|
|
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive
I withdraw my previous comment and correct myself: Edited on Dec 06, '13 10:10:15AM by tempel
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive
Well, I had never heard of this device until today, but according to its description in Amazon as well as some of the Q&As, it seems that you can indeed access the info through USB (apparently it's USB 2.0). So the USB port apparently is not only for charging.
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive
I should know by wednesday next week. I've ordered one to check it out (to Germany, takes a while).
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive
So.... Does it work as a regular USB thumb drive? Don't leave us hanging, man!
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive Full Review
I've just received my SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive and can report a little more on its workings (I reserve the right to post this also on my blog at blog.tempel.org): The hardware The Stick has a normal USB 2 Type A plug that fits into any computer's common USB port. It has a retractable protective cap around it. Plugging the stick into a computer charges the stick's battery. It has a microSD port which contains the microSD card with the specified storage (16 or 32 GB). Mine contains a SanDisk Ultra microSDHC I 32GB card. Apparently, larger (e.g. 64 GB) cards can be used as well, see "SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive and microSDXC support": http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8075/kw/wfd For its portable wireless operation it has an internal rechargeable battery. That battery is not user-serviceable, i.e. if it goes dead (which they all do after usually 1-4 years), the device will probably (hopefully!) still function as a USB drive but not wirelessly. Sandisk's user manual claims that you'd have to have it exchanged by a Sandisk service provider (what a hassle that may be, and what costs that incurs is unknown to me right now). The stick has two LEDs, one orange and one blue. The orange one indicates use of the USB port and charge progress, while the blue one indicates WiFi operation. There is a button on the stick to turn its wireless operation on and off, by pressing it for about about 2 seconds. It can also be used to reset the device by holding it for 15 seconds (which will not erase the memory card but only reset the wireless settings). The button is slightly indented but has no lock to prevent accidental activation. Supported volume formats The flash drive must be formatted in FAT32 format. Other formats I tried (HFS+ or exFAT) are not supported (the drive understands the format but says it doesn't support them). Oddly, it says that I should reformat it in a "supported" format - it doesn't specifically say FAT, so it could be that other formats (etx2/ext3, perhaps?) may be supported as well, but I could not find any details on supported formats on its support pages (http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/list/kw/wfd/). The bad news is: FAT32 has a grave limitation: It can store files only up to an individual size of 4GB. So, if you have a file larger than 4GB, it can't be stored on this stick. Well, wait. If you use the stick ONLY to plug it into a computer's USB port, then you may reformat it in HFS+ or NTFS, and copy files > 4 GB onto it. But you won't be able to use the wireless feature of this stick with any unsupported format, meaning that if you want to use it wirelessly, you'll be stuck with files limited to 4GB in size. Not a grave issue, I reckon, as it's unlikely you'll ever run into the situation where you want to copy a file > 4 GB wirelessly from or to a device that doesn't have a USB port (such as a smartphone). BTW, erasing the stick's memory isn't harmful, of course, because its settings and firmware are stored in its own internal flash memory that can't be removed. In fact, when I installed the Sandisk software on my iPhone and connected to the Flash Drive, it installed a new firmware onto the stick right away. I sugget that if you want to use it wirelessly, be sure to check and install their latest firmware right away (see "Updating the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive's firmware manually": http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12713). How it operates USB operation If you plug it into a computer's USB port, it behaves exactly like any other USB Flash Drive. It comes pre-formatted with FAT32. It contains a few sample files (pictures, videos) as well as the user manual in several languages and the instructional videos that are also available on Sandisk's web page. If you choose to reformat the drive, all the files will be lost (i.e. they don't get automagically restored from its internal firwmware). So you better make a copy of those files if you like to keep them (but I assume you'll be able to find at least the manuals on their web site, too). As long as the stick is plugged into a computer and its drive is mounted on the computer, the stick's wireless function is completely off. But even if you unmount (eject) the volume, so that the computer's USB plug should only act as a charger (which is does, as the orange light indicates), you cannot activate the wireless function. This, in fact, sucks: If the stick is low on battery power, you cannot provide power to it from a computer, as that automatically disables the wireless funcionality, even if you do not access the disk from the computer. I wonder if a firmware update could fix this. However, if you plug the stick into a pure USB charger such as a iPhone charger, then the stick's wireless functionality remains operational. Wireless operation The stick always provides its own access point (with or without WPA2 protection) to which you can connect when you're on the road. It can additionaly join other networks that you have to pre-configure - that way, you can have the stick join your home and other frequently visited wireless networks, allowing your computer or mobile device to keep being connected to the internet while concurrently accessing the stick's data. However, the Sandisk app on my iOS devices sometimes has trouble finding the stick when both the iPhone and the stick are connected to a joined network, whereas it's immediately seen by the app when the iPhone is connected to the stick's own network, even when I can verify that the stick is accessible from the same phone via the web browser. Usually, after a few minutes of retrying, the SanDisk app finally sees the stick, too. Note: To change any of the stick's settings one must connect the iPhone directly to the stick's wireless network. For more details on joining networks, see "SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive's unsupported routers": http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8072 The wireless access can be protected by a WPA2 password. If you want to use a password, you're forced to make it at least 8 chars long. Which is rather annoying - if I have the choice to use no password as well, why force me to a long password when I just want a casual protection with a few chars (after all, no one knows how long it is and if I want to share the pw with others, the shorter the better, while other people in the vicinity usually do not run brute-force attack programs on their Androids just waiting for me to use a one-letter password). Oddly, I could not manage to enable the password protection via the iPhone app (v1.3.0), but it worked when I did it via web browser access. The web browser access also lets me choose the wireless channel (1-13 or "auto") while the iPhone app doesn't. I used the iPad's Safari browser for this, so I reckon that even iPhone uses can get to these settings using the browser instead of the Sandisk app. Note: The stick has a DCHP server, with its own address at 172.25.61.1 and a network mask of 255.255.255.0 ("class C"). If you have this stick, too, let us know if yours uses a different IP address. Here are the option to access the stick's drive wirelessly:
Conclusion This is a USB flash drive with an optional built-in wireless file server. The wireless options are rather limited, though, due to the fact that wireless uploading to the stick is very limited: I'm bound to the mobile apps. It should not be too hard for SanDisk to add WebDAV upload as well, but maybe that's a marketing decision to cripple this feature on purpose. Who knows? With the firmware at 3.0.1, I'd think they'd have figured out how to add this capability if they really wanted to. Same goes for the inability to upload files via their web browser interface. As long as you want to use this stick to share files that you have prepared on your computer or just share images and videos, these limitations will not affect you. But do not expect this stick to act as a portable wireless file server, allowing you to have multiple users store files on it, because it can't do this, and possibly never will. That's it. Any questions?
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive Full Review
A little update:
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive Full Review
Tempel, Thank you for a really good post to let everyone know some more details about the drive. I had not seen this hint up until now mainly because when I first posted it it did not go up straight away and I had not been back here since now. ---
mh |
SearchFrom our Sponsor...Latest Mountain Lion HintsWhat's New:HintsNo new hintsComments last 2 daysNo new commentsLinks last 2 weeksNo recent new linksWhat's New in the Forums?
Hints by TopicNews from Macworld
From Our Sponsors |
|
Copyright © 2014 IDG Consumer & SMB (Privacy Policy) Contact Us All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. |
Visit other IDG sites: |
|
|
|
Created this page in 0.16 seconds |
|