The advent of the cloud has drastically changed the way that we interact with computers. The cloud has, essentially, made mobile storage – things like USB flash drives, and external hard drives – unnecessary. That is, unless you are storing a huge amount of files. In that case, you have to pay for space upgrades. There is one Kickstarter campaign, however, that wants to bring back physical, external storage.

This is the MBLOK. The MBLOK is a secure personal mobile storage, well, block. The MBLOK is loaded with 256 GB of memory. That amounts to 128 times the store in Dropbox’s free offering and and more than 25 times Box’s free offering.

The MBLOK is no ordinary flash drive. While the device can function as a normal flash drive, with a USB connection, it is much more flexible. It comes equipped with a combination of low-energy Bluetooth 4.0 and high-speed Bluetooth 3.0 +HS provides low energy use in standby while allowing transmission rates of up to 24Mbit/s when needed. The battery inside the MBLOK lasts upwards of 300 hours. Essentially, then, the MBLOK acts as a sort-of mobile cloud storage; server space in your pocket.

The functionality of the MBLOK expands beyond a simple external storage drive. The device comes with an incredibly robust application. Through the app users to take photos and videos, which are automatically uploaded to the MBLOK. The app also allows users to stream video and music from the MBLOK, without having to download and/or switch to another program. Further, headphones, heart rate monitors, wearables, and other mobile devices can pair with the MBLOK’s Bluetooth connection to allow for automatic data transfers.

Beyond that added functionality, the MBLOK and app include the traditional syncing functionality of cloud storage providers:

Mobile application allows user to set up a set of cloud folders that will be synced in two ways: every time MBLOK is plugged in a computer with MBLOK application installed or through wifi/internet connection on the phone. User has an option to not sync files that are larger than a specific size if the sync is done through the phone.¹

Currently, you can get a 128GB MBLOK for a pledge of $189 CAD (a little more than $173 USD) or the full sized 256GB version for $279 CAD (a little over $256 USD). For more info, check out the MBLOK Kickstarter campaign, and have a look at the video below.