It's really a shame that the iPad, or any tablet or smartphone for
that matter, comes with such a limited amount of internal storage --
just some 64GB at most. And after the operating system and apps, the
remaining space for digital content is much less than that. This is the
reason a wireless storage expander is a must for savvy users who want to
carry their entire digital library around with them.
The good news is there is now a relatively big selection of these
type of devices. They are basically portable external drives that come
with a Wi-Fi network built in so that you can connect multiple mobile
devices to them and stream content stored on them. In many cases, you
can even back up user-generated content to one of these, wirelessly.
Following is the list of these devices that I've reviewed in the past
couple of years, starting with the oldest of them. This way, you'll see
how they're evolving. This list will be updated as more are reviewed.
Released in May 2011, the GoFlex Satellite was the first
hard-drive-based wireless storage expander for mobile devices. It's
basically a GoFlex portable drive
with a 6-hour battery and a Wi-Fi network built in. Up to three Wi-Fi
devices can connect to the device wirelessly and stream digital content
from it, using a Web browser or the free GoFlex Media app (later renamed
Seagate Media), available for both iOS and
Android devices. The Satellite has 500GB of storage, whereas the max capacity of the
iPad when the Satellite came out was 32GB.
The Satellite can also work as a bus-powered portable drive, just like any other portable drive on the market.
The GoFlex Satellite was revolutionary at the time of its release and
worked as expected. Its initial firmware, however, didn't allow it to
relay Internet access from another Wi-Fi network. Almost a year later,
this feature was added with new firmware released in March 2012. The
firmware also increased the maximum number of concurrent Wi-Fi clients
to eight (though only three can stream HD content at a time).
Released just a few months after the Satellite, the Wi-Drive was the
first flash memory-based wireless storage expander. It's very similar to
the Satellite in function and features but was limited to just 32GB at
most. In exchange it's very tiny, even smaller than an
iPhone 3GS.
The
Wi-Drive also supports a maximum of three Wi-Fi clients at a time but
it's capable of relaying Internet access by connecting itself to another
Wi-Fi network and allowing the Internet connection to pass through to
devices connected to its own Wi-Fi network. When working as a portable
drive, the Kingston Wi-Drive only supports USB 2.0, but since its
storage capacity is rather limited, this is not a big deal.
Overall,
if you just want to moderately expand your tablet's or smartphone's
storage capacity and especially want to share hot-spot Internet with
multiple devices, the Wi-Drive is a good buy.
The G-Connect came out in late 2012 as G-Technology's answer to the
Seagate GoFlex Satellite. The company at the time called it an
alternative to the then newly introduced iCloud service from Apple.
The
G-Connect is very similar to the Satellite, offering 500GB of storage
space, but can support five Wi-Fi devices at a time. It also has a
network port, making it possible to share a wired Internet connection
with mobile devices, which the Satellite can't do. However, it has one
major flaw, which is the lack of an internal battery. On top of that, it
only supports USB 2.0, making itself out of date right off the bat.
Nonetheless, if you stay in a hotel that offers Internet via a network
port, it's still quite a decent accessory to have.
Introduced at CES 2013 and winning Best of CES in the storage category,
the Seagate Wireless Plus is the next generation after the Seagate
GoFlex Satellite. The device is slightly more compact than its
predecessor, yet offers 1TB of storage space, a new battery with about
10 hours of usage time, and a much-improved feature set, including the
capability to support up to eight Wi-Fi devices at the same time, and to
share hot-spot Internet services that require logging in via a Web
page. On top of that, now you can also back up content from mobile
devices to its internal storage. In short, the Seagate Wireless Plus is the refined version of the GoFlex Satellite and it delivers.
Corsair Voyager Air
The Corsair Voyager Air is the latest mobile storage expander and it
basically offers everything that those discussed above offer: 1TB of
storage space (there's also a 500GB version), built-in Wi-Fi that
supports up to five devices with HD streaming, a Gigabit Ethernet
network port, and a internal battery that offers about 7 hours of usage.
On
top of that the device is very compact, and it supports USB 3.0. It can
work as a mobile media server, a home NAS server, or a bus-powered
portable drive, and it excelled in all of these roles in my testing.
It's not perfect but as far as mobile storage goes, it's the most
complete package on the market.
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