iPhone 5

[BMH]

Hard rive failure are common to all computer, PC or Apple,  as they use the same hard drive components. Auromatic back up is critical. I had a time capsule for many years and switch to a DROBO drive becaused I needed more memory. Best system ever, I have three iMacs and a laptop on automatic back up and can add hard drives as needed. Each piece of information is automatically on two separate hard drive of the DROBO system for added safety.

Bruce

 

[woodguy7]

Bruce, is the DROBO system an Apple product ?

 

[vidkid26]

http://www.droboworks.com

 

[woodguy7]

Hmm, must be expensive.  You need to get a quote  [sad]

 

[BMH]

It's not a apple product but should be. The Drobo FS which is the network unit, goes for $499 with 5 hard drive capacity. Then you just buy any hard drive size on sell. I have a 250GB, one 500GB and one terabyte hard drive. I need to add another one in the near future. Any time you add or switch a hard drive the machine rebalance the data without any added imput from you.

I had one hard drive failure 7 years ago and it cost me $700 to retrieve part of the data. Lost a lot of documents and data. It was a awakening call for me. The average hard drive failure is one per seven years of computer use per the data retrieving  company. All of our family phot are digitalise so we are very careful to back it up on multiple hard drives.

Bruce

 

[upscale]

I know there are Apple haters out there so if you don't mind staying away from this one  [smile]

I won't reiterate my Apple hate for you, just offer up a suggestion. Have a look at the newly released Samsung Galaxy S III phone before you consider an iPhone.

 

[RC]

Drobo isn't part of Apple. They have a nifty product and to my knowlege the new models have done away with the noisy fan problems the original one had.

 

[woodguy7]

Upscale
The Samsung galaxy S3 is a really nice phone & if I was going down the android route then I'm sure that is the one I would get.  But I just have this feeling Apple will be coming out with something special with the new IPhone.  They need to as the 4S was a poor upgrade & the android phones are starting to leave them behind.
Because I am also looking at their laptop & desktop I feel it will all merge together nicely, kinda like the Festool system.  Of course I could be totally wrong & the phone could be a hugh anti-climax but I doubt it.

Cheers.

 

[upscale]

The Samsung galaxy S3 is a really nice phone & if I was going down the android route then I'm sure that is the one I would get.  But I just have this feeling Apple will be coming out with something special with the new IPhone. 

Of course, you have to decide what's best for you. Just remember one thing though during your search, there's always something better and faster just around the corner.

I'm sure you've heard the saying "He who dies with the most toys wins". That's only true if you die right after buying the newest toy. But then, it's your relatives that get to play with it.
[laughing]

 

[upscale]

Well thanks everyone for all your advise.  From reading through all the posts it seems hard drive failure is quite common ?

I like the idea of the time capsule thingy  . Really should get into the habit of backing up more often.

In regards to backing up, something you may want to look into is cloud backup. It's increasingly becoming more popular and is *very* convenient for backing up and restoring.

 

[woodguy7]

Yes, I really need to read up on what the cloud has to offer.

 

[rmwarren]

I use Carbonite, about $50/year. It works quietly in the background with no issues.

Caveat is I have not lost a hard drive since I started using it (by which you can infer what caused me to START using it...), so I have never had to test it to make sure I could get everything back without issues. It also does not backup system files (windows/installed programs), only documents/data/photos/etc.

Worth a look, not least because you can implement it with a credit card and about 20 minutes of your time. [wink] Later you can find a perfect solution.

RMW

 

[fritter63]

Yes, I really need to read up on what the cloud has to offer.

what I use (and recommend) is SugarSync. I chose it, even over MobileMe which at the time I was already paying for, simply because they (at the time at least) were the only service that was using AES 256 encryption to store the files. That means you don't have to worry about disgruntled employees or people hacking into your private stuff. For me this was important because I store ALL our financial docs as scanned images - no paper cabinets in my house.

Cost is like $5/mo I think, more storage than I'll ever need.

 

[awdriven]

File privacy is my major issue with large scale cloud based backup. They'll be able to build a safer, more robust data center than I'd ever be able to do at home - but those files are being moved over the wire and then stored by a third party. Places where large amounts of communication or data are transacted in a uniform way are prime targets for hackers. (or governments).  Strong encryption is good, but codebreaking has made significant advances in recent years and will continue to be a major area of focus.

It's more pertinent to state secrets than individuals, but today many encrypted transmissions that can't be broken are simply being stored in anticipation of the day when they inevitably WILL be able to be decrypted.  Ok, now I've got my Friday the 13th post out of the way

 

[AlexThePalex]

File privacy

That's the big reason why I myself will never use cloud service or any other form of online storage. Ultimately, there is no privacy once a file goes online.

My privacy is a lot bigger concern to me than any form of "convenience", as they call it. In fact, I find it a lot more convenient to decide for myself which of my files go to which of my devices, instead of just throwing them on one big heap where my big brother or any other of my smaller brothers can "conveniently" watch over my shoulders.

 

[upscale]

I use Carbonite, about $50/year. It works quietly in the background with no issues.

I've heard good things about Carbonite. In my case, I just bought a Samsung S3 phone and it comes with a free cloud storage option for two years if I remember correctly. I plan on trying it out and then near the end of those two years, I'll consider if I want to continue with it.

 

[woodguy7]

Well just a quick update.  Still no word on the iPhone but i did buy a 13" Macbook Air  [big grin]

 

[fritter63]

Well just a quick update.  Still no word on the iPhone but i did buy a 13" Macbook Air  [big grin]

Press conference, sept 12th:
Http://www.macrumors.com

 

[andvari]

File privacy

That's the big reason why I myself will never use cloud service or any other form of online storage. Ultimately, there is no privacy once a file goes online.

My privacy is a lot bigger concern to me than any form of "convenience", as they call it. In fact, I find it a lot more convenient to decide for myself which of my files go to which of my devices, instead of just throwing them on one big heap where my big brother or any other of my smaller brothers can "conveniently" watch over my shoulders.

The cloud services really should build in encryption so that this is not an issue. Otherwise you can do your own. It's not as convenient but that's the tradeoff.

I have much bigger concerns about privacy when it comes to banks, phone companies etc. sharing information, and advertising companies tracking users, or web mail services scanning mail to extract information. I don't belong to social networks and I have my own email server for these reasons.

One of the things I wish we had in the US that Europe has is stronger privacy laws.

 

[nickao]

I use the cloud for storage of 13 TB.

If I didn't I would have lost priceless(for me information) information already when my home network crashed.

If you buy online or use a bank online or use paypal, there is no reason not to use cloud storage where the uploads and downloads are encrypted. Out of all my files only very few do I deem so personal that I do not upload them, but 99.9% of my files I really don't care if someone steals.

Hackers want to create havoc and people that want info want social security numbers and visa numbers, etc  and who puts that on the cloud? That is all online through the banking services and the credit bureau, that should be the main concern not someone stealing your photos, software backups or other computer files.

I have had  cloud storage basically since it was available for consumers, never an issue yet. I love it.