via uncrate.com
The Seagate GoFlex Satellite ($200) is ready to provide your iPad with a healthy 500GB of storage, thanks to a built-in Wi-Fi connection that can provide up to three devices with simultaneous access to movies, music, and other media, for up to five hours per charge of its internal battery.
Customer rveeiw from the Amazon Vineā¢ Program () The design of this external drive is excellent. The enclosure itself is tiny, just a centimeter longer and about a half centimeter wider than the 2.5 500gb hard drive it houses. It is made of piano-black plastic that is matte on the bottom (to prevent it from sliding around as well as to avoid scratches) and shiny on the top and sides. This is actually my only complaint with the device: these days it seems like every peripheral device needs to be polished, and these surfaces are finger print magnets. I blame Apple for making their wildly popular i-Pods shiny. I prefer matte surfaces that absorb use better and don't need to be polished constantly. Functionally the drive is excellent. The hard drive included is a slower 5400rpm drive, but for a back-up drive that's adequate. It also allows the use of a single USB connection for data and power, unlike many other portables that need two connections to function properly. Windows 7 immediately recognized the drive and installed the appropriate drivers. There is a proprietary back-up software that comes with the drive which I did not spend much time messing around with simply because I intend to use the drive as media storage for my notebook, not as a back-up solution. Where things really get interesting is in the design of the enclosure, which has a separate USB connector piece that plugs directly into the SATA connectors of the hard drive itself. This allows for you to swap out the connector once USB 3.0 is released, or even a eSATA connector if Seagate releases one (this drive is too new to be on their web-page but I can only assume they will release one). It also allows for you to dock the drive in a Seagate hard drive dock. This open-ended design is fantastic and I'm surprised it's not available on more external drives. I suspect Western Digital will soon follow suit with their portable drives, as this is a much appreciated improvement. The provided USB cable is a bit short. Thankfully, it is a standard mini(b)-usb connector so you can easily swap the short cable out for a longer one like . Thank you Seagate for not using some proprietary connector type. I've always been a fan of Seagate hard drives and use them in most of the system builds that I've assembled in the last few years. The only issue I ever had with their drives was with a pair of 500gb 7200.11 drives which began to fail (both failed the SMART test). Seagate replaced both of them through their RMA process quickly and painlessly earning my repeat business in the process. The warranty is for 2 years for the hard drive and 1 year for the other parts. This isn't as good as WD dries which have a 5 year warranty. PROS: 1) Small form factor 2) Only requires 1 USB connection 3) Novel design allows for forward compatibility with USB 3.0, as well as a hard drive docking stations, and potentially eSata connections 4) Aesthetics are great 5) Seagate makes good hard drives (and backs them up with good customer service) CONS: 1) Shiny finish is a fingerprint magnet 2) USB cable provided is only about 18 inches long 3) Warranty is only 2 years (standard warranty on hard drives is usually 5) Final Thoughts: This truly is a portable drive. It's very small, light, and only requires a single USB connection. It's a wonderful option for a back-up drive as well as for extending the storage of your notebook.
Posted by: Ercan | 06/03/2012 at 06:43 AM