Even the locally stored content feels lost and limited: For instance, if you drill into music you've downloaded to your device, all you can do is play the tracks individually--you can't view them in any way but by file name, and you have no way to create playlists or sort by artist or album.
The GoFlex Satellite works fine in Windows Explorer--it's recognized as just another USB 3.0 hard drive there, and it performs as you'd expect any USB 3.0 hard drive to perform. You can't use the drive wirelessly while connected to a PC via USB, though. Seagate also includes a handy Media Sync software app to help you move content over to the drive. The app, for both PC and Mac, identifies your attached drives (Seagate and otherwise), and provides the ability to perform several precanned syncs: Simple iPad Sync (to find files your iPad can play or view), Simple Sync (to sync media folders with the external drive), and custom sync (to manually select the folders and media types to synchronize).
After I picked the iPad Sync function, I could then either proceed with the sync or choose to edit the sync options. From there, I could choose to sync files for iPad, iPhone 4, other iOS devices, other Apple devices, or other digital devices; changing the setting altered the set of file types supported in the sync. I then could select if I wanted photos, music, videos, and documents. Finally, I could decide whether to sync automatically or to click the Sync Now button.
Sadly, the GoFlex Media app never found and transferred my purchased iTunes video content. (Well, it found two parts of a multipart series of videos, and nothing else.) Seagate had no explanation for this.
Ultimately, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite is the first of what I expect to be many wireless hard drives designed to help tablet users get and share content from their PCs to their slates. The idea is clever, but the implementation leaves much to be desired. For now, this gadget is best left to those people who need to transport lots of video to a tablet--and who aren't concerned about digging through arcane file names and contending with glitches and poor app design. I'll update this review once the Android app becomes available, and if I hear that Seagate has overhauled the iOS app. It's frankly a shame that the company chose to rush it out the door with limited functionality.