Pogoplug bills itself as “cloud storage for your mobile life”, so given recent debates and discussions about online backups, connectivity and streaming for mobile devices, such as Android phones and iPads, I was rather intrigued to receive a neat package from the company containing a neat little box of tricks known as a “pogoplug mobile”. I’ve now connected the unassuming box to a power supply, inserted an SD card and attached the supplied network cable hooking it up to my router (no need to use the USB slot just yet) for Gigabit access. You can “activate” via the web as well as signing up for a free 5Gb cloud storage space on their servers (although that’s not obligatory).

According to the accompanying blurb: Pogoplug mobile serves as a mobile cloud companion, freeing devices from storage limits by allowing users to stream entire libraries of photos, music and movies from their homes to their mobile phones or tablets”. Sounds like a good idea and with the added bonus of being able to share unlimited content from devices with friends and family (privately) I was even more intrigued to get started. Next step is to register with their site to get 5Gb of cloud storage, to download the desktop uploader software (PC, Mac and Linux, thankfully) and the mobile apps (iPad, iPhone and Android versions). Once the uploader is installed, there’s the Pogoplug browser to run and login to. A “setup my stuff” wizard hand holds you through the process of uploading…well…stuff. That simply involves dragging files on to the browser window, with the option to backup to the Pogoplug cloud space right there and then. As I type, all the photos on my iPad are currently being backed up to my cloud. It may seem redundant given the existence of the Apple iCloud, but the Pogoplug space offers a lot more flexibility regarding what one can do with the uploads once their online, such as collaborative folders and social media sharing.

Most importantly, though, you needn’t use their cloud service with the Pogoplug mobile device, it can act as your own private cloud, limited in capacity only by your accessible network disk space. Attach a 1 Tb USB drive and you instantly have a 1 Tb cloud all of your own accessible securely from anywhere you can get an internet connection. You needn’t go that far a smaller USB thumb drive or an SD card will give you as large a cloud as you might need. I took a few photos this morning, inserted the SD card and they’re instantly available over my network and importantly for editing available to my iPad for playing with in SnapSeed.

Critically, with the mobile app you can backup to your home system while you’re on the road with your mobile phone camera or tablet. Web access is via your my.pogoplug.com space, but Pogoplug also allows you to share your stuff on Twitter, via Facebook and now with your Google+ Circles, which is an interesting twist on the other standard home/net streaming systems out there. Links are shortened with the company’s native “ppl.ug” link shortener.

If there were some way to get my Eye-Fi SD card which I use with my compact camera to transfer its contents wirelessly to the PogoPlug, then I could sidestep all wires adapters and make the photos on that camera almost instantaneously available to my iPad and desktop software. I am working on a tweak with the Eye-Fi software…it might just be possible…