After more than two years, Singapore-based iTwin has unveiled the first follow-up product to its original USB file-sharing dongle.
Called iTwin Connect, the new dongle offers secure VPN tunnelling through either iTwin’s servers or another computer of your choice. Just plug in the stick into your trusted PC, configure it once, and you’re ready to go.
With one half of the iTwin left plugged in your trusted PC, you can use the other half to tunnel all traffic through your trusted PC no matter which network you’re currently on. Naturally, both PCs will first have to be connected to the Internet.
Additionally, you can also choose to tunnel your traffic through iTwin’s servers, which are located in the US. This means easy access to geographically-restricted content such as Netflix or Hulu.
iTwin Connect also supports Windows Remote Desktop, and protects all data transfer with industrial strength AES 256-bit encryption.
Of course, your operating system already has built-in VPN features. But these features require the appropriate know-how and a VPN service that may come with a monthly/annual fee.
On the other hand, iTwin Connect requires only a one-time payment of US$129, and the plug-and-play design makes it easy for anyone to use.
Unfortunately, even though they look identical, existing iTwin owners hoping to get these new features through a firmware update will be disappointed, as the internal hardware is different.
The company is also not ruling out implementing a monthly data limit or data charge if the device proves too popular for iTwin’s servers to handle.
The main benefit iTwin brings to the table is user friendliness, and I can certainly imagine many use cases for everyone, from streaming movies to accessing sensitive information through public WiFi.
