New wireless hard drive for iPad now available

The Wi-Fi built in to the hard drive is the fastest available — the “N” type — which Seagate says will allow up to three iPads to stream a movie at once from the hard drive.

(On the flip-side, it’s no more than three — Seagate is limiting the maximum number of devices that can connect to the hard drive to three at any one time — a precautionary measure to ensure good performance for each user.)

Laptop users can access files on the hard drive directly on their computers without an app — it comes up in My Computer or the Mac OS X “shared devices” list as a networked hard drive.

It also comes with a compact A/C wall charger, as well as a car charger for use on the road. (Nice that Seagate is not going down the path of providing nothing but the USB cord for charging, as Apple has done with iPods nowadays.)

HP 485041-003 battery – Brand New 4400mAh Only AU $60.85

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Dell studio xps 1647 battery – Brand New 4400mAh Only AU $72.05

It comes with a three year warranty, too — longer than most bits of tech, and especially good for travellers who might be subjecting the drive to a bit of rough and tumble.

The capacity of the hard drive is 500GB, which should be enough for 300 movies at 720P HD resolution.

Seagate has made a special app for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch which provides a menu system for accessing stuff stored on the hard drive. You can already download it from the iTunes App Store though the drive itself won’t be available until July.