One of the companies I met at CES 2017 last week was the folks from Novathings who have built a networked storage device called the Helixee.
The first time I met them was at CES Unveiled and then I spoke with them on the CES show floor where they were featured as one of the many French companies that were at CES this year.
Helixee is part of a new trend of NAS devices that help you protect all those images and documents that are stored on our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops these days. What is unique about Helixee's solution is that the stored files do not become static and forgotten but can be accessed remotely, shared with others, and also be commented on and liked by anyone who has been granted access to the file for viewing/reading.
Helixee uses file based permissions but those are setup when a file is shared with someone and does not require extensive setup of directory based permissions, etc. In fact, Helixee calls these collections of files Spheres instead of directories. Files can be tagged and are sorted by device, type, and date to make them easy to find. Everything stored on Helixee is also encrypted to keep your data even safer. Remote access is username and password based.
Helixee started out as a Kickstarter campaign that currently has over 350 backers and raised more than 75,000 Euros, which is over $79,000 USD, and they also surpassed their goal of 70,000 Euros.
Right now Helixee is only available in Europe but they are working on making the device available in the United States and other parts of the world through distribution partnerships.
Current models that are being offered in Europe three options:
- Helixee with no hard drive for 129 Euros ($136 USD)
- Helixee with 1TB for 199 Euros ($210 USD)
- Helixee with 2TB for 269 Euros ($284 USD)
The 1TB/2TB units are currently being sold at launch prices.
Helixee did confirm that a solid state drive can be used in the device as it uses standard SATA connections. The units they ship contain mechanical (spinning) drives and the device is designed to hold a 2.5 inch drive size.
As you will see in the gallery of product images, the interface to Helixee is web based so whether it is accessed via desktop, tablet, or mobile device (web or app based access) the experience translates well across all those different size screens.
Helixee is cross platform compatible so it can be accessed and used from Windows, Mac, iOS and Android based devices.
One last note is that the backup/syncing of images from your smartphone only occur when you are connected to the same network as the Helixee device itself.
