Category Archives: Tech!

10 things RIM can do to survive Apple’s assault on the Playbook

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News that Apple is “likely to begin production of 7.85-inch iPads in 3Q12” hit the web today, and it’s seriously bad news for RIM and their recently re-vitalized Playbook tablets. 7″ iPads from Apple? Hey RIM, in case you didn’t see the subtle signs before, today marks an official countdown for you guys. Apple has noticed your little sub-tablet niche and is coming after it. Hard.

So what can RIM do to survive a direct assault from Apple?

1. Like I mentioned before, I think RIM can still make up for lost time by aggressively flooding the market with cheap tablets in the $150-$200 range. Send demo units to teachers, city employees and legal teams. Emphasize the very low cost to get in the door and target companies that can benefit from tablet-based connectivity at a 2-for-1 budget over the iPad.

2. Focus on the growing “I just don’t use my iPad” crowd. There’s a surprising number of iPad owners who just don’t use their iPad because it isn’t what they wanted (or thought it would be). Show the world that the Playbook is what they needed all along. SHOW you can really use office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) on a Playbook. SHOW how great the web is with a flash enabled browser on a Playbook. SHOW the new OS on the Playbook has everything (Email, Contact List, Embedded Twitter integration, etc). SHOW that the Playbook is available now in a “2.0” form. And SHOW the Playbook is cheaper than most video game systems!

3. Offer a generous unconditional lifetime replacement guarantee. Amazon does this with their Kindle lineup, and as a direct result, people will take their kindle with them to places they would never take their iPad. Think of the sales pitch… “You can spend $200 on a superior product with a lifetime warranty that you can use every day with confidence, or you can spend $400 on a piece of glass with no warranty.”

4. Make the “cloud” part of OS 2.1. Make a system-embedded option where documents, music, etc are all backed up to DROPBOX, or SKYDRIVE or whatever online service a user wants.

5. Get iTunes sync for music and videos. There’s already apps on AppWorld called ItunesSync and ItunesVideoSync that do this. Buy those apps out, integrate the apps into the system, and promote that feature on the Playbook. Make it so that everything in iTunes on a PC (or Mac) can be pulled over to the Playbook with two clicks. Instant ROI / happy customers.

6. Quit the feud with Netflix. Make nice and get them on board. Or go say hello to Amazon! Or Redbox! Get Hollywood on the Playbook’s HD screen and get access to a resource that has a established cross-platform movie and music library. (On a related note, get rid of 7digital. They’re NOT consumer friendly and their web-storefront is outright hostile.)

7. Allow in-app purchases directly to a developer’s website. Advertise online and in tech mags that RIM Playbooks not only allows for any and all in-app purchases, but does NOT take a cut of in-app sales like Apple does. Use this passive monetary incentive to get developers to come around of their own free will.

8. Constantly check the top 20 in the APP store in iTunes and call the developers of those apps. Always make them an offer to come over with a free Playbook to test their apps on. Also go after the Apple developers and the apps that were kicked off Apple’s app store and offer them sanctuary on the Playbook/RIM side.

9. Push multimedia. Buy (or write) a iMovie knockoff and emphasize how easy it is to make movies on the Playbook. Get with HP and buy (or copy) their touchscreen photo editor app. Make the Playbook the tablet/camera/live editing hardware the iPad looks ridiculous trying to be.

10. Allow exploits. Hear me out on this one… if you allow for a Playbook equivalent of Cydia, and let tech-savvy users root the Playbook, you WILL see sales of the Playbook skyrocket. As a by-product of this, support for the Playbook will be more grassroots-based, and the Playbook’s reputation as a “real” tablet will grow exponentially almost overnight.

People love the underdog in a fight. The “we try harder” motto worked for Hertz for a long time, and going against a juggernaut like Apple, in any situation, is definitely a big-time underdog situation.

I think RIM can not only survive, but prosper if they play their cards right. I guess we will all see around 4Q 2012 if that’s true or not.

A few comments on the RIM Playbook 2.0 OS update

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Just a few comments on the new RIM Playbook 2.0 (2.0.0.7971) OS that was released today.

  • The reboot after the update takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes. Don’t panic! Just let the startup screen with the blooming lights (or whatever they’re called) do their thing. The new desktop will eventually appear.
  • The OS seems faster and more responsive.
  • The update is big. Here’s two screenshots of the update process…
Playbook update 1

Playbook update 1

PlayBook 2

PlayBook 2

 

  • …and a screenshot of the new desktop!

 

Playbook 3

Playbook 3

 

  • You can create folders by dragging and dropping icons on top of each other.
  • The Messages app (Email) is pretty good. It looks and acts like Mail on the iPad with the column/pane layout, but you also get formatting, font and alignment choices, and sorting by tag and priority. It feels like a mini Outlook.
  • When you get a new message, the red light on the top of the Playbook blinks. Nice! (You can turn this off by going to the OPTIONS gear on the upper right of the main screen, and then choosing what you like under SOUNDS & NOTIFICATIONS)
  • You can’t email a photo from inside the Pictures app. You CAN email photos from within the Messages (email) app. Just go to the paperclip attachment icon when composing a new message and choose the PICTURES tab. (You can also email anything in the Video, Music and Documents directory.)
  • App world has a LOT more apps to choose from. Brace yourself.

Overall, I’m highly impressed with this update. If this was the embedded system that launched with the Playbook, Apple might have had a very serious problem on their hands.

I think RIM can still make up for lost time by aggressively flooding the market with cheap tablets in the $150-$200 range. Emphasize the very low cost to get in the door. Target service industries, city employees, the court systems and school districts with tight budgets . Anywhere that a large, typically under-appreciated workforce would benefit from tablet-based connectivity at a 2-for-1 budget over the iPad. Embed Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Acrobat in every system, and emphasize the browser is just like any PC’s desktop browser (IE: Flash!).

Advertising-wise, I would hype the smaller size and easier portability of the playbook, and tag team with Hollywood on the Playbook’s HD screen. (Sorry, Apple fans. Watching a HD movie on a Playbook VS. an iPad 2 screen isn’t even close.) Maybe embed some free movies on there, or team up with Netflix or Redbox. On the flip side of that, I would buy (or write) a iMovie knockoff and emphasize how easy it is to make movies on the Playbook. Make a contest where the best movie shot and edited on a Playbook gets a big prize.

Whatever RIM is planning, if I was in charge, I would move quick on this new system’s features. All Apple has to do is release an iPad that’s similar in size and screen quality as the Playbook (even if it is $50-$75 over the Playbook price point) and that will be it for RIM.

A EULA for our own address books

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If you haven’t heard by now, the iPhone apps PATH and HIPSTER have been copying every individual’s address book on every iPhone and iPad to their own company servers. I can’t imagine what they’re going to do with all that stolen information, but I’m personally furious these scumbags got away with it.

I don’t know of any way to block theft like this on a non-jailbroken iOS, but maybe putting up a digital equivalent of a “no trespassing” sign will keep future apps from trying something like this.

Tonight, I made a EULA for my own address book and contact list.

The first thing I did was go on my iPhone to SETTINGS, GENERAL, and ABOUT.

In the ABOUT page, I wrote down the NAME of my iPhone on the top of the page (REiPhone).

I then went to the bottom of the ABOUT page and copied my Serial Number for my iPhone (12345ABCD)

Then I went to Rocket Lawyer and threw together a custom EULA with my information.

To make this your own EULA, copy, paste and replace everything in a RED BOLD FONT. Specifically, you’ll need to replace…

1. REiPhone – serial 12345ABCD with your own iPhone’s name and serial number
2. REiPhone with your own iPhone’s name
3. TEXAS with the name of your State

—–

IPHONE CONTACT INFORMATION END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
The contact database and address book content and information on REiPhone – serial 12345ABCD (“the Software Product”) and accompanying documentation is licensed and NOT sold or intended for sale. This Software Product is protected by copyright laws and treaties, as well as laws and treaties related to other forms of intellectual property. REiPhone or its subsidiaries, affiliates, and suppliers (collectively “REiPhone“) own intellectual property rights in the Software Product. The Licensee’s (“you” or “your”) license to download, use, copy, or change the Software Product is subject to these rights and to all the terms and conditions of this End User License Agreement (“Agreement”).
Acceptance
YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT BY INSTALLING, USING, OR COPYING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST NOT INSTALL, USE, OR COPY THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
License Grant
This Agreement expressly forbids you from installing and/or using any copy of the Software Product. In addition, you may not make any archival copies of the Software Product. The Software Product may not be on any storage medium of any type for any duration, and may not be used as a condition for the installation of any of Licensee’s product or any material provided from the Licensee. This Agreement does not permit the installation or use of multiple copies of the Software Product, or the installation of the Software Product on any computer other than the original REiPhone at any given time, or on any system that allows shared use of applications, on a multi-user network, or on any configuration or system of computers that allows multiple users. Multiple copy use or installation of the Software Product is not allowed under any circumstances.
Restrictions on Transfer
Without first obtaining the express written consent of REiPhone, you may not assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement, or redistribute, encumber, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer your rights to the Software Product.
Restrictions on Use
You may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on any system, or permit the use, copying, or installation of the Software Product on any computer. You may not use, copy, or install the Software Product on any system with identical systems as REiPhone or permit the use, copying, or installation by any user, or on any computer other than REiPhone. You may not decompile, “reverse-engineer”, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code and components for the Software Product. You may not use the database portion of the Software Product whatsoever.
Restrictions on Alteration
You may not modify the Software Product or create any derivative work of the Software Product or its accompanying information. Derivative works include but are not limited to translations. You may not alter any files or libraries in any portion of the Software Product. You may not reproduce the database portion or create any tables or reports relating to the database portion.
Restrictions on Copying
You may not copy any part of the Software Product. You may not make any archival copies to be stored on any medium other than the drive physically installed on REiPhone.
Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability
UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPLICITLY AGREED TO IN WRITING BY REIPHONE, REIPHONE MAKES NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN FACT OR IN LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT OR IN THE LIMITED WARRANTY DOCUMENTS PROVIDED WITH THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
REiPhone makes no warranty that the Software Product will meet your requirements or operate under your specific conditions of use. REiPhone makes no warranty that operation of the Software Product will be secure, error free, or free from interruption. YOU MUST DETERMINE WHETHER THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT SUFFICIENTLY MEETS YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR SECURITY AND UNINTERRUPTABILITY. YOU BEAR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS INCURRED DUE TO FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT TO MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. REIPHONE WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF DATA ON ANY COMPUTER OR INFORMATION STORAGE DEVICE.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL REIPHONE, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING LOST REVENUES OR PROFITS OR LOSS OF BUSINESS) RESULTING FROM THIS AGREEMENT, OR FROM THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION, OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT, WHETHER DUE TO A BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, OR THE NEGLIGENCE OF REIPHONE OR ANY OTHER PARTY, EVEN IF REIPHONE IS ADVISED BEFOREHAND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT THAT THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION LIMITS REIPHONE‘S ABILITY TO DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, THIS DISCLAIMER SHALL BE EFFECTIVE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED.
Limitation of Remedies and Damages
There is no remedy for a breach of this Agreement or of any warranty included in this Agreement. REiPhone reserves the right to deny access to the information on REiPhone, as well as deny any form of replacement and/or remedy. All limited warranties on the Software Product are granted only to you and are non-transferable. You agree to indemnify and hold REiPhone harmless from all claims, judgments, liabilities, expenses, or costs arising from your breach of this Agreement and/or acts or omissions.
Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Costs
This Agreement is governed by the laws of Texas, without regard to Texas’s conflict or choice of law provisions.
Severability
If any provision of this Agreement shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. To the extent any express or implied restrictions are not permitted by applicable laws, these express or implied restrictions shall remain in force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by such applicable laws.

—–

After copying and pasting the EULA into your favorite text editor and making the substitutions, mail a copy to your iPhone.

Once it arrives, drag-copy over the entire body of the EULA and COPY.

Now go to CONTACTS and create a NEW CONTACT

Type for the First Name : IPHONE CONTACT INFORMATION EULA

Type for the Last Name : *AAA

Now tap on the ADD FIELD button at the bottom of the NEW CONTACT window and choose NOTES.

When the NOTES field appears, PASTE in the EULA and save the contact.

Now the first contact in your address book will be your own EULA. When you click on the contact for more information, you can scroll through the legalese even though only a few lines appear at first.

This might be as effective as throwing a match in the ocean right now, and I’m honestly not sure how effective this would be against a professional corporate rottweiler of an attorney, but maybe if another app steals my contact information and sees this EULA, the scumbag app’s legal department will pounce on the developers and demand my contact database be deleted out of “an abundance of caution”.

I have a feeling once a member of congress gets their private address book posted on a public forum, real Federal legislation will pass in that makes data theft an interstate felony punishable by some “bankrupt the company and their owners” kinds of fines. For now, I would settle for Apple kicking developers like this out of the App store and ban them from ever coding for iOS again. (Hey, I can dream!)

RIM’s Blackberry Playbook WiFi dropping? Here’s the fix until Feb ’12

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Looong story short, if you have a RIM BlackBerry PlayBook and your WiFi connection keeps dropping…

  1. Switch the WiFi routers you connect to (and that are under your control) to 802.11g (no B or N), and set the security to a WPA2 \ AES combo (Don’t choose TKIP!).
  2. On the PlayBook go to WIFI settings (under the drop-down GEAR icon)
  3. In the WIFI settings, next to the SELECT A NETWORK, click the pop-up and go down to SAVED NETWORKS.
  4. In the SAVED NETWORKS list, click on the Pencil icon and hit the trash can icon (DELETE) every saved network you have.
  5. Turn OFF the WIFI by moving the slider button to OFF
  6. Now hold down the power button on top of the PlayBook until the black “POWERING OFF” icon appears (keep holding it past the three-color TURN OFF, STANDBY and RESTART buttons and let the PlayBook turn off by itself.)
  7. Once the PlayBook is off, let it sit for 60 seconds.
  8. Turn on the playbook and re-connect to the network you tweaked in step one.

The PlayBook won’t drop one bit of data from then on!

A little inside scoop I got today told me that Blackberry Playbooks are “really finicky” about their network connections, and even though this workaround is rock solid, “a Playbook update in February (2012) will take care of ALL of the WiFi connection problems”.

I’m glad RIM realized not all WiFi networks are 802.11g / AES.  WiFi that doesn’t drop is a absolute must if you want to be a contender.

How to tell if an iPhone / iPad App is going to take too much time to enjoy

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I’ve found a surprisingly easy way to tell if an app from iTunes for the iPhone or iPad is going to take too much time to play and won’t be any fun. Just check out the “Top In-App Purchases” levels. If the top tier is over $10, you’re not going to enjoy playing that game if you have a full-time 8 AM to 5 PM kind of job.

Take, for example, EA’s latest offering… Road Trippin’!

Looking at the app listing in iTunes, everything seems all Smurfy-Happy-Blue on top.

 

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit A

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit A

 

But if you look off to the left column, under the FREE APP button (or DOWNLOAD button if you’ve already grabbed the app before), there’s a section called “Top In-App Purchases”.

So looking at Road Trippin’s! top offering, I see to play the game with “everything”, I would need to spend…

 

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit B

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit B

 

..$99.99!

$99 dollars and 99 cents. Almost half the price of a console system! Just so I can play with “everything” this “free” game offers.

You don’t have to be in iTunes to see this. You can also find this info under the iPhone and iPad section of the game app by clicking on the “Top In-App Purchases” banner….

 

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit C

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit C

 

…where you will see the same $99.99 foolishness.

 

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit D

How to Tell an App isn't going to be fun - Exhibit D

 

“In-App Purchases” are just things you can buy while playing the game to move along faster, or just get those missing “propeller-for-the-damn-airplane” kinds of parts and those oh-so special “air-strike to get that pickle-faced rat bastich sniper that’s been nailing me for the last three days” kinds of options.

Do you need to make in-app purchases? No. You can slog through the game, playing hours and hours and hours and hours on end just to nickel and dime your way to nirvana. No more “sneaking-a-game-on-the-freeway”. No more hanging up on someone just because a pop-up from the game appeared.

But, in my experience, playing games like this take months to “win”.

The wheeeeeee-fun part ends around day 12. The Spirit of Piss, Vinegar and Vengeance kicks in around day 21.

The more iOS games I play like this, the more I realize most of the “In-App Purchase” games are basing themselves on the good old Las Vegas slot machine business model.

  1. Put some money in the system.
  2. Push some buttons.
  3. Watch the beep-boop flashing lights.
  4. Your money is gone!
  5. Repeat Step One.

When a game company has priced the top-tier of their In-App Purchases insanely high, in my opinion, they’ve made the game overly hard and time consuming on purpose to get you hooked and make a grab for your money.

I’ll stick to the games without the in-app purchases banner. If a game does have in-app purchases, I’ll only install it on my device if the top tier is $10 or less (or to unlock the full-version of the game).

Like the old Vegas motto says… the easiest way to win these $100 games is not to play ’em.

Mac 10.7 slow? Uninstall TechToolPro!

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Long story short, my Mac Book Pro was slowing down more and more. Disk repair wasn’t helping, removing everything from the startup items wasn’t doing it, and repairing the keychain(s) and trashing application preferences did exactly diddly/squat.

I was about to do the old nuke-and-pave when I found a blog titled tech-recipes with an article titled “TechTool Pro Brings OS X Lion to a Crawl”. I remembered I bought and installed TechTool on my mac as part of a drive recovery project I had about month ago.

I followed Tech-recipes’ directions on how to remove TechTool from my mac and restarted.

Did you hear an enormous yell of delight from somewhere in the southern United States today? Yeah. That would have been me.

My MacBook Pro is amazingly fast now. Windows fling open, startup finishes in seconds after I login, and most every application is back to snapping open. Did I mention there were some speed improvements? Speed like Ford Model-T with three flat tires to ion-rocket-low-orbit-around-Jupiter-for-lunch speed?

I’ve got to give an enormous thanks to Tech-Recipes and their TechTool Pro Brings OS X Lion to a Crawl post. If you have Tech Tool pro on your Mac, try following the directions in that post and see if removing it helps your Mac.

iStumbler crashing in OSX Lion fix

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Fast post – if your iStumbler app is crashing in OS X Lion, go under the APPLE menu and go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES…

From there, look in the “Internet and Wireless” section and click on BLUETOOTH.

Make sure Bluetooth is ON and DISCOVERABLE.

Close out of the SYSTEM PREFERENCES and re-launch iStumbler. No more crashes!

Plug in a USB cable right the first time

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Have you ever tried to quickly plug in a USB cable?  You would think it only takes two tries, but for some reason I find myself having to flip the cable over and over and over and over until I get the right orientation.

There’s actually a very easy way to tell which side is “up” on any USB cable.

Look at the top of your next cable. On one side is the manufacturer’s logo, and on the other is the USB symbol (sometimes with another manufacturer logo underneath the symbol).

USB Cable 1

USB Cable 1

 

The USB cable always plugs in with the USB symbol facing UP on your laptop.

 

USB Cable 2

USB Cable 2

If you have a vertical monitor with USB ports, the USB cable always plugs in with the USB symbol facing you.

 

UPDATE 10/06/11 : Drew made a comment I wanted to re-post in the main article: “Well, not always. As an IT guy, I have worked with a lot of PCs and I would say it is true for 80% of the hardware we have. For some reason, for a few models of the netbooks and odd ball laptops we have, the ports are upside down. I hate exceptions to the rule.”

UPDATE 10/06/11 part 2: Made it on Lifehacker! Booya!

A question about the FBI’s “stingray” : a letter to the WSJ

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After reading the Wall Street Journal’s story on the FBI’s Stingray use, I thought I would throw in my two cents on the matter in a letter to the editor.

Eesh. I’m turning into one of those people.

Anyhow….

———

Regarding the FBIs “stingray” tracking device (Thursday Sept. 22 p1): What would happen if I, as a private citizen, built a device to impersonate a cell phone tower and drove around my city intercepting signals from cell phones?

Regardless of my intent, I think I would be arrested and charged with several FCC and Patriot Act violations.

Since this device would be illegal for a private citizen to use, I believe law enforcement should have to obtain a warrant to use this device themselves. A warrant that specifically states the number or name being searched for, the area to be canvassed, and the reason for initiating the search.

Just because it is easy to use a piece of technology does not make legal to do so in and of itself.

-Royce Eddington
McAllen, Texas

Seagate GoFlex Satellite needs to go back to beta (review)

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I have an upcoming project where I need to securely stream videos to multiple iOS devices for a training seminar, so I decided to give the Seagate GoFlex Satellite a try yesterday to see if it would do what I needed.

I should have known things were going to go bad just looking at the box.

SeagateGoFlexSatellite1photo
 

Somebody in Seagate’s art department needs to hold an iPad someday. This is ridiculous. A five year old can see this picture is wrong.

 

SeagateGoFlexSatellite2photo
 

I should have known this was going to be the start of something…. terrible. Something that would eat two hours of my day just to get set up and running.

 

SeagateGoFlexSatellite3photo
 

Right up front, I found out this fugness is NOT plug and play. The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is about as friendly as a crackhead rattlesnake on a burning cactus.

Once you take the Seagate GoFlex Satellite out of the box, you’re going to have to do some work before your iPad can see it (let alone use it).

I’ll skip over the 55 minutes of trying to get this thing installed and researching Seagate’s online tech support and just list what I had to do…

  1. Charge the Seagate GoFlex Satellite for 30 minutes into a wall outlet using the plugs they provide.
  2. While it is charging, go to Seagate’s download page and get your sync software for your platform (mac or PC) and install it on your desktop.
  3. On the iPad, while it is connected to a live WiFi network, download GoFlex Media (by seagate) AND 8player Lite in the iOS store. Install both of these apps on the iPad.
  4. After 30 minutes of charging, unplug the usb cable from the back of the Seagate drive
  5. Press the RESET button on the bottom of the device with a tack or pin for 5 seconds to clear out the factory garbage on it
  6. TURN OFF EVERYTHING IN THE AREA THAT AUTOMATICALLY CONNECTS TO WIFI NETWORKS. Not kidding. If anything auto connects to the Seagate during the next steps, the drive’s WiFi will never blink blue and update.
  7. Turn off the WiFi on the iPad (by going to GENERAL and WiFi)
  8. Connect the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive to a PC – not a mac.
  9. Download the latest firmware update for the Seagate GoFlex Satellite from Seagate’s website
  10. Save the update directly to the root level of the GoFlex drive
  11. Safely eject the drive from the taskbar of your PC. (You can’t just unplug this thing straight. It may lose the update.)
  12. Hold down the power button on the side of the Seagate GoFlex Satellite for 15 seconds to turn it off.
  13. Wait 15 more seconds.
  14. Press the power button to re-boot the drive
  15. The power light on the drive will blink green and then go solid. Then the light under the WiFi will start blinking green… then stay solid green…. then blink again.
  16. After two minutes of this green blinkage, the wifi light will blink blue very briefly. This is where you MUST connect through WiFi on your iPad. (Miss this opportunity at your own risk!)
  17. While the GoFlex is blinking blue, on the iPad, go to GENERAL and WIFI.
  18. Turn the WiFi back on the iPad
  19. Under CHOOSE A NETWORK, pick SEAGATE GO FLEX WIFI
  20. Once the checkmark appears next to the SEAGATE GO FLEX WIFI network and the WiFi icon appears by the iPads’ name on the top menubar, go to the GoFlex Media app on the iPad and launch it.

Nothing to it!!

Once you have cleared the hurdles of connecting this device, these are the screens you will see in the GoFlex Media app on the iPad…

SeagateGoFlexSatellite0178
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0179
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0180
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0181
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0182
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0183
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0183a
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0184
This is what you will have to deal with. It’s not like having a external flash drive or a folder you can just tap-open stuff with. It’s definitely not a Mac-like app. What you see above is what you get.

Once you’re connected to the drive on the iPad, you can change the name of the drive as it shows up in WiFi as well as assign a password. That’s about it, though.

To get files on the drive, you will have to use that sync app that was downloaded to the desktop and connect the Seagate GoFlex Satellite directly to your mac (or PC). When you use the transfer app, whatever files Seagate’s app does not support will not get copied over. If you drag and drop files, the files will copy over, but the Seagate app will not list them in the VIDEO or PHOTO views. Also, if you try and drag-and-drop files directly to the drive, some files may not transfer depending on how your computer is set up for external NTFS disk write access.

You can download files from the GoFlex Satellite drive to the iPad in the app, but you can not send any files from the iPad to the drive. It’s strictly a one way street.

Also, Seagate’s GoFlex app also does not support .flv videos (among a few other formats).

Oh, and the drive is formatted NTFS. If you re-format it into any other type, it won’t work anymore. It’s NTFS or nothing.

Right. So back to the other app that was downloaded to the iPad – 8player Lite.

The reason 8player Lite was downloaded to the iPad is because Seagate’s own technical support staff recommends using this app instead of Seagates’ GoFlex Media app!! Not kidding. The techs’ comments in their own forums and on amazon.com constantly mention this app instead of their own.

It’s pretty obvious why. Launching 8player Lite will get you to a old-style PSP navigation system…

SeagateGoFlexSatellite0185
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0186

Click what you want and the icons appear under to list content, or to the right for hierarchy. To back up a level, just click to the left.

It’s exactly as I remember my PSP system’s navigation.

SeagateGoFlexSatellite0187
 

SeagateGoFlexSatellite0188

The best part is that this app will list everything you dragged and dropped. Everything.

This is really handy to see what you really have on the drive in a category pane, and I believe it’s how a file-management app should behave.

But what really sold me on the 8player Lite app was this…

SeagateGoFlexSatellite0189
SeagateGoFlexSatellite0190
 

It played .flv’s. This little app actually played everything I had… every format, every size, every medium.

That’s a pretty sad state of design when I would rather have an old PSP interface than the one Seagate designed in 2011 for an iPad.

OK, now for the bad part… you can’t get online while you’re using this thing. The ipad is only connected to the Seagate GoFlex Satellite through WiFi, and if you try to get anywhere in Safari, you will just wind up at a web-interface of the files you have on the GoFlex Satellite drive. To get back online, you have to break the WiFi connection and switch back to your original network in the iPad’s GENERAL and NETWORK settings.

(You can also just switch off the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive with the power button on the side, but your iPad may or may not reconnect to the previous wireless network as quickly as you could do so manually.)

Let me tell you, no internet access gets old real fast.

So to sum up my complaints…

  1. This monstrosity is NOT plug and play out of the box! Connecting a WiFi drive should require no more than 5 minutes.
  2. NTFS only is a poor decision considering most iPad users are also mac users as well.
  3. There has got to be a way to surf the internet while the drive is connected. Maybe make this drive an FTP server that can get a DHCP address from a wireless network and let the iPad app act as a GUI FTP login? Or let the drive login to the network as a alternate configuration. (EX: if network named “X” is detected, then set IP address to “Y” and login with “Z” credentials.)
  4. A Mac-like GUI. Something for the iPad shouldn’t look like something from the Napster-lovin’-90s.
  5. There is no SEND TO DEVICE option. A storage drive that you must to connect to a desktop or laptop to load files to it is just ridiculous.
  6. There is no on the fly converting. Seagate needs to take a look at AirVideoFree on the app store to get an idea on how it’s supposed to be done.
  7. There are two green lights on this thing. The problem is one of these lights only turns blue and flickers when data is streaming or you have a window of opportunity to connect to the drive. IMO, this light should REMAIN SOLID BLUE when ANY device is connected and revert to green when NO ONE is connected. Ideally, it should also blink blue for every number of users connected and flicker blue when data is being transferred.
  8. User/password combos would be great.
  9. The getting started video is on the drive, and you can only see it after you have connected! This video needs to be put on the root level of the drive (or in a big TRAINING folder) so people can view it when they need it!
  10. No love for .FLV.

Right now, bottom line, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite stinks on ice. But the potential for this drive is enormous.

I think of this drive like one of those fantastic big-budget sounding movies, with characters you’ve always wanted to see on the big screen. But what got made was something with C and D-list actors and director who doesn’t know anything about the project or material they are working on. Just bad all around.

Once the damn thing is connected to the iPad the first time, it behaves. Somewhat. But would I recommend a Seagate GoFlex satellite right now? No. Absolutely not. It’s actually easier to “cloud” data than use this device as it is now.

It needs work to be iPad friendly, and it needs a complete overhaul to be actually useful.

If the software updates make major improvements, I’ll re-review the drive.

UPDATE : If anybody from Seagate reads this post, let me strongly suggest you call Verizon and Sprint. Team up with them to make a 4G WiFi server. Their WiFi hotspot devices (like the Verizon 4G LTE MiFi) and your drive tech. Think mobile 4g hotspot, storage, streaming and internet access. All on one local device, no cloud needed. You will not be able to make these things fast enough at the factory.