back to article Kingston readies wireless portable storage

Kingston has launched a storage expansion option for iOS, giving customers the chance to extend their HDD limits and share files with other Apple users. Wi-Drive is a portable device that allows users to stream video, access music and share files with other Apple owners over Wi-Fi. To use the Wi-Drive, simply drag and drop …

COMMENTS

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  1. Pen-y-gors

    Share files?

    Surely that's illegal in Amerika? Won't purchasers automatically get 10 years in the slammer?

  2. Sampler
    Facepalm

    "Versions for Android are set to follow."

    So you can't use the same device with a differing app front end - seemingly because and android user wouldn't have apple friends/partner that they'd like to share the device with?

  3. Alan Edwards
    FAIL

    One thing...

    You're using wifi to connect to it, so you'll lose your internet connection.

    What someone needs to do is combine this with a mobile router. Huawei went half way with the E585's micro-SD slot, but you can't get at that from an iOS device.

  4. D@v3

    I'm surpirsed

    (and I'm saying this quietly) that Apple let the App for this through their (well known, but dubious) testing process.

    Isn't sharing files between iPhones one of the most hugest crimes out there? (explaining why, to this day, you still can't bluetooth a photo to someone from an iPhone)

    1. The Infamous Grouse
      WTF?

      Bluetooth

      Apple's attitude to Bluetooth really is strange. An app such as Bluetooth File Share or iFiles will let you use Bluetooth to transfer files between iOS devices but it's such a chore. To get a photo from, say, iPhone to iPad using iFiles you first have to import it from the photo library into iFiles' own file system, effectively duplicating it. You can then send it via Bluetooth to the other device where it ends up in iFiles. Then on the second device you can save it from iFiles into the photo library. Then delete both of the unnecessary copies you still have in your iFiles folders.

      There are some real oddities about this setup. Firstly you cannot send a file to anything other than an iOS device using this method. Want to get that nice photo from your non-Apple phone to your iPad? Forget it. Secondly, these third-party apps can initiate file transfers between iOS devices even though those devices will not pair using iOS' native Bluetooth interface. In point of fact they cannot even see each other in the iOS Settings app. Confused the hell out of me when I first tried it.

      Add in the fact that the Bluetooth on/off switch in iOS is buried three layers deep into the Settings and the whole thing becomes ridiculously inconvenient. I often wonder what Bluetooth is even doing on iOS since it's so crippled. It's handy for wireless audio, I guess, and a WiFi iPad or iPod can use a mobile phone to access the internet. But beyond that it's just useless. Both of my iOS devices can 'see' my PC and display its name in the device list, but any attempt to pair with it is rejected. What's the point in that? The list even shows 'computer' before it populates the name, so it's knows it's a PC of some sort. If it can't be paired why even offer it in the list?

      At the end of the day the Apple Bluetooth thing is more of an amusement to me than anything else, since I only have a WiFi iPad and an iPod touch and my need to transfer files between them is not great. But owners of iPhones must find it incredibly inconvenient not to be able to share their photos with other manufacturer's phones via Bluetooth. Every other handset on the planet has had that ability since Ericsson invented the damned thing. That Apple have managed to spend five years selling phones that can't talk to any other phones using a protocol that's been around for close to two decades, without creating a massive backlash, is quite amazing.

      Still, it's not all bad. If you jailbreak, most of these problems go away. And if you can't do that you can always do the one thing iOS lets you do with your photos natively. You can e-mail them to people. Very 21st century.

      <whisper> I, too, am surprised that the support app for the reviewed device has been allowed into the App Store. I wonder what the reaction will be if it gets pulled after a few tens of thousands of these things have been sold? </whisper>

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