The G-Connect is a 500GB network-attached storage device designed to provide wireless access to video, music, photo, and document files for up to five different iOS devices simultaneously. Sounds pretty sweet, right? Well…it ain’t.
Let’s start with the “wireless” part of the G-Connect’s promise. In order to set up the G-Connect, you first have to connect it to your Mac via USB 2.0 so that the drive can be loaded full of multimedia goodness. We’re OK with this: while wireless syncing is no longer the stuff of science fiction, it’s still pretty slow compared to the transfer speeds that can be achieved by even a pokey wired standard like USB 2. Next, in order to use the G-Connect as a multimedia file server for an iOS device, you have to disconnect it from the computer, yank the USB cable out of it, and replace it with a power adapter. Now, with the aid of a free iOS app, you can stream video, music, photos, and documents to your iPhone or iPad. To use the G-Connect as an Internet access point, it must have an Ethernet cable plugged in to it.
How could something so simply designed be so complicated to use?
For those of you keeping count, that’s three wires you’ll have to fiddle with to catch a glimpse of the G-Connect’s full “wireless” potential. The device’s mobility is further stymied by the fact that without a built-in battery, it’s uniquely unqualified for use on a road trip or any other adventure that takes place away from an electrical outlet. That’s a shame, considering it’s when you’re on a flight, commuting, or looking to entertain the kids on a cross-country drive that having additional storage space for videos and music would be a welcomed treat. The G-Connect also disallows Wi-Fi passthrough (the ability to connect to a secondary wireless network while accessing the drive’s content wirelessly), making it impossible to use, for example, the wireless Internet at your favorite coffee shop while browsing the G-Connect’s files.
If you can get past the glaring disappointments served up by the hardware side of things, the G-Connect’s iOS software works pretty well. After several failed attempts to update the device’s firmware, we were able to wirelessly connect the G-Connect with our Mac in order to set up a user account and password for use with the drive. Upon entering the same credentials into the G-Connect app on our iPad, we were able to access protected video files purchased from the iTunes Store, browse photos, and listen to music with no noticeable lag, stuttering, or onscreen artifacts.
The bottom line. Due to the G-Connect’s need for a wired power source, sluggish USB 2.0 connectivity, and its frustrating lack of Wi-Fi passthrough, we can’t recommend it as a portable storage solution to iOS users on the go.
Mac OS 10.5 or later; Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7; Ethernet connection required in order to use the device as a Wi-Fi hotspot
Provides 500GB of storage for music, image, video, and document files that can be wirelessly accessed with an iOS device.
No internal battery. No Wi-Fi passthrough. Unable to wirelessly serve files while connected to a computer. Device setup requires a Mac or PC. Setup was complicated by an out-of-the-box firmware update requirement.
majorsten
August 21, 2012 at 1:03pm
Ive been using the GCONNECT for awhile now and I have to say that I share the same concerns as Seamus. However, the weak rating is pretty... well...weak.
Recently, I took a long road trip with my friends and family in a minivan from San Francisco to Las Vegas via Los Angeles. Even if the GCONNECT had a built in battery, it stil doesnt negate the fact that at some point you would be forced to plug in the device. The fix for the GCONNECT is simple. Like with charging your phone in your car, plug it in! Doing this one thing alone made the device totally worth it. My friends and family, after the initial mingling, started to connect to the GCONNECT (i might have bragged that they had access to a tonne of media) and so they began to watch, read and listen to all the media I had on it. It was super simple to get them to download the iOS app for it, login and enjoy the ride. I can imagine families with kids would benefit from this greatly. The only qualm i had with it was that it only supported 5ppl to connect to it(however, seagate's goflex is only 3).
As for people who want the built in battery, I created my own battery pack by connecting the GCONNECT with a mophie external battery pack (if you dont know mophie ,get to know them). Not the most elegant solution but I carry my mophie with me everywhere, no matter what. Anyhow, I was taking the high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai and wanted to kill some time. The mophie i used allowed me to have about 2.5 hours of play time with two people connected to it (one ipad2 and one iphone4) streaming Star Trek HD. HD! This seemed to impress the people around me and definitely impressed the person I was traveling with;)
Wifi passthru would definitely be nice to have. however, if I am viewing media I generally wouldnt be surfing the net at the same time (at least if im viewing from my mobile devices). So this is a nice to have.
The firmware was a non-issue for me.
Summary:
For my uses (on the go media streaming with up to 5 people, car and air trips, train rides, media storage so my mobile devices arent packed to the hilt) this device is great. It definitely needs a bit of refinement but it hits my needs quite well. It cost less then the competition and fullfilled 93.8% of my expectations!
John Durocher
August 20, 2012 at 5:25pm
The G-Connect does have wireless pass through. I have both G-Connect and Seagate Satellite and the g-Connect pass through works without issue while the Seagate I have not got to work yet.
While I like the Seagate and the idea of the battery, the wireless passthrough does not work making it un-useable for me.
The G-Connect in operation (albeit when plug available) works great. I copied music to it and it plays. The Seagate required an additional operation via a script embedded in iTunes causing the process to transfer movies much longer
