You will want to use the smartphone app unless you have a lot of photos on your computer you want to transfer to the Bevy. You can only drag and drop photos and reorder your albums on your Bevy by creation time. The Windows app is fairly barebones, however. The Albums screen displays any albums you make, and Favorites displays photos that you've marked using a Heart icon. A Plus icon in the upper right corner makes it easy to upload pictures from your phone by tapping Select All or choosing pictures individually. A Timeline screen accessible from a menu in the upper left shows you each picture uploaded organized in chronological order. There, you can view all of your recent activity like when you added photos, and how many.
The smartphone app is well-designed, with an Activity timeline on the main screen that's easy to navigate. Once paired with the Bevy, you can upload all of the photos on your device with the apps.
I connected the Bevy to both a Samsung Galaxy S6 ($114.94 at Amazon) and a Windows 7 laptop for testing. Once it appears just tap it and you will get to name it and setup your account. Open the app and it will search for the Bevy.
Then, you need to download the Android or iOS app onto your smart device, or download the Windows or Mac app onto your desktop. Plug it into an HDTV with the included HDMI cable. Once you plug the box into a power outlet with the included AC adapter, it will detect your Wi-Fi network. Setup, Apps, and Performance Setting up the Bevy and its accompanying apps is simple. If you're worried about sharing too much, you can create and curate profiles and upload settings with passcodes so the Bevy app will warn you before each upload. You can also access photos on the Bevy while you're away from home, as long as it's connected to Wi-Fi. The app categorizes photos by date and organizes them into a timeline so that they're easy to find.
If someone else takes out their phone and swipes a photo then their pic will replace the previous picture. This potentially chaotic, social aspect is the Bevy's modus operandi, and could make it a big attraction for parents, grandparents, or social butterflies with a ton of photos who often host gatherings.Īnyone connected to your Wi-Fi network, or within Bluetooth range of the Bevy itself, can also upload their photos to the Bevy so long as they have the app downloaded, and you grant them access to your Bevy account.
If family members or friends have the Bevy app installed on their mobile device, and they're connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Bevy itself, they can transfer a local photo wirelessly to the Bevy by swiping their respective touch screen toward the device to make their photos appear on the TV screen instantly. The main reason to use the Bevy is to view pictures on an HDTV with the included HDMI cable, bringing back the idea of gathering around the family album, but in a digital way. You can plug in an external hard drive, too. Additionally, you can copy pictures from a Windows or Mac computer using a desktop app. And if you run out of room, you can sign up for Bevy's unlimited cloud storage backup for $60 per year once it's up and running-it's not online at this time. You can also transfer pictures directly from an SD card or USB thumb drive and transfer shots from there. You can choose to upload photos automatically-as soon they are taken-or you can manually pick and choose the shots you want to store. With those devices, you can wirelessly upload all of your photos using a free app.
As for PCs, it supports Windows 7 or later, or Mac OS X 10.9.5 or later. The Bevy works with devices that run iOS 8 or later and Android 4.3 or later. Inside you'll find an Intel 2.16GHz dual-core Celeron processor with 2GB RAM and a 1TB (or 2TB) hard drive. There's dual-band 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 to connect to Android and iOS devices. A six-foot HDMI cable comes included in the box. On the back, you'll find two more USB 3.0 ports for four in total, an Ethernet port, a VGA port, an HDMI-out port, a headphone/optical-out port, and the AC adapter port. One the side is where you'll see the SD slot, a Kensington lock slot, and a vent. On the Bevy's front you'll find two USB 3.0 ports and a headphone jack. The box is brushed aluminum, and you can choose either black, blue, or purple accents. Best Malware Removal and Protection Softwareĭesign and Features The Bevy itself is a small rectangular box that measures 4.6 by 4.4 by 2.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.5 pounds.