Seagate Wireless Plus Road Trip

[Seagate Technology]

15 Lucky participants got a chance to go on a Road Trip with Seagate for the launch of Seagate Wireless Plus!

Let's hear from them on what they did and how their brand new Wireless Plus is working for them!

 

[weightyaffair]

15 Lucky participants got a chance to go on a Road Trip with Seagate for the launch of Seagate Wireless Plus!

Let's hear from them on what they did and how their brand new Wireless Plus is working for them!

I'm not one of the participants, but I've had a hands-on experience with a live unit.

Great quality, good transfer speed, reasonable battery life....... but a little too pricey at this point in time.

Having any promos soon?

 

[robineo]

I'm not one of the participants, but I've had a hands-on experience with a live unit.

Great quality, good transfer speed, reasonable battery life....... but a little too pricey at this point in time.

Having any promos soon?

Do you know the stores that are selling this baby? I can't seem to find it.

 

[porcu]

Think I saw it at Fuwell,Cybermind.

I was one of the participants. Great unit but with some flaws. Will be posting some testimonials soon. Still testing...

 

[savvyguy]

Hey guys!

HWZ & Seagate were really awesome for organizing the road trip! had a really good ride on the classic VW Kombi vans, while the Seagate guys gave a demo about what the wireless hard drive could do. When they initially asked me about my impression of Seagate, my answer was "Traditional!". However, having that said, I believe they have come a long way in the HDD market and have been coming up with pretty decent and innovative products.

This is one device that I've been pretty impressed with so far. Although their mobile app needs some brushing up (e.g. lag in-app, not able to connect to 3g/LTE service while accessing the drive), I feel that this drive is perfect for travel use, and best paired up with mobile devices like the iPad or other smartphones which have limited storage space.

Being a photographer, I was also interested in whether this drive could connect with WIFI-enabled DSLRs like the Canon 6D. While the drive was DLNA-certified, it was unfortunate that the Canon 6D was unable to support the transfer of RAW files to the Seagate drive. Having that said, I think it is still premature to say that this nifty gadget won't support such transfers in the future. will look forward to more innovation from Seagate!

 

[yattan]

Do you know the stores that are selling this baby? I can't seem to find it.

Saw it at Funan Challenger Retail $299 Member $288

 

[kodokido]

I was very lucky to be invited to go on a ‘No Worries’ Road Trip with Seagate last Saturday. We started off at Newton and I was really surprised to see the Kombis parked at the parking lots.

Nope, I didn’t get to drive it but I think I can’t survive too long on the driver’s seat. Space was limited and I can’t really see what’s ahead of me unless I slouch my back.



From Newton, we made our way all the way to The Costal Settlement! It is a very nice restaurant with many retro items that I used to see a lot last time but not anymore now.

We had the good people from Seagate to share with us more on the Wireless Plus. 1TB = 1000GB now that capacity is really really…

…H U G E ~ ~ ~

What’s more, with the Wireless Plus, up to 8 devices can be connected at the same time – access to photos and videos and documents will be so much more smoother.

I guess the Wireless Plus is really good for those who are always on the go and they need to share documents with others. The Wireless Plus doesn’t require internet to work, so that is one less thing to worry about.

It is pretty light to carry around and I suppose it will be a prefect match with iPads or tablets. I mean, with the Wireless Plus, iPads and tablets will become giants with all that capacity.

 

[Michelleang]

As a working adult, weekends are considered rest days for me to conserve enough energy to survive the next 5 working days. On a particular Saturday, 23 March 2013, I broke my routine to join an event organised by Seagate and I was very glad and happy that I did for the following reasons:-

1) A ride on a Kombi van
I never knew that such van existed in Singapore until that day and was very curious how it looks like inside. Did you know?

I was able to enjoy the Singapore’s scenic landscape that I missed out during MRT ride while travelling in the van to our destination.

A photo of the van I was allotted to

2) New friends
I was able to make some new friends from the HWZ forum inside the van (you know who you are ^_^ see picture below). Our van consisted mainly of IT professionals and accountants. Looks like I know who to bug when I encounter IT issues.

3) Lunch
I was quite surprised that snack and lunch were provided for a 4 hours event plus any drink that The Coastal Settlements can provide.

A photo of the snack provided

4) Wireless Plus drive (“WPD”)
Off course, the main reason I chose to join the event was for the exclusive access to Seagate’s latest product. I was able to stream media content on the installed Seagate Media app from the WPD supplied during the Kombi ride on my iPhone 4 and iPod touch without any issue. The stream for movie was smooth and instantaneous.

I was glad that the WPD has 1TB storage capacity and aluminum design compare with its predecessor, Seagate GoFlex Satelllite which has 500 GB storage capacity and black design. We were properly introduced to the key features and usage of WPD on both on the Seagate Media app and the built-in Safari on an iPad by Seagate personnel, Vermount Hoh. Vermount Hoh also explained that any devices with wifi capability can access the media content on the WPD using any third party applications that has an internal internet browser. All the participants were given a WPD each after the event.

I had no problem with uploading media contents from my computer to my new given WPD when I reached home after the event. The first time I access my WPD after the upload, I had to wait for the WPD to finish indexing the files uploaded (time taken depend on media size uploaded) before all the thumbnails start to appear on the WPD. I can upload selected pictures or video on my iPhone’s camera roll wirelessly to the WPD on my first try. It is very easy to navigate through the menu to access any media content on the WPD and I am very satisfied with the product.

In my opinion, anyone without IT knowledge will be able to set up and access the WPD with ease.

On Seagate Media app

On any thirty party app

I would recommend this product to those people who are in need of storage space for their idevices especially those with only 16GB of storage capacity.

 

[juliancho]

Seagate Wireless Plus 1TB

The Kombi ride was pretty special – and quite an experience, Food @ Coastal Settlement was excellent, nice place, nice ambience, I plan to go back there again soon

The Seagate Product speakers know their products, and clarified with answers before I can even ask them about the very same concerns I have as a potential end-user.

About the product itself, I pretty much did a fair amount of research online once I was informed that I was selected for the road trip, so I actually managed my expectations of the product. I’m a keen Home Theatre, Audiophile enthusiast, so the product is very very useful for me, especially when I have a "lowly" 16G iPad mini, 16GB HP Touchpad and a 64GB Blackberry PlayBook.

The 1TB HDD that allows for streaming directly to my devices using the Seagate media iOS/Android app or either via the web browser (which works as advertised on iOS, Android and even webOS) are great for my frequent ah-hoc last minute travels.

I do, however, have some concerns, which I hope can be incorporated into the next version of Wireless Plus.
- Inability to charge (via USB) and still use Wireless Sharing at the same time. I wouldn’t want to bring along a power adapter overseas all the time, and especially I don’t get power points on the plane unless I fly business.
- Inability to decode certain formats which I took pains to rip at its highest quality, while I understand the processor in the device is not made for that, it defeats the purpose having to re-encode my files just for storing it in the HDD. (i.e. M2TS Blu-Ray Rip, DTS-HDMA, True-HD, 24bit, 96/192KHz Lossless audio files are not supported or down-mixed to Stereo)
- Build-in DLNA is a streamer, not a decoder (as above); as I am too accustomed to my TwonkyMedia setup.

Still, for the typical DVD rips, MP4 videos, videos from smartphones and the vast collection of photos I have (I do lots of photography), they make it easy for me to bring my collection along, well, until I chance upon NEF, RAW file formats which the Wireless Plus can’t decode as well – but I could download them into my iOS devices and view them with third party apps using the "Open In" function.

I tried a couple of iOS based DLNA Clients like OPlayer (Lite) and GPlayer and streaming started instantly with little or no delays.

The Wireless Plus got a little warm after some use, but it's very bearable, like most portable HDDs - it didn't last the marketed 10 hours of use (with non-HD playback), but it did allow me to finish watching 3 movies and browsing my folder of ~1500 photos before I require a recharge.

In all, the Wireless Plus is an interesting concept and oh-so-convenient to bring around. Especially with the popularity of gigantic HD contents, everyone will appreciate it's usefulness and capability. Hopefully Seagate will be able to iron out the minor pain points above in subsequent products in their roadmap.

 

[porcu]

Thanks to Seagate for organising such a wonderful trip and lunch. Also made a few friends and had good fun chatting.

So far I have been testing the Wireless plus for a while now and found it to be really good. I have been comparing it to my previous Hichan's Wifidisk which runs on SDCards.

The pros,
1. High capacity! 1TB is more than enough for most of us.
2. Quite light so it's portable.
3. Support of USB3 and also Thunderbolt (with additional connector) is great for high speed transfers!
4. Internet bypass! Can connect wifi at the same time although connection to 3G/LTE is not possible.

The cons,
1. Although it claims to hold 10 hours standby power, my unit gets depleted within 2-3 hours max even without streaming.
2. Unit gets really hot.
3. Occasionally, the connection gets lost and my iPad & Android devices cannot reconnected until I reboot the drive again.
4. The on/off button is so hard and there is no tactile feeling(maybe my unit is faulty...)
5. On the iPad, getting external apps to playback unsupported files are a pain. Seagate needs to update their software to at least support mkv and some avi formats.

All in all, a great unit but I would still prefer my Hichan Wifidisk due to portability and it doesn't have disconnection problem. Although the Seagate has higher capacity and internet bypass which is great but has some connectivity drop issues.

 

[yattan]

Time: 10am 23rd March 2013

Venue: Newton Food Center Car Park

Event: Seagate Wireless Plus Launch Event: Take What’s Yours

A few days before the event, whilst on the way back home after a long day at work, I received a call from the HWZ staff informing me I had been chosen for the Seagate event. That came as a surprise, a pleasant one.

Fast forward to event day. I drove to Newton and spotted a few vintage VW Kombis at the car park. Parked the car only to realize that we’d have to leave the car behind while we go on a road trip on the Kombi. On one hand it was exciting to ride the Kombi and on the other, it feels weird to leave the car in a strange car park for a few hours whilst being away to who knows where. Left with not much of a choice unless skipping the event altogether, laid out 3 hours of coupon and off we go into the unknown on the Kombis.

The Kombis are serious attention grabbers. Quite a number of drivers took out their camera phones and snapped away whenever the Kombis were stopped either for traffic lights or lane filtering. There were four Kombis for the event and each interior is different.

While on the road, a staff was with us letting us have a feel of how the WL+ works by having us linking to the device and streaming/uploading files onto it. After a relatively long ride later, we finally reach our destination, The Coastal Settlement near Changi Village, somewhere I never knew to exist before the event day.

This restaurant is seriously out of the way and I thought my army camp was ‘ulu’. Location aside, the restaurant is very old school with vintage collectibles all across the restaurants, heavy wooden tables that are hard to find nowadays, very rustic, definitely a place to visit again.

Refreshments in the form of sandwiches were served while a presentation went on at the same time. After the presentation, a treasure finding game was played where we were given clues and had to hunt for the object, take a photo and upload onto the WP. The winners walked away with an additional 500 GB portable HDD. No… I was not one of the winners.

Buffet lunch was served while the Seagate staff have conversations on the product. What’s better than good food is good and free food. And how to top that? Good and free food with free gift! Presentation of the WL+ was in order but not before a sneak peak of its upcoming product, the Seagate central, which is a NAS and it got my group quite interested.

All good things must come to an end. The WP was given out and we were sent back to Newton on the Kombis (grabbing eyeballs by the dozen again).

Thanks to HWZ for the event, Seagate for the wonderful product and The Coastal Settlement for hosting the event and providing great food.
 
Review:
Build:
The 1 TB drive is encased in a plastic shell with a brushed aluminium top cover. The build feels pretty solid, whether it is actually solid or not I'm not really interested to test it out.

Speed:
The upload speed over the wireless is quite satisfactory for me. I do not have a USB 3 port on my early-2011 MBP so can’t test the USB3 transfer speed but it somehow seems significantly faster than on a USB2 HDD. Streaming videos to my nexus 7 is pretty seamless, players were not an issue.

Power:
Based on my usage over past few days, haven't really felt the battery draining too fast but definitely not near 10hrs especially if its streaming movies. Does get warm after some time. Depress the power button and the WP will start up but there is a 30s to 1 min startup time before the WP is detectable…

Ease of use:
It's not entirely dummy proof, but also not unfriendly. Just need some getting used to. Some connectivity issues here and there. Sometimes have issues connecting to the router.

Others:
Not personal experience but other users of android hand phones are unable to upload contents of the microSD card to the WL+, only contents stored within the hand phone memory can be accessed.

Thumbnails of some pictures not displaying because of a metadata issue

Have yet come across any encryption option, what you upload is open for all to see and if you lose the device, nothing can stop people from looking into the files. This is much more of a concern for me

Conclusion:
A good product that has potential, can do with more polishing. Heard that there is a firmware update in the works, hopefully that will iron out some issues

 

[porcu]

Streaming should be like AIRVIDEO. Fast and easy.

But nevertheless, it's a great product!

 

[janessali]

I would like to thanks HWZ for giving me this opportunity to be 1 of the 15 participants!. I had 2 colleague with me to enjoy this trip!!

The Kombi ride was like a once in lifetime experience!..

Having a mini-preview session on the new product by Vermount, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan sharing with us how amazing the Wireless Plus is. And also we had exclusive preview of product that has yet to be introduced in Singapore - the Seagate Central. (Launching soon)!

The hard-disk is a great product. As we can share files, videos, photos anywhere we want!

The product did not failed to surprise me in a way. But the GUI of the media apps take some time to load. Hopefully it will upgrade to a better one.

So far the product is good. But while i am trying to load some rmvb videos. It does not seems to load unless I save it to my phone and load from my video player.

 

[kart_jai]

My first release event

Ever since I bought my first tablet Xoom on the first day it was launched, the one main thing I waited was for a wireless HDD with atleast 1TB. Lucky me. I got invited to the Seagate Wireless Plus release event conducted by HWZ, taking us through cute kombi vans to a calm restaurant with some fun games keeping the attendees entertained.
All through the event, I was worried about battery drain required to use the HDD. You got to use once before concluding. After using my Seagate Wireless Plus for the past couple of weeks, I can say that my worries are baseless. It even helps me to connect from 3 devices simultaneously. Actually the maximum limit is 8, but I am just using 3 devices.
Another worry was, whether I can connect to internet if I use my wifi to connect to this. But Seagate has a solution for that too.
Looks like they have thought through everything before creating this product.

The only con I feel is that it heats up pretty soon.

 

[g_tan]

I was one of the contestants invited to join the Seagate event on Saturday. Unlike some of the other participants, i did not do much research on the product before i went for the event. I knew titbits of information abt wireless hard drives in general. Generally used to expand the storage of mobile devices when travelling.

I was pleasantly surprised when i turned up at the Newton Circus car park, to see 4 Kombi Vans. I have not ever sat in one before.

The ride was pleasant (other than that air conditioning), getting to try out the wireless hard drive, as well as to get to know fellow geeks on hardwarezone.

My tech interests include photography and videos, my first thought was wondering whether a wireless SD card in a DSLR would be able to transfer photos wirelessly, i didn't ask that question. i guess i was too busy trying out the other features of the wireless plus.

It was a good event, with technically strong staff from Seagate to explain the product. The demo really showed off the product in a practical way that people could relate to.

With fast wireless streaming of video to multiple platforms (iOS and Android, and even to Smart TVs), i was impressed. I would have bought it if i seen it earlier at the IT show.

I will be bringing this on my next holiday to try out photo sharing with multiple users.

Thanks Seagate for the organising the event, it was nice to meet some hardwarezoners as well.

(i'm gayle from the pink van)

 

[leo_yuhui03]

I felt so excited when Hardware Zone rang me up and informed me that I was one of the 15 lucky ones! It was an eye opener to have such a golden opportunity especially for the Kombi ride and experience an exclusive new knowledge of how Seagate wireless plus works. Such experience was just too FANTASTIC!!!

The brilliant idea of demonstrating on the spot how amazing Wireless Plus is had directly conveyed the how advanced technology is nowadays. Furthermore, Food @ Coastal Settlement was a perfect venue for the presentation of Seagate wireless plus, in terms of atmosphere, ambience, etc.

The hard-disk is a great product especially when we were to travel in big groups. Sharing of files, videos, photos anywhere and everywhere.

The demonstration of Seagate Wireless Plus enables me to share in further detail its positive utility with people around me.
I believed everyone in this trip agrees with me that this event has proven itself to be a success!
Thanks and cheers to the organisers of the event!!

 

[edren33]

Great thanks to Seagate and HWZ for such road trip event

Rather surprised that we are greeted by a chariot of kombi vans for the road trip to a restaurant at the changi village area..

and of course seagate making sure we are not going to be hungry and thirsty in the restaurant while attending the product event launch

getting use of the app to browse the wireless plus needs awhile to understand, and of course no app is prefect at launch, so abit of issue seagate will tackle on the next few app updates. rather surprised and finds it useful to have a wireless ext storage on the go, esp on a family road trip where you can share media contents with everyone who has a smartphone or tablets.

overall design and functionality are of no bad complaints but wows. battery life seems good but the attachment for the USB attachment design could do a better design to align the same width of the enclosure.

and thank you seagate for rewarding us each a seagate wireless plus device at the end of the event.

all of us enjoyed the ride, the food, the scenery, the friendly event staffs and of course the device!

 

[Seagate Technology]

Do you know the stores that are selling this baby? I can't seem to find it.

Hello!

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, we don't have any promotions going on.

Purchases can be made a couple of stores, like Challenger, Best Denki, Courts and Harvery Norman.

Hope that helps

 

[Yinghui14]

I was so lucky to be one of the 15 participants out of so many people who had been wishing to get their hands on with the Seagate Wireless Plus!

We met up at Newton Circus and what greeted us were 4 Kombi Vans in their lovely clothes and we got to travel in them to our destination!

We also got to know more about the device during our the travel time and gained more knowledge of the device at Coastal Settlement while having our snack.

There were some games to let us get to use the device which were fun!

Overall, it was a fun and enjoyable trip!

 

[Vandrew]

Living in Sweden, I just got the Seagate Wireless Plus over the weekend. I played 2 720p movies converted to be playable on iPad. Only able to play 2.5 hrs. How am I going to survive my 12 hours trip from Copenhagen back to Singapore?

Other than this, I think this is a great product. Only have 2 portable battery chargers that will recharge my iPhone, iPad Mini and now W+. It is a pity but I am going to test downloading the movie to the iPad mini instead of streaming.

iPad Mini battery seems to last way much longer than the W+.