Categories
Technology

The Guardian tells e-snoopers to get off of your cloud

guardianConcern about our digital information is at an all-time high. Between cloud services skimping on security, credit cards being swiped, major banks being hacked, and the NSA sniffing around, it’s difficult to confidently secure valuable files. BoltKey’s Guardian intends to make it easy. The silver slab offers users military grade encryption and wireless backup of up to 3TB of data, coupled with two-factor authentication requiring the included BoltKey accessory. The product’s encryption and storage may dwarf others, but products like WEDG or the Sherylbox offer more options with which to interact with data. Early birds can get their own Guardian for $199 in November 2014, while tardy turtles will get theirs in December 2014 for $249.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

How the bleep do you back up your phone?

The Premise. Even as the tools safeguarding our precious data continue to evolve,  backing up remains a headache for some and a mystery to everyone else. A few things will always stay constant: the need to backup our data, and that crushing feeling when your smartphone [insert traumatic event here] while realizing you don’t have a backup.

The Product. bleep is a hybrid smartphone cable that can charge your iOS or Android phone and back it up at the same time. By condensing the charging cable with USB storage, bleep backs up your data every single time you plug it in without affecting charge time. With the data securely stored right on the cable, you’ll be able to recover relevant data to any smartphone even after losing your own. Its physicality also allows you to do all of this even without an internet connection or computer. In addition, bleep has created a mobile app on which you can manage your backups and set your own security parameters, giving users full control over how exactly their data is protected.

The Pitch. The company’s charmingly animated video does a thorough job in clearly explaining the basic ideas behind bleep, with the only downside being the lack of an actual product in action. Bright diagrams and charts both dissecting and discussing the benefits of bleep round out the rest of the campaign, which is aiming for a $50,000 goal by October 24th, 2014.

The Perks. All bleeps come in the “Luxury Green” color and there are three capacities available. Interested backers can grab the 16GB version for $40, the 32GB version for $55, and the 64GB version for $78, along with larger packages if you have lots of clumsy friends or family.

The Potential. The bleep is an innovative take on the humble charging cable. Similar products focus solely on on-the-go charging, like Lifelink or the popular Mophie cases. bleep intelligently adds utility to the charging cable while remaining unobtrusive. It would be nice to see more color choices and there’s some legitimate concern that a cable is often easier to lose than a phone itself. But the extra premium that bleep commands seems with it in terms of convenience and piece of mind.