mobility associated with the USB drive.
In the teaser, when it’s inserted into the car stereo. it clearly dials out to somewhere. It’s probably a phone-on-a-chip. But there wasn’t much there to imply it was used for talking, so the phone aspect is probably incidental to its intended use. Lots of stuff to do with music, photos, and maps. Maybe it just Internet-enables any device that it can plug into? It could also indirectly compete with flash drives by offering highly portable access to network-based storage, so that everything is stored at and retrieved from home.
Apparent visual motifs surround push and pull, but I think this is less a reference to the technology than it is a visual metaphor for the mechanical action of sliding the device home and popping it out.
I think that is what it is too a usb drive with cell phone capabilities. Looks pretty cool to me.
Modu is an evil galactic overlord who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to earth in DC-8s, stuck them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs.
Definitely a Flux Capacitor.
A phone on a chip, mobile data charges make it unusable for heavy content, but centralised playlists, bookmarks, diary and contacts would be fine.
According to YNet, an Israeli site, this card also holds cellular abilities, so any device it connects to receives cellular abilities as well. it also holds your contacts, mp3s and what not. They are already working with Israeli cell providers on making devices that can talk to this thing.
The article is in herbew here:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles.....13,00.html
Roy.
Wow - nice rip-off of the opening theme to the TV show Dexter. Nice work guys.
“make new connections” well it’s obviously a phone of some sort. Can’t deny that, but it’s nothing without the AndroidOS.
its a phone device with the capability to collabrate with other digital device like Alarm ,GPS,Security sytem,it can have a DATA Storage capacity to . it will work on proximity based netwrk like Bluetooth ,USB or IR and location base thing like GPS . it might even have a Identification info built in for soc Nw angle
its something on the line much fabled All inOne device +LBS + Voice +Storage
not sure if i need such device …convergence is good but too much of it is annoying .
It looks like a mobile bingo card
Erick,
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