file sharing – Backerjack

EzeeCube stacks up to rule the digital living room

The Premise. In the beginning, there was the TV, and it was good. Add to that computers, smartphones, game consoles, DVD and Blu-ray players, and suddenly there’s a giant stack of devices all trying to work with each other. Now, one product is ready to network, share files between devices, and do everything that a living room needs in a small, sleek, modular device.

The Product. EzeeCube is an unassuming media sharing center that has much larger aspirations. By installing the device’s app on a phone, with a simple tap of the screen, all of the photos, music, and video files from phones and tablets can be stored on its 1TB hard drive and accessed on any mobile device or TV. If that’s not enough storage for some people, EzeeCube has expansions that can be stacked on top of it to linkup more power, functions, or storage space.

The Pitch. EzeeCube’s promotional video is a little understated, but the concept enough is all that needs to be communicated. When viewers see the small chassis of the device combined with the power that it provides and can be supplemented with, it’s easy to start planning a garage sale for all the devices that can be disconnected from the TV. EzeeCube needs $75,000 to get through the mass production process and enhance local cloud-based file sharing everywhere.

The Perks. Being a modular device, EzeeCube offers a lot of add-ons at various tiers. The base EzeeCube is available for $199 and should be available in time for thanksgiving. EzeeTuner allows for live TV recording and playback for $39, EzeeGame supports popular 8-bit and 16-bit games for $49, and EzeePlay plays and rips Blu-ray, DVD, and music CDs for $99. Each of these products will launch between October 2014 and April 2015. The stackable EzeeDisk 2Tb expansion is $149, and backers can also add a stronger processor and more RAM for $99.

The Potential. EzeeCube on its own doesn’t do much more than other products on the market save for the simple, one-touch syncing of files between devices. Once the modular components start coming out, the wireless stacking and various functions of the devices can turn EzeeCube into a replacement for pretty much the entire living room home entertainment system. This is the all-in-one device that’s been promised for decades, and now’s the time to get one before the retail price makes it more of a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

Sherlybox lets you control your own personal cloud, lets you call it “Sherly”

The Premise. The dream of a vast public cloud of data is dying. Privacy is becoming a greater concern for almost every citizen of the Internet, and so having cloud-style features and access to files across devices and geography is great, but keeping others away from sensitive and personal files is even more important.

The Product. The Sherlybox is a RaspberryPI-powered compact desktop cloud server that can sync with almost any PC and access files over a secure connection even when devices are currently powered down. Because the files are being transferred over a personal server, everything happens behind the appropriate firewalls and there are no limits to the quantity or size of files sent across the house or the globe. With a proprietary software protocol designed specifically for larger files, the Sher.ly service and app can use almost the entirety of a network’s bandwidth to move files quickly.

The Pitch. Sherlybox’s inventor, Blazej Marciniak, and his partner Marek Ciesla introduce us to the Sherlybox with just three simple presses of its sync button. While it’s difficult to really illustrate the speed and security of such a device in a quick marketing video, the passion of the creators shows through their whole campaign, and their promises are indeed something worth considering. To make the Sherlybox a reality, Sher.ly Inc. needs $69,000 for testing, manufacture, and quality assurance.

The Perks. A Sherlybox with an open hard drive slot will be sent out in November to backers who pledge $149 or more. Anyone that wants built-in storage as well can have that hard drive slot filled with a 1 Terabyte hard drive at the $199 level. Personal touches like engraving and color choices are available at higher tier levels. All reward tiers that include the Sherlybox itself also come with lifetime licenses for the Sher.ly app.

The Potential. Despite looking more like an air freshener than a cloud server, Sherlybox offers a lot of compatibility and easy sharing options to make files private but still easy to access to those with the proper credentials. While covering all the mobile app bases may take some time, the device already plays well with Flex TV and Xbox Media Center, as well as Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, the Sherlybox is a great utilitarian device that can store and access media across multiple devices in a simple, easy, but also secure way. That extra added touch of privacy could make all the difference in standing out from competitors of this device.