au Qua Station - Part 1 - The Rise and Fall of the Qua Station

 One thing I don't like about technology is obsolescence.  That is, I am happy that things are always improving, but I am not happy when things that should still be usable become unusable trash for stupid reasons.  

As an example, I have a little remote controlled robot ball ("Sphero").  My friend gave it to me, I set it up, played with it a little, and then packed it away, so be used some day.  Recently, I dragged it out when I was cleaning my room, and realized that it might make an amusing toy for my pets, so I charged it up and tried to install the app - only I couldn't, because it doesn't support the latest versions of Android or iOS.  The company is still in business - all they had to do was update their app, but they chose to make the Sphero into a piece of eWaste instead.  

Likewise, my Yasai Monogatari mini hydroponics appliance is very dependent on a phone app to function, and it wouldn't surprise me if they stop updating that app as well.  Having limited functionality is one thing, but not working at all is just silly.  

Products which rely on a vendor or 3rd party web site to work will also have the same problems if the company goes out of business or decided to stop supporting their product.  

Sadly, this happens to a lot of products.  I would advise you not to buy anything that depends on a specific app to work at all.  Things that have an open API are likely to stand the test of time much better than things that require proprietary apps to function.  

Interestingly enough, "Linux" is the answer to a lot of these issues.  Have an old PC or Mac no longer supported by Microsoft or Apple?  Try Linux.  

But some oddball devices are more trouble than they are worth, even if they originally ran Linux.  Take for example, the Pogo Plug.  That device runs Linux natively, but it is a very stripped down version linux.  There isn't enough room left on the devices to do much, and the linux version is old.  Adding new applications or commands is a pain, and trying to upgrade to a new modern version of Linux is a major hassle.  

Another good example would be the KuroBox NAS I bought a while back, which runs a special version of Linux for PPC.  The functionality was okay, but it was a bit clunky and hard to upgrade to anything other than their official firmware updates - the last of which was on 2004.  At least it still works, though, as everything is local, and you can still download the linux "firmware" images.  

The Apple Time Capsule has a similar issue.  The device is more than capable, but instead of using a web interface like everyone else, it required a special app to configure it.  Apple stopped supporting the app on more recent versions of OS X and suddenly you can't configure your NAS anymore.  Not Fun.

So if you are going to buy something:

1. Buy something that does not need a special app to use or configure it.

2. Buy something that does not need access to a special web site or web service to work.

3. Don't trust the internet.  Download all manuals, firmware, drivers, etc. and keep them safe.  

Having a nice app or online synchronization access is fantastic - but you want something that will work with at least basic functionality even if the vendor goes out of business or loses interest.  

Enter the Qua Station.  

I have seen cell phone carriers sell all kinds of junk to customers over the years.  I say "junk", but because the products are terrible, but just because I have observed that most of them end up sitting unopened in the corner.

Examples Include:

1. LTE enabled electronic picture frames

2. Portable TVs

3. Portable Smart Phone Printers

etc., etc.

The only devices I see consistently used are cell phones and portable WiFi routers.

In the fall of 2017, Au shops started carrying the Qua Station.  The idea was that this would be a NAS that you sit on the table at home, and it can back up your phone.  The device contained a 1TB hard drive.  If you remember than in 2017, the average storage capacity of a smart phone was around 32-64 GB, 1TB seems quite large.  

Basically, the idea was: You could plug your phone into the device with a USB cable when you got home to charge it and back up at the same time.  You could also connect to it via WiFi and use the au Gallery app to back up or view your photos.  On iOS due to OS restrictions it only supported Photos (and presumably Videos), but on Android it could work with music or really any type of file.  Plugging in an SD card and pressing the "copy" button on the top of the unit would trigger the device to copy all of the data from the SD card onto the hard drive.  

1TB seems like much less now that some high end phones come with 512GB of storage, but this device also acts as a backup in case your phone gets lost, stolen, or broken.  Backing up to this device doesn't use up your data like backing up to iCloud, etc., and it should be much faster.

The Qua station also supported External hard drives so you could back up the Qua station itself.  This makes sense if you were often deleting data off of your phone once you knew it has been transferred to the Qua station.

In addition to the above:

1. The Qua station could not only make its own WiFi network, but also join existing WiFi networks at the same time!)

2. The Qua station supported SMB, so that you could transfer files to/from it using a PC or Mac.  (There were also windows/mac apps for this, whereas the SMB access was for power users).

3. The unit came with an LTE card slot so that you could access it from anywhere while you were away from home even if you don't have internet at home (Which many non PC savvy people in Japan do not).  And because of course it did, it's sold by a mobile carrier.

4. The unit can also act as a WiFi hot spot, sharing the LTE connection via tethering.  This feature was not advertised much, but I think is very unique.  There are comparable NAS products without the LTE features sold by the likes of Buffalo but if you were to buy such a NAS and a separate LTE WiFi router, it would certainly cost much more.  

Contract:

The details of the plan worked like this:  

Basically speaking, only people with an Au smart phone contract could buy the Qua Station.  The standard apps from Au also basically required you have such a contract (they used SMS to authenticate).  Skimming the user manuals, it looks like there was a work-around to use non Au smart phones/tablets.  You could also connect to it via the SMB functionality in Android.  

When you signed up for the Qua Station, they would issue a SIM card for it, which would share the data from your smart phone plan.  This SIM would cost about $3 per month, but this fee was free for the first 36 months - Presumably because during that time you were making payments on the unit itself.

Speaking of the cost, the device cost a hefty￥32,400, or around $300 US.  

All of the above features make this a pretty nifty device in theory.  In particular, I thought it was genius to use the wired backup, as people might never remember to back up using an app, but people charge their phone every day.  By backing up the phone every time you plug it in to charge, you could make sure you always kept it backed up.  

The idea was, everyone would buy this, hook it up, and their phones (at least Photos) would always be backed up, and they could delete extra stuff off their phone to free up space.  They could use the au Gallery app to view and download their photos instead of Google Photos or apple iCloud.  Privacy, security, and if you were at home, speed.  

The WiFi hotspot and PC based SMB access were just a bonus.

but.. here's the problem:

People took this thing because it was cheap.  I mean it was $300, but split over 36 months that seems like nothing.  They thought "oh a cool new toy", and then when they got home they were so busy playing with their shiny new phone half of them didn't even take the Qua station out of the box.  

Also, you used to be able to get unlimited storage on Google Photos for free.  No contract, device, or self done backups needed.  Most people aren't so concerned about privacy since one of the things they want to do is share their photos anyway.  

iCloud costs money if you want to have a lot of storage, but so does the Qua station.  First for the hardware and then for the SIM.  Granted, it might cost less, but not so much so.  The current iCloud tiers are 200GB for $4 or 2TB for $1300.  That means 1TB would be around $6 (if it were available).  The Qua station might use $3 per month of electricity. (Actually, probably not, the standby power seems to be less than 5 watts).  

So, much like the photo frames and mini TVs, the poor qua station got relegated to the corner of the room or the dusty closet.  

Now it has been over 3 years since the debut of the Qua station, which means people who bought them have started to pay them off, and their free contract period has ended.  They now have to pay a monthly fee of $3 for something they aren't using.  Some people will look at their bill and say "Hey, what's what?  I don't use that."

Then the real problems started!

Firstly, I am not sure about iOS, but at least for Android, you can't even install the app anymore.  The official web page says Android 5.2 or greater is required.  5.2 is quite old, even for 2017.  Google was on to at least 7.1 by then.  I have multiple phones, but none old enough to be running Android v8 or before.  Presumably, they ended support at Android 6 or 7.  

Supporting a phone for only 2 years is a sucky thing to do, but we know everyone upgraded their phones fairly often.  Only supporting a NAS for 2 years is ludicrous.  The whole idea of a NAS is that you will have it for many years.  

I can only assume the situation for iOS is similar.  

The app store reviews are not very good either, with the average being 1.4:, and commenters calling it "Trash":

Reading the first few comments is quite illuminating, so I will translate them (loosely) here:

1. "This is such garbage! The movies that were supposed to have been saved disappeared, and the support person wouldn't help me!"

2. "Trash! First they told me it would be free to use during the campaign, but then then I found out half way through the contract that I still had to buy the unit itself.  I was by myself in the shop and didn't want to leave in the middle.  I figured if it could back up my phone that might be useful so I went ahead.  When I tried to use it, the app wouldn't read the photos, and it didn't work.  I took it to the shop, and after playing with it for an hour, they said maybe my phone was too full.  the whole reason I got this thing was because my phone was too full and I wanted to back it up, but my phone is too full to back up!?  I wasted half a day of vacation trying to get this to work.  This was the worst.  I don't even want to give it one star"

3.  "One star is too many.  I was offered this when I upgraded my iPhone, and they told me I could use this to back up my old iPhone.  I called the support number and they didn't know how to work it, but told me to call another number.  I kept getting referred around and nobody knew how to make it work.  I tried with my new iPhone but that didn't work either"

Well I am not sure if these problems were the app, staff training, or something else, but clearly people weren't too pleased about it.  

The above was based on 234 reviews, so it doesn't seem like a fluke.  

Interestingly, the Android store had a much higher average rating of 3.3 based on 432 reviews.

Let's check a couple of the star reviews just for comparison:

1.   "The shop staff recommended it to me.  I think there are a lot of people who accidentally delete all of their photos after buying it just because of how complicated and difficult it is to use".... then he goes on to complain that it was super slow or maybe just had errors, and it wouldn't complete even if he left it connected for days.  It would be better just to use some SSD or HDD plugged directly into the phone or use a photo app with free storage.  

2. I use it to back up photos.  I am not satisfied how all of the photos I downloaded from LINE show up as "No date" for the taken date.  I bought this 3 years ago, but there has been no improvements, software updates, etc.  

3. "Qua Station = Big Charger!  I wanted to buy a 100gb SD card, but the shop staff told me that with this unit, I could get 1TB and my family could all back up to here.  That sounded good, but I couldn't get it to work.  I called their service department, but we never got it working.  It does work great for charging, though.  In fact, I thought about giving two stars instead of one since it can charge two phones at once.  Still, sometimes it vibrates and if you put your phone on top, it might fall off.  I don't recommend this to potential buyers."

Here is a promotional video about the QuaStation from au.

I didn't list the positive reviews for iOS because I couldn't find any, and I didn't list positive reviews for Android because they aren't as interesting.  I am aware that unsatisfied people tend to post more reviews, but it is still interesting to see what happened as a post-mortem.  

I have to say though, that at current used prices, the Qua Station actually wouldn't be a bad buy even just to use it as a dual charger.  

It seems to me that we have a combination of very good hardware, limited software, and poor support and training that ended up with angry customers.  

Looking at the instruction manuals online, it doesn't *seem* that complicated, but the initial setup of "smart devices" is always the hardest part.  I would think that au would have an advantage here since t isn't necessary to connect this device to the WiFi of your house, and they can pre-install apps on their phone - yet still there are a lot of negative reviews.  

I manage to find an older iOS device to install au Gallery on.  When I tried, it first showed me the warning "If you have a home WiFi network, please set up the Qua Station while connected to this network" - presumably this is so it can copy the WiFi settings and send them to the Qua Station so that it can also connect to your home WiFi.  

The next screen says "Please turn the Qua station on and wait around a minute for the front panel lamp to turn green, bring your phone or tablet to within 10cm of the Qua Station, and press 'next'".  

I have read on blogs that this is because it uses BlueTooth to connect during initial setup when using an iPhone.

When I follow the instructions above and select "Next", it displays another message "Please turn off Wi-Fi and enable mobile Data".  Problematic, since this iPad has no mobile data!  More to the point, it conflicts with the instructions given above.  I am starting to see where there might be frustration.  

There is another way to connect a device without an au contract:

1. Connect to the Wifi of the Qua Server using the password printed on the box

2. Go to the au Gallery app, Settings, Qua Server Settings, Access Key.  This will ask you to input the password, and then set it up, but... apparently you have to set up the Qua station first from another working phone, because otherwise it gives an error saying that the Qua station isn't set up yet.

Judging from the comments, the people with Au contract smart phones didn't have much better luck.  

A common complaint I saw online in blogs was that it was easy to back up files to the Qua Station, but difficult to get them off.  The au Gallery app apparently doesn't have a mass download option, and using something like File Explorer on Android to connect only allows one at a time file downloads.  

Of course the File Explorer issue is simply a limitation of that software - theoretically, SMB should easily allow one to download everything from the server in short order.

I tried this, but without much luck.  I can connect to the WiFi access point generated by the Qua server from my laptops, but I can't actually log in.  Turns out that this is a common issue caused by the fact that the SMB is version 1.0!  1.0 was already old and deprecated in early 2017, and it is inexcusable that they would use that.  Microsoft apparently issued an update to Windows in late 2017 that disabled SMB protocol 1.0, meaning nobody can connect to the Qua server that way any more either.  (OS X had already disabled it years before).  

The sad thing is, this would have been so easy to get right.  Synology NAS is a good example.  You install an hard drive, set up the NAS from a computer (which is easy), and then you have wonderful apps like Synology Photos.  Synology can work without any cloud service, but there is Synology DDNS and QuickConnect for people who want to access their stuff from anywhere but don't want to bother learning about setting up DNS firewalls.  This could have been an easier version of that.  The OS is pre-installed on the flash ram, and the HDD is pre-installed, so no need for and PC or setup at all.  It has an LTE modem, so it could always have a public IP if needed.  It could have been that you downloaded an app, entered the station name and password, and you're off to the races.  It could also have allowed you to share links to your photo albums, etc., just like Synology photos - but as far as I know it doesn't have any functionality like that.  

You can read a negative review of the QuaStation (in Japanese) here.  

So we have a reasonably good idea, with great hardware, a fairly poor software implementation and absolutely bad customer support.

This is the perfect storm for people to start dumping these things for dirt cheap.  Many of them have never been used and yet they are selling for less than 10% of their original cost.  It's easy to find them for $20 - $25 including shipping right now.  That is CHEAPER than a decent HGST 1TB 2.5 inch drive of lower spec than the one included in the Qua Station!  (I have no idea why, but they included high spec HGST drives with 16MB of cache on these devices).

To me, all of this means that these devices have the perfect level of non-support to make them desirable for re-purposing.  They were sold en-masse by a major company, so they are easy to find - but they are not wanted by most of the people who bought them - so they are cheap.  They are old enough to have dropped in price a bit, but still very modern hardware.  

Most importantly, it is easy to modify them to run your choice of Linux distributions!

(More on that in our next installment).