Hands on with CatDrive - A 'Plug & Play' Cloud Storage Alternative!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone dan with MacRumors and in this video we're going hands-on with the cat drive by Haley's the cat drive is a crowd-funded one terabyte plug-and-play NAS drive which stands for network attached storage and that's exactly what this guy is a hard drive that you attach to your Wi-Fi network but more on that in just a second the cat drive comes in some pretty decent packaging with the main essentials inside like your power cable wall adapter and an Ethernet cable the main design of this hard drive is also really nice however it looks nicer than it feels and what I mean by that is that the cat drive is very light in the hand and it's made up of rubber and plastic so therefore it kind of feels cheap but it looks really nice thankfully you won't be holding this guy much at all so it's better that they focus more on the looks and the actual feel of the product the gold ring around the drive is actually made up of metal and is a really nice touch as it matches the gold cat logo on top of the drive the rest of the device is pretty bare-bones and the only ports that you'll find are the power and Ethernet ports located around the back the setup process is simple when it works all you have to do is plug in your cat drive into your router via the ethernet cable and then download the cat Drive app in the App Store actually I had to redo the setup process a couple of times one being user error and the other being the apps consistent crashing once everything is all set you'll notice a pretty simplistic app what the app allows you to do is upload files to your cat Drive and then by using the app you can access these files anywhere you have internet connection this is also assuming that the cat drive is constantly connected to the Internet - this is basically the same thing as cloud storage but in some instances it can be cheaper to purchase this actual device over a monthly cloud storage plan another use case for the cat Drive would be the ability to share this drive with anyone you would like to so for example I set up another iPhone and gave access to the cat Drive I can now upload photos movies music etc to the cat Drive as if it were my own but I can also share whatever content I want with other members associated to the drive so this will give you more control over what you're sharing with other members of the drive the app itself is simple and has potential but it's definitely not there yet this is pretty evident in the fact that half of the app is actually in Chinese no matter how many times you try changing the language I will say however that upload speeds have been famed mastic and sharing the files once you've figured out how to navigate throughout the app is also really fast but I don't think this is enough for me to want to deviate from cloud storage or my actual Nass system that is capable of holding more than one terabyte of data I will say the prices and features that the cat drive outlines on their website over cloud storage options do make sense but the execution is just not there yet however if you're interested in a simple to use plug-and-play nas solution for your home or office this might be worth checking out this has been Dan with MacRumors thanks for watching and I will see you next timehey everyone dan with MacRumors and in this video we're going hands-on with the cat drive by Haley's the cat drive is a crowd-funded one terabyte plug-and-play NAS drive which stands for network attached storage and that's exactly what this guy is a hard drive that you attach to your Wi-Fi network but more on that in just a second the cat drive comes in some pretty decent packaging with the main essentials inside like your power cable wall adapter and an Ethernet cable the main design of this hard drive is also really nice however it looks nicer than it feels and what I mean by that is that the cat drive is very light in the hand and it's made up of rubber and plastic so therefore it kind of feels cheap but it looks really nice thankfully you won't be holding this guy much at all so it's better that they focus more on the looks and the actual feel of the product the gold ring around the drive is actually made up of metal and is a really nice touch as it matches the gold cat logo on top of the drive the rest of the device is pretty bare-bones and the only ports that you'll find are the power and Ethernet ports located around the back the setup process is simple when it works all you have to do is plug in your cat drive into your router via the ethernet cable and then download the cat Drive app in the App Store actually I had to redo the setup process a couple of times one being user error and the other being the apps consistent crashing once everything is all set you'll notice a pretty simplistic app what the app allows you to do is upload files to your cat Drive and then by using the app you can access these files anywhere you have internet connection this is also assuming that the cat drive is constantly connected to the Internet - this is basically the same thing as cloud storage but in some instances it can be cheaper to purchase this actual device over a monthly cloud storage plan another use case for the cat Drive would be the ability to share this drive with anyone you would like to so for example I set up another iPhone and gave access to the cat Drive I can now upload photos movies music etc to the cat Drive as if it were my own but I can also share whatever content I want with other members associated to the drive so this will give you more control over what you're sharing with other members of the drive the app itself is simple and has potential but it's definitely not there yet this is pretty evident in the fact that half of the app is actually in Chinese no matter how many times you try changing the language I will say however that upload speeds have been famed mastic and sharing the files once you've figured out how to navigate throughout the app is also really fast but I don't think this is enough for me to want to deviate from cloud storage or my actual Nass system that is capable of holding more than one terabyte of data I will say the prices and features that the cat drive outlines on their website over cloud storage options do make sense but the execution is just not there yet however if you're interested in a simple to use plug-and-play nas solution for your home or office this might be worth checking out this has been Dan with MacRumors thanks for watching and I will see you next time\n"