“Wireless drives have been around for a little while now. There’s the Seagate GoFlex Satellite, and the Kingston W-Drive SSD, for example,” Ben Lovejoy writes for 9to5Mac. “They generate their own wifi networks, and you can then stream content from them to either a Mac or, more usefully, an iOS device.”
“Lacie has taken that concept a stage further, by adding the ability to upload content from iPhones and iPads also, and with 1TB capacity, you’re unlikely to find yourself running short of space,” Lovejoy writes. “The LaCie Fuel [US$1.99] is very easy to use. Lacie supplies it with some sample content, so you can try it out right away. Switch it on, wait for the blue LED to go solid then look for the wireless network on your device… Once connected, you simply go to laciefuel.com in a web-browser or use the free Seagate Media app on an iOS device. You can then immediately start accessing the sample media.”
“Lacie says up to five people can access the drive at once. I tested it with four devices – two Macs, an iPad and an iPhone – and all were able to simultaneously stream HD video. However, I did notice that thumbnails lagged with four simultaneous connections. One thing I hadn’t expected was that multiple devices can also simultaneously upload content to the drive. I could definitely see times when this would be useful either professionally or socially,” Lovejoy writes. “I can see a particular market for families who use iPads to keep kids entertained on car journeys: you could just load the drive up once with a tonne of videos and then connect their iPads to the drive during the journey, rather than having to constantly change the content on the iPads themselves.”
Much more detail in the full review here.
The problem with this puppy is that most of my movies come from iTunes and will only play with Apple’s player. I mean unless someone knows how this works differently than I perceive.
Simple actually, you set the drive to your “log in” devices – so it auto mounts to your desktop.
From iTunes perspective, you point the library to the drive. It would work. But you’d have to take the drive with you everywhere you went if you wanted to access your library. 🙂
I do this with my NAS, granted I don’t take that unit with me – but it works perfectly.
The price quoted ( $1.99 ) is one hell of a bargain, sadly most retailers will want you to part with $199.
Damn! I only have $1.98.
Sarah Austin’s report on how it works with BMW!
I’d prefer to have one that was a Raid.
Until then, not really ready for this as I have spent way to much time ripping my library. I’d cry if anything happened.
Why on earth would you want it as a RAID?
Having spent all that time setting up your library, you copy it to the portable drive, then delete your original library? Really?
It’s a copy, for heaven’s sake, just another back-up.
… and thus the iCloud has been obsoleted for many people.
Fuel seems more secure, faster, and easier for many uses.
One bone to pick: Lovejoy states, “…stream content from them to either a Mac or, more usefully, an iOS device…”
BS!!!! There is nothing more useful than a Mac. iOS was never envisioned to be “more useful”. It is more PORTABLE. There is a difference. If you’re processing data by the megabyte, you DO NOT want to be constrained to an iOS device. Power and memory of a MacBook are must-haves.
2 Bucks for this thing? I wouldn’t pay over a dollar.
Looks like a cool device.
For the record, LaCie is not one word (like a name), it’s 2 words, as in La See.
I am pretty sure capitalizing the third letter doesn’t make it 2 words. A space between would. Regardless, it isn’t Lacie, as it is written a couple of times in this article. It is LaCie.
Farmer McDonald has two names as written here. Not three.
hahaha…
I just realized that I needed to point out that Farmer is his first name, not his job title. 😛
For the record, despite how definitively you state this, that isn’t quite right. It isn’t Lacie, as if “lacy” with alternative spelling, but it also isn’t “La Cie,” despite what the origins of the name might be.
Its legal team clearly believes that their company’s name is LaCie – camel-case, but one word. Take a look at LaCie’s warranty page (or anything else on their legal directory): http://www.lacie.com/us/legal/warranty.htm
This is what I’ve been waiting for. My 160Gb iPod Classic is pretty much full, and there’s no sign that there’s going to be a larger capacity version any time soon, if ever.
Cloud-based storage is useless, it requires me do downgrade the music I’ve ripped, and as for being able to actually stream my music, well that’s a fucking joke! Data capped at 1Gb/month, I’d use that in a week, and the unlimited network I use with my old iP4 has virtually no coverage where I live and work, and is non-existent outside of large urban areas.
With this drive I can carry all my music, and any I purchase for the future, I can back-up photos from my Pad to it, and it’s small and easily carried in a pocket.
In short it’s perfect for travelling anywhere, without having to bother about networks, data, or any of that crap.
A 2Tb would be even better… ;^)
Bet you the Windows version goes for $1.25. Once again we Mac users get fleeced!
Isn’t this just a rebranding of the Seagate Wireless Plus? A 1 TB device that acts as three-in-one: storage, media streaming source (vie wi-fi), and wi-fi bridge. For which the iOS app is Seagate Media. If so, it’s been available for months (and even before that in a 500 MB version). I’ve about 10 of ’em in use among one contingent of project managers. The feedback has been largely positive but they now almost all prefer the convenience of on-iPad storage as facilitated by FileApp/DiskAid. Only when the burden of their blueprints and other files crosses 30 GB do they switch to the Seagates for storage.
For personal use it can be mighty convenient though – load it up with movies and music and, on your road trip, multiple family members can access the media therein.
sigh. “vie wi-fi” should read “via wi-fi”