Brian Dusablon

I’m kicking off a new series of reviews here: Three Up, Three Down.

First up is the Kingston Wi-Drive, a portable wireless hard drive for iOS devices.

Leading Off

I’ve been using Kingston’s Wi-Drive for the last month. It’s a small, lightweight wireless hard drive for use with iOS devices. The model I’ve been using is 16GB. To connect, you use the Wi-Drive app (free in the App Store). Estimated battery life is 4 hours, which I found to be accurate. It comes nicely packaged, with a nod to Cupertino.

Three Up

1. Everything about it is fast. Using the app, setting up the connection, and accessing content on the Wi-Drive is fast. After about five minutes to set up the app and connect to the drive, I was streaming Batman Begins. Once I selected the movie in the app, it was playing in less than three seconds. And scrubbing forward and back in the movie was instant. Zero delays. Very fast. It also remembered where I left off in the movie I was watching.
2. It’s light and small. It’s slightly thinner than an iPhone 4s and can easily fit in any pocket, purse or backpack for easy portability (thought I don’t recommend it for reasons outlined below).
3. You can share the connection. Up to three users can connect simultaneously, allowing up to three people to access the media on the drive wirelessly. I experienced no issues accessing the same content on multiple devices at the same time.

Three Down

1. You can only connect via WiFi. This is limiting, because you have to disconnect from your regular WiFi network to use the device. You can use the app’s wireless network function to connect the Wi-Drive to a wireless network, but it’s not perfect. For instance, I couldn’t type in a network that wasn’t broadcasting its SSID. Also, if you leave the car or hotel room, your device may not reconnect to the Wi-Drive automatically. Having to connect to its WiFi network, then open the app, then find your media every time can become rather annoying. I’d rather just have the media on my device. Finally, you can’t use iPhone tethering while you’re using the Wi-Drive.
2. It’s expensive. When I received the drive, it was priced at $129 and $179 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. Currently prices have dropped to $69 and $99 on Amazon, which is much better.
3. It gets hot when it’s being used. Really hot. Scorching hot. Not good. While it’s built for portability, you can’t keep this in a pocket, a laptop bag or even resting near a piece of paper, for fear it might catch on fire or burn up the drive.

The Final Score

I can see this device being useful for someone with an 8GB iOS device, families on a road trip or a long plane ride, or possibly small teams during a business meeting. Outside of those scenarios, it’s doubtful that you’ll get much use out of a Wi-Drive, and the heat is a major concern. For the money, you’d be better off upgrading to a larger capacity device or upgrading your Dropbox account.

You have a backup plan for your data, right?

If you are nodding your head and thinking, “Of course I do, who doesn’t?”, then you have my respect. I still think you might find this series of posts beneficial as I’ll be introducing some new services and ideas, so stick around.

The rest of you, the ones who think hard drives aren’t made of tiny moving parts just waiting for something to go wrong, you need to wake up. You have data that you will lose.

Hard drives fail. Frequently. Period.

If you’ve never suffered from data loss, it’s a matter of when, not if.

Notice that I have yet to mention user error, viruses, cat incidents, spills or other destructive methods of data loss. Pick your poison.

Now that I have your attention, relax. I have your antidote. But you need to act swiftly, because you don’t want to be the one who waited a day too long and lost little Sally’s Kindergarten graduation pictures forever.

In the olden days (read: just a few years ago), backing up was a pain in the ass. External hard drives were expensive, massive and loud; and automated backup tools were mediocre unless you knew how to work the command line. This is no longer the case. We have amazing tools at our disposal now that make backing up simple and inexpensive.

Because I understand that everyone is not like me, I will be offering up several recommended backup plans in the coming days. Pick one that fits your needs, or head over to this wonderful form right now and I’ll build you a custom plan.

If you’re in a hurry, here are some online services you can use immediately:

• Backblaze: super simple online backup
• CrashPlan: more options, more features, more expensive
• Dropbox: all your files, on any device. Free service is great. Extra storage is a little pricey.

I plan to post a profile each day, at a minimum, for the next few days, so check back (or use the form to get your custom profile).

I had started a post a few months back outlining all of the things I use daily: my desk, software, hardware, backup plan, music library, etc.

Then I realized that it would be a gigantic post and my setup would probably change by the time I finished writing it! So, instead, I’m making it a series. I hope I get some feedback about what I use and how I use it so I can become more efficient and hopefully save some money. A series will also make it easier to update in the future.

Just as a disclaimer, there might be affiliate links on a few items I profile specifically (to help raise money for charity and keep this site running).

Here’s the order I plan to post:

1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Backup Plan
4. Network
5. Desk & Office
6. Music & Fun

• LaCie iamaKey – great idea, if the thing doesn’t get too beat up (via ODL)
• Ultimate Computer Workstation – Instant wish list item (via FG)
• From the T&D Peanut Gallery – valid points.
• Building the Next Generation Company
• Madden NFL 10 Development Blog – Can’t wait for this game
• Cisco Buys Pure Digital (Flip Cameras) – This could be big, especially for elearning.
• Get Excited and Make Something
• One Blog or Many? – More on this soon as it relates to me.
• Free StudioPress Theme(s) by Doing Something Good – Good for the planet and the soul.
• IE 6 Hate – Hilarious
• Thematic WordPress Theme Update – giving this a shot next week.
• WordPress Security Tips

Just ordered my Drobo from Amazon (they went down to $452), along with two WD drives. I’ll post a review once I receive it on Wednesday.