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SeaGate GoFlex Satellite rips off AirStash concept, forgets a few features

seagate - for some reason we don't have an alt tag here

Seagate’s new 500GB GoFlex Satellite external hard drive is special as far as external hard drives go. The 2.5″ drive comes with a built in battery and Wifi router, letting it acts as a wireless hard drive compatible with any Wifi device that has a web browser. Sounds familiar? That’s because the Airstash has been out for ages, letting you do the same thing- and so much more.

500GB of storage included in the $199 is certainly more storage for the price than the $99 Airstash that requires an SD card as well. However, with 5 hour battery life you’re not likely to be able to access a lot of that data before you need to recharge. While the Airstash has a built-in USB port for charging (and wired data transfer), the Satellite uses a giant proprietary cable to charge. That means that you’ll not only be carrying a huge 2.5″ HDD/battery combo with you, but also a special cable and possibly the AC charger. At that point you’re likely talking at least 5+ times the size and weight of the Airstash.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I see no mention of an upload feature on Seagate’s site. One of the great things about the Airstash is the ability to upload files, meaning that you can essentially move any file from a device like the iPad onto an SD card. That’s useful for transferring large files, or to move weird files onto SD cards (e.g. loading GPX files onto a GPSr). 500GB could be quite useful if you could use a camera connection kit to offload images to the iPad and then move them to the hard drive, but that’s not possible.

In other words, I’m not impressed. Aside from the storage capacity, this is just a more expensive, bigger, heavier, more proprietary Airstash with fewer features.

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Andreas Ødegård

Andreas Ødegård is more interested in aftermarket (and user created) software and hardware than chasing the latest gadgets. His day job as a teacher keeps him interested in education tech and takes up most of his time.

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