CloudFTP Turns USB Drives Into Wireless Cloud Storage
CloudFTP has made it from Kickstarter into a real-world product.
Inventor Daniel Chin has begun selling the small box, which can turn any USB-based storage into a personal cloud device, for $100.
Funded with $262,000 back in January, CloudFTP creates its own ad-hoc wireless network and acts as a file server for Wi-Fi enabled products when connected to a USB mass storage device. According to Chin, up to three Wi-Fi clients can stream data from the device at the same time.
The hardware of the box includes a 2600 mAh battery that powers the device and a USB device for up to five hours when not connected to a power source. Data processing is handled by an ARM Core-A9 design, wireless connectivity is established via integrated 802.11b/g/n support. A small display on the front of the box displays the SSID as well as its network address.
CloudFTP can automatically connect to cloud storage services like iCloud, Dropbox, box.net and synchronize data.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
-
hoofhearted Yeah right. This sure beats having a local USB stick for storage.Reply
/end sarcasm
I wish Tom's would stop harping with these stupid cloud advertisments. -
jgutz2006 seriously they ship with a single SSID to make it difficult for beginners to implement more than one... Not to mention the standard IP address of many Consumer routers that will need to be changed before hooking up to the networkReply -
Camikazi jgutz2006seriously they ship with a single SSID to make it difficult for beginners to implement more than one... Not to mention the standard IP address of many Consumer routers that will need to be changed before hooking up to the networkThe IP address is because by default it doesn't connect to your network, it creates an ad-hoc network of it's own to have devices connect. As for the name I think it is just cheaper to have them all programmed with the same information then to customize it to have different names for each one, kind of like every D-Link router has the default name of dlink for wireless network.Reply -
stinkyfax since when network drivers are clouds? Oh wait a moment, we can call any service Cloud, starting from email POP because it's pretty much the definition of fancy Cloud decadeReply -
Achoo22 $100 for this device is asking WAY too much when you can buy very capable full-fledged routers with USB/print support for less money. At, say, $20 + $10 per USB port, it would be a much more compelling option. I'd rather have a Raspberry Pi ($25) and a USB Wi-Fi dongle ($7) than this thing.Reply -
mavroxur I think $100 is a little lofty for this. And by lofty, I mean insanely overpriced for what it actually does.Reply -
xyster $35 gets you a Raspberry Pi, which can be configured to do a lot of the same stuff, admittedly with a little bit of effort.Reply -
adamcox27 Hmmm... OKay. So I could get a EyeFi with a static 8gb and is exclusive to SD form-factor. OR.. I could get a AirStash and put an SD card into it. OR.. I could get this device and a USB memory card reader and access an SD card, or USB stick, or USB hard drive by wireless network. I think it's easy to see that having a Wifi capable USB receptor could have many uses. EyeFi? NO! AirStash? NO! CloudFTP. Si!!!Reply
Adam (http://adamcox.net) -
cloudfounders1 The information is very useful!Thank you for sharing the information!Keep up the great worksReply