iOS devices may be the coolest things in the planet but there's one major disadvantage to using an iPhone or an iPad. These devices have fixed storage which means that if you're using a 16GB iPhone, you can only use as much space. Once this is all used up, you can't install additional apps or store additional video and music files unless you buy a new one with a larger capacity or delete some of the existing files. LaCie, a unit of Seagate known for its external hard drives, hopes to put an end to this data storage problem. With its new Fuel wireless hard drive, iPhone and iPad users can now enjoy 1TB of external storage.
Fuel allows iOS device users to move large files into the wireless hard drive. The files can be accessed on the go and users can upload or download the files remotely just like with cloud storage.
Although users have the option to use cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Apple's very own iCloud, there are several advantages to using Fuel. It can connect your mobile or your laptop wirelessly over Wi-Fi so you can watch movies or backup data from virtually anywhere without cables and even without an internet connection.
Fuel can also serve as a hotspot if there's an internet connection nearby and this allows you to share the connection with up to five other users simultaneously. This comes in handy if you're in a coffee shop or in a hotel room where users have to pay for internet access.
The drive uses a battery that can last ten hours on a single charge and the product is AirPlay compatible, which means that users can mirror content from their mobile device to TV's that are hooked to Apple TV device. This enables them to watch and share their photos and videos on a larger screen.
Fuel will be available later this year at a retail price of $200. The drive, together with the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2, which the company says is the "fastest portable storage" product in the market, will be showcased at CES 2014, which officially begins on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
