It’s a done deal. As we reported yesterday, Motorola subsidiary Motorola Mobility has acquired cloud storage startup Zecter. Y Combinator-backed Zecter is best known for developing cloud streaming and storage services ZumoDrive and ZumoCast. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we hear from sources that Motorola is buying all of Zecter’s products, technology and the team including founder David Zhao.
Motorola says that Zecter’s technologies will be used to “enhance Motorola Mobility’s mobile content experience” by allowing users to access their content on a variety of devices. According to the release issued by the company, Motorola Mobility, which encompasses Motorola’s Mobile Devices and Home businesseswill integrate Zecter’s syncing, desktop integration, video transcoding and thin-file retrieval technologies across its device and Motoblur offerings. → Read More
Motorola is close to acquiring Zecter, the Y Combinator-backed developer of cloud storage and streaming applications ZumoDrive and ZumoCast, according to sources familiar with the matter. We hear that the deal will close this year and will likely be the last acquisition before Motorola Mobility, which is comprised of Motorola’s Mobile Devices and Home businesses, and Motorola splits into two divisions in January. According to sources, Motorola Mobility will be the entity that will be absorbing Zecter.
So why would Motorola want Zecter? The startup has a number of compelling cloud storage products that have steadily gained traction amongst users. Zecter’s ZumoDrive offers a simple cloud storage and syncing service with a slight twist. Similar to other storage services, Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But service includes a slightly different twist-ZumoDrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them. → Read More
We originally wrote about ZumoCast, a new cloud storage service, brought to us from the folks who brought us Zumodrive. ZumoCast’s application streams music, videos and files directly from your home desktop computer to another Internet connected device. Today, the startup’s free iPhone and iPad app is available in the App Store.
ZumoCast is the brainchild of Y Combinator startup Zecter, which also launched a cloud storage service Zumodrive. Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But instead of syncing those files with all of your other devices, Zumodrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them. HP has tapped Zecter to provide a cloud storage app on netbook devices and Zumodrive offers a number of mobile products. → Read More
ZumoCast is a new cloud storage service, sorta, minus the cloud. The application streams files directly from your home desktop computer to another Internet connected device.
A year and a half ago Y Combinator startup Zecter launched a cloud storage service called Zumodrive, with a twist – Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But instead of syncing those files with all of your other devices, Zumodrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them. That makes it perfect for mobile devices with limited local storage.
HP has tapped Zecter to provide cloud storage on netbook devices. And they have mobile apps for all the usual suspects. → Read More
Cloud storage and file synchronization is becoming increasingly important as users access the Internet and their data via a plethora of devices – desktop computers with large hard drives, laptops with smaller drives, and netbooks and mobile devices with relatively small internal storage. There are a lot of online storage/syncing startups and products out there to choose from, ranging from Microsoft Foldershare, dropbox and Sharpcast to pure online storage services like Wuala, box.net and drop.io.
Newcomer Zumodrive, from Y Combinator startup Zecter, enters this space with an interesting twist. Like other syncing services, Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But instead of syncing those files with all of your other devices, Zumodrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them.
That’s not such a big deal when in comes to PC-to-PC syncing where hard drive storage isn’t an issue. But I have far more music files than will fit on even my laptop. Zumodrive lets me access them (even via iTunes) in a way that makes them appear local. And when it comes to netbooks and mobile devices with very limited hard drive space, Zumodrive is a Godsend. It just appears to make your hard drive limitless in size.
One other thing Zumodrive does that’s smart is it actually syncs files you use a lot across all your devices. That way you’ll have access to those important files when you’re offline. You can right click on any file to make it local on that machine. The service also makes guesses as to other files that should be synced locally.
The product is launching into private beta today. If you’d like to try it out, we have 1,000 invitations, just use the invite code ireadtc or click here. → Read More
