Leef Bridge: USB Flash Drive for Android Devices, PCs and Macs

inShare1

Leef Technology out of California have just released the Leef Bridge, a funky new USB Flash Drive for sharing between Android phones and tablets, PCs and Macs – a first. It's a devastatingly simple idea: carry around the tiny lighter-sized, slidable flash drive in your pocket and transfer files between devices without cables, batteries, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cloud services. You can also play music and video direct from the flash memory meaning transferring from one device to another isn't even essential.  

The new Leef Bridge is a USB flash drive for easy data sharing between Android devices and computers 

Functionality

The device we tested performed exactly as expected, although the transfer speeds were less than remarkable. Transferring to and from devices was very easy (simply copy and pasting), and playback from flash memory was seamless. The fact that the one device can be used to copy pictures, music, video and documents from any of your devices and transferred or played back on any other device is beautiful in its simplicity. Cameras, smartphones, tablets, desktops, easy.

Design

Like most slidable USB drives, the Leef Bridge is a little larger than most other flash drives, but considering it houses a USB and micro-USB connection that's still pretty impressive. The main body is the size of a stack of postage stamps with a lockable sliding cover that exposes one connection or the other, or protects them both. It's simple, functional and it works.

The Leef Bridge works straight from the box with no cables, cloud, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 

Ease of Use

I tried the Leef Bridge with a Samsung Galaxy S3 straight out of the box and it worked perfectly. The included instructions recommended downloading the Astro File Manager app to your mobile device but this wasn't necessary for me. Once it's plugged in the file manager is launched automatically. You can easily transfer files to the device and then either plug and play direct from the shared flash memory to your tablet, laptop or desktop, or transfer the loaded files as you normally would with a standard USB flash drive.

Compatibility

Leef Bridge requires Android Jelly Bean OS 4.1 or later for smartphones and Android tablets, it also works on Win 8 tablets and is of course Mac and PC compatible as a standard USB flash drive. The company's website features a full list of compatible devices that also includes Samsung Galaxy cameras, meaning you could pull photos direct from your camera without having to remove memory cards. The website also claims compatibility with the Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 5.0? The Leef Bridge currently comes in 16GB and 32GB, and in the near future 64GB.

Transfer and share files between camera, smartphone, tablet and computer 

Tech Specs

Device	Leef Technology Bridge (USB flash drive)
Capacities	16GB, 32GB, 64GB (in coming months)
USB	2.0 (Full Size and Micro-USB)
OS	Android 4.1 or later
System Requirements	Supports Windows® 8, Windows® 7, Windows® XP (SP3), Windows Vista® (SP1, SP2), Windows 2000®, Linux Kernal 2.6 or later, Apple® Mac OS X or later
Color	Black
Dimensions	23.8 x 56.2 x 9.6 mm

Conclusion

While the USB 2.0 transfer speeds are far from blistering (in my tests between 4.1 – 5.1 MB/s) – a short 225 MB video took between 44-55 seconds to transfer – there were no lags in playback when video or music was run direct from the flash memory. The device quite simply does what it claims to do and as long as you don't need to transfer files at high speed, this little gadget simplifies what otherwise can be a fidgety, occasionally irritating task. And that suits me just fine.

New Windows 8 Devices at Samsung London Event: the ATIV Q is Awesome!

Samsung just announced 3 new devices that will join the ATIV family. The ATIV line from Samsung are the Windows based devices and at the reveal in London Samsung showed us two new laptops, A hybrid tablet running both Windows 8 and Android, a Windows 8 tablet and finally an all in one computer.

The ATIV One 5, Samsung's All in One Computer / © samsungmobile.com

Samsung ended up showing us 9 new devices at the London event today, some of which where Galaxy devices which you can read about here. There were a total of 4 Galaxy devices revealed at the event and a total of 5 Ativ devices.

ATIV Q

The first device to be shown to members of the audience was the Samsung Ativ Q. This device is a hybrid one running two operating systems in Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. One really neat feature about this device is that it allows you to seamlessly switch between the Windows 8 OS and the Android Jelly Bean OS. The Ativ Q also has a screen resolution of 3200 x 1800 which is the highest screen resolution in the world at the moment. The device can be used as a normal tablet, as a laptop with a keyboard, and can be placed in a reading or viewing position. Files can be shared around the two operating systems and the battery life is also impressive at it comes in at about 9 hours.

ATIV Tab 3

Samsung's Ativ tab 3 looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy tab but this device is of course running Windows 8 and it is the world's thinnest Windows 8 tablet at well. The 10 inch tablet has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and has 64 GB of onboard storage. The storage is also expandable as the device comes with a Micro SD slot. Other features include an HDMI out port, and also a good 2 GB of RAM. This device along with the Ativ Q also includes a stylus which can be used for things like drawings etc.

ATIV Book 9 Plus

This is the flagship Windows 8 laptop from Samsung. This high end device has a wonderful design, comes in at a thickness of 13.6mm and weighs in at just over 1.3 kg's. The device has the same screen resolution as the Ativ Q at 3200 x 1800 and the same size display at 13.3 inches. Other specs include 256 GB SSD, a micro HDMI port and also 2 USB 3.0 ports. Gorilla Glass is the material protecting the screen which also boasts touchscreen functionality.

ATIV Book 9 LITE

This is the cheaper version of the Ativ book 9 range of laptops. It comes in with a lot of the things that the Ativ Book 9 has but at a more affordable price. The screen resolution is no longer the 3200 x 1800 qHD but a more humble 1366 x 768 which is a noticeable drop when you view the two side by side. On the outside though the two look very similar.

ATIV One 5 Style

This device is a desktop PC running Windows 8, with the same look and feel as the Galaxy family of devices. The machine boasts a quad core AMD A6 processor and 4 GB of RAM. As far as storage is concerned it goes all the way up to 1 TB which means you will probably not run out of storage space for all your files. Moving on to connectivity, you have 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0 and HMDI in and out.
It seems as if Samsung is looking to replicate the success of its Galaxy line with these Windows devices. Tell us what you think of Samsung's latest efforts by leaving a comment below.