Kingston Wi-Drive: the Future of Wireless Storage?
Unboxing the Wi Drive
The packaging:
The other side of the box shows off the Wi-Drive’s features in several languages:
The packing is basic and the Wi-Drive is well-protected:
The contents:
The instructions are basic and easy to follow:
Let’s take a closer look at our Kingston Wi-Drive
Design:
Kingston has designed the Wi-Drive beautifully, It comes in a sleek and glossy black that matches the iOS devices nicely. The device has a Power LED indicator as well as Wi-Fi activity LED indicators.
The Wi-Drive measures about 4.78 x 2.43 x 0.39 inches and weighs just 0.19 pounds. It uses a mini-USB port for charging as well as for connecting to your PC or Mac. According to Kingston, the Wi-Drive’s built-in battery should last for up to four hours of continuous use.
Pricing:
The Kingston Wi-Drive gives you 16GB or 32GB of expanded memory for $48.95 and $89.99 respectively at Amazon.com. The unit we are reviewing today which we received from Kingston is also at Newegg for $49.99 with free shipping. The original price on these devices is $129.99 and $179.99 which is quite expensive, but this is some amazing technology.
Experience with the Wi-Drive:
In tests using an iPod Touch 4th gen, we see that it has reached its storage limits with podcasts, music and tons of apps. The extra space provided by the Wi-Drive is perfect especially when sharing a video file or picture with my brother’s iPad. Following the steps that came with the device, after downloading the Wi-Drive™ app, the drive shows up as a wireless access point. Think of the drive as a router, with storage.
Kingston’s app allows a multitude of options. From changing the drive’s SSID, wireless channels, security and more, the app adds a lot of security to your device. However, this app isn’t without drawbacks. It seems like every setting in regards to networking requires a 60 second wait time for the device to reboot. When changing the SSID, the device rebooted. Even when changing the security, the device rebooted, and so on.
This is a minor nuisance unless you’re constantly changing these setting. It would be useful if the app had a “commit changes and reboot device” button instead of forcing a reboot each time.
Using a Notebook
For this test, an older laptop purchased off Craigslist was used that has 3 USB ports, 2 of which were broken. Unfortunately, when trying to connect a USB cable to this lone working port, it wouldn’t go in at first. When it finally went in, it snapped off the male plug of the USB port making USB drives and removable hard-drives completely unusable.
Unfortunately there was no luck connecting to the Wi-drive out of the box. It shows up perfectly as a wireless access point and Kingston’s app allows you to bridge your Wireless Internet connection with its own network. Evidently some users have had success, but a connection couldn’t be made to the laptop without needing a USB port.
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I get tons of errors when I run the installer.
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