Vodafone has come out with a DLNA certified MiFi style device which it calls the R201. DLNA enables devices in the same DRM scheme to share content and Vodafone is saying that this will allow the sharing of digital media across several wireless devices. There are, of course, catches to that claim. The device was leaked about a week ago, but the DLNA certification was a surprise at announcement.
It’s the first we’ve heard of this type of device having DLNA, which enables content sharing because it is attached to up to five WiFi devices at once. The content has to first be saved on the R201 which Vodafone hopes is delivered over a Vodafone Mobile Broadband connection. The device is made by Huawei and comes with both a micro-USB and a microSD slot, so there are plenty of other ways content can get into the thing.
The R201 comes with an OLED display and effectively this device is like a micro-NAS (network attached storage server) for phones and will take up to 32GB of content on the microSD.
DLNA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance and it is a 7 year old organization which was set up by a group of companies that has since expanded to 20 of the top studios, record labels, consumer electronics manufacturers and handset vendors and their chip suppliers. Devices are rapidly going through DLNA certification right now and recently 125 DVD players passed. Few mobile devices have yet been tested and some of those which have, have not yet been launched.
The R201 comes with embedded DLNA software, allowing Vodafone customers to view digital content, including music, video and photos, across all DLNA compatible devices, including laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, gaming devices, TVs and radios. As long as they have a wireless or physical connection to that device.
The Vodafone release says that DLNA also includes Digital Rights Management (DRM) but this isn’t strictly true. What DLNA has built in is some link protection, so that one legitimate copy of content can be streamed to other devices, which cannot store the content. The software encrypts it during its journey to another device. Other DLNA devices cannot play DRM protected content unless they have the same DRM scheme onboard, which usually means they have to be provided by a single operator. Content which is not DRM protected can be shared on any DLNA client and the DLNA takes care of all transformations, such as file formats and codecs, between devices. So while there is almost certainly DRM on anything you buy from Vodafone, the MiFi device will probably only be able to share this with other Vodafone devices rather than other DLNA devices. However Vodafone might go on to cut DRM deals with pay TV operators, such as Sky, to allow Vodafone devices to play pay TV content. It would be great to copy TV programs onto this device for viewing later.
Vodafone has also integrated the Twonky Application from PacketVideo which also support digital media sharing on other devices. The R201 will launched across multiple Vodafone territories during 2010.