We're not going to beat around the bush- this article practically mimics another article we wrote two weeks ago named:
How To Save Money Instantly On A Brand New iPhone 15
Why would we do this? Well, the story is much the same. Every 2 years or so, you're probably in the market for a new phone, regardless of carrier or OS preference. It seems "the more thing change, the more the stay the same" (an old French proverb: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!). We get caught in an upgrade cycle, most likely because operating systems become bloated, or phase out your old hardware. It's also more than likely that your battery doesn't last more than half a day at this point and it takes 5 minutes to load Instagram (side note- our Instagram page is here, give it a follow!)
Well two weeks ago, it was the announcement of the iPhone 15. Now, it's Google's turn, with the leak of the new Pixel 8 specs hitting the rumor mill: Practically Everything About the Pixel 8 and Pixel Watch 2 Has Been Leaked!
Just like every year is a new number or letter designated to the new Pixel, there is also that same old gotcha moment where Google will charge you a "phone tax", meaning, they will gladly charge you extra for every gigabyte they add to your phone capacity.
Rumors right now point to the base model Pixel 8 running at $699. The Pro model will come in at $899. But that's just the beginning. The $899 model will have 128 GB of space. You'll need to add on $100 for every level of drive you want to move up to. And that's what we call the phone tax: companies making you upgrade the space on your phone so they can make more profit on hardware sales.
The tax doesn't end there! Then Google is most famous for it's subscription tax- backing up that phone and all of it's daily photos that are taken with it's Google Drive subscription. Sure, you have 15 GB of free space from Google, but that amount easily disappears in just a few moments as you discover that you've been taking 10 photos a day for the past 10 years, resulting in hundreds of GB of storage!
Have you ever seen this photo above? That's your gateway to the subscription tax- paying Google for extra server space because you've been overwhelmed in curating your photos and video collections. Google has you locked in to their proprietary cloud system, paying subscription fees to all the data that your Pixel can't quite hold. That's EVERY month, and they'll try to make that FOREVER too! Once Google has you locked in to their system, it's hard to get out....
Here at Amber Headquarters (LatticeWork, Inc), we make it a daily point to give you a great alternative to that Google upgrade tax AND their subscription fees. We offer Google Drive alternatives, the Amber X and the AmberPRO, a private cloud in a small box that can sit on your desk. What is great about Amber is that you can not only choose to backup your photos to your Amber from anywhere you have an internet connection, but you can also immediately delete them off of your Pixel, so that they don't take up space. Your photos will remain safe and sound on your Amber, wherever you have it plugged in (home, office, friend's house, etc.). As an added bonus, this whole procedure can be totally seamless and run in the background!
Want more space on your Amber? Simply add any hard drive to the USB port on the back and Amber will automatically add that free space to its system! We have customers who have added 12 TB RAID-enabled hard drives to their Amber X and it works marvelously.
In other words, say goodbye to subscription fees and to Google tax (and Apple tax too!). Simply grab an Amber X for the cost that you would have bought that upgraded Pixel data. It's like getting an Amber X for free!
