How to protect your data, part two

Yesterday we looked at software solutions for data protection. Today we’ll look at hardware solutions. There are too many to list, but following are some of my favorites.

WD’s My Passport Slim line of portable hard drives offer up to 2TB capacity, a metal enclosure, and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. The included WD SmartWare Pro data protection software allows users to back up their data to their My Passport Slim and keep an extra copy in their Dropbox account. The software also lets users back up their Dropbox account to the My Passport Slim. The My Passport Slim 1TB has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $99.99; the 2TB model is $149.99 (or $129.95 through this affiliate link).

ScreenFloat includes a Shots Browser to categorize and organize screenshots taken with the app. This makes it easy to manage all your screenshots. In the Shots Browser, closed shots are collected, tagged, titled, and organized in collections or smart collections. Collections are folders that you can manually add created shots to. Smart Collections contain shots based on criteria the user specifies.

As I said, sometimes information can’t be copied and pasted easily and a screenshot may be the best way to keep such info handy. With OS X’s default screen capture utility, Grab, you have to jump back and forth between the main app you’re using and the screenshot you just took. ScreenFloat eliminates this hassle. Plus, if you need to collate information from multiple screens, Eternal Storms’ reasonably priced app handles the task with aplomb.

A 15-day demo of ScreenFloat 1.0 is available at the Eternal Storms website. You can purchase the app for US$6.99 at the Mac App Store.