Seagate GoFlex Satellite wirelessly boosts iPad storage

Seagate has added a few new goodies to its GoFlex range of external hard drives in the shape of the GoFlex Satellite, the first battery-powered hard drive to wirelessly connect to any Wi-Fi-toting device.

That means you can enjoy an extra 500GB of storage for your iOS, Android or any device that has Wi-Fi capabilities, completely sans wires.

What's handy, says Seagate, is that the dinky drive allows you to opt for a cheaper low-memoried tablet or phone safe in the knowledge that you can easily store videos, photos and music externally yet portably.

Although we do feel honour-bound to point out that if you're willing to drop $200 (£123) on the GoFlex Satellite and its external storage, you might be better off starting out with the 64GB version of the tablet and seeing how you get on.

Applitude

Seagate has also brought out the GoFlex Media app to wirelessly transfer your video, music, pictures and documents to and from the hard drive, although this is only available for iOS devices at present, with the Android app coming this summer.

In the meantime, Android users can access stuff stored on the device through their tablet or smartphone's browser.

The GoFlex Satellite has a standby battery life of up to 25 hours, or 4 hours of continuously streaming video.

Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate's retail group, feels quite passionately about the additional storage the company can offer to iPad users:

"With the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, we wished to create an elegant solution that provides real value to the multitude of iPad users out there by delivering a seamless connection to local storage.

"No longer will a consumer feel as though it is a compromise to purchase a lower capacity tablet or iPad. With GoFlex Satellite, people will be able to carry their entire media library with them without the need for wires or the web at a fraction of the cost of adding 3G or purchasing or a higher capacity tablet."