Amber X: your personal iCloud replacement

iCloud is great to back up your photos. But iCloud is so bad to back up your photos.

Let me explain.

They give you a tiny amount of space, then you did to buy a monthly plan if you want to have more than a selfie per week worth of storage. You want to have the same plan for the whole family? You need to set up family sharing, which is not that intuitive. And the biggest problem with iCloud is that you are now locked with Apple. You need to pay every month, or your photo disappears. Did you ever try to download all your photos locally, on your computer? It’s a real pain.

Amber X is an iCloud replacement (who works with Android as well) that is set and forget, buy one and never pay again.

AmberX app3

You set up the device on your networks, you install the app on your phone, you add any number of devices (your significant other’s and kids’ phone), and then from now on they will back up your photos on the 512 GB hard drive. You delete a photo on your phone? It’s still on your Amber. You switch from an iPhone to and Android? No more iCloud? No big deal, all your photos and videos are still on your Amber.

As Amber is connected to the Internet from your local network, everything is backed up from anywhere, and you can access everything that is backed up at any time, from anywhere. That is cool.

Everything you like about iCloud, less everything you hate about iCloud. I love it.

Francis Vachon

Based in Quebec and photographer for more than 15 years, I specialize in press photography (photojournalism) and corporate and event photography.

A 2006 graduate of the prestigious photojournalism program at Loyalist College in Belleville (Ontario, Canada), I first distinguished myself by being the first runner up student of the Association of Press Photographers of Eastern Canada (Eastern Canadian News photographers Association) for the quality of my portfolio.

Back in Quebec City after an internship at the Ottawa Citizen and the Edmonton Sun, and a contract at the Windsor Star, I quickly developed a large clientele including some of the most prestigious Canadian newspapers.

In 2018, I published two books: The hidden face of photography and En photo et en Affaires