Finally, a product that might finally make this whole internet thing worthwhile by allowing someone to copy a file over it. Amazing, right? Okay, facetiousness aside, it's a little hard to get too excited about a product that will obviously cost something yet replicates a task easily performed for free, but the iTwin does make the process even more easy. It's basically a double-sided
thumb drive that splits apart in the middle; plug one half into one computer and the other into the second and instantly you can drag and drop files from place to place. An absolute computer novice could handle this, but we have to wonder: how many computer novices are swapping files anyway? If this also allowed remote terminal control so that you could fix problems on your mother's computer while beaming over the latest pictures of the kids (and their illegally downloaded music) we
might be a little more optimistic. No mention of price or availability, but there is a video demonstration below proving the tech works -- even if the demo touchpad apparently doesn't.
[Via
TechCrunch]
posted September 15th 2009 10:02AM
This device is pretty neat. I'd buy it.
KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
Hellooooo Crapgadget!
I agree and disagree. This device would have had a lot of potential years ago, but in this day it doesn't serve much function. If you have two computers at home that you want to keep files synced up with, they are most likely networked, meaning it's just as easy to drag and drop files from one another.
The instances this would be useful were to, say, transfer a file to a friends computer. However, this is where this becomes a crapgadget. You may use it once, or maybe a couple times a year - and the rest of the time it's sitting in your desk drawer taunting you.
Useful? Maybe occasionally. Practical now days? Not really.
@ Jordon
I respectfully disagree.
True, for anyone likely reading a tech blog like Engadget, iTwin is largely useless. This much I can agree with you on. Outside of it's corporate espionage made easy, Hail Mary pass around corporate firewalls encryption feature, I personally would never have any use for it.
However, iTwin is being developed and marketed at people like my mom . . . and all my siblings . . . and a whole crap load of my other relatives (aunts, uncles, etc.) and friends and co-workers, who have absolutely no clue.
I, and likely everyone else here, can do home networking in our sleep. However, more than half the people I know cannot - I'm sure that I am not alone in this boat, as those of us who can, are always the goto guys when everyone else needs their network setup . . . or fix their networks if they get SNAFUed. And from what I have seen, it is not like Windows is exactly making networking that much easier for the uninitiated. My mom for example, can't even run Network Magic, and I set that up for her pretty much thinking that networking could not possibly get any easier than that.
The reality is, that for the vast majority of computer users, setting up the network beyond just getting your computer connected to the internet, is a huge chore that many could care less about learning how to do. Setting up your network for remote access is not only an even larger headache for people in that boat, but is considered by many to be almost insurmountable - which is half the reason why flash drives are a multi-billion dollar business.
I have found through observation, that in order to get everyone where they are as comfortable setting up networks as say those of us who come to a place like Engadget, is the setup process has to be what I have affectionately labeled, "Nintendo Stupid".
Anyone who has ever set up the network connection on a Nintendo Wii or a Nintendo DS, already knows what I am talking about. It is the easiest thing on the planet. To coin a phrase, it's so easy a caveman can do it (no offense to the cave people reading this post).
Going back to my Mom as the example, she cannot run Network Magic, but she had no problem setting up the network connection to her Nintendo DS (once she knew what her network password was). Which is my point. Nintendo has made the entire process so easy and so straight forward, anyone can do it, hence the term, "Nintendo Stupid".
What I like so much about iTwin, is it takes "Nintendo Stupid" to an entirely new level, and it does so with the one thing the average Joe on the street considers the hardest part about network computing - remote access. Anyone who has ever successfully used a flash drive ever (and at least a billion people on the planet have), can now do remote access. This thing is brilliant in it's sheer simplicity.
The only place where iTwin fails is in the pricing. $99.99 is just way too much for what it does. If these guys are seriously looking to break into the same market as the flash drive market, then $19.99 is the price they should be shooting for. Anything north of $24.99 is suicide for what they are offering. They'd be better off licensing the tech to companies like 3M or SanDisk and allowing them to make their own, thus handling all the manufacturing, marketing and distribution work for them.
I can also see where they could license the same tech to mobile phone makers like Nokia, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, etc. That way any phone user could physically link their phone to their desktop, and from then on out, have remote access to their content via the phone's various wireless connection protocols (WIFI, 3G, 4G, etc.). Again, for power users like us, setting this up is already a breeze - we could do it in our sleeps. Many of us reading this, already are constantly streaming videos and music from our desktops via 3G to our phones on a daily basis. But for the average Joe, doing something like this is rocket science. However, having iTwin's tech built into their mobile device would allow them access to the same features, without them blowing a blood vessel in their heads trying to figure it out.
Holy crap Swagman, that's absolutely MASSIVE!
That isn't what she said.
Just clearing that up.
In my pre-DropBox days, I would have loved something like this.
DropBox = all the convenience of cloud computing, with none of the fussy online applications.
or SugarSync
Something doesn't feel right. This product has the copycat "i" prefix, and you can't see the face of the fellow presenting it.
what you talking about crapgadget....i spend hours teaching the folks how to email a document to themselves to get it from home to work...(PC>MAC)
But if you are getting it from home to work, this would not work. The devices need to be near one another. Home to work you would still need to email, flash drive, online storage etc. Making this completely useless.
Not sure what makes you think they would need to be near each other. You do realize the USB sticks don't actually communicate with each other except when they're connected for key generation, right? The actual data goes over the internet.
Maybe I understood these wrong. I took it as a wireless device that looks like a usb drive but isn't actually one. That you plug one into a computer, another into the other and they look like usb drives to the computer, but actually aren't - they just transmit files from one to the other. Maybe I'm wrong.
It's like a network drive, connected through the internet.
What I'm not sure though is if it stores the files shared directly onto the USB stick or just a "special folder" on the computers' hard drives.
i see this more useful for sharing control with something a little more hardware based. I use Teamviewer to share files between like 4 computers and works great but it would be neat to just give this to a friend and say HERE.. plug this in and im in. i can take it from here...
Also what could this do for security? like could i just slap this into a computer like at a school and have access to it?
i use teamviewer as well, and i can say its a pain when i want to give big files.. i dont know how fast this product is in that regard but it seemed pretty quick even tho it was probably just a few mb..
i can only see if this was useful if every computer is bundled with it on the motherboard and u can ask for permission to send/transmit
The founders of iTwin made their presentation at TechCrunch50 yesterday. They were saying a possible price point of $99 US, although a buyer from Best Buy recommended they should sell it for $25 US.
coverage here http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/tc50-itwin-remotely-connect-two-computers-via-usb-drives/
can we use it between a PS3 and a PC?
I very much doubt it. I would imagine the important part of this device is the software contained on the otherwise pretty normal usb sticks. And that would need a compatable OS to run on.
Only the price will tell how worth while this is. Otherwise regular thumb drives are still cheap.
Hmm, I would have no use for this at work or at home since I have a GB network at both locations.
Also, if I were out say at a hotel or somewhere that i needed to get a file from my pc to someone elses, why would I use this thing rather than one of my other usb sticks? I just cannot immagine a scenario where I would "need" this.
This looks to be equivalent to an SSH tunnel through some remote (routable) host, with "friendly" file-management software on top.
If you know how to push files through a Gb network yourself, it's highly unlikely you would ever need this -- it's aimed at people who don't really know how to use computers, but do it anyway.
The one benefit it does have over using a thumbdrive is that I can make a TB or so of data accessible from my home machine and carry around a thumbdrive-sized unit to access that on any internetted Windows machine -- the alternatives are carrying a genuine thumbdrive (works on more systems, but has less capacity), carrying a 1TB USB-connected drive (works on more systems, but more bulky for carrying), or just setting up my home server for internet access with dynamic DNS and port-forwarding (cheaper, same or better features, works on all internetted systems, carry no hardware at all, but requires a modicum of technical know-how).
O_O so...instead of a 100Mb to 1Gb transfer i can get over a 4 dollar crossover cable (that windows and mac pretty much configure themselves) I can pay 99 dollars and transfer my files at 400Mb (probably more like 50Mb because we all know how crappy the USB protocol is).
PASS
The difference being that a four dollar crossover cable doesn't connect machines over the internet. Your machines don't need to be in the same country to share data over these, whereas machines using a crossover need to be in the same room/building.
Horses for courses and all that, these could be useful in some situations but they're totally different to crossover cables.
Except, of course, that USB data rates are completely irrelevant, because your files don't go through the USB connection.
Also, good luck finding a 5 mile cat5 cable, at any price. This uses the internet to transfer your files, with all the good (all the cables, interference, etc. are Somebody Else's Problem, and usually already solved) and bad (poor bandwidth, difficulty of getting connected if you aren't already) that implies.
Pretty cool, but would it work on a college network that is locked down by Fort Knox's security standards? Would it blast through an unforgiving firewall? I would certainly hope so...
Jus' sayin'.
I am disappointed by the lack of "Wonder Twins powers, activate!" reference.
I think you're overestimating the age of the Engadget editors.
A lot.
I'm 22 and I remember the Wonder Twins. Cartoon Network had reruns in the 90s, you know.
Why not just use hamachi?
Two words prevent me from using most filesharing utilities between work and home. AUTHENTICATED PROXY. If it supported it, then I may have a use for it. If not, well.....
With the avalibility of services such as Dropbox and Live Mesh, I really don't see this catching on too quickly.
Also, I think if this had internal storage it would make offline browsing much easier. Having this process automated would make me consider buying this product, but not for $99.
GigaTribe is the best solution. Same features as iTwin, better than drop box, faster than LiveMesh.
Really, if you want to share files with your riends over the internet, for me GigaTribe is the best solution. I don't understand why people do not know GigaTribe.
GigaTribe 3 tomorrow... will be so exciting!!
I use GigaTribe
It is my favourite software. Lots of people use GigaTribe in France
I cannot wait for GigaTribe 3 tomorrow!!!
For those who don't know GigaTribe => www.gigatribe.com My advice is to donwload the last Release Candidate which is stable.
I think I've seen something like that being used in a bangbus episode or 2.
So cool!
Great. Now I need to block this on the corporate firewall.
orb works pretty nice for file transfer, and logmein works great for remote connection, throw in logmein iphone support and your golden for fixing the in-laws computer
Which are you referring to. because there is an app to use logmein through iPhone. But since i do not have iPhone I am not sure how it works.
What I am askin is what do you mean, remote log into a PC via iPhone or remote log into an iPhone via PC?
Wonder Twin powers... activate! Shape of... a crappy wireless transfer system!
Go back and [re]read. You're criticizing it for the wrong reasons.
I'm a political analyst who loves tech, but I don't do it everyday. I HATE setting up networks. Even more between different platforms. This would be a dream for me. Wonder if I could one half in my WDTV instead of an hdd
simply brilliant. i can finally get those family pics on my mom's pc without driving over there and snapfishing them myself!
down side: which one goes with which? granny, auntie, and bob but they are all identical? whoops! sorry I sent THAT file granny please delete it and don't open it, it was supposed to go to Bob!
I think alot of people here are missin the basic concept, this is NOT A USB FLASH DRIVE OR WIRELESS SYSTEM!
Its a little dongle which uses some clever software to make a virtual flash drive appear on your pc, and then sycn that with what ever pc the other end is plugged into. and there's another virtual drive for the other end.
By the looks of it, if you added it to your drive, you can remove it, but they cant
and if they added something to their 'end' then they can remove it.
The advantage as has been stated is that you're Ageing or otherwise less-than tech savvy (who cant work out how to use say, flickr) can just plug this into their pc, up it pops and they can see their grand kids on holiday.
Simple as.
I love the techies who say 'This is worthless because I could use a crossover cable / firewall hole / Mobile Me / DropBox solution' yadda yadda yadda. Think of the weenie salespeople who call tech support because their mouse is unplugged - This is perfect for the road warriors who don't know squat about computers.
It's also a great idea for those of us who want to surreptitiously snoop on somebody else's computer, providing you don't have to install any software - Just plop it in the USB slot and head home, and log right in.
I use a router.
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO THINK ON THE CONSUMERS ARE THE "iTwin" FOUNDERS!!!! I dont know how the other guys sitting on front in the video have their jobs.... "im a software guy" really??? do you know why these guys invented the iTwin ??? Because 99% of consumers dont know how to use filesharing on Windows ! lol..... ironic..... i hope iTwin become the next big thing and make these guys eat their f words by their f throats....... in serena williams words
Does this device set up a personal VPN between the computers?
Can it be used for gaming applications, e.g. StarCraft?