Ultimate Liveaboard Gadget - Kensington MobileLite

[foglesre]

I was investigating a Wifi hard drive that came up on Woot as a way to stream movies to my iPad on an upcoming liveaboard. Then I started looking into mobile routers with NAS capability (a USB port that would take a hard drive), which would provide a bit more versatility. After more searching, I discovered this device, the Kensington MobileLite, which was the best implementation of this technology I could find.

This little $45 unit, which is the size of a bulky smartphone has a SD slot, a USB port (which has plenty of power for a portable hard drive when the MobileLite is plugged in) and a built in battery, which can juice up a cell phone in a pinch. It allows you to connect several devices to its wifi connection, which has WPA2 encryption. You can then access either the SD slot or the USB port, or both. You can stream movies from either. And you can backup photos directly from the SD to a hard drive (something many of the other similar devices with USB port and card slot do not allow). I've not tested copy speed, but reports on dpreview suggest that they're pretty good. You can also bridge the device to a network, but recognize that the device then becomes part of the network, allowing anyone access to the hub; you need to be careful with this feature from a security standpoint. I've not tested the wifi range, but it will be interesting to see how much of the Belize Aggressor III it can cover when I get on there the first week of Feb.

The only slight shortcoming I found was in the software, which did not have quite as much flexibility as I would have liked with respect to compatible video formats. This issue was easily addressed with the purchase of FileExplorer for $3 on App Store, a very impressive program.

Just thought I'd pass on my latest discovery.



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[KeithG]

Live aboard gadget? How much bourbon does it hold?

 

[JDelage]

The brand is Kingston.

If I understand correctly, it means that one could back up their photos on a USB hard drive directly from the SD card without the need for a laptop, right? That's potentially very useful.

 

[foglesre]

The brand is Kingston.

If I understand correctly, it means that one could back up their photos on a USB hard drive directly from the SD card without the need for a laptop, right? That's potentially very useful.

Correct. The copy is very easy to set up with an iPad (and presumably an Android phone). Once you start the copy you can reportedly shut down your iPad and the copy will continue. Pretty slick little device.


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[sdgrwer]

This kind of product fixes the issue of limited storage in smartphones and tablets such as iPhones, iPads and even the new Google Nexus 5 that have no expandable memory. I know that theRAVPower filehub also claims to transfer the files wirelessly. And it has built-in battery for emergencies. I am more into that.

 

[foglesre]

Yes, the RavPower is similar. I found one review that suggested the Kensington power did the SD to USB transfer at much higher rate (10 vs 3 Mb/sec as I recall). The Kensington also serves as a battery backup, but has about have the battery capacity.


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[koozemani]

Looking forward to a review!

 

[JDelage]

There are several useful reviews on Amazon.

 

[coralcruiser]

There are several useful reviews on Amazon.

You forgot the link

 

[foglesre]

The little Kensington worked well on my liveaboard trip in Belize, though I must admit I did not use it as much as planned. I only watched one movie, which streamed without interruption from the attached USB hard drive (powered by the Kensington, which has to be plugged in to power a USB hard drive). The Aggressor had a fantastic movie selection on board. Also, SD cards are so big and cheap. I never had to back one up to the hard drive, though I have tested the capability.


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