The Backup Plus Hub for Mac is equipped with two integrated USB 3.0 ports on the front, meaning that you can connect and recharge your tablet, smartphone or camera—even if your system is off or in standby mode.

0 Shares How often do you do laundry? I’m slinging dirty britches on the daily! The wife and our wannabe superstar model offspring, host a lot of mock beauty pageants.

So there’s always clothes to wash. Laundry, car washes and general tidying are all thankless and never-ending tasks.

Yet we all endeavor to maintain and preserve the longevity of said items and/or their ability to function. Sadly this tenacious care-giving rarely translates to our digital space.

Halley’s Comet may return before I do another all-too-crucial system back up. That’s just silly. There are more ways to back up your system than there are buttons on your keyboard. Seagate’s Backup Plus 1TB portable drive is one of the more sophisticated ways to get that back up done. It hosts oodles of storage space and packs in a handy software suite with cloud storage and social networking integration–all while maintaining its ultra slim girlish figure. The Seagate Backup Plus portable drive is also unfazed by your petty allegiances. Are you a “Mac” of a “PC”?

It doesn’t care. The Backup Plus features a single USB 3.0 connector. This can plug in to both USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. You can also upgrade that connection by purchasing a USB-to-Firewire or USB-to-Thunderbolt adapter.

Either plays nice with Apple computers and without the need for reformatting. Carry your PC data right over to your Mac and vice versa (compatibility withstanding).

You can also snatch up a handy USB to iOS adapter for to/from data transfer on iPad, iPod and iPhone. It’s completely transparent and intensely convenient. Now sit back and watch the thing fly.

Yup the Backup Plus is a peppy worker. Transfer speeds can vary depending on system conditions and programs running in the background.

But on average this portable storage transferred 2GB in 60sec. But that time was cut in half to 30 seconds, when I transferred that same data to and from a solid state drive (30sec each way). That’s 2GB of data in 30 seconds. Not bad at all! Moving and backing up files to the Backup Plus is no different than your typical drag-n-drop work.

The device is plug-and-play. Just drop files right into the drive. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. But Seagate has included a fairly meaty set of software utilities to aid you. The Seagate Dashboard may take longer than you want to install and update, but is houses a number of cool little tricks. You can easily set automatic backups hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or continuously (for constant backups as your data changes). Need to be more hands-on?

Then dig deeper and set which files, photos, movies and software need to be backed up and when. Or just manually back it all up as needed. You can even log into your cloud storage acct of choice and back up files from or to the cloud.

Paint.NET is a free image and photo manipulation software for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. Paint.NET started development at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft and continues to be updated and maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. This Paint alternative on Mac comes free and it has two variants available depending on your Mac OS version. First is the Paintbrush 2.1.1 for Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, then the Paintbrush 1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. Scribbles is yet another Microsoft Paint for Mac. Stay Private and Protected with the Best Firefox Security Extensions The Best Video Software for Windows The 3 Free Microsoft Office Photo Editor Alternatives Get the. In fact, there’s a hidden paint program on your Mac computer that has been sitting right under your nose this whole time, and a recent pose will show you how easy it is to find. Best Layer-based Image Editor for Mac. Paint.NET may be the best photo editing software for Windows, but Pixelmator takes its position on Mac OS X. The Layer palette is one important reason for that. Layers are the basic of a rich image.

The freedom and options are there. You can also save data from your social networking accounts such as Facebook and Flickr.

Just log in and select what content you want to save to the Backup. It’s simple and ubiquitously intuitive. For many of us, Facebook is our digital family album, so It’s nice to have a literal backup in case something were to happen or–heaven forbid–you cancel your Facebook account. No matter what it entails or how you store your digital life, the Seagate Backup Plus has your “back”. It’s a portable plug-and-play storage device that goes the distance in speed and functionality. Moreover, we have an equal opportunity HDD, ready to tackle either of the major operating softwares, right out of the box and it fits in your back pocket.

Now there’s no excuse for system backup procrastination. Editor Rating: [Rating: 5/5] Perfect The Bottom Line: No complaints! I love the Backup Plus. It obscenely swift with data transfer and offers a good deal of back up flexibility.

It makes file maintenance a breeze at home or o the go! Pros • 2GB in 30sec. = SPEEDY • 100% Windows & Mac compatibility • Supports Thunderbolt connection • Sophisticated software • Affordable You can buy the Seagate Backup Plus 1TB Portable Drive at for $109.99. Gadget Review works with a variety of advertisers to help monetize the site’s traffic. This is what allows us to offer our content free of charge or without a paywall. Because of this, some of the links on this page may earn us a commission when you click thru and purchase from the associated site. However, at no time, and will it never affect our rankings or judgment of the product(s) in discussion or under evaluation. In short, we’ll always remain objective and find you the best products regardless of any monetary incentive.