Well Gobbler after a very long beta test cycle have finally opened for business and are taking paying customers.   It is really heartening that in these financially hard pressed times a company has taken the time to develop a product with the help of the community before asking people to pay for it. I am using their service and at last have an off site backup service that already understands Pro Tools sessions to a point as well as offering a file delivery service.   I look forward to further developments of the service and if you have any thoughts there is an excellent community forum where you can post your thoughts, feedback and ideas on how to make Gobbler better.    Don't forget you an with a free 5 gig account too

The Gobbler Team is launching monthly pricing on Monday morning.  Monthly accounts will start at $8 per month for a 25GB storage/monthly transfer account.  They will continue to have 5GB freemium accounts for new signups. So up until Monday morning, they will be offering our super-sweet reduced annual pricing, which is up to 70% off the monthly subscription price (if you were to purchase through the whole year).  Please reach out to anyone who might be interested in snatching-up this deal.  

My Pro Tools Expert colleague Russ Hughes has managed to catch up with Chris from Gobbler and there is some good news for Windows users and iPhone users, watch and enjoy....

This is the announcement from Gobbler...   We’ve released our most ambitious build yet which includes multi-factor authentication & OAuth. We now store your photos, movies & over 20 new project file formats that YOU requested! The Gobbler Team has also fixed many bugs that were reported to us through the community. Keep using Gobbler & we’ll keep building a better product for you! Version: Gobbler 0.9.8, January 13th 2012

I have been wondering if it was possible to backup other content using Gobbler and yesterday on the Gobbler blog they have shown how to do it...   It is a bit of a work around as you need to trick Gobbler in to thinking it is a DAW session folder  but you can back up any file nested within a DAW session folder that Gobbler recognises.   In order to back up general files (video, docs, images) that aren’t session files, the solution is to simply place a “session file” and “audio files” folder in that project folder. So, for example, download & use this “dummy” session called photos. Gobbler will then recognise the project folder: Drop any files you want in the folder and you can then back it up normally from within the Gobbler app.     Download the project file templates below! Docs Videos Photos   This is great for now but lets hope that Gobbler do something to make it a little easier to backup other content.

These arethe details as supplied by Gobbler on v0.9.7.2   Today we released our v 0.9.7.2 point release which addresses a number of bugs, added validation to the login window and a known Geolocation services issue that some users were experiencing.   New Features Added additional validation to login window

Gobbler have announced the pricing plans for people you have signed up and are using their free space but for whom it isn't enough space, and so would like to buy more....   +100GB for $100/year (normally $200) +250 GB for $225/year (normally $400) +500 GB for $400/year (normally $600) These are all annual plans that will only be available from now until February 2012.  All plans purchased as part of the early-bird promotion will be valid from the date of purchase until February 2013, at which point you'll be able to renew your plan at same rate you originally purchased it for.  We'll be offering pay-as-you-go monthly plans in February.

As long as you sign up before 7th December then you will get 25GB free space on the Gobbler servers to store backups of your Pro Tools and other DAW projects safely in the cloud. But some of you have asked what will happen after today. The simple answer is if you sign up after today then you will only get 5GB of free space, but there is also the mater of what happens to your free space once Gobbler start charging for space. This is what Chris from Gobbler has to say....

I have been talking about Gobbler alot over the last 12 months, but haven't said too much about my experiences with it.   I have also been using Gobbler for ages and I respect that they have chosen the 'slow' route' to market, to test it for real with real users, yes OK they have used us to help their beta testing, but they have been very open about it, and we have had a free service in return.   Well in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I love Gobbler and use it a lot. For me it gives me that reliable off site backup that I hadn't got to date.  It is better than any of the other 'cloud based' backup options because it scans for sessions and then backs up everything inside the session folder. I really hope they can come to agreement with Avid and get proper acces to the session file so that Gobbler can read the session file and back up everything in the session file irrespective of where it is on the system. We used to have this feature with Mezzo Archiver in the days of tape based archiving but unfortunately that little company has gone to the wall. So it can be done, it has been done, so come on Avid and Gobbler please work it out soon.

The guys at Gobbler are revving up ready to start taking on paying customers and today they have released a new version of their application, v0.9.7   New Features   Send To Public is here! Gobbler users now have the option to send files to anybody in the world, and they can download it without signing up for Gobbler.

As a way to say thank you to all the beta users Gobbler has a range of options.... All Beta users get a free year of Gobbler. Even though they will be launching price plans in February 2012, all beta users will pay nothing for the space you have, until 1st Feb 2013. On 1st Feb 2013 you will have the option to keep all that space for the lowest subscription rate of $7.95 as an ongoing thank you, no matter how much space you have acquired. If you choose not to subscribe to Gobbler then you will retain any bonus referral space you have earned.  So for example, if you were one of the early beta adopters and got 50GB and then through referrals you earned another 30GB, until 1st Feb 2013 you will have 80GB for free. On the 1st Feb 2013 your free allocation will drop to 30GB - ie the bonus referral space.   If as a beta user you find you don't have enough space for all your projects then you will be able to buy additional space at up to 60% off the planned pricing which Gobbler will announce in Feb 2012. Click here to get on the list and Gobbler will send you all the details.   But don't forget you only have until 7th Dec 2011 to sign up and get 25GB of free space. After 7th Dec when you sign up you will get 5GB of free space, so sign up soon.

Gobbler will be announcing today that from December 7th when you sign up for a beta account you will get 5GB of free space. So if you want 25GB of free space then you need to sign up before 7th December.   Existing users need not worry, you won't loose your existing space, this is a change for new accounts.       Gobbler will be announcing full pricing plans in February 2012 but there will be some great deals for users who need more space now. If you want to go go on a list to get details of these offers then sign up here.   There will also be deals and offers to say thank you to all the beta testers, more details on this very soon.  

  The screen shot says it all. Apparently they have been inundated with requests from the pro audio community and as they have now got the transfer speeds up they are feeling confident that it is coming to the time where they can start charging for the service.  One interesting point. that it would be good to have clarified by Gobbler, it would appear that this scheme will be to purchase additional space over and above the space you have now, so early adopters with 50Gb and more recent adopters with 25GB, it looks like you will continue to have that space for free.     At the moment it is just a sign up list, no information, but as soon as I get any info I will bring it to you.          

Earlier this month Brent Hebber posted this on his ProToolsProfessional.com site...   I’ve been using it a little bit the last few weeks in between teaching at UTS, and its quite snazzy – scans your HDDs, you tick the projects you want to backup and it takes care of it in the background. The only thing I couldn’t find was any information about how its reading my PTF file to figure out where my files are that need backing up. The KEY THING is that its ONLY backing up audio files that reside in the “Audio Files” folder inside the folder that contains the PTF you tick – Gobbler is yet to become a 3rd party developer with Avid so their can “Read” the PTF file format, so this is the only way it can work currently. If you’re a fan, drop a line to your local Avid rep to suggest they partner with Gobbler, it would certainly make all our lives easier if we could use this service with the security of knowing its backing up all files REFERRED to by a session, rather than just the ones in the folder.

The special offer of getting 50Gb when you sign up free to the beta test of Gobbler's on line DAW back up system is coming to an end. Sign up now and you will gert 50GB of space which you can keep when they start charging around $8 per month for the service. After today when you sign up you will get 25Gb of space which you can keep for around $8 per month once they start charging.  Also by signing up you can help me climb up the scoreboard where I am currently 6th. Thanks, Mike

I posted my previous post on the Avid Audio Forum or DUC and it has created some interest so I replied with this post... If you just want a replacement for iDisk then there are a number of services out there like YouSendIt, Dreamhost, Jungledisk etc. But the great advantage that Gobbler brings is intelligent Pro Tools (and other DAWs) backup services as well as the promise of a range of other services including being able to send clients approval files and the possibility of using the same app to back up intelligently on to local drives too. Remember Mezzo? All this for the same money as Dreamhost. Remember June 27th is the last day to sign up for the beta and get 50GB of space.

Apple have announced today that iWeb publishing, MobileMe Gallery, and iDisk will all disappear as the company sunsets its current online service in favour of iCloud, according to a new MobileMe transition guide. The existing features won’t disappear immediately, though: Apple says that it will continue to host MobileMe websites and Galleries and keep iDisk operational through June 30, 2012. Thanks Apple. One of the main features and why I choose to pay for Mobile Me is to use iDisk to send approval files to clients. So I am going to have to find another service to help me do this. Makes Gobbler even more attractive!

Gobbler have released a number of tutorials to explain how their system, which is still in beta, works. The first tutorial shows you how to backup your files into the cloud using Gobbler.

This is a new on line backup system and it reads the Pro Tools session file and so backs up everything that is in the session. It reminds me a bit of Mezzo which was the only app that would read the Pro Tools session file and then backup what was needed. So that functionality has returned from the clever people at Gobbler and they are running the service in beta for free at the moment to shake it doen and find all the snags. However the current offer of 50GB of space will not last for ever. As long as youf sign up before June 27th you will get the 50GB of space. After 27th June when you sign up you will get 25GB of space on Gobbler's servers. But remember if you sign up before 27th June you will get to keep your 50Gb when they start charging for the base price of around $8 per month. Those who sign up after 27th June will get to keep 25GB of space for around $8 a month so sign up now and get that extra space.