Buffalo's Web Access hands-on: remote access from your iPhone

16 gigs ain't enough space for all those episodes of The Hills on your iPhone? Well, if you've got a Buffalo NAS such as the LinkStation Mini or Pro, you can now access all your files remotely on your OS X mobile device through an optimized web page straight from your device. The really nifty part is that you can stream MPEGs over 3G (and presumably EDGE, though we don't know why you'd want to) -- although it took around 60 seconds to buffer a TV show episode in the demo we got. The Buffalo rep we spoke with informed us that an actual app would be available in the App Store sometime this quarter, but if you're itching to catch up with LC and the gang, be sure to check out any one of the aforementioned devices that support the service and you could be streaming pronto.

Gallery: Buffalo's Web Access hands-on: remote access from your iPhone

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[Peter North @ Jan 8th 2009 8:57PM]

I don't know about the Hills...I have some, uh, other movies I'd like to stream..

[Decoy @ Jan 8th 2009 9:01PM]

Well, that's pretty sweet.

[Charlie Taylor @ Jan 8th 2009 9:11PM]

Well, damn. I knew I shouldn't have just bought a new iPod Classic instead of the iPod Touch! With this I could watch every episode of Top Gear (currently taking up 51 gigs on my HD) while still having room for my music!

[Dale @ Jan 8th 2009 9:21PM]

Dag, yo, I went Time Capsule. C'mon Apple, copy this one too please.

[go seki @ Jan 8th 2009 9:56PM]

you stream it over 3G?
I guess you have unlimited data plans .. that would be insane in many countries.
I wonder what it does for your battery life?
No sir! Removable / exchangeable is preferable for me.

[Taylor. Yes, Taylor. @ Jan 9th 2009 2:52AM]

Yes, we do have unlimited data, many of us. In the US all AT&T offers with the iPhone is unlimited data. And in my car, for example, I can keep my phone plugged in, i just want to have access to a large library.
-Taylor

[Pat @ Jan 8th 2009 10:45PM]

Just to be clear, will this work over WiFi and on a Touch? If so, killer app.

[csmity @ Jan 8th 2009 11:05PM]

Well seeing as its web based I think WiFi is probably the best way to do it. But seeing as your not always in a wifi hotspot probably the most impractical, though it might be better than edge, i dunno. But I bet AT&T is loving this stuff, I'm willing to bet they'll eventually implement a bandwidth cap if everyone starts streaming videos over the net.

And yes right now we have unlimited data, and at $30 it better be.

However this is really cool and i've been wanting a NAS device, if the time capsule could do it that'd be awesome.

[Nadool @ Jan 9th 2009 4:32AM]

I don't know about a bandwidth cap but I do know that if you use this in excess...have fun when that bill comes. Have to read the fine print on what exactly "Unlimited" means. Couple of my friends got hit hard with their AT&T data cards for their laptops and stuff. I would imagine it's the same for a phone too. I use my data connection all the time but I never come close to whatever their (un)limit is. That was my friend's only option for internet so they used it for everything. Surprise!

[csmitty @ Jan 9th 2009 11:09AM]

Yea I havn't gone into the fine print, but it wouldn't surprise me. How high was their bill? I've only tethered a few times, mainly on Edge and once or twice on 3G (netshare) so dont really expect that to be a problem. I do look through my bill from time to time and notice I do use quite a bit of data.

[Vivian Taibi @ Jan 8th 2009 11:48PM]

It has to be WiFi. I also agree about the time capsule comment.

[csmitty @ Jan 9th 2009 11:09AM]

The photo shows it working on 3G, or atleast loging in.

Does AirShare work with the time capsule? I think it does, I've only used it once or twice and it was a while ago. But of course thats just on your local network. It shouldn't be hard to configure it as a NAS device. for pictures and stuff it would be nice. So I wouldn't have to have my computer to show them. That'd probably be my biggest gain from it.

[XIYL @ Jan 9th 2009 6:14AM]

Can't Tversity do this for free, I don't have an iTouch or an iPhone so I've never tried but I connect remotely to mine on my PSP and my HTC Shadow (Juno) all the time.

[Al @ Jan 9th 2009 1:05PM]

You beat me to the punch.. TVersity works fine on the iPhone. The 1st connection needs to convert the data but after that the media streams fine. Plus it serves to a Wii, 360 etc...

[leon2paris @ Jan 9th 2009 5:29PM]

Orb is doing that for ages, on the iPhone with the App Store OrbLive application, on any other phone including the Android G1, or any other internet connected device (Wii, laptop, etc...) through a Web browser... Check it out at http://orb.com

[bgroves @ Jan 10th 2009 3:43PM]

Weeellll...or you could just do it with the built-in apache web server on your mac, like i do.