I think this is definitely a cool concept:
Link: SanDisk flash drive to offer automatic Web storage | Tech News on ZDNet
When consumers store documents, photos, and music onto SanDisk’s new Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive, it will back up that digital information to a Web service offered by a start-up company called BeInSync, which stores data on Amazon.com’s computers.
You buy a 4GB flash drive and you relax… your data is backed up in the background to the web. Love it. Smart. This will rescue quite a few people. Goodness knows how many USB sticks with valuable data are lost each day.
The deal is thus:
The Cruzer, which retails for $59.99 and goes on sale in March, will come with 4 gigabytes of storage and provide six months of free online backup. After that period, a user pays $29.99 a year to continue the online storage service.
I’m particularly interested at the way the marketplace is moving — how long before your 8GB Nokia N95 is properly backed up to the internet in the background as you use the device? This kind of thing is becoming more and more realistic.
More at SanDisk.
We’re half-way there with Exchange / SyncML / GMM-type solutions for the e-mail, calendar and contacts bit and Shozu-type products do the pictures (although granted neither are intended primarily as backup solutions). However, the obvious omission is music and applications.
I’ve long been surprised that Nokia’s consumer Intellisync products haven’t had more coverage – they would seem a natural fit for expansion into this area. Perhaps with the development of Ovi?