Snapping photos is always an exciting activity enjoyed by most of the people out there, and with the advent of smartphones, it’s getting more prevalent than ever before. However, for many people, it becomes a troublesome task to store all the digital photos in one place to organize them properly. This can turn into a nightmare if more and more photos are added without caring about properly organizing them.
Nowadays, there is a whole range of software solutions available to make the life of photographers easier, but they also end up consuming a huge chunk of the processing power of the device; hence dedicated devices for managing photos were introduced in the market. They store and organize digital photos just like a typical smartphone or computer. In this article, we are going to discuss some digital photo organizing devices, how to store photos in them, and how they are useful in organizing the photos.
The following devices are some of the digital photo organizing devices available in the market. They have their own hardware, and software, and can be accessed from any location over a network. Organizing photos with them is also easy, as they have inbuilt functionalities dedicated for this task.
Monument
Monument is one of the most comprehensive devices available in the market to organize photos. It is manufactured by Monument Labs Inc., and is used to store, backup and organize pictures automatically using the location, faces, camera and time. It costs around 126 USD and is available on Amazon.
Monument collects all the photos in their original quality from all the devices connected to it, and organizes them automatically, so the user can view them at one central location. It supports SD cards, USB mass storage devices to expand the space as per requirements. It syncs photos across devices very easily as long as the user is within the Wi-Fi range to which both the devices are connected. To view photos on the big screen, it offers HDMI connection. To transfer photos from smartphones, users need to install the Monument app which helps in transferring photos from mobile to the device automatically. Monument does not charge any monthly fee and it does not have any internal space too compared to traditional Network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The user has to simply plug in the external USB mass storage device, and the file transfer will start. The best feature of this device is its scalability. If 1TB of an external device is inserted then it will save up to 70 hours of video or 150,000 photos, 2 x 1TB is inserted then it will store 140 hours of video or 300,000 photos and so on. It provides the best security, auto backup option and a single user can also create multiple accounts on it, not to forget about the feature of family accounts.
To get started with Monument, here is what you need to do:
- Download the Monument app from the following location:
https://getmonument.com/pages/apps - Connect the Monument device to a Smart TV through the HDMI cable. This is required for interacting with the device for administrative purpose.
- A Bluetooth connection is also required to be able to locate the Monument device.
- Once the Wi-Fi has located the device, connect the Monument device to a smartphone or a computer.
- Plug the Ethernet cable for receiving latest updates.
- Plug a USB mass storage to initiate the sync process.
Western Digital My Cloud
WD My Cloud is another ideal device that deals efficiently with the task at hand. It organizes and centralizes all the pictures that can be viewed at a common platform. My Cloud offers gigantic storage that runs into Terabytes, and it has a Gigabit Ethernet interface which is compatible with both OSX and Windows. It is priced around 150 USD and it does not charge any monthly fee just like Monument.
WD My Cloud helps users organize all their pictures, videos, movies, presentations, files at one place which can be accessed from any device with a Wi-Fi connection. This device also creates a backup for all the photos from any connected device automatically, so users don’t have to worry if they accidentally deleted any photos.
To get started with My Cloud, users need to follow these simple steps:
- WD My Cloud should be plugged into the Wi-Fi router.
- The user will have to visit the WD My Cloud’s official website to initialize the setup.
- Once the setup has been successful, the user should download the My Cloud app which connects all the devices. The apps can be downloaded here.
- Drag and drop all files that need to be stored on My Cloud to the app.
If, in a worse case scenario, the device crashes, users don’t need to get worried as everything is stored and backed up on My Cloud.
