There are currently two EF-M lenses available. The 18-55mm 3x zoom is typical fare for a kit lens. There’s also a 22mm f/2 pancake, which is what we were sent for review. This gives a 35mm equivalent focal length, which is perfect for general snapping. The f/2 aperture allows for some flattering shallow depth-of-field effects for nearby subjects, and gathers plenty of light for low-light shooting. It doesn’t include optical stabilisation, though.

Pictured with the 22mm f/2 pancake lens

The camera’s design is extremely luxurious, decked out in matt black magnesium alloy and nicely shaped to fit in one hand. Even so, it felt fairly vulnerable when we took photos over the side of a bridge on a cold, windy day. The Sony NEX-5R is much easier to hold onto with its proper handgrip. The EOS M’s slim design also means a small battery, which lasts for just 230 shots.

The accessory shoe is a welcome addition

It’s primarily aimed at point-and-shoot photographers, with a single rotary control on the back, fewer buttons than on most cheap compacts and a mode switch with just three settings for automatic shooting, scene modes and video. The inclusion of an accessory shoe on top is the main clue that this camera is designed for more demanding users too. There’s no integrated flash, but Canon has launched a diminutive flashgun, the Speedlite 90EX, to complement the EOS M. Although it wasn’t supplied for review, we’ve been assured that it comes as standard in both the 18-55mm and 22mm kits. It has a guide number of 9m, which is a little stronger than most integrated flashes. It looks pretty bulky in photos, though, and runs off AAA batteries. An integrated flash would have been more sensible for point-and-shoot operation.

The bundled flash is bulky but more powerful than most

The scarcity of buttons and dials is amply compensated by a superb touchscreen interface. In most shooting modes there’s very little to adjust, but program, priority and manual exposure modes are nestling in among the scene presets. Selecting them unlocks all the usual functions. The most important ones are presented in a quick-access menu, but custom white balance is conspicuously absent here. It requires a photo to be captured to memory card first, followed by a trip to the main menu to calibrate from that photo. Various focus options appear in the Q Menu but manual focus is only available via the main menu.

The menus and touchscreen controls are almost identical to the 650D’s, and with the same sensor, the EOS M gives a strong impression of being the guts of a 650D crammed into a smaller body. Sadly, this impression extends to the autofocus performance. The sensor includes phase-detect autofocus points to assist the contrast-detect autofocus system, but as with the 650D’s live view mode, it doesn’t give a huge benefit. Focusing was worryingly slow in our tests, taking 1.7 seconds on average between pressing the shutter button and taking a photo. In household artificial lighting this increased to 2.9 seconds, sometimes taking over five seconds to focus. Even in the most favourable conditions, the fastest we measured was 1.1 seconds.

This made it virtually impossible to photograph fast-paced action. Slower-moving subjects such as candid portraits were tricky too, with the subject often wandering out of focus or even out of the frame before the picture was taken. Shot-to-shot times were slow in manual focus mode at 1.4 seconds, but 2.7 seconds between shots with autofocus is really disappointing for such an expensive camera. Most other CSCs can focus and shoot every second or faster, making it easy to fire off a string of shots and choose the best later.

The EOS M saved a bit of face in continuous mode, delivering 4fps shooting until the card was full. This was with fixed focus and exposure settings, though. Enabling continuous autofocus slashed performance to 1.2fps. This still wasn’t slow enough to give the camera enough time to focus properly. When we moved to a further or nearer subject in the middle of a burst of shots, it typically took about 10 frames before the camera successfully focused on the new subject.

The EF-EOS M mount adapter may appeal to long-term Canon users with lens collections, but surely such photographers will have a far better SLR to mount them on too?

Canon also sent us the EF-EOS M mount adapter, which allows its SLR lenses to be used on the EOS M. We tried the 50mm f/1.8 and 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, and found that focusing speeds were even worse than with the 22mm lens. It often spent three or four seconds jolting back and forth, and sometimes failed to focus altogether. That’s a big concern for anyone who’s hoping to use this camera with an existing collection of EF lenses. Regardless, we’re not convinced by these lens adapters for CSCs. Attaching a big lens and an adapter loses their size advantage and makes them feel unbalanced. If you want to use an SLR lens you may as well attach it to an SLR.

We used the DEV-5 in a torrential downpour and it suffered no ill effect, although we did have to wipe the lenses every so often. The lenses are partially protected by a plastic surround, but this only protects it from rain and snow so much. A plastic lens cover protects the lenses when the DEV-5’s not in use, but it isn’t detachable. This means you can’t lose the lens cover, but it also means it gets in the way occasionally.

Unsurprisingly, given the amount of technology crammed into it, the DEV-5 is not small, measuring 88x155x219mm (HxWxD). It also weighs 1.2Kg, which is more than twice the weight of the Sony TD20VE 3D camcorder. Surprisingly, the DEV-5 only feels heavy when it’s hanging around your neck, but this is probably due to the unit being very well balanced in use. It felt so heavy when strung around our neck that we held it up to give our spine some relief, but it felt light when held up to our eyes. We expected it to be front heavy and to have to compensate for this, but it wasn’t.

You must set up the DEV-5 for your eyes before use, but the DEV-5’s controls and the viewfinder’s menu make this easy. The DEV-5 uses a 3D electronic viewfinder, although it can operate in 2D if you prefer (there’s a button on the DEV-5’s top panel). To set it up for your eyes, you must physically adjust the position of the diopters (the eyepieces) using a wheel located in between and above them. Once adjusted, you must also complete a simple visual alignment test through the viewfinder. Each diopter also has a ring that lets you adjust the viewfinder’s focus to suit your eyes. We had no problem adjusting it to suit our longsighted eyes.

General features:
• DVD/CD player with 6.95″ touchscreen and AM/FM tuner
• Fits double-DIN (4″ tall) dash openings
• Built-in amplifier (22 watts RMS/50 peak x 4 channels)
• Built-in Bluetooth for hands-free calling and audio streaming
• Pandora control for iPhone (cable required), Android, and BlackBerry
• Built-in HD Radio tuner
• Built-in iPod control: Kenwood cable required for full access to audio/video content
• Remote control

Navigation features:
• Built-in Garmin navigation system with Insta-Route and Insta-Search
• Maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, plus 6 million points of interest
• Free lifetime NAVTEQ traffic service

Audio/video features:
• Plays CDs, DVDs, and USB memory devices
• 13-band parametric EQ with digital time alignment
• High- and low-pass filters

Expandability:
• Works with SiriusXM satellite radio tuner
• Inputs: 2 rear USB inputs, one rear A/V input, rear-view camera input
• Outputs: A/V output; 6-channel preamp outputs (5-volt front, rear, subwoofer)

Most important for this class of headphones is comfort and fit. These are behind the head style headphones that are designed to stay in even during strenuous activity. They come with 4 different ear bud silicone inserts, but I found the ones already installed worked just fine (there are 2 smaller options a 1 bigger one over the ones installed). The headphones form a nice seal inside the ears that doesn’t feel too tight and stayed put. Behind the head, the headphones were a little large, but there is an additional adjustable band you can install that reduces the size quite well. Even on my larger head the headphones stayed put. The individual buds also pivoted to adjust to exact head shape.

How well did they stay put? I decided to do a Beach Body P90X Cardio workout including Yoga and they stayed put the entire time. Of course, they started to get a bit uncomfortable as I sweated, but it’s to be expected. The point is that they did not move despite doing floor exercises and jumping jacks.

SOUND

Just as I would expect, they sound great and well balanced. Not too hard on the bass, not too hard on the treble. Hard rock for workouts, classical for relaxing – it all sounded great to me. Immersive sound while outside noises were completely blocked. I’d say my Audio Technica’s or my Monster headphones with large pads are likely better sounding and fuller, but those are wired headphones with thick pads that are certainly not designed for workouts.

INTERFACE

The headphones arrived partially charged (a soothing voice told me they have 4 hours of charge). They were incredibly simple to use. I turned them on and had them paired with my iPhone in no time. The right ear features the power switch and volume control while the left ear has the multi-function button. The right ear also has the LED status light and a rubber-grommeted micro-USB port for charging. Thanks Motorola for using a standard charging port! The package includes a wall-wart micro-USB charger as well.

The place the interface suffers is in the multi-plexed switch. Push once to pause, twice to skip forward, three times to skip back. The instruction manual has a dozen phone features that can be activated, but you will need the manual to figure it out. It worked, but with so much space, couldn’t we get more intuitive controls and a few more buttons?

BLUETOOTH RANGE

Unbelievably long. I use a Plantronics Legend with my phone and it will lose signal after a short distance. But with the S11-Flex HD, I can put my iPhone 4 in one corner of my house and walk to the other corner of the other floor and still get great sound. Truly impressive bluetooth range.

TELEPHONE CALLS

No problem here – I made a call and the microphone picked up my voice quite well. I was enjoying my music during a run and was able to easily take a call without missing a beat. Noise cancellation isn’t great like a dedicated headset, but for switching to a phone call without removing the headset, it works very well.

BLUETOOTH FUNCTIONALITY

Sadly, here is where the headphones lose a star. First, I noticed that the volume switch on the headphones doesn’t send a signal to the phone to change the volume (as my Plantronics devices do), but rather changes the volume of the headset. So if the phone volume is set low it can be impossible to get it turned up high enough using just the headset controls. Other bluetooth headphones I have owned send the signal to the phone to change the volume.

I was also disappointed that multipoint didn’t work. My Plantronics Legend is paired to both my iPhone 4 and iPad 3, both running iOS 6.0.1. I routinely switch back and forth between them, so I know how it should work. The Motorola paired successfully to the iPhone 4, but when I tried to pair it to the iPad, the screen said pairing was “unsuccessful”, but then it showed as connected in Settings. I had never seen that before. Sure enough, the audio prompts in the headset said it was connected to 2 devices, but the iPad never recognized it.

Switching the order, I deleted it from both devices, paired it to the iPad first and then the iPhone. The iPad then worked fine, but when I paired to the iPhone, I got the same “unsuccessful” message.

CONCLUSION

Motorola has done a nice job with the form factor and audio quality here. The range is truly impressive, and the ability to keep up with the activity of P90X was truly impressive. These would be 5 star headphones, but the clunky multiplexed interface combined with the malfunctioning multipoint force me to detract a star. If you don’t absolutely need multipoint, I recommend these headphones.

When you set it down in tablet mode, it likes to send a random keyboard press that basically cancels anything running like installs and updates.

The gesture camera software only works in the brightest of lighting conditions.

The restore for this device from a USB stick takes 2-3 hours, the actual time it spends coping from the USB is only about 20-30 minutes, it spends the rest of the time running automated software and driver installs, each of which seems to be set to run for 10 minutes no matter how long it really takes. I could forgive this amount of time for a restore if it was 1999, but it’s 2013 and this is Windows 8, I know that it would be very easy for them to have simply imaged a completed install to a .WIM file and then Sysprep’ed that. The restore time should be exactly how long it takes to transfer 30GB from the USB to the SSD. Also the restore needs at least a 32GB USB stick.

The bios is set to UEFI (protected mode), so no normal Linux installs for you. You can select “Legacy mode” in the BIOS and install Linux (after shrinking the Windows partition size), but then the Windows install doesn’t work. Now if you’re like me and think, “I’ll just reload Windows with it set to Legacy so I can dual boot.”, well think again, when you attempt this the restore utility tells you that it doesn’t support the BIOS mode you have selected and to reboot and restore the BIOS settings to their default settings to use recovery. I was going to try to reload Windows 8 from the DVD, but there is none, and the Product Key is hardcoded in the BIOS anyway (no sticker). To be fair, Mint Linux mostly works with it set to Legacy (touch screen support crashes after a second), and Windows will work again after going back to UEFI mode.

The power cord is in a weird place (middle on the back), and is the same type all manufactures use (except Apple). [side note: how can Apple hold a Maglock power cord patent that keeps other vendors from offering it when Fondu Pots from the 70's had them first?]

The screen is a fingerprint magnet.

There are weird buttons under the bottom that get pressed when using it. The power button is so small that it is hard to press (this my be a good thing in some cases).

Wrap up:
If you are using this at a desk in its open state, your experience should be pretty good.
It’s a little bit big for a tablet, and there are not any case features that attempt to help with this. (ridges or hole or anything really)
It’s fast and a nice computer, just not real mobile, and it’s not for the guy/gal that wants to chill on the couch and use it open. Using it on the couch in tablet mode is fine, albeit a bit awkward. It’s not for me so I’m returning it, your mileage may vary.

Specs:

Why you want a truly universal remote like this is that you can get rid of 4-5 remotes laying all over your couch or end table, and make it easy to just “watch a DVD” without having to use 3-4 different remotes to turn each on and set all the inputs correctly. This (like any Harmony remote) just takes care of it. You press one thing and it starts and sets input, and does anything else you want it to do, including sequences you specify.

But here is the bottom line compared to other Harmony remotes. This remote is centered on its touch screen, and other harmony remotes like the One and 900 center on physical buttons optimally places with contextual feel. If (A) you love touch screens, you don’t normally memorize where all the buttons are, you don’t prefer to press buttons by feel, you don’t often issue remote commands other than to turn on / play / and occasionally pause, and you are happy to look down and scroll through a screen when you do need to do something, then this is an excellent 5-star remote for you. But if (B) you normally hold the remote in your hand without looking, you play / pause / fast forward / and jump back frequently, you prefer the contextual feel of physical buttons, then this remote is an okay 3-star remote for you. It is still a Harmony remote regardless which is well built & configurable. But basically think how often you fast forward. I skip commercials constantly, so an optimally placed fast forward button and 8-second jump back button is critical, so I prefer the One & 900. The gestures (tap to play/pause and swipe to fast forward or rewind) are supposed to help place these actions more optimally, but they still don’t make it as easy as a button in the center. The play/pause and fast forward buttons on this remote are at the top and are ackward to use by feel alone, but are perfectly fine if you look down and use two hands.

Compared to the Harmony One and Harmony 900, the differences are many. Aside from the touch screen & buttons primary difference, there are more differences. The software is notably better on the Touch than the older desktop software for the Harmony One or 900. The battery is built-in and cannot be removed. My 900 and One very infrequently lock up, and pulling the battery lets me reset it. The Touch has never yet locked up on me, but if it does, I don’t know what the solution will be. The charger uses a micro USB cable, which you can use with the charger or directly on the remote. The charger orientation stands the remote up, which takes up more space if you tuck the charging station on a low shelf. But this way you can use the remote while in the cradle and it is easier to notice standing tall if you prefer. I still tuck my One & 900 into a low shelf only when the battery runs low. The soft button layout is just a single column that you scroll by swiping, instead of the 2 column and 3 row pages you page between on the One/900. The soft button icons are automatic and are more subtle in the same color on the right side of the text within the text bubble, instead of the more noticeable soft button icons on the One/900. Lastly, the button database seems of the newer software seems to know fewer commands, at least for my devices, than the older desktop software on the One/900. But still, the biggest thing still comes down to physical buttons or touch screen, which is a preference.

Sony has resorted to selling some of the property it owns in order to improve cash flow. In January, Sony sold its New York headquarters for $1.1 billion.

However, the sale of that headquarters didn’t stop Sony from posting a loss of $1.73 billion for the quarter that ended in December. Sony blamed some of the loss on slumping TV sales that have plagued some of its competitors including Sharp and Panasonic.

“Having assets to sell is saving Sony,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, a Tokyo-based analyst at Iwai Cosmo Holdings Inc. “It isn’t really clear yet what can start driving growth.”

While Sony posted a loss for the quarter, the company still forecasts full-year net income of $213 million. Sony is also cutting 10,000 jobs, which should help push it towards probability.

“Sony is supposed to sell strong products that aren’t reliant on currency swings,” said Yuuki Sakurai, president of Fukoku Capital Management Inc. “We need to see those products before we’ll invest in Sony again.”

Sony also reduced its forecast for sales of portable game devices for its year ending March to 7 million units from the 10 million units it predicted just three months ago. In addition, Sony is reportedly looking at selling more land, buildings, businesses, and security holdings.

Sony does plan to launch a new “PlayStation 4” game console this year. An exact launch date and official name has not yet been revealed, but we expect to get the full details at the reveal on February 20. The console will reportedly have a price tag of $400+.

Sources: Bloomberg, Nikkei, The Verge

Design:

The Solemate size and weight are on par with what I feel on the go music enthusiasts are looking for.  It is light enough to toss into your beach bag and nice enough to display on your shelf at home.

Sound:

This little speaker sports a high end sound.  It hits those deep notes while preserving the highs.   Audiophiles will be very impressed by the sound coming from the Solemate.  This also functions as a very nice hands-free unit. While streaming music from my phone, my girlfriend called me. I simply pushed the button on the top and we were instantly connected. The clarity was excellent.

Overall:

The battery life is incredible; you can easily use the device all day without worries. It also comes with a protective travel bag for beach or poolside use, and while there is a difference in sound when you use it in the bag, it’s surprisingly slight. The construction of this device is rock solid and I highly recommend it.

Build and Design

The ENVY x2 looks more like HP’s EliteBook business lineup than it does its other consumer models.  This is a good thing, like the EliteBook the ENVY x2 exudes a sense of premium design with its brush metal silver finish and attractively emblazoned HP logo on the lid.  The silver color finish is carried throughout the design body and is somewhat offset by the black bezel around the screen (or tablet if you will) and black keys of the keyboard.  The overall look is simple and clean, there’s not much to complain about here.

The most interesting thing we can talk about in regards to the build quality of the ENVY x2 is the docking connector mechanism for the tablet.  When the screen is in place it truly looks like any other laptop, if you didn’t know otherwise you’d guess it’s just a pure laptop device.  The hinge and docking mechanism are both firm and secure, the tablet is held so tightly in place that it’s hard to even forcibly generate screen wobble, you will not have any screen shake problems on a bumpy plane or train ride.

Here’s the kicker though, the tablet is actually very easy to remove by simply sliding the latch at the top center of the keyboard and then lifting with one hand.  Reseating the tablet to the keyboard dock is just as simple, just center up the Windows logo with the latch and gently slide it onto the magnetic guided docking connectors and it’ll go on smooth and easy.  There’s some seriously good mechanical engineering at work here with the Envy x2, we take our hats of to the designers of this latch and connector mechanism.

When the occasion calls for a tablet to be used, the 11.6-inch screen ENVY x2 won’t weigh you down much.  It tips the scales at 1.5lbs, which is comparable to the current Apple iPad that weighs 1.44lbs but has a smaller 9.7″ screen.  Add in the keyboard dock and the total weight only goes up to 3.1lbs and it stays a thin 0.76″ thick so this is definitely an Ultrabook style of device.

Ports and Features

Given that the Envy x2 is an Ultrabook, you’re probably expecting it has a limited number of ports, and you’d be right.  HP can’t defy physics, there’s only so much space on a super thin design and so compromises on what ports make the cut have to be made.  On the keyboard dock area left side there are two USB 2.0 ports, a full size HDMI port and a headphone jack.  On the right side there’s a full sized SD card reader, USB 2.0 port and the power connector.  Unfortunately there is no USB 3.0 port or other type of fast transfer option.

The tablet itself has a couple of ports, on the bottom you’ll find a micro-SD card slot, headphone jack and then the three docking connector jacks.

Left: HDMI, USB 2.0, headset jack

Right: SD card slot, USB 2.0 port, AC power jack

The tablet portion of the ENVY x2 has both a front facing and rear facing camera.  The front camera can go up to 2.1MP max resolution and the rear camera has a much higher 8MP.  The rear camera is of better quality, it offers not only higher resolution but also better low light performance and more accurate colors.  Check out the picture of our (handy at the time of writing this review) coffee mug taken with each camera:

Screen

The display on the ENVY x2 doubles as a tablet, it’s easily removable by simply sliding the latch release to the left.  Putting the tablet back on the dock is simple, it does not require dexterity, the magnets really help to guide the display back into position and no force is needed.  I cannot emphasize enough how well the docking solution has been designed, it’s stunningly easy and smooth to use.

The display size is 11.6-inch diagonal and it sports a 1366 x 768 resolution.  Other Windows 8 hybrid laptops such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 and Dell XPS 12 offer a 1600 x 900 HD+ and 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution respectively so it’s a little disappointing to be stuck with the lower resolution HD screen on the Envy x2.  That said, the detachable screen and Intel Atom processor make the x2 a somewhat different beast.

One thing to be praised is the fact HP went with an IPS screen, meaning viewing angles are very wide and you see the same color no matter how you tilt the screen.  The colors are very rich and accurate, which is again typical of an IPS display.  The brightness level is so-so, you certainly won’t be able to use this outdoors in the full sun, the screen just isn’t bright enough for that.  The screen is however bright enough for any type of indoor usage.  Like every other tablet, the display also has a glossy finish, this helps to make colors pop more that are on the screen but it has the side affect of picking up fingerprints easily and reflecting any strong light coming from behind  you.

Not to be overlooked is the fact the screen acts as a touchscreen still when you’re in laptop mode.  This makes gestures such as scrolling, zooming, rotating and pinch to zoom easy to do just by touching the screen.  The screen can detect multiple fingers, not just two, so you can go crazy in art applications such as Microsoft Paint and let your creativity free.  From a more practical standpoint, I found myself scrolling through documents and app screens by using the touchscreen rather than the mouse or touchpad, it’s really a nice bonus.

Speakers

HP labels the speakers on the ENVY x2 as being “Beats Audio”.  You have to be a little skeptical when a manufacturer claims to have superior audio in an Ultrabook or tablet.  While there’s no extra bass via a subwoofer that you get on the likes of the ENVY dv6t and ENVY dv7t laptops, the audio is serviceable and does sound better than what you get with other slate tablets.  The speakers themselves are in the tablet portion, the dock does not offer any extra speaker output.  The sound emanates from the recessed dock connectors.  The audio, as you would expect, sounds somewhat like it’s being transmitted via a tin can and has little bass.  It does get up to a loud enough volume to fill a small room, but the louder it gets the more exaggerated the tininess will be so it’s highly recommended that you switch to headphones if you want to crank the volume up.  Speaking of cranking the volume up, the volume control rocker is located on the back of the tablet portion of the Envy x2, which is not exactly the most obvious place.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the ENVY x2 only works when you have the screen docked and attached, it does not work via wireless communication or provide the ability to type with the screen detached.  The typing experience is pretty typical of Ultrabooks, the key travel distance is very shallow, meaning the key soon hits the “bottom” and registers a keystroke with just a slight touch.  For those that are accurate and fast typists with a light touch, you’ll adjust to this keyboard just fine and may even like it.  For this reviewer, used to a ThinkPad keyboard with stiff keys and long travel distance, it really takes some adjusting to.  With practice I was able to get up to 63 wpm typing on the ENVY x2, but the flat keys and short travel didn’t provide a very pleasing typing experience.  Another disappointment with the keyboard is a lack of having a backlight for work in dimly lit rooms.

The touchpad is nicely recessed and has a width of 3.5″ and is 2.5″ deep. It’s technically a clickpad, meaning you can push down anywhere to register a left click but you have to push down on the lower right side for a right click.  It’s more intuitive to use the screen for things such as scrolling and zooming, but the Synaptics powered touchpad still offers these multi-touch gesture features of course.  You can easily enable or disable the various touchpad gestures using the Synaptics driver software provided.  The physical touchpad itself is rather slippery, which makes it easy to glide your finger across but doesn’t offer as much control accuracy as a more textured touchpad.  We also found the touchpad to be intermittently unresponsive, with the cursor either jumping unexpectedly or not reacting at all when touched.  A couple of times after docking the ENVY x2 the touchpad failed to work at all and a reboot was necessary.

When you go someplace where you can’t access your media or document files from your Cloud, and they aren’t stored on your device, what options do you have? One option would be to take along your Seagate Wireless.

This comes with no instruction booklet, but it doesn’t need one. I took it out of the box, found the on/off button, pushed it, and after about a minute was presented with the Seagates wireless network, to which I connected my laptop.

I then opened my browser, and the Seagate menu opened. From there, I was able to choose from four categories: videos, photos, music, or documents. All that remained for me to do was upload my files. I enjoyed the preloaded videos and music, then uploaded some of my own files by simply dragging and dropping them into the appropriate partitions. And all this was done without wires, not even an a/c cord.

The little quickstart guide is the only written guide that is included. It directs you to push the on/off button, then directs you to the Seagate website to download the Seagate app for your mobile device.

I let this run continuously for three hours before I decided to connect the power cord to charge it up. It took an hour to fully charge. Then I connected the included USB 3 cable from the Seagate to my laptop, and over the course of two hours it downloaded a complete backup of my entire hard drive, as a speed test. It passed with flying colors.

You and two family members can all stream separate videos from this at the same time. Or you can take your iPad and this on your next flight and have a large choice of movies. Or if you have a huge collection of movies, store them all on this and save your hard drive for other things. This 1TB drive can hold up to 500 full length movies. Now, with this, you don’t have to load media files onto all of your devices. Keep them all in one place and simply stream them to the device you have on hand.

This can be the only home media server you need, streaming your files from its own network all over your house. You also have the option to password protect the Seagates Wireless network.

This has a simple, attractive browser where you can see either a list, or icons, of your videos, music, photos, and documents. From there, click the one you want and it plays on your device.

The Seagate Wireless itself is stylish, compact and sleek with a rich brushed metallic finish that shows this is a high-end device. It feels and looks like a solid little brick of high tech engineering in the hand. And it performs accordingly.

Pros:

* Plug and Play setup, right out of the box without needing an instruction booklet

* Huge amount of storage, 1 TB

* Has its own network, connects to devices flawlessly and wirelessly

* Upload your files to it with drag and drop ease

* USB 3 cable included for fast uploads of large files

* Attractive and simple web browser interface

* Completely wireless media streaming, one button on/off switch

* Small, attractive and portable

* Connect wirelessly to iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Android device, desktop, laptop or SmartTV

* Excellent battery life

* Cool factor is definitely there

Cons:

The “HELP” menu could be more detailed, with more complete explanations. However, as you use the device, everything becomes self explanatory.

I am thrilled by this little marvel, and I think most people will love it. My jaw dropped when I took it out of the box, turned it on and immediately and wirelessly connected to its network. I have never seen a device so diabolically simple: no wires, one button, laptop connected within one minute of removing from the box.

This isn’t for everyone because it’s not something everyone will need. But for those of us who like to keep all our media and documents in one place to rotate to whichever device we are using at the moment, take them all with us, and enjoy being unencumbered with yet more wires, this solves the problem of which device contains what. Now one sleek little portable device streams it all.