We’re starting to see myriad solutions in the image storage/organization/retrieval market with many aimed at the “on-the-go” lifestyle many consumers now lead. The message to the end-user from most manufacturers seems to have moved away from the “gloom-and-doom” message from a few years back that centered on the possibility that consumers could lose all their memories, to one that speaks more to a solution for the time-crunched, on-the-go users of today. We’ll offer up but a few here.
From Fremont, Calif.-based Corsair comes the Flash Padlock family of affordable USB 2.0 drives (1-2GB). At under $30, the Flash Padlock drives feature an Auto-Locking system so the user doesn’t need to remember to enable this protective feature, it will automatically lock and protect itself after removal from the computer. With a touch-pad security PIN entry system, the drives can be unlocked quickly and confidentially for use as a standard USB flash data drive. Corsair claims the drives are impervious to “brute force” hacks or keystroke loggers that would potentially defeat a software secured USB flash drive.
Many in the imaging industry were quite impressed with Maxtor/Seagate “Save Your Life” campaign that featured images of consumer snap-shots with big pieces missing. The promotion (ces.seagate.com) was launched at CES 2007 and featured the company’s FreeAgent and OneTouch data storage solutions. The company also offers several high-capacity plug-and-play external drives in the $100 price range. Again, the key here is secure storage with an emphasis on “hip” at an affordable price.
Relative newcomer Newer Technology, Inc.(www.newertech.com) recently announced their Guardian MAXimus storage solution, a low-cost FireWire and USB2 External RAID 1 storage drive labeled by the company as being for professionals as well as consumers. Guardian MAXimus is an external storage solution that works with any computer that has a FireWire 400, FireWire 800, or USB2 interface. It provides what Newer Tech calls “live activity” backup/data redundancy, which is backup via RAID 1 hardware mirroring, so that in the unlikely event of a hard drive failure the drives’ uninterrupted full data accessibility RAID-1 redundancy will ensure that there is no data loss. The company has added a convenient front panel LED display for access and status information.
Yet another new portable solution comes from JOBO with what they cleverly call a “digital camera companion” product. Their new Spectator device features a 2.5-inch display along with several built-in media card slots. The unit’s integrated auto-verify function provides added security and gives users assurance that the copy process was successful from memory card to hard drive storage. In addition, the Spectator’s internal rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery makes it a portable digital storage device that photographers can take with them to share their images.
In the online world, there are many fun and effective solutions as well. The online video and photo sharing service Phanfare is now utilizing Amazon S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) to provide safe, secure and unlimited storage for its customers’ videos and photos. Copies of Now Phanfare’s customers’ pictures and videos have double protection as they are stored at both a Phanfare data center in New Jersey and at Amazon.com’s datacenters. For more information visit www.phanfare.com.
We’ve also been absolutely wowed by San Francisco-based Pictureal (www.pictureal.com) and their wiz-bang online solution whereby consumers send them hours of video and hundreds of stills and get back an hour-long DVD compilation of all those memories in movie form, complete with a Hollywood-style movie poster featuring highlights of what the customer sent in. Very slick solution and a variation on this theme should be showing up all over imaging retail in the years ahead…if anyone is paying attention.
As the company’s CEO and co-founder, Yogesh Sharma recently told Picture Business, “We look for smiles and a general theme of good times.” Sounds like a solid formula to us.
