“I like the idea of being able to
store more information on my
computer than I previously could
because the archives allow storage
on your computer as well. It's not
merely for emailing easier or secure
transport. It's a useful program and
if you have loads of pictures on
your computer it will free up lots
of space, allowing you to store many
more.”
April 4, 2008
BluBox -
The Digital Photo Compression Software That’ll Save Your
Computer
...I found compressing the files
easy and I like how you can still
browse through the images once
zipped which is something a lot of
other programs don’t allow.
BluBox
also lived up to its claims of
maintaining the quality of the
images as I compressed one of my
photos to a ridiculously small size
and saw no difference in quality
once it was unzipped.
This is a great piece of software
that any keen photographer should
have purchased and installed on
their computer asap...
March 24, 2008
Blubox 4
review - compression and encryption tool that shrinks
and protects your photos
...there's little doubting that
Blubox has, to our knowledge, an
unrivalled ability to shrink the
file sizes of images.
... BluBox
nonetheless is
likely to be used
for one task only,
to bring down the
size of image files.
Fortunately it's a
task it's quite
brilliant at, and
given the modest
price tag for the
software, it's a
strong purchase for
the enthusiastic
amateur digital
photographer.
Recommended
March 20, 2008
ROK Entertainment Group Inc. to Provide Blubox
Software to Samsung Semiconductor Europe Ltd.
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ROK Entertainment Group Inc. (OTCBB:ROKE),
the global mobile entertainment group, announces that it
has agreed with Samsung Semiconductor Europe Limited to
provide its digital data compression technology, Blubox,
to Samsung memory card partners and their customers
across Europe on a free trial basis beginning in April.
The deal will see on-pack promotions for Blubox on
memory cards and USB sticks powered by Samsung NAND
Flash, and marketed by Samsung distributors using their
own brands across Europe. The trial is expected to last
for three months. ROK’s Blubox application (available
online at
www.blubox.com)
compresses digital imagery by up to 95%.
Commenting on the deal, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of
ROK said, “Samsung have proven time and again that they
are at the forefront of bringing cutting edge technology
to their customers. This is a milestone deal for our
Blubox technology as it will enable millions of Samsung
memory card and USB users across Europe to benefit from
the massive compression of digital images that Blubox
brings. We look forward to a long and fruitful
relationship with them.”
Ken Jones, Vice President of Samsung Semiconductor
Europe Ltd, added, “Samsung globally holds the lead
position in the memory market. I see the fresh
initiative of offering content on memory cards to be an
important differentiating factor in the purchasing
decisions of today’s discerning consumer. This agreement
provides benefits to ROK, Samsung, Samsung’s
distributors, their retail partners and ultimately the
consumer – a win for all.”
Blubox will be offered free to all Samsung customers for
a 3-month trial period. After which, the service will be
charged at less than £20.00. ROK Blubox will generate
revenue from those who extend their free trial into a
product purchase or subscription. Revenue will be shared
equally between ROK Blubox and Samsung.
The first Samsung memory cards including the promotion
will be available in the UK in April.
About ROK Entertainment Group Inc.
ROK Entertainment Group Inc., founded in 2004, is a
global mobile entertainment group.
With 170 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40
international patents for its suite of innovative mobile
technologies.
With 3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the
mobile TV industry is forecast to become a multi-billion
dollar business within a few years.
ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to
mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G
and Wi-Fi.
About Samsung Semiconductor Europe
Samsung Semiconductor Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea, is
headquartered in Eschborn near Frankfurt/Main, Germany
and London, UK with sales offices all over Europe. The
two European headquarters are handling the marketing and
sales activities of semiconductors and TFT-LCD panels in
Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA). In addition, the
marketing and sales activities of Rotating Memories
(Hard Disk Drives/Optical Storage Solutions) for Germany
and UK are handled there.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in
semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and
digital convergence technologies with 2006 consolidated
sales of US$86.8 billion and net income of US$8.5
billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134
offices in 62 countries, the company consists of five
main business units: Digital Media Business, LCD
Business, Semiconductor Business, Telecommunication
Network Business and Digital Appliance Business.
Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands,
Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital
TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs.
Blubox is a powerful and easy-to-use software product
that lets you quickly compress and de-compress your
digital photos, making it easier and safer to share them
over the Internet.
Blubox uses the very latest image compression techniques
to reduce photos and image files by up to 95% without
sacrificing picture quality – even with pre-compressed
formats like JPEG.
Blubox allows you to email or upload your
full-resolution photos quickly.
Blubox encrypts and protects your pictures.
ROK’s Blubox was recently awarded a Gold Award by What
Digital Camera magazine.
Compression is a
straightforward way to ease the burden of multi-megabyte
files, and is offered in several shapes and forms with
Blubox. Laying claim to being the 'world's most advanced
compression and imaging software for digital
photographers', Blubox offers two types of compression -
binary, or lossless 'zip' compression, and image, or 'lossy'
compression.
The 'Binary' mode offers just one setting, yet the
'Image' mode allows the user to compress at either
'low', 'medium', 'high' or 'maximum', with the final
file or folder producing a Blubox archive file of
respectively decreasing size. The software also contains
256-bit AES encryption to guarantee the security of
personal images.
The 'Image' mode does result in the emergence of JPEG
artefacts when compressed on the higher settings.
However, this is a small price to pay for the
convenience of up to a 95% reduction in file size that
can prove invaluable when sending images in bulk.
Blubox presents a clear user interface allowing a
simple learning curve that even the novice-compressor
can grasp easily.
What's more is that the .blu archives created can be
read without the need of the Blubox software, thanks to
the free Blubox viewer downloadable from blubox.com, and
archived images can be previewed even when compressed at
the highest setting.
A great value, simple-to-use compression solution.
92% Gold Award
March
11, 2008
An image
compression tool that's so good, you'll wish it could
take photos, too!
With digital SLRs growing in popularity and compact
cameras delivering larger image sizes, hard drives
around the world are filling up with our photographic
memories.
File compression is one solution, of course,
but it's a big negative when you're after the very best
in image quality, especially with so-called
"destructive" formats such as JPEG that degrade in
quality the more you alter the files.
BluBox seeks to address the problem by compressing
files down to just a few hundred kilobytes with no loss
of quality, and has the ability to expand them again to
their original size.
It's a great idea and anyone who uploads images to
photo-sharing sites will love it. It also makes
uploading to Flickr, for example, much quicker because
you can upload high quality JPEGs at a fraction of their
original size.
Getting compressed images back to their original size
was quick and there was no adverse affects in quality.
It's a great tool that's so quick and easy to operate.
Picture Protection
You can employ BluBox to
archive huge volumes of images and this is another
failsafe if you're looking at good back-up options.
Protecting archives with passwords is easy and the
actual images are encrypted with 256-bit AES security.
Unlike many compression tools - or uploaders for that
matter - BluBox enables you to view pictures in full
screen while they're encrypted and compressed. you don't
need a separate photo organiser because BluBox does a
great job of offering the types of features found in
more costly programs such as Serif's AlbumPlus.
There's also the BluBox viewer,
which is available as a free download from the Web site.
This enables you to send archives to your friends and
family, who can then unzip your archives and view a
substantial number of images in just one email. Whether
it's a photo-sharing site or email, Blubox is a speedy
solution to cutting down file sizes and at £20 you can't
go wrong. This one comes highly recommended.
Verdict
No hassle and
produces great results 89%
Feb 18,
2008
Blubox offers a file-compression solution
specifically for digital pictures.
Due to the success of digital photography
you may never again buy another roll of film - but that doesn't
mean your digital photographs can be stored for free. Even
mobile phones can pack a 5Mp camera and all that crisp
resolution needs megabyte after megabyte of extra hard drive
space.
Worst of all, when you come to exchange an
entire digital photo album across the net you really can't
expect granny to wait while her flyblown connection wrestles
with multiples of hundreds of megabytes.
There's a simple solution to all this
kerfuffle of course. Compress the files and you'll not only save
HD space but a more diminutive file is far better suited for
easy sharing.
Blubox offers a file-compression solution
specifically for digital pictures, using its own compression
format to render even the most gargantuan image folder
relatively miniscule in mere moments.
Testing Blubox's claims to offer
swift-and-easy compression of up to 95 percent couldn't have
been easier. The program's interface is straightforward, comes
backed up with detailed yet largely unnecessary help files and
you can either just drag-and-drop individual images into a new
folder within the program or just access one that you've already
made.
Our original set of Jpegs took up
210,765,992 bytes of space and, with the program compressing to
a medium setting we were provided with an impressive 76,359,387
byte '.blu' file. The same folder compressed to maximum became
12,433,727 bytes in size. This isn't so much a quart fitting
into a pint pot as a generous gallon in a thimble.
For reasons of image quality you wouldn't
use Blubox to compress a set of highly detailed images quite so
viciously, but the test proves the program's mettle.
Blubox is fast and effective, enables users
to easily add password protection to their files and can even be
used to view images after they have been compressed.
While it would be handier if Blubox could
handle more than the .blu and .zip formats you won't find deeper
compression for quite such a decent price.
Blubox offers a file-compression solution
specifically for digital pictures.
Verdict
Since Jpegs are already compressed files,
simply using a standard zipping program won't work. Blubox
offers a slick solution specifically for digital images and
gives more than impressive results with a minimum of quality
loss. It's time to sort those albums out once and for all.
Will Johnston
Jan 29, 2008
Quickly compress and de-compress your digital photos by up to 95%, making it easier and safer to share them over the Internet than ever before!
Ever wondered what happens when you "zip" a digital
photograph? Try it and you are guaranteed to be surprised by the
fact that very little happens. ZIP - the ubiquitous compression
solution originally designed for PC nearly 20 years ago, is
simply not designed to compress or secure the rich media file
formats of the 21st century.
Launched by Blubox Software Limited
"Blubox V4" is the world's most advanced software compression
application for digital images available today. Designed to use
a variety of compression algorithms Blubox supports all "Zip"
formats, Blubox offers unprecedented compression of digital
photograph formats, with bullet proof security.
Blubox is an
exciting new software application which combines state of the
art data compression technology with industry standard
encryption. Blubox has been designed for the digital camera and
Internet consumer market; allowing a user to dramatically
improve the digital photo sharing experience over the Internet
and ensuring the protection of private and personal information.
Blubox users can:
Compress photos by up to 95% without sacrificing picture
quality
Encrypt and protect pictures using 256-bit AES encryption
technology
Dramatically reduce the time taken to send photos by email and
FTP. Send a whole album in the time it usually takes to email a
couple of photos!
Unlike other compression products, Blubox lets you view
pictures while they are still compressed and encrypted
Print directly from within the Blubox program or extract and
then print
Organise and store photos inside Blubox archives saving disk
space and protecting private information from intruders
Extract images back to their original file format for use in
other programs
Too many of today's computer and Internet users are getting
their data caught in the Zipper! Users habitually "Zip" digital
photographs believing that they are reducing the digital photo
file size for easier Internet use…..this is simply not the case.
For most, getting caught in the zipper can be an embarrassing
and sometimes painful experience.
"While working on a major
healthcare project we discovered that "Zip" compression
utilities simply could not compress digital photos which led us
to investigate the "Zip" formats in more detail" explains Peter
Boswell, CEO, Blubox Software. “After extensive research we
realised that there was a massive gap in the market for software
that could offer compatibility with the existing "Zip" products
but go much further by offering the user the ability to
significantly shrink their digital photos without sacrificing
the Hi-Resolution quality of the original image file."
For most PC users, the file formats that usually require
compression are the memory hungry digital photos and video
files. The unprecedented growth of digital image file sizes over
the last 3 years has been partly driven by the consumer's desire
for higher mega pixel CCD capacity for their personal digital
cameras and mobile phones. "Zip" provides acceptable compression
for text based files, but has been unable to cope with the
demands of the modern file formats.
By storing digital images in
a Blubox container the user is ensuring that these priceless
memories are held in a protected stable digital environment
suitable for efficient storage and communication.
June 25, 2007
Mobile Application Specialist ROK Entertainment Group Limited Buys Innovative Data Compression Company
NEW YORK, June 25, 2007 CyberFund, Inc. (OTCBB:CYFD) announced today that ROK Entertainment Group Limited, a leading mobile technology and applications development company, had acquired Blubox, a data optimization and compression developer. In May 2007, ROK announced it had agreed to be acquired by CyberFund, Inc. in a Share Exchange Agreement.
Commenting on the acquisition, Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK said, "Blubox has created the most powerful, user-friendly and original compression technologies for the management of digital imagery and data files that we have yet seen and, with our core interest being in mobile phone applications, we know there is a massive potential, worldwide, for this technology in the mobile phone space in addition to, and in conjunction with, the online service."
The Blubox photo-management application is aimed at people who wish to store and manage their digital photographs online and is available as a free download at www.blubox.com
Blubox can be shared with friends, family and colleagues for viewing and printing of photographs and other data files online.
With an estimated 90 billion digital images stored on home computers worldwide with a further 20 billion more being added annually, along with the development of increasingly powerful digital cameras, the storage of digital images is becoming an increasing problem on home computers.
"Blubox technology compresses JPEG files by 80%," said Peter Boswell of Blubox. "This not only drastically reduces the amount of space required to store images but also speeds-up the transfer of the compressed files enormously."
ROK will deploy a specially-developed version of Blubox technologies to enable the fast and effective transfer of images to and from mobile phones and to increase the number of images able to be stored on cellular devices.
"We have already seen huge interest and uptake of the PC version of Blubox since its launch in October last year, with 75,000 people experiencing the powerful compression and encryption qualities of the application," added Boswell. "We will continue to deploy Blubox in a number of ways including OEM with partners in the device hardware space."
"Given the fact that most mobiles have limited data-storage capacity and MMS is all-too often very slow and expensive to use, Blubox Mobile will make the transfer and storage of digital imagery on mobile phones far quicker and cheaper than ever before," added Kendrick, "and with ROK's global reach in the mobile space, we are hugely excited at the scale and scope of both the online and mobile potential of Blubox."
ROK is best known for its mass-market mobile TV technologies which allow the streaming of video over existing 2.5G, 3G and wi-fi networks.
Formed by Jonathan Kendrick and John Paul DeJoria in 2003 with a mandate to develop innovative technologies for the delivery of entertainment services to mobile phones, ROK has been privately financed to date. With 150 staff and offices in the U.K., U.S. and China, ROK has filed more than 40 international patent applications for it's suite of mobile technologies and applications. Additional information about ROK is available at www.rokcorp.com.
