KINGSTON WI-DRIVE NOW SUPPORTS KINDLE FIRE AND IS AT AMAZON STORE - FREE WI-DRIVE APP FOR KFIRE IS NOW DOWNLOADABLE
Now we can add a
16 to 32 gig pocket-sized drive to the
Kindle Fire -- and soon, Kingston Digital says, a 64GB drive (price not known yet). The drive can be carried in your pocket.
Android Mag's Pallavi had one of the several announcements of the availability of Kingston's WiDrive a few days ago, but the Kindle Fire app was not available in the Amazon AppStore. It is now. I just downloaded it.
Pallavi writes:
' It utilizes "Flash-based technology to store data from USB-compatible PCs." The content can be retrieved via Wi-Drive’s built-in wireless signal; and you do not require cables or an internet connection to do so. What's more, three users can work on different file types simultaneously from a single Wi-Drive. '
THAT SHARING FEATURE
That would mean each could be accessing different movies, music or other data at the same time, without wires.
The product description for the
Wi-Drive with Kindle Fire Support mentions that you can run other apps while using WiDrive features and that there are "enhanced photo features."
Also mentioned: "Additional Network Setting - select
WiFi channel"
Update - The first, very helpful customer review there, by
Steeler Nation "Peter", written from use with iDevices, explains that the unit provides its own WiFi network in which the Kindle Fire connects to the Wi-Drive, and two or three devices can access different or same media files on the drive at the same time, all streaming smoothly, per customer reviews of the use of Wi-Drive with the iPad and other Apple devices using this drive for add-on storage and Non-Internet streaming.
His caveats are that with two or more people using it at a time, constantly streaming, it runs for only 3 hours and then must be re-charged again and you cannot recharge this with the miniUSB adapter while using it. He doesn't say how long it lasts with one person using it. [End of Update]
Mobile Magazine has
some very good photos.
The Wi-Drive
can be shared by 3 users concurrently, as we've seen, and is already available from Amazon in 16GB ($60) and 32GB ($90) versions, and the 64GB version is coming, mid-year.
Wi-Drives are the shape and approximate size of Apple's iPhone 4s.
The unit comes with a one-year warranty and free technical support.
Amazon customer reviews of the basic unit (which had been only for Apple devices previously) -- 34 reviews at 4.5 stars average. No '1' or '2' ratings.
There's one customer review at the Amazon product page, for the Kindle Fire version, from someone who already had the drive for his Apple devices.
' By Wayne2626 [January 12, 2012]
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Kingston Wi-Drive 16 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WID/16GBZ (Personal Computers)
I have a Iphone 4 and I was give[n] a gift certificate which I used to get a 16g wi-drive and it worked great with the iPhone. I also got a kindle fire for christmas. I found that amazon was going to come out with the wi-drive program which I just downloaded and it was no problem getting it to work with the fire giving me 24g of usable memory with the fire for shows, movies, and pictures.
Also one person can watch a movie stored on the wi-drive and another person can watch the same movie or a different movie stored on the same wi-drive at the same time, sharing media on the same wi-drive at the same time with two different devices... '
UPDATE 2 - An example of the convenience of sharing the drive, from one review (by
Vurtis):
'...exactly what I needed. My family was flying across the country and we didn't have enough memory on our iPhones & my iPad. After being told from several stores that there was no way to expand with extra hard drives ... I tried the Kingston. I couldn't be more happy. The device works great. My wife watched a chick flick, I watched an action adventure and my daughter watched a Disney film. We made it across the country and all were happy. We had about 15 movies ripped onto it. It is about the same size as the iPhone and was a bit lighter. '
In that case he chose the 32-gig drive, but this spelled out the apparent ease of sharing without problems. We'll see. I'll try the smaller one out soon.
DOWNLOADING THE WI-DRIVE APP
Here's the downloadable
Wi-Drive app for KindleFire, which you can order this way and it'll be ready for your Kindle Fire. Or, after checking this app page, you can just get on the Kindle Fire, go to "Apps" and then click on "Store" at upper-right and search for it and download it there.
But it's simpler to just click on the product page's download box and get the app ready for your Kindle Fire to install (and the record of $0.00 'purchase' is on your server records already that way).
WI-DRIVE FOR KINDLE FIRE USER MANUAL
Kingston offers a downloadable
Wi-Drive for Kindle Fire User Manual in PDF format
HOW YOU USE WI-DRIVE - A VIDEO
Kingston's
press release of Jan. 10 recommends their (high definition)
YouTube VIDEO about the Wi-Drive.
REMINDER ABOUT VIDEO FORMATS - A CONVERTER
Any video you play on the Kindle Fire, whether from a DVD or from your personal videos,
must be converted to MP4 first.
I was exploring
Miro, which is free but I was waiting until their support for Kindle Fire is ready, and it apparently is, for their main software "Miro," rather than for the more limited MiroVideoConverter (MVC) program which doesn't have all the features of
Miro 4.04, which is a free, open source program by Participatory Culture Foundation for Win XP, Vista, Win 7.
UPDATE 3 - I received later information from
Miro last night. The program "does
batch processing of conversions," (depending on computer's CPU capability), and an additional feature is that when you connect your device, you can "just drag -n- drop and the file will be converted and placed on your device." They say they have an entire new set of features for device syncing coming with Miro 5.
Beth Sexton, a Kindle forum member writes that she used
Miro to convert .avi to .mp4 and that it worked well but she also recommends that when installing it that you UNcheck the toolbar option and other extras unless you really want them.
She used VLC to convert .divx to .mp4 ...
Gdgt software developer
Mitchell McKenna,
tweeted about Miro on Jan. 12, "
I see Vimeo feeds now work again in Miro 4.0.4! Awesome work, big kudos to @TheMiroFolks!" --
getmiro.com's webpage is, along with Wikipedia folks, on strike today against the "SOPA" House bill that they feel may give the government and larger corporations too much power over allowable access to other websites. Here's
Google News on the latest SOPA stories for those who want to know more about this.
UPDATE -- Video Converter tools
I've asked the knowledgeable Amazon Kindle Forum members what good, free or low-cost utilities they know of for converting videos to mp4 and have already received very good information from
L. Leverton,
Pineapple, and
Tink-erbell in
that forum thread.
So far,
DVD Catalyst 4's full $9.95 version (vs free versio)n, stands out. L. says:
' It now has new Fire upgrades that do some amazing things. It can eliminate the gray bar and make it a full screen video among other things. I tried it again yesterday on the Liam Neeson Unknown movie. I stuck the dvd in the drive and selected kindle fire as the device and selected go. It was done in a matter of minutes and was great. '
L. also mentions seeing a new Movie Gallery app that was $2.00 ... so there's another possibility.
Visit
that thread for any additional very useful input from the members there.
(Later) I've seen more recommendations and the fact that DVD Analyst has a rep for very good customer service. Apparently, their Movie Gallery 2.0 feature allows you to keep videos there for later streaming by you, which would be a good feature for non-Amazon videos you have. Amazon will store, free, up to 5 gigs of any of your non_Amazon video files but not stream them, and of course 5 gigs of videos don't go that far.
UPDATE 4: Highrider, in another forum thread, writes:
' It has a drop down menu to select the device you want the video formatted for. You can select the Kindle Fire from the list and then choose one of several quality formats. I've had the best luck with what they call Kindle Fire (fast). Haven't had one fail to play after using this setting and it's formatted to 1024x600 already to fit the Fire screen '
[End of Update]
HandBrake - This is a free converter very useful for resizing segments when you run up against contraints such as the 4-gig file-size maximum on the FAT system (which is used by the KindleFire device), but users get only 5.5 gigs for user data on that anyway. It's a very good adjunct to your video converter toolbox but is not known as the easiest program to use otherwise.
SUMMING UP
This Kingston Wi-Drive info should be good news for many :-) If you have any first-hand experiences with this, now that it's available for the Kindle Fire (or even with Apple devices in the past), let us know in the Comments area. Thanks.
Apple users who don't already know about this unit
might benefit from it also.
Kindle Touch 3G Kindle Touch WiFi Kindle Basic (UK:
KBasic)
Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK:
Kindle Keybd 3G)
K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX
Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
Guide to
finding Free Kindle books and Sources.
Top 100 free bestsellers.
Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books,
bestsellers, or
£5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the
UK store's
Top 100 free bestsellers
nice credit from
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/
