I’m a big fan of backing up. Do it all the time. That’s why I’m intrigued by this Iomega Superhero iPhone Back-up solution. It’s basically a charger with an SD card built in. To use it, you have to download a free iPhone app, plug in the included 4GB memory card, and drop in your phone. The app allows you to back up your contacts and other personal info to the card and it charges the iPhone. It also backs up your photos.
Once you’ve installed the app, the entire process is automatic. It produces incremental back-ups after the first, longer initial back-up. A back-up of my own iPhone took about five minutes.
The device, to be fair, is quite clever and well-designed. It’s clad in brush aluminum and there are no buttons. It is essentially a fire and forget backup system. You could, for example, carry it with you on a business trip, thereby allowing you to back up your iPhone on the go instead of connecting to a potentially nasty PC on the road. However, I worry that the average business traveller won’t want to carry this hockey puck around instead of the original, tiny iPhone charger.
It works with all of the iPhones and the iPod Touch. It does not back up your music. It costs $70.
Regardless, it makes for a great way to backup your iPhone when you plug it in for the night and, I presume, that an IT person would like this for his or her charges, thus ensuring that if the iPod is never tethered it will at least be backed-up in some capacity. While not amazing, it’s an interesting idea and an excellent implementation.
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=V2cjgxMjrRX2m5-019D2iJ31RktCmVzQ&version=2