Seagate announced on Monday that its Samsung HDD business unit is shipping the Samsung Wireless media device, a wireless external hard drive costing $179 USD. The device provides 1.5 TB worth of storage, making it ideal for pulling pictures off of a digital camera or streaming movies for the kids while on the road.
"Android is the most popular OS for smartphones on the market with 78.1% market share; Samsung leads smartphone vendors with 39.5% market share. The Samsung Wireless gives those consumers a fitting accessory to carry with them," said David Klenske, product line director, Samsung HDD.
The company doesn't provide any hard specs. However, the drive has a battery promising up to 7 hours on a single charge. There's also a USB 2.0 port that's capable of recharging a mobile device, and for dumping files onto the drive that may be too big and time consuming for Wi-Fi. Up to five devices can simultaneously connect via Wireless N.
As with other wireless drives on the market, Samsung's external drive has its own Wireless component, allowing wireless devices to connect directly to transfer files. On the device end, such as an Android smartphone or tablet, the user must open Samsung's app to send or receive files. The 1.5 GB of storage, according to Samsung, will hold up to 750 movies or up to 375,000 songs.
The specs show that the drive is compatible with Android 2.3 or higher, Windows XP SP2 or higher, and Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. The drive also works with DLNA devices such as Smart TVs and game consoles. The drive is even capable of connecting to local wireless networks to provide Internet access in addition to local streaming.
Additional information regarding the new drive can be accessed here.
