Review: Leyio Personal Sharing Device

Leyio has produced a portable storage unit known as a Personal Sharing Device (PSD) that can be used to send and receive files in multiple ways including ultra-wide band (UWB).

The 16GB PSD is small but quite chunky, and the soft curves make it look like its designers have been taking tips from Apple. Even the box it comes in closely resembles that of an iPod.

On the front there is a small 1.5in screen and a fingerprint reader and single button. On the sides you'll find a USB slot, a mini USB port and a detachable USB memory stick.

The interface is as simple as the rest of the design. Pressing the solitary button starts the device, prompting the user for a fingerprint to access. The PSD can only store a single fingerprint at a time and five incorrect guesses brings up a number code entry to bypass the fingerprint reader as well as reset it, so you don't have to be too concerned when setting it up.

All navigation is done by swiping your finger across the fingerprint reader. Up and down scrolls through the various folders and files, while side to side goes between levels. Pushing the button acts as a back or cancel option, while holding it down starts the wireless transfer mode.

What makes the PSD pretty unique is the number of ways of sharing data. You can plug it into a PC via the mini USB port and it acts like any other removable storage device, or you can transfer data to and from another USB device by plugging it into the USB slot, or to the inbuilt 2GB USB key and then plug that into a PC's USB port. Anything copied to the detachable unit is automatically copied to the main device when it's plugged back in.

Data stored on the device can be sorted into photos, music, video, documents, internet shortcuts, social networks, contacts and everything else. However, even though the various files are detected and shown as different icons, they are not automatically sorted into these folders; this has to be done manually when the PSD is connected to a PC.

Furthermore, images can be displayed on the tiny screen, but no other file information, such as videos, music or contacts, can be seen directly on the PSD. Given that the PSD has the interface, we would love to have seen a media player as well.