Tech bytes for tea?

Once in a while, you come across a device that does it all – and does it well. When it comes to a mobile storage companion, Trek iSSD ticks the check boxes of all the functionalities that I’ve always wanted in a single device.

Three of biggest problems holding back a mobile worker on the move are: storage space, battery power and the ability to share.

With the limited storage space on notebooks, tablets and mobile phones, workers on the move quickly run out of storage space on their mobile devices, especially if their work require huge media files that they have to present at meetings and discuss with their clients.

At home, the easy solution is to buy a desktop hard disk drive (HDD) with a huge capacity eg. 6-12TB – but it is not something you can bring on the road.

Next up is the portable HDD which is more expensive but provides the expanded storage space needed on the move.

What if you want to share those huge files with fellow workers or clients so they can peruse them on their own computers?

You can plug in the portable HDD (eg. 2-4TB) to their computers so they can download/upload files directly with the drive – but it’s a hassle to plug in and out if you’re in a team of workers sharing that same portable HDD.

So I was delighted with the Trek iSSD drive which not only provides portable expanded storage space – both wirelessly or via a USB cable (USB3.1 Type-C up to 10Gbps) – but doubles up as a wireless file server as well enabling a team of up to eight to access the files in the Trek iSSD at the same time.

Both wireless upload and download speeds are fast and everybody in the team can download/upload/stream files simultaneously from their laptops, tablets or phones.

This is useful as well at home, where different members of the family can wirelessly share the Trek iSSD simultaneously – either while #WorkingFromHome, doing #HomeBasedLearning or simply chilling out and streaming music or video from the iSSD.

This is even more useful on family vacations, I haven’t travelled lately as a family due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I can just envisage dumping ALL the music, video (and work files – hopefully not) into the iSSD so that family members can wirelessly access them in the hotel room, on the road and wherever we may be during the trip.

What’s more, if you’re taking lots of photos, you can easily backup those SD cards onto the iSSD by inserting the card into the SD card slot at the side of the iSSD and pressing the power button twice.

The iSSD will backup your photos from the SD card to itself.

Trek calls this “One Touch Backup” – technically it should be “Two Touch Backup” since you gotta press the power button twice. Okay that’s just being pedantic.

You can do the same with a microSD card using the microSD card adaptor that comes in the box with the Trek iSSD.

You can also transfer files from thumb drives and other desktop storage devices to and from the iSSD via the USB-A port on the iSSD.

For photographers, you can even set up your camera (if it has wireless transmission features) and the iSSD so that when you take a photo, a copy is automatically sent to the iSSD.

I know photographers that’ll love this feature.

A friend of mine provides event photography and he had a team of photographers covering events snapping photos that are uploaded wirelessly and simultaneously in real-time to the shared iSSD so he could provide a real-time slideshow on stage to event guests.

That’s thanks to the file server in the iSSD.

The technical specification says the iSSD can serve up to eight users wirelessly, but you can go beyond that, although the speed takes a hit depending on how much you overload the network.

As a portable storage device cum file server, I find eight devices to be plenty enough – either for a team of photographers, a huddle team or a family.

To top it all off, if you’re on the road and your devices start running low on battery, the iSSD serves as a power bank as well!

The 3000mAh battery in the iSSD can charge your mobile devices either through the USB-A port (5V, 2A, 10W) or wirelessly as well (via Qi wireless charging).

The iSSD itself can be charged via its USB-C port or wirelessly as well.

Wireless charging for the iSSD is at 5V, 1A, 5W for both input and output.

The Trek iSSD is compatible with Mac and Windows computers, as well as iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.

The minimum operating system version you’ll need for compatibility are:

• Windows 7/8/10
• Mac OS v10.11
• Android 4.4
• iOS 8

For wireless access to the Trek iSSD, simply download the companion app which provides intuitive file management control to copy, delete or transfer files to and from iSSD.

Playback of media files and documents include the major formats: DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, TXT, JPG, PNG, MP3, AVI, WMV, FLV, MKV, RMVB etc.

Tags: iSSD, mobility, productivity, SSD, storage, tech4xmas, tech4xmas2020, Trek, wireless

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2020 at 10:54 am and is filed under Accessories, Gadgets, gadgets, newArrivals, Opinion, Prices, reviews, Specifications, storage drive, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.