So when Seagate sent me a Satellite to try out, I tested it by connecting to a first-generation iPad, a 3rd-gen iPod touch, and an Android phone. Unfortunately, I ran into significant problems. In fact, I ended up trying a second drive after Seagate had to replace the first one, but neither unit was satisfactory.

Hardware

The Satellite features a small 4.72in x 3.46in x 1.26in case that’s almost featureless, and weighs just over half a pound. It has a power button, ports for power and sync cables, and a couple of status lights.

The drive comes with two proprietary USB cables: one for syncing your media library with your computer, and one for power. The door that covers the sync port is removable, and could easily be lost. Seagate rates the non-replaceable lithium-ion battery at up to 5 hours of continuous streaming for one user, and up to 25 hours on standby.

Putting your media collection on the drive

The printed documentation for the GoFlex Satellite directs you to run installation software, which starts by opening a web page with a “getting started” video. Luckily for those of us who dislike video instructions, the page also includes a link to the Seagate website, where you can download a PDF setup guide.

The software then prompts you to install and activate an old version of the Paragon NTFS driver (which I already had, but the software didn’t recognize that). This is because the drive comes formatted as NTFS for Windows, and Seagate warns that the format cannot be changed.

Once you’ve installed the driver (and rebooted your Mac) you can plug in a short proprietary USB cable that lets the Satellite appear as an external drive in the Mac OS X Finder. Now you can either copy files directly from the Finder, or you can use the Seagate Media Sync software (available as a free download from Seagate’s website). I tried both approaches, but ran into several issues. The drive seemed to have a propensity for unmounting itself randomly, causing errors that had to be fixed using Apple’s Drive Utility, and in at least one case, I ended up having to reformat the drive (as NTFS).

Even when the Sync software seemed to be working, it was hard to tell, because the statistics showing the space available on the drive didn’t match what the Finder was showing, and the software doesn’t include a progress bar. So I let the software churn away for a couple of hours, only to discover that nothing had actually been copied. I also got “error code -36″ and even a couple of kernel panics — errors that I hadn’t seen in several years.

I had slightly better luck copying via the Finder. At least that way, I could tell exactly when the drive unmounted, and could start again from there. Of course, this isn’t useful if your media collection changes frequently.

At one point, I tried using the Windows version of the Media Sync software, but it doesn’t recognize network drives, so I wasn’t able to use it to access my media collection.

Wi-Fi connection

The GoFlex Satellite includes a 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi base station, with optional WPA security. In theory, all one has to do to stream files from the drive is select the “GoFlex Satellite” network in your player’s settings. Of course, this means disconnecting from whatever Wi-Fi network you usually use, so you won’t be able to surf the web while listening to music or watching movies.

The first drive that Seagate sent me seemed to be unable to maintain a Wi-Fi signal for more than a couple of minutes. The network name would continue to appear in my player’s Settings list, but when selected, I’d frequently get an “Unable to join the network” error, which could only be resolved by power-cycling the drive. The second drive maintained a signal slightly better, but I never managed to listen to more than a couple of songs before having to reset the drive.

Software

Seagate offers free iPad and iPhone/iPod touch apps for the Satellite — search for “goflex media” in the App Store. These apps, too, need a lot of work. Their layout is good-looking enough, and easy to navigate. But they are slow. Even when I managed to keep a Wi-Fi signal, it took a long time to download the folder structure from the Satellite, and I found that it often timed out.

The apps’ functionality is pretty limited. The Music option displays all your music as one big list. The Folder View option shows your collection in folders, which if you’ve been using iTunes, are probably sorted by artist. The problem is that while you can select multiple items, there doesn’t appear to be any way to play multiple items once they’ve been selected.

Unlike the native iOS Music app, the GoFlex Media app won’t work in the background, and if you pause while playing, your device won’t go to sleep. If you’re not using the apps, you can connect to the GoFlex Satellite through a web interface, but it has the same limitations.

The concept behind the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive is a good one, and I hope they get the bugs worked out. In the meantime, you may be better off looking at the upcoming G-Connect from Hitachi G-Technology or Kingston Wi-Drive if you’re looking for a personal cloud option.

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The new Hitachi offering joins the Seagate GoFlex Satellite  as yet another device that is trying to make external storage relevant to user who are increasingly using mobile devices to consume content. Like the GoFlex, the G-Connect offers 500 GB of storage, and the ability to simultaneously stream to multiple devices. The G-Connect offers some nice advantages over the GoFlex, however, like the ability to stream to up to five devices, instead of just three, and an Ethernet port that lets it plug into a wired Internet connection and act as a wireless access point. But it also carries a major drawback: it lacks an internal battery, so unlike the GoFlex, you’ll have to plug the G-Connect into a power source if you want to use it, which for some might limit its utility as a mobile support device. Still, when a power source is available, as they often are on trains, planes and coffee shops, it should greatly expand the media library available to your iOS devices.

When iOS 5 arrives, iPads and iPhones will finally be cut loose from their PC tethers. That will mean that users can depend on them as their only computing devices, if they wish. But owing to the limited local storage options on iOS devices, they might run up against space constraints when doing so. iCloud aims to help with some of that, by making music, apps and books available on-demand from Apple’s servers, so that you can delete them as needed when you’re running out of room, and grab them again when you need them. But that solution depends on relatively unfettered access to an active Internet connection. Users without mobile data plans for their devices, or those with caps like Verizon’s new tiered plans will have a harder time taking full advantage of a cloud computing future.

Devices like the G-Connect and the GoFlex could be just the start of a flood of supplemental hardware designed to provide a local alternative remote streaming for users who either don’t have the bandwidth to take advantage of the latter, or who’d rather own their content than rent access to it from content providers. External local wireless storage also offers more privacy, which is a selling point for some.

While I expect the general thrust of computing in general to continue to favor remote cloud options, I think the personal cloud stands a good chance of developing at a similar pace at the same time, albeit on a smaller scale. Physical storage is cheap and getting cheaper, while the same can’t necessarily be said for broadband access. As Apple and other device manufacturers move to make the cloud the centre of its universe, it’s only natural that a percentage of consumers will opt to find an alternative centre for their own gadgets that allows them to remain autonomous and possibly save money.

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Apple users are dedicated defenders and evangelists of the products we love, but we also really like to get together and gab about the problems our devices have. I know I become obsessively detail-oriented whenever I pick up a new piece of Apple hardware, and am quick to overreact to every perceived imperfection I find by calling the Genius Bar and scheduling an appointment. Most of the time, my problems are more the product of a fevered brain and less concrete examples of design or manufacturing flaws, but some problems are all too real.

Case-in-point: Many consumers who ponied up the extra cash to get a faster, 7200RPM HDD vs. the standard, 5400RPM got more than they bargained for. Some of the drives apparently boast the unadvertised feature of making odd clicks and beeping noises while in operation. Maybe that’s just Apple’s way of making sure you’re paying attention to how much better your computer performs with the faster drive?

Seriously, though, the problem seems to affect quite a few users, with more reporting the same or similar issues every day. Reports indicate that in addition to audible clicking and beeping sounds, some of the drives are showing more serious performance issues, too, with the OS appearing to freeze for a brief second whenever a click occurs. While a vocal HD might just be annoying, a vocal HD that also seems to skip a beat is downright terrifying to anyone who depends on their MBP for work or for storing sensitive data.

Early theories on what’s causing the problem is the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drive’s G-Force shock protection feature, which is probably redundant anyway, since Apple builds in its own fall detector and data protection system on every notebook it makes. Sadly, there’s no easy way to disable the special features for said drives. Users who’ve upgraded themselves with other 7200RPM drives seem not to be experiencing the issue, so the problem likely lies with the HDD and not with the MacBooks themselves. Cold comfort for those who’ve already paid for the Apple-installed upgrade.

The thread at the Apple support forums dealing with this issue is now 35 pages long, so I doubt it’s fallen through Cupertino’s nets. That said, no users have yet reported an actual drive failure as a result of the problem, so pressure for a response from official sources is not yet urgently required. I suspect they’ll play this one close to the chest and try to quietly issue a firmware fix before taking any more drastic action. For the time being at least, it looks like most appeals to the Apple Store for returns and exchanges are largely falling on deaf ears.

Is your machine one of those affected, and if so, has it become communicative? Describe your symptoms and discuss your experiences in the comments.

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Oh those crazy analysts. Always making predictions and playing fast and loose with our emotions. Consider, for instance, the latest tidbit from Needham Research’s Charlie Wolf. According to Wolf, it is well within Apple’s power to offer the 8GB iPhone at the very attractive price point of $99, after contract subsidy.

This would see iPhone pricing on par with Blackberry’s Pearl and Curve, favorite handsets of first-time smartphone owners. Were Apple to offer its own “gateway drug,” so to speak, they could expect to see their sales double or even triple, according to Wolf. Considering the numbers they put up in their most recently disclosed financial reports, this would obviously amount to a substantial market share grab.

The numbers, says Wolf, would enable Apple to still make a 42.3% profit on each handset hold at the $99 price point, owing to the heavy subsidy provided by AT&T in the U.S. and the manufacturing cost of each device as of this past summer. Not to mention the fact that Apple has some breathing room in terms of their cash on hand, as disclosed at the conference call last Tuesday.

$99 dollars enters into impulse buy territory for many consumers, and would also help prepare the company to weather economic woes. Combined with an aggressive promotional campaign, the sub-$100 price point could give traditional handsets like the RAZR a run for their money, as long as consumers are aware of the significant feature upgrade they’re getting for the extra cash. Getting people to turn away from free devices and towards the iPhone would also likely require more decreases in data subscription rates. Or they could market the phone without the data option, and wait for consumers to decide on their own to upgrade their subscription once they realize how much functionality they stand to gain.

If you haven’t already, would you take the plunge for $99?

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