WiFi Hard drive

[The Man]

I'm looking for a WiFi hard drive for my girl friend's son this Christmas. He has a Kindle fire and was wondering if this one would work.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Satel...UTF8&qid=1384633072&sr=8-8&keywords=air+stash

I still might go with a regular external drive as he still needs a computer to mange files (he doesn't have his own computer) but the advantage of the WiFi drive is that he can access media on it with his kindle fire (or I hope Iphone) even without a computer (got about 32 gig of music and old time radio shows that I'll load up, some Edison cylinder recordings form 100 years ago)

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

I'm looking for a WiFi hard drive for my girl friend's son this Christmas. He has a Kindle fire and was wondering if this one would work.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Satel...UTF8&qid=1384633072&sr=8-8&keywords=air+stash

I still might go with a regular external drive as he still needs a computer to mange files (he doesn't have his own computer) but the advantage of the WiFi drive is that he can access media on it with his kindle fire (or I hope Iphone) even without a computer (got about 32 gig of music and old time radio shows that I'll load up, some Edison cylinder recordings form 100 years ago)

I would expect nothing but frustration and disappointment if you go this route, and the reviews on Amazon tend to bear that out. The mere existence of products like this shows that phone/tablet mfrs. are living in abject denial of what consumers want.

Yes, the "cloud" works for the companies selling the devices. They can stream ads! They can sell expanded storage!

BUT, what people want is to be able to hook up to their own data via USB, such that the device can read the file system on an external drive and manage/use the data. A wifi connection is a flaky way to do that.

As of now, the best solution, and I think the only realistic solution, is to use a computer as an intermediary, swapping data on and off the flash storage on the phone or tablet as needed. That is what your GF's kid needs IMO.

 

[The Man]

I would expect nothing but frustration and disappointment if you go this route, and the reviews on Amazon tend to bear that out. The mere existence of products like this shows that phone/tablet mfrs. are living in abject denial of what consumers want.

Yes, the "cloud" works for the companies selling the devices. They can stream ads! They can sell expanded storage!

BUT, what people want is to be able to hook up to their own data via USB, such that the device can read the file system on an external drive and manage/use the data. A wifi connection is a flaky way to do that.

As of now, the best solution, and I think the only realistic solution, is to use a computer as an intermediary, swapping data on and off the flash storage on the phone or tablet as needed. That is what your GF's kid needs IMO.

Well this drive does have USB3.0 so the wifi connection is just an additional feature, tough it does look like the user interface ain't that great. So it may not be worth the trouble.

 

[The Man]

Well I picked up the one listed, only in that, as mentioned before, besides being just an external hard drive, it will give him at least some access to his media stored on it when he doesn't have a computer available. The apparently crappy user interface and limited range (of the WiFi streaming) are draw backs but the primary purpose was to give him transportable storage for his files (not having a computer himself) and the ancillary aspect of being able to access media stored on it, by the devices he does have, just an added bonus.

I'll report back next year on how well that latter consideration works.

 

[Mikemcc]

Wifi enebled devices (printers or networked storage are very good at home, but having good NAS access whilst roaming is what is really needed. I've not really tried this seriously. But from what I have done (mainly using slingbox) my only problems have been due to the download datarate at the site I'm at (I have cable upload at the slingbox)

 

[The Man]

Well reviews indicate the WiFi range of the device is rather limited. Not sure how well it would work as a networked storage device, by WiFi only. Again the primary purpose of the WIFi capability appears to be to stream media already loaded on the drive. So network sever access would not appear to be an issue as long as the receiving device is in range of the drive. As he may often find himself in remote locations (due to his job) having access to additional stored media will be a plus in ares where he can't get internet access on his WiFi devices.