Not long ago, the team at Cloud Engines offered up a completely re-written and re-engineered app for the Apple iPhone, for use with the Pogoplug Desktop software and hardware units. For a while, iPad users have had the PogoplugHD app, but it wasn't as reliable as the newly created iPhone app.

Now, iPad users have a brand new application to call their own, bringing speed and reliability improvements as well as a whole new user interface.

Logging in and Indexing

Of course, the first step is to log in with your Pogoplug ID. All the computers and Pogoplug enabled devices you have linked with that account will be available in the app.

You'll immediately be met with a brand new login screen that matches the look and feel of the new iPhone app, but tailored specifically for the iPad.

Initially, the app will begin indexing your music library, if you have one. I heartily recommend that you wait for this process to complete, as it can slow down the app while it's working.

Browsing and Sharing Files with the Pogoplug iPad App

Moving through the files and folders on your various devices is a decidedly Apple-like experience; it's smooth, fast, and intuitive, utilizing a familiar two-pane design when in landscape orientation, and a full-screen with pop-up menu in portrait orientation. Sharing and uploading photos are as easy as the two buttons below the file listing as shown above. In addition, the app quickly loads PDF's (as shown above) and other supported formats quickly for reading and previewing.

Viewing Photos on the Pogoplug iPad App

If you browse to the "Photos" section, you'll see all of your pictures and you can easily flip through them. If you've organized your photos with the proper time stamps and other metadata, the Pogoplug app will attempt to sort them automatically for you. Of course, you can also browse photos through the file interface, if you have them sorted by folders.

Listening to Music with the Pogoplug iPad App

As per usual, the music listening experience with the Pogoplug iPad app is exceptional, and probably my most favorite feature. Once again, we see a very Apple-like interface here, which allows you to sort your music by artist, song, album, and genre. I prefer accessing by artist. One can easily pause, switch tracks, or select another track using the controls (which are quite obvious and simple to figure out, I think.)

Of course, the app supports multitasking, so you can play your Pogoplug music in the background. It also integrates with the music controls in the taskbar, as shown above--just like iTunes.

Watching Movies with the Pogoplug iPad App

Watching movies or video clips on the new, improved iPad app worked well. The streaming quality was good for the clips I tried, as captured in the photo above. I'm not currently running a Pogoplug Video, and as such it had a difficult time streaming a larger movie, which I had not yet transcoded (but was in a supported format.) Unless you have a Pogoplug Video, I do recommend you transcode your videos before playing them with the iPad app.

Conclusions

This new iPad app is a must-have for any iPad user, as it offers many fixes and improvements over the previous version--plus, it's free, and works with any Pogoplug hardware or the Desktop software. (Note, of course, that to stream to your iPad, you'll need the premium software.)

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