iDiskk Pro

I’ve been using my iDiskk R004 for years, as a music player, but there seems to be capacity problems. The “shuffle” feature does not restore to new choices, it always plays the same selections in the same order. Clearing the cache in the settings menu does not create a whole new playlist. Manually selecting a song will play that song but within a few songs the player reverts to the same shuffle list. The player also just hangs up, stops playing. My iPhone says that it has lost connection with the iDiskk device. From a convenience standpoint, it would be nice if the file list would display the last file played. “Pro” goes to the very first file, so scrolling always starts with file number 1.

One of these days, a vendor who sells these iDevice enabled flash drives will get the idea that when backing stuff up that originated ON the mobile device to a regular computer that we might want to move more than photos, videos and audio files. Specifically, the transfer of Word, PDF, Scrivener and, I suspect, FDX files is one way at best. You can put any files you want on the flash drive as long as they’re supported formats if you go from the computer to the mobile device. However, the reverse is not the case whether it’s Mobile Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, Final Draft or anything else. There doesn’t even seem to be the interim command to save the files in question to the app which can then be moved to the flash drive. How hard is it to negotiate access to, say, Mobile Word or Google Docs or any other document creation app, so you can provide this service? This is not unique to iDiskk but seems common to EVERYONE selling these gadgets (this was also an issue with the previous flash drive whose app was never updated for iOS 13). A failure of imagination, I understand the copyright issues involve why you have to do this with third party video and audio, but not when they’re my own homegrown writing files. On the plus side, this flash drive has a clean clicky chrome finish that fits on a keychain and doesn’t require yanking off my phone case. And what the app does allow for in terms of file management, it does well. I only needed a few seconds to learn the setup. When someone figures out a solution to the issue in the first paragraph, you’ll have a five-star winner. Until then, I like the security blanket of a huge flash drive on my keychain.

If you plug your iDiskk device in before opening the app, a box will pop up asking permission for this app to contact its development site in China. DO NOT ALLOW THIS ACCESS The app works very well without it and if you allow communication back to the developer they will have access to everything you allow the app access to on your device. They may have access to a great deal more, as well. This is not saying that they have evil plans for your data, and there is nothing necessarily more nefarious about Chinese developers -- no one is more intrusive with respect to your data than Apple itself, other than Google, Facebook ... well, almost all of them. It is a useful tool. It has worked well for me so far, but it has built-in hidden dangers. All powerful tools are dangerous. But. as with most web tools, with this one the blade is hidden until you cut yourself unless you are paying attention. The simplest way to protect yourself is to bring the app up first, then plug in your device. Also, check in your device's configuration tools frequently to see who has access to what and block anything you don't absolutely need.