Managing the thousands of documents, songs, videos and other media across laptops, smartphones and other smart devices is a cumbersome process without an easy solution.
Even with countless data management services like Dropbox and iCloud, users can still have trouble maintaining universal access across all of their devices.
Plug is a Kickstarter project that seeks to make data management a simple and stress-free process for users.
The device is small box that connects a USB device to the Internet and syncs data on the device to a storage space on the Internet. After the data transfer is complete, Plug makes your data, including music, pictures and videos, universally available across all compatible devices.
While the concept is similar to cloud storage such as Dropbox, there are differences that make Plug a new experience for users. For example, the device has a physical presence in your home and to upload data, you simply plug in a flash drive, external hard drive or other device. The data syncs with the online storage and remains located on the physical device for easy access. With cloud services, the entire exchange takes place between your computer and the internet.
According to the Kickstarter page, users can increase storage size for any compatible device by terabytes, regardless of the original size. With this extra space comes the ability to access countless songs, movies and other media without the burden of capped storage space on devices.
In addition to just increasing storage size, Plug allows users to easily and quickly share content and it is even compatible with services such as CrashPlan which backs up data.
The creators, Cloud Guys Corporation, also place a huge focus on security. Using secure technology, the creators emphasize that only you have access to your data.
According to the Plug’s Kickstarter Campaign “The security of your Plug device is our first priority. Like a private datacenter, your Plug is far more difficult to hack than your computer. Our team works continuously with security experts to make sure it remains so. Like high security servers, your Plug will be frequently updated with security patches to keep it unaccessible from badly intentioned governments and individuals.”
Plug isn’t quite a storage service that cloud storage users are used to. According to the Kickstarter page, users own the device and their storage space, whereas other services merely rent the space. In fact, the creators emphasize that Plug is not a service, but a product that you buy once (although there are options to expand the service if you choose so).
The Kickstarter campaign explains the product’s goal, “Plug brings the kind of unity that can make or devices really work together. It opens an era where we can think of all our devices as a single group; where playing with two devices from two different manufacturers can really make us live a single and continuous experience.”
The team has been working on Plug for about two years and expects that the service will be ready to ship at the end of the year.
Plug’s Kickstarter page is open for contributions now and ends on September 8th.
Photos Courtesy of Plug
