First Impressions
The box the device comes in is small but once you open it you'll be treated to a device just a bit larger than a deck of cards. Included in the box are a quick install guide, the rechargeable battery, the device itself, and a USB to micro USB cable. The quick install guide is only 14 pages long so this gave me a lot of confidence that I'd have the device up and running in no time. BTW - most of those 14 pages are illustrations, just in case you were afraid you have to be able to read some mysterious engineering language.
Setup
The device itself has a micro USB port for charging the battery, an on/off switch, an ethernet port, and a normal USB port to plug in a USB drive. This USB drive (which you probably already own) will be how you make your data available to any wireless device hooking up to the Shareport Go. To charge the battery I hooked up the device to a micro-USB charger I use to charge my wife's android phone. As 5v is the USB standard as long as you can plug it in (your computer, a dedicated charger, etc) then you'll get to charge your battery. The included cable is for charging to the charge port - the USB port on the device is only for USB drive use. I didn't crack the device open to see if you could hook an ordinary USB cable but I wouldn't hookup a device that provides power to this port. I guess I could of written an article on how to burn up a new device, but yeah, there is a warning on the second page of the guide that warns that the included USB to micro USB cable is for charging only.
Once your battery is charged its time to download the SharePort Mobile software. Conveniently you'll find it in Apple's App Store and Google Play. It's a quick download and then your up and running. The software is icon driven and has icons for movies, music, photos, files, and folders. Like a certain file and need to find it quickly again? You can add a favorite star to it to guide you back quickly. A nifty little feature is that there is mention in the setup guide of being able to hook up a USB hard drive to the device and accessing the hard drive through your web browser.
Using it
This is where some creativity comes in handy. I had no problems watching a movie I had saved to a USB drive. I also opened word doc's and Acrobat files. One of the biggest uses I found was that I could move music to my USB drive and then stream them to my iPhone. This cleans up a lot of file space on my phone.
Now we get to a couple of interesting uses. Lets say you run a small business and want to have certain media available to people wirelessly. Plug in the Shareport Go and now your customers have access to this media/data.
Here's where things get better. Rather than purchasing a dedicated wireless router to use somewhere, why not take your router in the form of the Shareport Go. The mentioned application for this use is traveling and being in a hotel that has ethernet hookup but no wireless. Plug into the on board ethernet port and your Shareport Go is now your wireless router (that has WEP protection to boot). To accomplish this you'll need to get another app for your mobile device called QRS Mobile. It's also easy to use and even allows you to setup your own wireless hotspot.
Conclusions
The Shareport Go offers a lot of versatility. Obviously you can share files from a USB drive that is plugged into it (or USB hard drive). But that's only the beginning. You can also create your own hotspot to share with others or use it to become a wireless router if you are somewhere with no wireless coverage. Leave it plugged into a micro USB phone charger and you won't have to worry about your battery going dead in a dedicated wireless situation like these. But unplug it and take it with you and you have a mobile file sharing system that needs no power. That means you can share files and media at the beach, in a park, or far off the beaten path. Another nice thing is that now you can push files from your device and store them on your USB drive. So once you make changes to that document send it back to the USB drive hooked up to the Shareport Go.
