14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon and Seagate have established a partnership for the promotion of an external storage solution with support for wireless connectivity.
Storage products, like most other consumer electronics devices, have started to gain new features.
Seagate and Verizon have just become two of the more prominent figures behind this latest trend.
What they did was jointly invent a hard disk drive unit with support for not just Wi-Fi, but 4G/LTE as well.
The GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage 4G/LTE was officially announced during this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012).
It is compatible with any tablet or phone running Android or iOS, and which have Wi-Fi and a browser.
The external HDD can be connected to up to three such things at once, and can last for up to five hours on a single charge of the battery.
What's more, the 4G/LTE connection permits the download of photos, music and video files.
Thus, whenever users so wish, they can download a movie and then stream it to up to three phone/tablets over Wi-Fi.
“Seagate continues to innovate in new ways for consumers to enjoy their use of storage technologies,” says Scott Horn, vice president of global marketing for Seagate.
“This showcase of 4G LTE storage opens up a whole new world of possibilities for consumers to access the content they desire on the go.”
The two partners describe the GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage 4G/LTE as a simple means of carrying around an entire multimedia library at all times.
Tablets and smartphones have a limited amount of storage space, so they may not be able to satisfy users' needs during long trips.
Also, the new HDD will let people access different files at once, should their tastes in regard to films or songs differ.
The drive is only a proof of concept at this stage, so a capacity wasn't specified, although the press release did say it had “enough space to enjoy over 300 HD movies.”
Similarly, the price and availability date were not given.