At Pepcom Wine and Dine 2009 I was introduced to SnapHaven.com, a website dedicated to storing your pictures; think of it as a time capsule for your picture memories. There are many other websites dedicated to doing the same thing even some of the social website have storage capability. But unlike those websites, SnapHaven has a guarantee of 99 yrs to protect you from loss. If you think you can just put it on a storage drive, a DVD, Ziploc bag or something… well, you can and I have, but I have been lucky that the CD with pics I was able to salvage. Some of the ones I had movies on were gone. I didn't take into account Data-Rot from temperature and just decay of the CD as they sit.
SnapHaven gives you to option to mail in your pictures via CD, flash drive, mass storage, hard copies, and even import them from other websites (please keep in mind SnapHaven only accepts Jpeg format). It also gives you two ways to upload pictures directly from your PC: Snapshots (1600x1200 pixel) or full size (the original file). Full size pictures can take up to 2 snapshot slots and once uploaded it will sort out the pictures in 3 categories: Date uploaded, Date taken, and Album name.
SnapHaven.com has a nice pricing system:
- 300 Snapshots: $8.99
- 1,000 Snapshot: s$24.99
- 5,000 Snapshots: $79.99
- 20,000 Snapshots: $199.99
10 day jump start program to upload all your photos (up to 10,000 Snapshots) for just $24.99
The Bang:
They're still your pictures and they don't automatically get copyrighted by the site, so they can't do as they like with your pics. SnapHaven can protect your pics from natural disasters, accidental deletion, computer crashes, or any other wacky thing that can happen to your PC. It's pretty simple to upload and very simple to share; you can either send a file or a link. And the nice thing is you have privacy control over who can view what.
The Slack:
Since the site just launched, the uploading has a few quirks and if you're uploading large amounts it will sometimes just stop. I did have to baby sit the uploading which I wasn't too fond of. Any little internet hiccup will have the uploading process stop and then you have to figure out where you left off. As of right now, there is no way of finding out what is the status of the upload, what pictures its actually uploading, or the amount and speed of the actual picture. I have spoken to a SnapHaven rep. and they assured me its coming very soon.
The Why:
Why the hell didn't they come up with this a few years ago? Do you know how many hours I spent trying to update my old pictures to new media? Now they can save them for as long as I live (for now, till I get imbedded nano-robots and live for a lot longer) and I won't have to worry about it.
So the first thing I wanted to know is what happens after the 99 yrs? You (Nano-technology) or your heirs get the option of renewing the contract. SnapHaven is a service of the Swiss Data Group, the only permanent data storage provider. A small amount of your payment goes to the Foundation for data Permanence, just incase the company goes under you can still salvage the photos. They store the pictures in regular servers and a back them up in a Swiss bank type vault servers. I have no doubt that they are making every effort to: save my pics, save me time and make it as convenient as possible. I give SnapHaven a TOV 4 out of 5 for its Swiss Vault set up!