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11 Comments

  1. Wireless Portable Media Hubs | Colour My Learning
    February 5, 2014 @ 3:53 pm

    […] […]

    Reply

  2. TRC
    April 30, 2014 @ 7:24 pm

    I don’t know if I can ask you here about a product, but reading your Top 5 Wireless Hard Drives article had me wondering.

    I have a SetTopBox Media Player connected to my TV, and I also have a USB HDD which I use to copy movies and such on it, and watch it on my TV. Occassionally I record some shows and watch them later. But if I need to copy some other material on it, then I have to unplug my USB HDD, bring it to my PC, copy the files on it, then bring it back…etc. It’s a bit of a troublesome thing to do. Then I’ve read your article.

    The reason I’m writing to you is this: I’m looking for a Wireless USB HDD that I can use with my SetTopBox. I’ve searched everywhere, but I’ve found no answers to my question, and I hope you have the answers for me.

    The Wireless Usb HDD I’m looking for can work with both WiFi and USB modes, because I may want to watch some movies connected via USB WHILE I copy some files over WiFi. I hope you know a device like this, with a minimum amount of 100 GB capacity, or if I could upgrade the HDD in it that would be good as well. I don’t need extra things like Internet, streaming and such, I’m just looking for a solution that works with USB usage (watching movies while connected via USB to my SetTopBox) AND copying files over WiFi (while connected to USB and watching movies).

    Reply

    • Colour My Learning
      April 30, 2014 @ 7:26 pm

      Hi TRC,

      Not sure about the specifics but you could try the following as a solution, a wireless media hub.

      The portable wireless media hub lets you use your existing flash memory and USB hard drive and is cheaper to buy.

      There is a second USB port on the media hub that supports direct connectivity which should work with your set top box but do check with the
      manufacturer.

      You can connect your existing USB flash drives or even USB hard disks, and share it wirelessly with all your mobile devices (laptop, smartphone,
      tablet).

      You can also connect it straight to your router or local area network as some media hubs comes with Ethernet network port.

      Take a look at the EasyAcc Wi-Stor as an example.

      This is not the easiest to configure if you read the thread on the video below but it gives you an idea of what the device is capable of.

      http://youtu.be/uQbZpOfcwG8

      I hope this helps. Do let us know how you get on.

      Reply

  3. Rakesh
    July 23, 2014 @ 5:07 pm

    Can these wireless storage be accessed simultaneously while using wifi for internet connectivity

    Reply

    • Colour My Learning
      July 24, 2014 @ 12:39 pm

      Hi Rakesh,

      Most wireless storage comes with feature to connect to the Internet using existing WiFi hotspot. You can then connect to the hub and access the media files on the hard drive and the Internet simultaneously.

      If you are thinking of using a smartphone to access the Internet and creating a Personal Hotspot for your other devices, the wireless storage will need to be connected to this Personal Hotspot while your other devices, tablets, laptops etc will need to connect to the wireless hub to enjoy the Internet pass through feature.

      Remember to check the specification of the wireless hard drive you are thinking of purchasing. There should be a feature for Internet access sharing that lets you connect to the hard drive and access both the files on there and share the Internet connection simultaneously.

      Reply

      • Rakesh
        July 24, 2014 @ 4:06 pm

        I wish to use the wifi HDD not as a hub but direct access from a laptop while simultenously surfing the net

        Reply

  4. Rakesh
    September 12, 2014 @ 4:49 am

    I am looking for portable disk drive with wifi access for my MS-office suite files (word, excel). I am come across wifi disks for media files but yet to find some thing which can be useful for usual day-2-day use files

    Reply

  5. Sacha
    March 21, 2015 @ 12:50 pm

    I would like some advice on which wireless portable eternal hard drive is best to purchase for my families uses. There are so many devices with minor differences that I can’t figure it out. We use all Apple products (2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13″, iPad Air 1 & 2, iphone 4 & 5, Apple TV, and a 4th generation iPad. We are not tech savvy but want a wireless drive that is user-friendly and compatible with APPLE products. Our main use is watching movies (approx 200) that are currently stored on a USB while travelling (plane, hotels, etc.) and at home. Storage would also be nice for my songs and pictures that are currently using most of my space. I occasionally use my Nikon waterproof camera to take pictures that has a SD card. I would probably use it more if it wasn’t such a pain to download the pics. A dedicated slot would be nice but speed and continuous play of movies without drags is of most important. I’ve also been looking at the new drives on the market but I’m not sure if they’re actually better than some older models…please help. We’re going on an all inclusive vacation to the Riviera Maya in Mexico over the Easter break so I’d like to purchase one right away. Please help!

    Reply

  6. Colour My Learning
    March 23, 2015 @ 9:38 pm

    Hi Sacha,

    Depending on your movie file formats, you may need other Video Streaming Apps for iOS to view your collection and NOT rely solely on the iOS apps provided with the chosen drive. For performance, we would recommend the Corsair Voyager Air or the new Corsair Voyager Air 2.

    For best battery life and storage, we recommend the Seagate Wireless Plus 1TB/2TB, Lacie Fuel 1TB/2TB or Buffalo MiniStation Air. These wireless portable hard drives last up to 10 hours or more depending on use.

    Note that, both Seagate Wireless Plus and Lacie Fuel uses the Seagate App Media App.

    The only portable hard drive with SD slot built-in is the WD My Passport Mobile Storage but as this is not your most important or only selection criteria, we would give the WD a miss.

    Check the number of HD streams the wireless hard drives can support at any one time. They are a good performance indicator. Anything with 4/5 HD simultaneous streams is a good bet.

    Reply

  7. Tomas
    December 1, 2015 @ 9:22 pm

    Hi there someone,

    it seems like a nice list to me and probably the one I was looking for. I am currently buying an ultrabook from Asus but I couldnt find the right one with perfect specs so I had to go for 256gb ssd which is not enough for my job. I am a photographer as well as illustrator and occasional video editor so I was thinking I could purchase one of these hard drives in order to extend my built-in drive. My preffered specs for the disk are the lighter the better, the battery life as I hate all those cables and at least 500gb drive, the portability is the main aspect, I havent bought ultrabook to buy another heavy storage disk.

    I was thinking the 256 ssd could be enough for the OS and programs and possibly the most recent files I am working on so I would use the storage disk for the music library for example. I am music lover and I have a huge library of around 160gb of music so I’d love to use the drive to play music from it via Itunes so my question is if this is possible as I don’t want to link the files to itunes every single time I connect my future disk. thats one question. and the seond one is.. Do you think I will be able to work in photoshop on say big raw files stored in the disk?

    As I am looking into specs again, I think I am just looking for a device with steady wireless connection without the need to be connected to internet with decent reach and with a possibility to work on files in photoshop.. I don’t need to stream video and acces from multiple devices.

    Which one do you think is the best for me

    Thanks for any help

    Reply

    • Colour My Learning
      December 3, 2015 @ 12:03 pm

      Hi Tomas, Thank you for your comment. It is unlikely that you will get real performance over WiFi especially when dealing with big files. These are great for streaming music and video but downloading and saving big files will see some noticeable lag.

      For portability and battery life, we recommend Seagate Wireless Plus Mobile Storage 1TB/2TB with USB3.0. The inclusion of a USB3.0 port meant you can wire it up to transfer or work on big files and to charge the device.

      The Seagate Media mobile app will take care of music streaming so you can browse and listen to all your music on the smartphone or tablet. As the these devices do not come with iTunes server, you will not be able to get it to work on your iTunes.

      You may also want to consider a Fast SD Flash Card if your laptop has a free SD card slot. It may not have a big capacity but it takes up virtually no space, does not need to be charged and will be fast enough to work on files especially those with UHS-II interface. It does however cost more than the wireless option.

      Reply

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