While there were several things that impressed us at PMA 2007, we were particularly impressed with what we saw on the storage front. This market is beginning to respond to the demands consumers are putting on it as the mountains of digital data are getting Everest-like for Joe and Jane Foto. One company (for whom providing effective storage solutions is old hat) that had some very interesting solutions in this area was Seagate and their solutions spoke to the “on-the-go” trend we are seeing more and more of in the consumer market. Designed for college students, mobile consumers and business professionals, the new Seagate FreeAgent Go family makes, as they told us “anywhere-computing possible by putting your desktop in the palm of your hands.” Unlike many of the other portable storage solutions on the market that merely store, protect or synchronize images and such between PCs, the Seagate solution allows the consumer to carry their computing environment with them – including Web favorites, passwords and settings, IM, e-mail, contacts and digital files – without having to haul around a laptop or desktop PC. By simply plugging a FreeAgent Go data mover into any Windows computer’s USB 2.0 port the user can have their personal computing experience with them wherever they go.
In addition to this, when the user is finished, their private information and personalized settings are stored on the FreeAgent Go data mover, not on the host computer. When unplugged, they leave no trace on the host computer – no passwords, no files, and no Web history. File encryption is provided for additional data security, and you can synchronize any digital file from any number of computers at the home or office. The design is sleek and very compact with pretty sleek MSRPs as well: FreeAgent Go Small is $139.99 (12GB); FreeAgent Go ranges from $129.99 (80GB) to $189.99 (160GB).
Pretty slick little tool and one that makes data storage both fun and easy – a winning combo in today’s imaging market for sure. We’ll be taking a closer look at this category in future issues of Picture Business as companies like SanDisk, Lexar, Sony, HP, Imation and more as well as several Net-based companies showcased some exciting image storage and retrieval solutions.
