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Author Topic: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith  (Read 4376 times)

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burnspbesq

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Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« on: October 19, 2013, 03:22:51 PM »
The concept of the Seagate Wireless Plus is a big bag of smart.  Combine a battery-powered 1Tb hard drive with a wi-fi hotspot and iOS and Android apps that allow users to stream content to their mobile devices.  Sell it for a reasonable price (less than USD 200 in the USA).  Turn a 64 gig iOS device into a 1.05Tb iOS device.  The decision to get one seemed a no-brainer.

In the box: the drive, a charger/power supply similar to the iPad power supply (a brick with retractable prongs), a cable for the power supply/charger (USB A to a skinny spike), and a typical Seagate USB adapter and cable that plugs into the drive (one of the end panels of the drive is removable).

As a Mac user, I had to download and install a firmware update right out of the box, in order to accommodate the move to iOS 7.  Not a big deal.  The first time you plug the drive into a USB port on a Mac, you're prompted to run an installer which, among other things, reformats the drive and removes the sample content that ships on the drive.  No issues there.

(Aside: hopefully one or more Windows and Unix users will chime in with their experiences.  Similarly for users of Android mobile devices.)

Uploading content to the drive on a Mac couldn't be easier.  It mounts on the desktop like any other drive, and you add content by dragging and dropping.  The drive has its own indexing function, so you don't have to think about the folder structure (caveat: the next time you use the drive with an iOS device after a big upload, it will take a few minutes to update the index).  This is where, for me, the issues have started.

More later.
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shipsupt

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2013, 04:57:50 PM »
You had me right up until "issues"?!   :)p18
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Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

mkubota1

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2013, 05:01:43 PM »
This is a really cool idea!  I'm interested to know what sort of media player app you will use.  I think most of these drives have some sort of viewer/player, but I worry about how good they are:  Will they play all (audio) formats, will they have decent browsing by artist, album, genre, etc., and how will they preserve/treat metadata and artwork?  I'm happy with iTunes and don't want to have to maintain two libraries if I can help it.  Can't wait to hear your adventure!
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CEE TEE

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2013, 06:03:23 PM »
I thought this was a cool idea for either a home-based Time Machine back-up Drive to accessing music content.  Hopefully it works!
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donunus

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2013, 09:34:58 PM »
Question... on its own it acts as a wifi hotspot? As in you don't need another wifi router?
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shipsupt

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2013, 09:56:55 PM »
Quote from: donunus on October 19, 2013, 09:34:58 PM
Question... on its own it acts as a wifi hotspot? As in you don't need another wifi router?

From what I am reading, yep.

Stay connected.
You don’t need Internet to enjoy Wireless Plus, but this portable powerhouse gives you new options when you connect your tablet, smartphone, PC or Mac® computer to a Wi-Fi Internet hotspot.
- Stream your music or films from Wireless Plus while you’re surfing the web or checking email
- Use Wireless Plus like an Internet hub: share a single hotspot Internet connection with up to 7 devices
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burnspbesq

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2013, 10:17:22 PM »
Quote from: donunus on October 19, 2013, 09:34:58 PM
Question... on its own it acts as a wifi hotspot? As in you don't need another wifi router?

Yup.  On an iOS device, if you go into Settings/WiFi when the Wireless Plus is powered up, it shows up as an available WiFi network.  Once you connect your iOS device to the Wireless Plus and open the app, you can click on the WiFi icon and re-connect to your wireless network if you want.  If you do that, the Wireless Plus mounts as an external drive on the desktop of a Mac, which turns out to be the most convenient way of uploading music to it.  About which, more later.
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donunus

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2013, 11:28:20 PM »
Sure I understand that it shows up as a wifi hotspot so that you can use the data/music on it. What I meant to ask was whether you could use it to connect to the internet without any other wifi router in the house. So it connects to a modem via a LAN cable just like any other wifi router then and I can get rid of my other wifi router?
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funkmeister

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2013, 04:58:26 AM »
This reminds me of the primary concept behind HP's Pocket Playlist.
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shipsupt

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Re: Seagate Wireless Plus, and Adventures Therewith
« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2013, 04:06:54 PM »
Well, you can use more than the data/music on it; it would be a hot spot connection to the internet and could act as a router for several devices, but you'd still need a WiFi connection to get it connected to the internet.

So, I guess it's somewhere in between.  I'm basing this on an assumption that USB 3.0 won't get you hard wired to a modem.  There is no LAN connection.

Quote from: donunus on October 19, 2013, 11:28:20 PM
Sure I understand that it shows up as a wifi hotspot so that you can use the data/music on it. What I meant to ask was whether you could use it to connect to the internet without any other wifi router in the house. So it connects to a modem via a LAN cable just like any other wifi router then and I can get rid of my other wifi router?
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Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
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