Exclusive: Infinitec demonstrates IUM ad hoc streaming device, makes it look like a flash drive
By Darren Murph 
posted January 7th 2010 8:11PM
posted January 7th 2010 8:11PM
The device serves a few purposes: you can use it to give all sorts of files to other machines in your home, or you could plug it into your HDTV or Blu-ray deck in order to stream PC-bound content right to your den. The goal here was to make other devices assume that this was just one giant flash drive, with gigabytes upon gigabytes of media right on the drive. So far as the receiving PC or set-top box knows, the IUM is just a stock flash drive with a capacity of your choosing. Just drop files over like you would from a standard USB key, and it shoots across the network to its final destination. Currently, it's not suggested that you use this to send files over the internet -- the lag in tunneling just makes for a poor user experience. The demo we witnessed (watching a Simpsons episode that was hosted on a nearby netbook) was remarkably smooth, with the user being able to skip ahead by minutes at a time with no visible lag. There's even the hope that the internals could one day be integrated into laptops in order to remove the need for an external dongle, but for now, you can expect a summertime release in the US and a sub-$150 price tag. So, you fixing to get your stream on, or what?
This is awesome, why hasn't this been made already is the real question
@Waveblade
it already is HSTI have it and cheaper!
"There's even the hope that the internals could one day be integrated into laptops in order to remove the need for an external dongle"
If this feature were internal on the laptop then how would it be different than any normal wireless access to NAS?
This device is interesting because you could move it from one laptop to another laptop, a digital picture frame, HDTV, etc.
@FitFan
I think the piece they'd integrate would be the host chip that would beam out data to a receiving USB stick. So devices that didn't support accessing a NAS but had a USB port would be able to use the USB stick to access a laptop with the host chip built in.
This is a really smart idea, no more hassle setting up network connections, no more running out of space on a USB drive...
I'll take two please
@TheLostSwede
check out the HSTI model, it is being presented right now at CES!
I wonder (hope) if a TiVo PVR could be "encouraged" to make use of this :-)
@chrism238 if you could get it to send data the other way that would make it worth while... use it as the external hard drive on a TIVO while sending the data to your Drobo Elite populated with 8 2TB hard drives...
All the HD content you could ever want to record and then be able to access with a PC...
@chrism238 We're not familiar with TiVo but the IUM has an upload function and anything that is placed on the upload folder of the IUM will be transferred back to the host PC. So if I understand that you would want to record onto your laptop, I don't see why this shouldn't work.
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@infinitec Thanks for the reply; always great to have the "source" following along with discussions. As it stands (and as I understand it) this can't simply be plugged into a TiVo, as they use any external drive as an extension of their internal drive (presents as one partition across the two drives). So some work will need to be done with the TiVo software, first, but that's not Infinitec's fault! Thanks for an interesting looking product.
That could solve a few problems that I can think of.
thats incredable
I'd plug it into a media player I've got. Shame it's too expensive. For that price I have several options that are probably more flexible.
@Strick
HSTI is cheaper
I wonder what file system this USB stick will appear to have. I know that I'd like to have NTFS in some scenarios for large file support and easy compatibility with Windows, but I know many set-top devices such as my BDP-83 don't support NTFS, so I would hope it could switch to emulating FAT32 (the BDP-83 is particularly frustrating because it doesn't support ANY file system that supports files larger than 2GB, which makes it difficult to watch HD movie files.) But then I wonder what would happen if I were emulating FAT32 but the folder I was beaming to this stick contained a larger file than FAT32 supports.
@John H THe final version will support FAT32 for playing onto a DVD player, XBOX360, and other FAT32-read-only devices. However, an option to configure the IUM to NTFS will also be available for more advanced users.
Everything is configurable on the IUM to make it work with any device you need it to.
@infinitec
Fantastic! Can you maybe clarify one other detail that I can't figure out based on this post? Are there in fact TWO dongles involved in this setup (i.e. one which stays plugged into the device containing the content and one which plugs into the device which will be playing it) or is it just one? If it's one, does it use the host's built-in wireless for streaming? If so, does that mean that the host must be set up in an ad hoc network connection with the dongle, or can the dongle join the same access point-based wireless network that the host is on?
Whatever the case, this looks like an incredible product and I can't wait for it to be released!
@John H It is in fact a single dongle and uses the laptops embedded wifi technology so there are no extra pieces of hardware needed nor any accessories for your laptop to have to plug in. The point being that it looks, feels and acts as a memory stick!
@infinitec So the computer, running Win, Linux, or OSX simply exports a file system via Samba or NFS (+others?)? Is the dongle, itself, running Linux? As the dongle must be configured to point to the correct computer, is this done through a simple web-interface, as are APs, etc?
Lots of questions, but we're very interested. Thanks.
@chrism238 Lots of questions are good. We like questions. However we don't want to give too much away before our official product unveiling. What I can tell you is that it will be an easy plug-and-play solution requiring very little to worry about from the owner's perspective. All you need is a laptop with wifi and running Windows (XP, Vista or 7 initially but Mac and Linux will follow later in the year) and the rest is automatically installed and configured for you. You will then have a web interface installed on the laptop to control the IUM. Simple yet effective. We hope everyone is as excited as we are!
All well and good.
One question though— who the hell crammed an red felt tipped marker into the side of my laptop!
@yrag "an"? You mean "a". "An" is only for vowel sounds.
Has Google purchased this company yet?
Wonder if this would work with a WII.
@MSBob It works will all consoles that allow flash drives to be connected to them. We're not familiar with how the WII works but if you can connect a memory stick to it, you can connect an IUM.
@infinitec
Hey, thanks for responding. For the WII I was thinking about USB Loader and Homebrew. Both of these currently recognize flash drives and it would really be a boon to offload the media from a dedicated usb drive over to something centrally managed. Currently updating/managing homebrew and backups requires either ftping (slowly) to the WII or physically connecting the USB HDD to a computer. Based on what I'm reading, IUM would be a slick solution. If you guys bring this to market I'll be sure to give it a shot and let you know.
Hope this doesnt break my pockets too much. I need one XD
Am I the only one that thinks this product is dumb? The list of devices that have flash access but not net is very small - just configure your network properly people. Even alot of TVs are getting Ethernet jacks... oh I guess it gives it WiFi... but those people should just make a MoCA bridge. Even then you probably have a streamer or console connected to your TV...
@Nathan B
there are loads of TVs now which have a USB socket but no network, and it's tedious faffing around with flash memory cards.
I'm not a computer wiz - just a business operator. But I can see a bargain when I see one. I think there is another big use for the IUM. Small to medium businesses could simply buy a bundle of IUMs for their staff to exchange data with a central server. Sure would be a much cheaper alternative to setting up a network - and much safer than issuing staff with a standard USB stick. I could remove their access to the central server very easily - or so it seems from what I have read in this review.
@Macca1
that's a pretty cool idea, lets say you have someone visiting your office and you want them to dump a bunch of files onto your computer but you don't trust them to be virus free, simply plug the IUM in.
I've been looking for something *nearly* like this for ages. What I want is a USB stick I can plug into a dumb device (like my car head unit), that is then available wirelessly as an SMB share, with storage on the stick. To upload new content to your car whilst parked outside, just browse to the device and upload...
@Landwomble
HSTI has it
Is the 802.11n this device uses the Final official 802.11n spec or just the Draft 802.11n spec?
Does the wifi use WPA2 encryption?
Does the usb drive itself have any encryption on it?
Is there going to be an iPhone app too?
I think this would be great for a PS3. Yeah you can setup and stream to it via DNLA, but you can never rewind or fast forward. Something like this may finally allow that and finally turn my PS3 into a media hub like they keep claiming it is.