preface

With the popularity of DSLRs, digital cameras, micro cameras and smart phones, people have higher and higher requirements for images, and their eyes are more and more selective. The device configuration is getting higher and higher, and the pictures are getting higher and higher definition. Compared with the camera, the importance of smart phones is not only the call function, but also the sociability. They can share their own pictures or videos anytime and anywhere, so that more people can see their beautiful pictures.

A practical problem is that the internal storage of mobile phones is limited after all, and pictures and videos need to be regularly copied and cleaned. At the same time, some of the beautiful pictures during the business trip also want to share with their families in real time. They can be uploaded to the cloud without saying anything. There is also a risk of outflow, especially some private photos, which is a pain point for some users.

So some manufacturers have seized on this pain point and created a home cloud storage server based on photo security, such as Meibei Shell Cloud Stick 1, which can be bound to the device through the mobile app, and can actually share photos or automatically back up to the home device in a networked environment. Files are stored in a encrypted form to ensure privacy and security. In addition, it supports multi account binding and wireless projection of large screens, which makes it easy to store, play and share photos and videos.

The combination of Meibei Cloud Stick products can be divided into several types, and the combination here is the master stick+1T HDD storage disk.

Products

The old rule is to see what is worth noting before starting.

Let's talk about the advantages first

one       Beautiful design and fine workmanship

two       The product is easy to install and use, and easy to use

three       Support automatic uploading and backup of pictures and videos

four       High security, all uploaded files are stored in encrypted form, and the external storage device accessed is not recognized

five       The cloud stick hardware configuration is medium, and the storage disk is equipped with 1TB WD black disk as standard

six       High scalability, can replace hard disks or add storage disks

seven       Dual wireless network card internal and external network isolation design ensures the security of data sharing

eight       Independent power switch button

nine       Support wireless screen projection function

Talk about some items encountered in use one by one

one       Android binding is not successful, whether it is 4.4 or 5.0, Asus or Samsung, IOS can be successful at one time

two       The upgrade is slow. It takes about 35 minutes from downloading the upgrade package to restarting after the upgrade

three       A master bar must be equipped with a sub bar (storage disk) for normal use, and the master bar cannot be used alone

four       No Miracast option after upgrading to the latest version

five       The impact file of automatic synchronous backup on the mobile phone APP side cannot be seen on the device side, and the synchronous upload record is displayed as blank

six       WiFi only supports 2.4GHz

Talk about personal suggestions on the product

one       The cloud stick restart and shutdown functions are in the cloud stick settings. It is recommended to move to the main screen to facilitate user operation

two       It is recommended that APP support the password lock function to prevent the phone from being lost or viewed by others

three       It is recommended to add recognition and synchronization functions for external storage devices, such as access to card readers, and support direct playback of files in storage devices

Unpacking

The two boxes contain cloud sticks (master sticks) and storage disks. Before starting, I said that it was too difficult to open the box. I hope that the subsequent design can be improved. I have an impulse to tear the box directly.

The storage disc looks like a flying saucer. It is fashionable, beautiful and full of science and technology. The outer surface is made of aviation aluminum metal shell, which adopts anodic oxidation process, and the surface is set with frosting. The texture is excellent, without any burr. The side symmetrical design has cooling holes (100 in total), and the area and number are good, after all, to cope with the heat generated by hard disk work. In addition, the power indicator is also designed at the junction of the surface and the side, which is convenient to view from different angles.

The top center adopts a patented data interface design of three rows of six pins, which needs to be used with a cloud bar (master bar). From the design point of view, it is fixed by snap design, and the white spot on the left should be the alignment point when fixing. However, the stability needs to be verified.

There is not a screw in the whole body, which is very simple. The two symmetrical anti-skid silicone pads at the bottom not only separate the bottom from the desktop, but also have great resistance and good anti-skid effect. There are two screws under each.

After unscrewing the four screws, you can see the internal structure, a cable, a small motherboard and a 1TB WD HDD hard disk. The hard disk is the most surprising part. Although it is an HDD, it is enough to use the high-performance black disk of Western Data, because what I am using is only a blue disk, and the black disk is preferred for data storage.

Next, I will look at the master stick, which can be said to be the soul and central hub of the whole device. Without it, the storage disk cannot be used. The fuselage and storage disc adopt the same material and process. The black part protruding from the top is the acrylic panel, covering the infrared receiver and power indicator. The two ends are protective covers, which can be screwed off separately.

The interface design on both sides is the same. Does that mean that you can choose which side to match with the storage disk?

On the interface, the airframe retains the OPTICAL optical fiber interface to meet the use needs of some users; There is only one USB interface, but it is not USB 3.0. At present, there is no response when inserting an external storage device. I don't know what expansion functions will be available in the future; HDMI interface is 1.4 interface. Like most set-top boxes, it also designs a wired network jack (full duplex 1000M/100M) and an independent power switch button. The device is also wireless and adopts the design of dual wireless network cards. The unique design supports 2.4G 802.11bgn.

All the necessary interfaces are available. If there is any disappointment, it is the USB interface. USB 3.0 should be the standard configuration now.

The connection between the master bar and the storage disk is relatively simple. It can be fixed by docking and rotating. How stable is it? It is very firm. You can directly hold the cloud stick with your hand to lift it. The storage disk will not fall off when you shake it from side to side. By the way, Cloud Rod 1 is a multi-component design, and one parent rod must be equipped with one sub rod for normal use.

The light of cloud stick and storage disk is blue, which looks beautiful.

The parts are commendable. First, the infrared remote control with fewer buttons needs to be equipped with two AAA batteries; The power supply adapter adopts Huntkey Hangjia, an old factory, and the quality is naturally guaranteed. Although the HDMI cable is relatively thin, the gold-plated head design is good.

Product experience

The whole experience was a little unexpected, and there were some problems. Let's look at them slowly.

The configuration of Cloud Stick is actually the same as that of some home TV boxes, except that the system is not Android, but our own MeiOS 1.0 cloud system.

Like most devices, the first use of Cloud Stick requires network activation. However, the 1.0 system is also doomed to have some minor bugs. For example, the keyboard cannot switch the input underline, so you can only modify the WiFi password or use the wired network.

In addition, it should be noted that after the new version is upgraded, the function of wireless screen projection on the device side (as shown in the figure below) is removed. If you care, please do not upgrade. The upgrade takes a long time. It takes about 35 minutes from the start of the download to the completion of the upgrade and restart to enter the system. Personally, I like the independent function setting. If the function setting is removed, it is recommended to keep it enabled by default, so that users can connect directly.

However, it has little impact on iPhone users, because Airplay can continue to use normally without being affected.

The system is very simple. There are only three options, namely family library, help and settings. There are no other function options. Originally intended to be used as a TV box, it installed several software, copied some movies or directly connected to external storage for viewing, but the accessed storage device system did not recognize it and did not respond. However, none of the films in different formats that were manually copied to the hard disk appeared in the list, which was a great disappointment because they could not even see the films. It should be related to the safety positioning of the product, which is relatively easy to accept.

The image files synchronized to the device side are classified by the shooting date, which is clear at a glance. Randomly selected about 300 pictures of different dates mixed with some videos for verification, and the classification is correct. However, after the pictures manually uploaded to the family gallery are completed, the device side does not automatically update for display, so you need to exit the current page and enter again before displaying, which is slightly troublesome.

Because it is a device used for storage and sharing, it is necessary to use mobile APP together. In addition, there are software used together on the PC side. The name of the mobile app is Cloud Stick (V1.0.9). First register an account to log in, and then bind the device. But the binding of devices is a great challenge for Android phones. For the first time, we tried Samsung Note3 (4.4), S5 (5.0) and Asus Zenfone ZOOM (5.0), all of which ended in failure without any response. In contrast, using the iPhone 5c (9.2) successfully completed the binding task smoothly. Then, when trying to bind with Android phone, the prompt is "Please wait" (Figure 2). You can only use the iPhone login account to bind and then log in on the Android mobile terminal, so you can use the management function on the Android terminal. I hope that the bug will be solved as soon as possible, which will bring great inconvenience to users.

When you add a second subsequent account to bind the device, the mobile terminal binds it with a four digit verification code.

There are also specific requirements for the image backup mentioned in the promotion. One condition is that the storage device is a storage stick, and two must be connected to the cloud stick respectively; Second, the capacity should be the same. This means that the device in use now needs a 1TB storage disk to use the backup function normally.

Having said so much, I want to talk about the performance and security of image synchronous uploading.

Is automatic backup effective under WiFi? There are some difficulties in verification. First, the synchronized files will not be directly viewed in my home album on the device side. Second, all synchronized files exist in encrypted form on the hard disk, which cannot be confirmed one by one. Encryption is necessary and important, so that the hard disk will not be directly connected to the computer to read the internal data, Even cracking will cost a lot of manpower.

However, from the perspective of spatial changes, there are indeed files being saved. The following figure is a general picture of the spatial changes of three mobile phones, from 0.99G to 2.3G and then to 2.95G. This means that storage and operation are separated.

Files backed up by different accounts are independent and can only be viewed under the corresponding account, not in other accounts.

Experience summary

Although the functions of Meibei Cloud Stick are different from what they expected, for example, the access to external memory card does not respond, the video images copied to the hard disk cannot be displayed, etc., the file backup performance and encryption security are good, such as dual wireless network card design, separation of operation and backup, and file encryption.

In this era of ever-changing rules, the inherently insecure network cloud storage, accompanied by recent shutdowns, has also left some users scratching their heads. Compared with network cloud storage, Meibeike Cloud Stick keeps its own data files at home. Although it can't be touched, it can at least be seen. It also has the function of automatic backup of cloud storage, which is convenient and easy to worry about. On the other hand, it has played a certain role in alleviating the shortage of mobile phone storage space and personal privacy security, and of course, it has broken the distance limit to make sharing between relatives and friends more convenient.