ZumoDrive: Take Everything. Everywhere.

Posted on March 1st, 2009. Written by Arron.

How would you like to take all the photos, videos and music you currently own with you, on your iPhone? Well thanks to ZumoDrive from Silicon Valley start-up Zecter, now you can.

Released just two weeks ago, this free app could transform your iPhone from a measly device capable of storing 8 and 14GB, into a device fully capable of storing 200GB+ ..

What is ZumoDrive?
Comparable to Apple’s Mobile Me service, ZumoDrive is a cloud storage service which allows you to store music, photos, documents and more, safely and securely online.

In their words:

“With HybridCloudTM storage solution, our product ZumoDrive brings reliable, scalable cloud storage to consumers. ZumoDrive brings cloud storage to computers and smartphones without sacrificing the benefits of local storage. “

Setting up an account
If you don’t currently have a ZumoDrive account setup, it really couldn’t be easier. In order to use the free iPhone app you’ll need to download and install the free ZumoDrive software available here. Once installed, the software will ask you how big you wish to create your ZumoDrive. On registering you get 1GB of free cloud space. After this, ZumoDrive upgrade choices include:

• 10GB ($2.99 /mth)

• 25GB ($6.99 /mth)

• 50GB ($11.99 /mth)

• 100GB ($19.99 /mth)

• 200GB ($37.99 /mth)

• 500GB ($79.99 /mth)

Moving to your ZumoDrive
Once you’ve chosen your storage options, the software will create access to a virtual drive. Moving your documents and media to ZumoDrive couldn’t be easier. To do this navigate to OSX Finder, and under ‘Devices’ you’ll find your Mac’s name (for example in my case my Mac is just named ‘iMac’). Here you’ll find the new virtual drive called ‘ZumoDrive’. The rest is drag and drop. What I didn’t find interesting though was, while transferring the files to the drive no progress could be seen to depict the length of time transfers will take, other than the OSX dialog itself. I felt this to be a downside in some respects, especially compared to existing applications like Air Sharing.

Now on iPhone
Opening the app you’ll find your media set out into three initial categories including; Documents, Music and Pictures. More folders are creatable by navigating to the virtual ZumoDrive you created from OSX Finder, and like normal creating a new folder using the new folder button. Along the bottom of the app are three tabs; Files, Music and Photos. In the very top right is the drive refresh button.

Documents display as you would expect, and features while viewing documents are scarce. In this aspect, ZumoDrive just seems to be a viewing window for your stored media.

Instant Photo Albums
This caught my eye. According to Zecter when you upload photos to your ZumoDrive they are automatically processed into a fully viewable flash slideshow. So I dediced to give it a go.

“Wouldn’t it be great to see your latest photos show up on all your devices without having to sync or think? Skip time-consuming uploads and simply save your pictures in ZumoDrive as you would any other drive on your computer. The photos will then be automatically preserved and organized into photo albums! Sharing pictures in ZumoDrive is easy! Just right click on the folder to get a link. You can also embed it on your website or blog”

Lets not forgot that although this is an iPhone app, the virtual drive housing your media is server-side, and like this example your documents will be viewable online. Now although Zecter suggest you can obtain this server link by right clicking the virtual drive in Finder or Windows Explorer, you can’t. In order to get a link to a media folder you must sign in at ZumoDrive, find the folder and click ‘Get Link’.

Here’s an example of a photo slideshow auto-generated by ZumoDrive:

Supported Formats
Zumo Drive supports the following (internationally recognised) formats:

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)

• PDF

• HTML

• RTF (Rich Text Format)

• Plain text

• Audio (standard iPhone formats: MP3 and AAC (playlist support coming soon)

• Image (standard iPhone formats: GIF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, etc.)

Overall
It’s a great idea, but it’s lacking. Lacking in formats. Lacking in the amount of initial storage given before having to plunk, and compared to some other file transfer clients we’ve reviewed, it’s pretty darn slow.

However, it does have some good points. For one, instant slideshows. It works. Seamlessly. It also has an option to import all the music currently on your ZumoDrive into iTunes – just like that. Finally, the way the app plays music back resembles that of iPod.app itself (minus the album artwork).

Considering there are (admittedly) better alternatives out there already for file transfer, and with it’s good points stacked against it’s bad, we feel ZumoDrive is worth a look.

Current Status: It’s worth a look

Reviewed at: v1.03
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2.1
Download size: 0.4MB
Released on: 25th February 2009
Retails for: FREE

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G