YuuWaa, From Gemalto, Combines Online and Local Storage
With a combination of USB key for security, software and services
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on May 14, 2009 at 3:35 pmGemalto, in digital security, announced the launch of YuuWaa, an innovative solution for securely storing, backing up and sharing all types of multimedia data from one single interface. YuuWaa combines a USB flash drive with software and secured online services.
Designed for both consumers and professionals, YuuWaa enables users to conveniently drag and drop files between their local and online storage areas, and share these files with friends and colleagues. The solution offers two levels of storage capacity. YuuWaa Go is a 12GB option combining a 4GB USB flash drive with 8GB online capacity; and YuuWaa Plus has 24GB, including 8GB on the USB flash drive and 16GB online.
Both versions are available immediately from retail partners online and in stores for €19.99 (YuuWaa Go) and €29.99 (YuuWaa Plus).
Many people find it a challenge to manage large quantities of photos, videos, music tracks and documents, and feel concerned about privacy when it comes to share personal, valuable files. Although they can centralize all of these files on a PC, they often lack an easy-to-use and cost effective way to carry, share and back up them. In addition, storing large personal files on an ordinary flash drive is convenient but lacks security.
YuuWaa meets this demand by combining high-capacity online and local storage, and complementing it with easy sharing, encrypted data transmission and automatic backup in just a few clicks. For example, with just a simple drag and drop YuuWaa users can share their data to friends with a secure link to a file so that they can conveniently access it even if it is too large to be emailed.
YuuWaa creates a trusted environment where safety and data confidentiality are protected. Users quickly move files between their online and USB drive spaces, and create their own seamless ‘Digital Data Universe’.
“By bundling local and online storage, portability and security, YuuWaa provides an innovative and cost-effective way for people to keep and share their Digital Data safely,” said Juana-Catalina Rodriguez, YuuWaa sales and marketing director at Gemalto. “We’ve ensured that the YuuWaa interface is intuitive enough for experienced and inexperienced users alike.”
Following the recent and successful launch of Justaskgemalto.com, a portal addressing consumer questions on digital security and gathering their unfulfilled needs, this is the first Gemalto product proposed to consumers to concretely address their daily concerns on digital data protection.
Typical YuuWaa users include:
- Y-Generation: For frequent users of the web and social networks, YuuWaa makes it easy to store and share favorite movies, music and photos. Users can share their data with their friends with a secure link to a file so that they can access it even if it is too large to be emailed.
- Y-Travelers: For people on the move, YuuWaa is a quick and easy way to share files with colleagues and friends and ensure that files are backed up securely. They can choose manual or automatic backup to copy all the files on the flash drive to the YuuWaa secure server.
- Y-Workers: Professionals can use YuuWaa to store business documents and share them at the click of a mouse. YuuWaa also offers additional protection with 128-bit SSL encryption of all data during transmission between the user’s computer and the YuuWaa secure server.
- Y-Learners: Inexperienced users of PCs and other devices will find storing and sharing family photos and videos quick and convenient with YuuWaa. They can easily create their own Digital Data Universe without any technical knowledge.
Comments
The security is better with a USB flash key rather than to
use a password, but you need to always keep the drive in your pocket. In fact, to access YuuWaa you need your key as well as a password. But if you lose your key, you can duplicate its content on another one. The company also said that "you don't need always keep the drive in your pocket and you can access without it". So why the need of the key? Data are encrypted using 128-bit-SSL technology.
Gemalto does not offer more than a maximum of 24GB of storage - with unlimited bandwidth -, the equivalent of around six movies or, for an average PC user, a small part of its HDD. But a 50GB (16GB on the key, 34GB online) proposal is coming, the YuuWaa Pro, with a backup utility for PC, password management and more secure 256-bit encryption. A Mac version is supposed to be launched also next September, according to Juana Catalina Rodriguez, Gemalto's sales and marketing director. She also said that a version to backup portable phones will be available next year.
The price of €19.99 for YuuWaa Go in the press release is without VAT and for one year.
On the Web site, YuuWaa Plus is priced for the same period at €33.36 without VAT, and not €29.99.
Computer media company Banque Magnétique is the exclusive distributor of YuuWaa in France.
We are not really convinced that this new service adds enough functionalities to beat the current base of around 1,600 online backup services in the world. The real innovation here comes from other services including Wuala (with unlimited capacity for free) or iCloud where the data are not stored on a central host computer but on all the PCs of the subscribers in a true cloud and grid storage environment.
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