Share and share alike

Introduction

A personal sharing device? Yes, that's what this is. Essentially it's a USB drive that uses the Ultra Wide Band radio technology to transfer data between devices at up to 10 megabits per second. Basically it's kind of like Bluetooth, but different.

If you only have one of these devices, it's just an expensive USB drive. However, if your friends or colleagues have one, it becomes a simple way to share files without getting tangled up with computers, USB cables, drivers and everything else.

Set Up

Easy stuff really. Get it out of the box. Turn it on.

The first thing to do is to teach it your fingerprint - this is how you gain access to anything stored within. If you lose your finger or it is no longer recognised, you can also access the device with a PIN. This is also required if a certain number of failed attempts is reached.

After this, you get a little screen which allows you to see what files are on the device, manage files, move things around and even display pictures (although on a small screen of 128 pixels resolution, the results are not great, as you would expect). The fingerprint scanner doubles up as the method of moving around menus etc.

It has a mini-USB port so that you can attach it to a computer to transfer files to or from it.

It has a normal sized USB port so that someone else can attach their USB stick to it and you can transfer files to that.

And it comes with its own built in "USB shuttle" with is a tiny USB stick that is removable and gives you 2Gb of storage that you can plug in to anywhere without needing the main unit. When you reconnect the shuttle any new files are moved to the main unit.

In Use

Used "normally", it's just like any other USB storage device except that you need to identify yourself with a fingerprint scan before you can access the files.

It's when you have two or more of these devices that they become most useful. Pair with another device and then "flick" (give it a wiggle in an iPhone/Wii remote style) to send files to your friend or colleague. The range goes up to about 5 metres. It all works well and is speedy enough.

The battery life is claimed to be one month, and in the short time that I had a pair of devices the battery didn't drain all that much, so 3-4 weeks between charges is probably fair. If you attach it to a computer it will start charging anyway.

Conclusion

If this catches on and lots of people get them, then this is a cool little device which will help you with sharing files with different groups of people without getting a computer involved.

But if you get one and no-one else does, it's just a very expensive (the RRP of £159 is very high for just 16Gb of storage) USB drive. It looks cool and a bit Apple-ish, but until everyone else has one, it's just a bit of a gimmick. And with that high price tag, will this actually catch on?