By Andrew Liszewski
Pretty much every member of my family who enjoys photography has made the switch to a digital camera but based on their varied levels of technological prowess I can only wonder how many memories end up getting lost. While most companies do ship some kind of photo management software with their cameras Polaroid believes it’s still not simple enough and has teamed up with Storage Appliance Corporation to create the Media Backup Photo Edition.
The device is basically a 40Gb hard drive that uses Storage Appliance’s ‘ClickFree’ technology to make the backing up process a no-brainer. Just connect the drive to your PC with a USB cable and it will automatically backup any and all image files on your computer. This includes some 60 different file types which is a pretty comprehensive list. The drive doesn’t even have any sync or power buttons on the outside to confuse people either, just a jack for power and a mini-USB connection. (It can be powered by the PC too where applicable.)
At $129 the price isn’t too jaw-dropping but with only a 40Gb capacity it seems you’re probably paying quite a bit for the ‘ClickFree’ technology. And of course I’m uncertain if the drive can be set to ignore certain folders on your PC you don’t want backed up. For example I would hate to see it grab a folder of rendered sequential tiff files numbering in the thousands which would fill the 40Gb up pretty quickly.
I got to demo this device at CES and it is what it states it to be “click free”. the applicaiton starts off on its own, after a short count down. There is also a feature that allows you to select which folders not to scan.
my parents will get one of these for x-mas for sure… at the same time i will gain back time i lost supporting their PC issues. ^__^