Hand Held Hollywood officially ceased operations on September 17th, 2024. The site will remain online for archival and research purposes. The App Directory continues to receive updates as needed. If you’d like to contact Taz, the contact form is still functional. We also invite you to join Taz’s mailing list here.

Taz demonstrating hardware at Trade Show.

iWorld 2014 – My Cloud from Western Digital

It’s not often I’ll cover a hard drive on HHH. In fact, I think this is the first time. So what makes My Cloud unique? It’s a stand-alone personal “cloud” that can be used as remote storage for the videos you shoot in the field. What? Ok… let’s back up.

If you’re shooting a ton of video on your iPhone or iPad, you’re eventually going to run out of storage space. What then? Well, if you’re close to home or have a laptop, you can sync your iThing to your computer and suck those videos right into your application of choice (I’m still using iPhoto). With your videos safely transferred, you can erase them from your iDevice, free up all that space, and continue shooting. But, what if you’re nowhere near home, and don’t have a laptop with you? How can you offload your videos and free up space? With My Cloud!

The My Cloud drive lives on your home or office network (no computer needed). Using a dedicated iOS app, you can access that drive from anywhere, and upload your videos to it remotely. After the videos have uploaded, you can delete them from your device and continue shooting!

Downsides? Sure! Since we’re talking about gigabytes of data, so the upload could take hours even on WiFi. Speaking of WiFi, make sure you’re using it! Uploading that much data over a cellular network would cost a fortune (and take a week).

There are other terrific cloud solutions out there (Dropbox, Transporter, etc.), but I was attracted to My Cloud because of its ease of use and slick mobile app. Long upload times make it a less than perfect solution, but if you’re away from home, and in a bind, the My Cloud might just save your bacon.

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Man presenting on stage with a microphone and a projection screen in the background, focusing on Mobile Filmmaking.

Video: The HHH Mobile Filmmaking presentation at LACPUG

Just in case you missed my Mobile Filmmaking presentation at the Los Angeles Creative Pro User Group back in July, here’s a (low angle) video of the whole enchilada! It’s PACKED with apps and accessories you need to know! Check it out! And as always, if you dig it, share it!