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Elgato Thunderbolt Dock provides ports aplenty
It's a great time to be the owner of a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac! A number of manufacturers have released Thunderbolt-based docks that make it possible for you to plug in one thin cable and have access to a world of ports. The latest company to jump on Thunderbolt is Elgato, with the US$229.95 Thunderbolt Dock. Specifications Dimensions: 7 x 3.2 x 1 inch (17.8 x 8 x 2.5 cm) Weight: 9 oz (260g) Two Thunderbolt ports (10 Gb/s, bi-directional Input/Output) HDMI 1.4 Output (up to 2560x1600 pixels resolution, HDCP compliant) RJ45 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet Three USB 3.0 ports (5 Gb/s, support for bus-powered devices, UASP & USB 2.0 compatible) 3.5mm Audio Output (analog stereo, via built-in DAC) 3.5mm Microphone Input (mono, via built-in DAC) Power Input (DC 12V 5A) Design Highlights If you're one of those "a place for everything and everything in its place" OCD types, then you're going to love the Elgato Thunderbolt Dock. The back of the dock has widely-spaced and neatly arranged ports. From left to right as you look at the back of the device (see image at the top of this post), there's a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, a pair of Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, the Gigabit Ethernet port, and a place to plug in the power cable. The front is clean, with a minimum of ports -- just one SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, a 3.5mm stereo output jack and a 3.5mm mic input jack. While the front and back are black matte plastic, the rest of the dock is encased in a matte finish aluminum that matches the finish of your Mac ... except for that Mac Pro you just bought. No problem, you'll want a Thunderbolt 2 dock for it anyway. There are four rubber feet on the bottom to ensure that the dock stays in place regardless of how recalcitrant cables might want to move it around. Elgato provides a Thunderbolt cable to connect your dock to your Mac; surprisingly, not every dock manufacturer does this. Elgato says that a $199 MSRP version of the dock will be available without a cable for those who have already have one. The entire dock is light and compact enough to take with you if you need extra ports on the road. Sadly, the power supply for the dock weighs 13 ounces (with cord) and is almost as large as the dock. I honestly wish manufacturers would put a little more thought and effort into design of the power supplies. You'll want to use the Elgato Thunderbolt Dock as intended -- in one place, like your office desk. Functionality Highlights There's not a lot you can say about the functionality of a dock other than how easy it is to set up and whether or not the ports do their job. As you'd expect with a Thunderbolt peripheral, the dock is entirely plug and play with no drivers required. I connected the dock to a MacBook Pro with Retina display, then drove an HDMI-based monitor from it along with a handful of USB 2.0 and 3.0 bus-powered drives I own. Everything came up as expected, and although I did not perform benchmarks, it appeared that those drives were communicating at full speed. The Gigabit Ethernet adapter became visible on the Mac once I plugged in the dock, and I was able to connect the MacBook Pro to a Gigabit switch successfully. Price-wise, the Elgato offering is towards the lower end of the pack. Other devices we've tested include the $199 CalDigit Thunderbolt Station, the $299 Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock (available online for less than $199), and the $249 Matrox DS1. All offer similar functionality, although not all include one of the pricy Thunderbolt cables. Conclusion Elgato has created a solid, functional, and good-looking Thunderbolt Dock for use with your favorite MacBook or other Thunderbolt-equipped Mac. While it has no special features to set it apart from the other offerings on the market, its pricing and inclusion of a Thunderbolt cable put it solidly towards the top of my list in this category. Rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4 stars possible Giveaway So, do you have a Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro or Air that needs a dock companion? That's great if you do, because we're giving away one Elgato Thunderbolt Dock. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before April 15, 2014 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected and will receive an Elgato Thunderbolt Dock valued at US$229.95 Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Drobo 5N: Easy, inexpensive network-attached storage
Over the past few months TUAW has highlighted some of the storage products made by Drobo. First, we took a look at the five-drive Drobo 5D and found it to be a fast and very capable storage device. Next, we had a look at the Drobo mini, which uses four 2.5-inch drives to provide a compact and still speedy solution for those who want expandable redundant storage at a decent price. Today, we'll be looking at a Drobo network-attached storage solution, the Drobo 5N (US$599.99, available online for about $515). Specifications Dimensions: 5.9 x 7.3 x 10.3 inches (150.3 x 185.4 x 262.3 mm) Weight: 8.5 lbs. (3.86 kg) without drives or power supply Power: External AC Adapter, AC Input -- 100-240VAC~2A, 50-60Hz; DC Output -- 12V, 12.5A, 150W max Interface: Gigabit Ethernet (1 port) Capacity: Varies depending on the capacity of drives inserted into the five bays and whether single- or dual-drive redundancy has been enabled. Amazon Buyer Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 stars with 112 reviews RAID capabilities: Uses Drobo proprietary BeyondRaid setup. Can be set up for either single- or double-drive failure redundancy Enclosure Specifics: Not rack-mounted, the Drobo 5N is a self-contained unit Design As we've noted in earlier reviews of Drobo equipment, the company's BeyondRaid technology makes it simple to set up a RAID mass-storage device. Drives don't have to be of the same capacity or even made by the same manufacturer -- instead, you can pop out older, smaller drives when you want and put in newer, faster and larger-capacity drives to keep increasing the capacity of the array. Setting up the device with dual-drive redundancy limits the available capacity of the Drobo 5N, but definitely gives it the ability to withstand multiple drive failures without a hiccup. It's that extra bit of insurance against data loss in those one-in-a-million cases that seem to happen more frequently than that... This unit looks identical to the Drobo 5D with the exception of the back -- where there are multiple interfaces on the rear of the Drobo 5D, here there's just a single Gigabit Ethernet port. You can use that to connect directly to a Mac (that's what I did) or to a wired network. For those situations where you want to share data with others in an office, you'll want to connect it to your fast Ethernet network. Like the Drobo 5D, this unit has an easily accessed slot on the bottom of the device for adding an mSATA SSD for caching purposes. Like the other Drobo family members, the Drobo 5N uses the Drobo Dashboard application to allow configuration and setup of the device. The app recognized the 5N almost immediately, and allowed me to set up shares and users easily -- that's another difference with this NAS device that is not available with the single-user devices. The other big difference with the Drobo 5N is that it can run apps that have been written specifically for the device. Some of those apps include CrashPlan (back up locally and in the cloud), Elephant drive (cloud backup), FireFly open-source media server for iTunes, Modoboa Mailserver, MediaTomb (free UPnP media server), MySQL, Plex media server and Transmission (BitTorrent client). Functionality/Benchmarks Setup of the Drobo 5N was a piece of cake. Without reading the directions (yes, I do have previous experience with Drobo products), I was able to install the three 1 TB, one 2 TB and one 3 TB drives into the carrier-less drive bays, plug it into my Ethernet router and fire it up. The variety of drives used shows you how the Drobo design makes it easy to mix up drive capacities and even manufacturers. The Drobo Dashboard app was already on my MacBook Pro from previous reviews, and it found the array quickly. The Drobo 5N supports CIFS/SMB, but more importantly, it supports Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). For the purposes of testing external drives and RAID arrays, we traditionally use the Intech SpeedTools QuickBench 4.0 app to run multiple cycles of read/write tests. In this case, both the Mac that was running QuickBench (MacBook Pro with Retina display) and the array were connected via Gigabit Ethernet. The MacBook Pro was using an Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter; the Drobo 5N has built-in Gigabit Ethernet; and the two were connected via a Linksys Gigabit Ethernet router. The Drobo 5N did not have the optional mSATA SSD installed for caching, so the benchmark results you see here are on the low end of what the device is capable of doing. To ensure accuracy in testing, I performed a 100-cycle complete test. This subjects the drive to sequential and random read and write tests with file sizes from 4K to 100 MB, then graphically or textually displays that information to show the "sweet spots" for a specific drive or array. For example, if your work involves shuffling around a lot of very large files, you'll probably want a drive that has peak read/write speeds for files around your average file size. Here are the test results: Sequential Read: 48.452 MB/Sec (140.504 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Sequential Write: 12.398 MB/Sec (93.245 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Random Read: 51.344 MB/Sec (116.435 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Random Write: 21.866 MB/Sec (70.410 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Large Read: 109.947 MB/Sec (341.327 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Large Write: 71.205 MB/Sec (282.060 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Extended Read: 107.690 MB/Sec (255.953 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) Extended Write: 46.833 MB/Sec (262.864 MB/Sec for Drobo 5D connected via Thunderbolt) As you'll note, the results are slower across the board for the network-attached Drobo 5N than for a Thunderbolt Drobo 5D -- but that's quite expected as these are two different animals. The Drobo 5N is all about sharing data, and in that it excels. The drive can act as a "poor man's server" for small offices, complete with the ability to set permissions and users. Through the use of Drobo Apps, the device can be an email or database server as well. Sure, a Drobo 5N doesn't provide all of the many capabilities of a "real" server, but for a small business, the combination of large, expandable and redundant storage, security and apps could be a relatively low-cost and easily supported solution. I didn't mention some of the other publicly supported Drobo apps, but the ability to run MySQL, PHP and Apache as well could make this an excellent WordPress server for a serious blogger. The bottom line? If you need large, fast storage for one person, then the Thunderbolt-connected Drobo 5D is an excellent solution. But if you want an easy-to-setup, easily supported network-attached storage solution, the Drobo 5N is the device you want to buy. Price-wise, you're looking at a really reasonable solution, too. At Drobo's online prices, a 5N with five 2 TB drives (7.26 TB of usable shared capacity) runs US$1,099. Buy the same device on Amazon at $490 and add five Western Digital 2 TB NAS hard drives for $98.95 each, and you're looking at less than $1,000. Drobo offers a standard two-year warranty for the device, with a 3-year extended warranty and enhanced support available for a fee. Conclusion Drobo's product line has matured, and for the better. We've tested all three of the professional line -- the Drobo Mini, the Drobo 5D and now the network-attached Drobo 5N -- and all of the devices are stoutly built, easy to install and relatively fast. While the Drobo 5N won't break any speed records as an Ethernet-attached device, it's still quite speedy and a very reasonably priced NAS solution. The addition of Drobo Apps adds a level of flexibility that makes the Drobo 5N a no-brainer for small business shared storage. I honestly don't know how any vendor can make network-attached storage more simple to set up or inexpensive to buy than Drobo has with the 5N. Rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4 stars possible
Belkin's Thunderbolt dock delivers plug-and-play flexibility
It's dock o'clock, thank goodness, as Belkin's long incubation period of the Thunderbolt Express Dock closed out last month. The US$299 expansion peripheral is now shipping to customers; is it worth your attention? We've had a week to put it through its paces. The most direct product comparison for the Express Dock is Matrox's $249 DS1, which we reviewed a few weeks ago. Like the Matrox unit, the Belkin dock requires but does not include a Thunderbolt cable -- so you should mentally add at least $30 to the price of each unit if you don't already have one. (Kanex sells Thunderbolt cables in lengths ranging from three meters down to one-half meter.) Design The Express Dock's industrial design went through several iterations after its original "stapler-style" preview first appeared in January of 2012. Since then the unit has gained a passthrough Thunderbolt port, lost its HDMI port, and seen an eSATA port added, then dropped, from the configuration. The unit comes with an external power brick that uses a standard three-prong plug, rather than an outlet-hogging adapter. With the Express Dock you get all the ports you need, and more. Dual Thunderbolt ports (one in, one out) line up with three super-speed USB 3 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, analog audio in and out, and a Firewire 800 port. Compared to the Matrox DS1, Belkin has delivered quite a bit more flexibility and speed, particularly for Firewire users; being able to chain several FW800 drives off the dock means one less adapter to manage, and one less Thunderbolt port on the computer tied up. I'd tag maxing out the USB 3 ports versus the Matrox unit "nice but not a blockbuster," as there's always the option of attaching a USB 3 hub to the DS1's single superspeed port if you need that expandability; I would expect that users with a lot of USB 3 devices have probably already invested in a hub to cover that need. The passthrough Thunderbolt port, on the other hand, is a big deal, and good on Belkin for sticking with this design choice through the process. Yes, you're most likely going to terminate the chain with a Mini DisplayPort adapter or connecting to a Thunderbolt monitor; still, if you have other Thunderbolt devices that can sit mid-chain (like LaCie's eSATA hub) you are going to get more mileage out of Belkin's dock than you will from the DS1. The final shipping instance of the Express Dock is low and lean, with a convenient cable passthrough that lets you run your Thunderbolt cable through the front of the device to the ports in the back. This may reduce wire clutter compared to the DS1, where the only TB connection is in the front. The rounded, unobtrusive case design on the Express Dock would be at home on most desks. It's noticeably lower-profile than the Matrox, and quite a bit less boxy and industrial-looking. I do miss Matrox's front-facing USB port a bit, as it's convenient for plugging in flash drives and other quick-use devices. Performance The best thing that can be said about a Thunderbolt dock is that you don't really have to think about it once you plug it in; that's certainly true of the Express Dock. It's completely plug-and-play, with no device issues that I could see. File transfer performance on Firewire, USB 3 and Thunderbolt was pretty much indistinguishable from directly-connected devices; I tested with a Buffalo TB/USB3 drive, an Elgato SSD and a LaCie Firewire 800 drive and didn't see any substantive differences between docked and directly-connected performance. Macworld's lab testing showed similar performance parity on file transfers. Display performance was also remarkably unremarkable, with the dock immediately syncing up to my external display via my mDP to DVI adapter. Although the Matrox DS1 dock has shown some rare loss-of-sync issues where external displays needed to be reset or reconnected to show up, I haven't seen that at all in a week of testing the "pure Thunderbolt" path on the Belkin. The Ethernet port on the dock requires no additional software or driver install to be recognized; it just shows up, as you'd expect. Since it's recognized as a new network adapter, if you want your Mac to use it as the primary connection rather than WiFi or USB Ethernet you should make sure to move it to the top of the network connection priority list. The dock does require OS X 10.8.3, so if you don't get every port behaving properly at first you might check your system version. Wrap-up Thunderbolt docks may not be the sexiest peripheral sector, but Belkin's done a solid job delivering the Express Dock to the market with enough standout features to make it worth a look. With Firewire, plenty of USB 3 ports and the flexibility of passthrough Thunderbolt, it's packing plenty of value to cover that $50 premium versus the competition. Pros Plug and play performance Thunderbolt passthrough port for flexibility Firewire 800, 3x USB 3 Cons Not inexpensive No front-facing convenience USB port Who is it for? Thunderbolt Mac owners starved for expansion ports, especially those with investments in Firewire or USB 3 devices. Here's a quick promo video from the Belkin team:
Get a USB 3.0 hub plus Gigabit Ethernet with Kanex's DualRole
Even though shipping Macs have sported USB 3.0 ports for more than half a year, compatible USB 3.0 hubs have been thin on the ground. Expanding those 4.8 Gbps ports would make better use of all that bandwidth, and the increased bus power (900mA vs. 500mA for the older USB 2.0 standard) is perfect for juicing multiple devices. What about a Gigabit Ethernet port, too? That would be sweet. Indeed, the Kanex DualRole hub delivers precisely that package -- a three-port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed hub, and a Gigabit Ethernet port besides. The combination means that you can free up ports on your current-gen Mac, especially on the Retina MBP or the MacBook Air if you need to plug into Ethernet; you can claw back either a USB port or a Thunderbolt port that would have normally been used for networking. Kanex is announcing and demoing the DualRole at Macworld/iWorld this week. In my hands-on time with the DualRole, I noted appreciatively that it includes a pigtail USB 3.0 connector built in; finding the correct cable to connect a hub might prove frustrating when most of your cable inventory is USB 2.0. That 3-inch cable tucks into the side of the compact gray and white unit (about three-fourths the length of an iPhone 5, and about twice as thick) when not in use. The three expansion USB ports are all on one of the long sides, with a fair amount of space between them to accomodate wider flash drives or other peripherals. There's a 5V power input for an optional AC adapter (not included with the hub), but I was able to power a standard 4GB flash drive and a LaCie rugged USB 3.0 hard drive simultaneously off the hub without external power and with no problems. While the USB ports on the hub are entirely plug and play, the Gigabit Ethernet port isn't quite configuration-free. Using the port requires a quick driver install and a reboot on either OS X or Windows; the driver is downloadable from Kanex's product page for the DualRole. Once I installed the driver, the Ethernet adapter showed up immediately in the Network preference pane. The DualRole is available now from Kanex's online store for US$69.00. If you're looking for a USB 3.0 hub that's easy to pack and adds networking savvy on the side, it's a find.
Netgear intros sharing-savvy N750 Premium Edition router, powerline and WiFi adapters for media fans
Netgear is giving its home networking the same sort of tuneup going into the fall that you'd give your car -- not a complete overhaul, but enough to keep it running in top form. Headlining the pack, the N750 Premium Edition router you're looking at above upgrades the original N750 through a better ability to play with others: the dual-band WiFi hotspot's ReadyShare file access expands to the cloud, while its USB support now envelops Apple's AirPrint and Time Machine as well as TiVo Storage. Media sharing mavens also get their own, more specific add-ons. The Powerline Media Extender can pipe audio (and USB printing or storage) over a 200Mbps link, with a major emphasis on AirPlay streaming; the N900 4-port WiFi Adapter is a slightly less exotic, 450Mbps wireless-to-Ethernet bridge for multi-device home theaters. If Netgear's refresh is tempting enough to prompt a trade-up, you can snag the N750 Premium Edition immediately for $120 or wait until September and October for the respective launches of the N900 adapter for $80 and the Powerline Music Extender in its single pack ($99) or dual-device starter kit ($139) editions.
Cisco rolls its first Linksys 802.11ac WiFi router and bridge, kicks off Connect Cloud app platform (video)
Cisco won't be the fastest out of the gate with an 802.11ac WiFi router, but it's certainly one of the most ambitious. The dual-band Linksys EA6500 and a companion, single-band Universal Media Connector network bridge hike the bandwidth up to 802.11ac's 1.3Gbps peak, each of them carrying their own quartet of gigabit Ethernet jacks. A pair of USB ports on the EA6500 should make sharing storage that much faster as well. If you ask Cisco, however, the real highlight is the new Cisco Connect Cloud app platform. Not unlike Novatel's MiFi apps, the software helps either manage the router itself (think parental controls) or tap into other devices around the home, including AirPlay sharing and remote camera monitoring. There's even a new SimpleTap hardware integration platform that will pair third-party WiFi gear like Onkyo receivers to a router through Android and iOS smartphone apps. Eventually, that should include a gentle NFC-based nudge. A Linksys Developer Community is starting now with six app developers already lined up, and support is due for any access point Cisco deems worthy of the Smart Wi-Fi Router name. That said, you'll have to wait awhile if you want the 802.11ac tag attached to that router at the same time. The currently-without-a-price EA6500 doesn't hit shops until early August; you'll have to wait until September for the equally priceless Universal Media Connector. %Gallery-159086%
D-Link unveils Cloud Router 1200 and 2000, dishes out WiFi in tube form
We'll admit: one of the biggest appeals for us in D-Link's new Cloud Router 1200 and 2000 is that tube shape, which is a nice break from the amorphous blobs we're used to as our WiFi routers. Not to say that there aren't convincing technical reasons to like them. Both will let you remotely administrate the 802.11n router's devices from an Android or iOS app, and they both carry four gigabit Ethernet jacks as well as a USB port for some network media storage. The differences lay exclusively in the wireless support, where the single-band 1200 caters to the frugal set at 300Mbps and the simultaneous dual-band 2000 hums along at 600Mbps. Thankfully, the prices of the just-shipping access points are both about right for what you get: the Cloud Router 1200 is a cheap and cheerful $60, and the 2000 won't strain the wallet much more at $100. You can catch the full details of our new cylindrical overlords friends after the break.
Belkin's new 802.11ac wireless routers feed next-gen networking needs
Broadcom rolled out its new wireless Gigabit 802.11ac chips in January of this year, and since then Buffalo, Netgear and ASUS have all delivered routers packing the speedy new new tech. Well, Belkin's finally joining the party with its new AC1000 and AC1200 dual-band routers sporting 802.11ac/b/g/n wireless and four Gigabit Ethernet ports. Courtesy of the ac chip inside, the $140 AC1000 delivers a max throughput of 665Mbps on the 5GHz band, while the AC1200 ups that speed to 867Mbps and will set you back $160. Once they go on sale at the end of June, you just gotta grab an appropriate ASUS laptop or find a phone packing Marvell's latest WiFi silicon and you'll actually be able to take advantage of that massive throughput -- assuming your broadband connection cooperates, of course.%Gallery-158841%
Netgear's N900 dual-band router hits 900Mbps top speed, pats itself on the back
Stopping just short of bundling its announcement with an "Eye of the Tiger" MP3, Netgear's rolling out the hyperbole carpet for its now available N900. Heralding it as "the most advanced wireless home router," the sleekly-designed $180 box packs six antennas for an extended WiFi range, and is capable of speeds up to 900Mbps -- that's with both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands delivering data at a full 450Mbps. Sure, TRENDnet's already called First! with its own 450Mbps concurrent dual-band device, but the real focus here is on the added extras. In addition to the two USB ports -- capable of 30% faster transfer rates -- Netgear's thrown in a suite of goodies, like its Genie network monitoring application, Live Parental Controls, printer sharing, video stream optimization, DLNA, gigabit wired ethernet, guest access, WPA and WPA2 security protocols, usage meter and, lastly, a shutoff timer. Clearly, this isn't your ordinary wireless router, and that's exactly the company's point. Click on past the break for the official presser.
CompuLab introduces Trim Slice H mini Tegra 2 computer, keeps desks clear of PC clutter
If you were impressed by CompuLab's Trim Slice that was released a few months back, wait'll you get a load of the new model that's on its way. Available near the end of August, the new diminutive desktop will be powered by NVDIA's Tegra 2 SoC like its elder sibling. In order to differentiate itself from the previous release, this build incorporates an accessible SATA hard disk bay, so that "ARM users are no longer deprived of choice when it comes to storage." Sounds great, right? You'll also be able to choose between two models. The Trim Slice H Diskless will allow you to add your own HDD or SSD for $279, while the $319 H250 comes with Linux pre-installed on a 250GB HDD. Both of these beasts will showcase 1GHz chips, 1GB RAM, HDMI and DVI ports, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in 802.11n WiFi, 4 USB ports, 2 SD slots, an RS232 serial port and USB Bluetooth adapter. Whew... while we catch our breath, scope out the pics in the gallery, and check the full PR below. [Thanks, Irad] %Gallery-130487%
D-Link's Amplifi networking suite keeps the whole mansion connected
Between our TVs, PCs, game consoles, and even refrigerators, most every room of our homes have devices needing an on-ramp to the information superhighway. To keep these gadgets connected, D-Link has debuted its Amplifi home networking equipment to bathe every square foot of your abode in ample bandwidth. There's the $150 HD Media Router 1000 that does 802.11n WiFi at 300 Mbps and has QoS technology to make sure your HD video streams and games are lag-free, plus four Gigabit Ethernet ports and an SD card reader. The Whole Home Router 1000 is $120 and sports similar specs sans the SD slot, but also packs D-Link's SmartBeam technology that tracks devices and "focuses beams of bandwidth" to keep you connected in every room. D-Link's $160 WiFi Booster also uses SmartBeam tech to extend your network's range via the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and put four more Gigabit Ethernet ports anywhere you choose. Lastly, the Powerline AV 500 Adapter ($100) and Gigabit switch ($200) give you screaming 500Mbps speeds from any electrical outlet. Interested? Well, they're all available now, except for the laggard Whole Home Router 1000, which isn't available until August. PR's after the break.
Netgear's N750 wireless router Newspeaks its way to 750Mbps
Believe it or not, blazing-fast WiFi routers don't have to look like anti-aircraft weapons. The new flagship device from Netgear, the N750, keeps its array of antennae stashed out of sight. Even without a gaudy design, this dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n router can hit speeds of 450Mbps over the 5GHz band and 300Mbps at 2.4Ghz, for an "aggregate combined data rate" of 750Mbps. Don't get too excited though, all that means is you can connect one device in either band without dragging down the transfer rate of the other -- you're still bound by the 450Mbps speed limit. The N750 also includes a ReadySHARE USB port for network storage, parental controls, and guest access -- not bad for $150, eh?
D-Link does the NAS dance with new ShareCenter DNS-320 and DNS-325 home servers
Many of us have a smartphone, set-top box, and a PC or two, and it's always nice (and sometimes necessary) to have access to your data no matter which gadget you've got on hand. Enter D-Link's newest ShareCenter NAS servers, the DNS-320 and DNS-325 to accomplish the task of digital distribution. Both pack dual SATA 3.5-inch drive bays for up to 4TB of total storage, a single USB 2.0 port, RAID support, integrated P2P, gigabit Ethernet, and a built in web file-server app (too bad they didn't follow QNAP's lead and give us a dedicated smartphone app as well). Available now, the $110 DNS-320's got an 800MHz processor and 128MB of RAM, while those willing to pony up $200 for the DNS-325 get 1.2GHz silicon, 256MB of memory, photo gallery and audio streaming apps, plus the ability to host your blog directly from the device. If you want a 1TB drive pre-installed, prices jump to $200 for the DNS-320 and $280 for the DNS-325 when they drop next month. A small price to pay in preparation for World Backup Day, wouldn't you say?
Logitec's new wireless router is crazy-looking, crazy fast
The new Logitec (not Logitech) LAN-WH450N/GR offers four Gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking that maxes out at a theoretical 450Mbps, and just about the wildest router design we've yet seen. Yes, it's justified by improved wireless throughput as a result of having three antennas sprouting out of the thin-bodied device, but who is Logitec trying to kid? It's a futuristic, desktop-straddling robocopter and everyone at that company knows it. Should you or the geek in your life be interested in obtaining one, the new routers are going on sale in Japan in mid-April for ¥19,000 ($230).
Verizon can almost serve GigE on existing FiOS platform, which means you'll soon be relocating
It's not like we're holding Verizon to its word or anything, but the company purportedly decided to shelve all future FiOS rollout plans back in March. Since then, however, Big Red has been talking up its fiber-based services, leaving us to wonder why it would put a stop to laying more of it. Whatever the case, the company is now gloating about hitting "near Gigabit-per-second" speeds on the existing FiOS GPON platform. For those who aren't as technically savvy, that means that FiOS can essentially saturate your Gigabit Ethernet jack, and if things got much faster, you'd need a port that's not even available on consumer machines to handle the extra data. The nitty-gritty details of the test are just past the break, but the long and short of it is this -- Verizon saw speeds of 925Mbps to a local server and over 800Mbps to a regional speed test server located some 400 miles away. Better still, this black magic was all done with very little magic at all, requiring just minor tweaks to the system in order to uncap all sorts of extra headroom. Meanwhile, your YouTube upload is being capped by Time Warner Cable at a speed too sluggish to mention. Awesome.
AT&T completes 100-Gigabit Ethernet field trial using new Cisco gear, proves it does care
Remember those network investments that AT&T was talking up just days before Time Warner slipped over an offer for help? Looks as if the firm wasn't kidding around, but there's still nothing here that should get you excited about more available bandwidth in the coming days. Utilizing that fancy new Cisco router, the carrier recently completed a live network environmental trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology (far more hasty than that 40-Gigabit stuff that's around today), but we're told that the tech isn't expected to be ready for "commercial deployment" until the "next few years." 'Course, we suspect we should be struck by the notion that the internet may actually have the proper infrastructure to keep on keepin' on once Hulu really does take over the world, but for now, we'll just have to extract a bit more joy from those vague "little things" in life.
Directly connecting and syncing content between your Mac and Apple TV
After many years together, my Linksys WRT54G and I have parted ways. In its place, I'm now using an 802.11g-based Apple AirPort Express with AirTunes that was passed along to me. Besides not wanting to fork out the extra beans (c'mon, who here isn't saving up money for an iPad) for a shiny new 802.11n Airport Express, the devices living in my current wireless ecosystem are more g-leaning. That, and I don't really need the speed of 802.11n or the ethernet cable connection afforded to me by the WRT54G. Or so I thought.
I-O Data's Giga LANDISK: the eco-friendly 750GB gigabit NAS
If that 500GB LaCie gigabit NAS didn't do it for you then try on the new RoHS-compliant (read: environmentally friendly) Giga LANDISK from IO-Data now with up to 750GB of SATA disk. That's right, another network attached storage device with room to grow off additional 1x eSATA or 2x USB 2.0 disks. Lickity quick eSATA disks allow for mirroring your precious data while an additional USB port allows you to attach a remote printer or host USB devices like digital cameras for PC-less data transfer. They've also furthered that Toshiba alliance with the ability to record HD television when connected over gigabit Ethernet to Toshiba's REGZA Z2000 series of Televisions and yeah, it plays nice with DLNA streaming devices like IO-Data's own AVel LinkPlayer. Prices start at ¥33,285 (about $285) for 160GB of disk on up to ¥92,400 (about $790) for that biggie 750GB spinner when they ship in late November. With competition on the rise and prices in free-fall, isn't it about time to move your data to the LAN? Mama always said it was good to share.
Buffalo spices up spacious NAS line
We can always count on Buffalo to keep the updates rolling for their NAS products, and thanks to cheap and expansive hard drives, we're liking where things are going. Their new 2TB TeraStation holds four drives -- we'll leave the math to you here -- and sports Gigabit Ethernet and RAID 5 compatibility. The LinkStation merely houses a single drive, up to 750GB in capacity, but keeps the Gigabit connectivity for high-speed fun. Both devices also support DLNA to keep the media flowing, but we're not so sure on price or availability. Luckily these are the "consumer" line, so the damage shouldn't be too great.
Thecus N5200 five-drive NAS
If the TellyRAID we saw yesterday is the NAS for TV nuts, we'd have to say this N5200 NAS from Thecus is the NAS for people with actual secure storage needs (lame) -- or who are just plain nuts. First, the N5200 houses five hard drives, which by our count means you could get about 3.75TB worth of 750GB drives in this thing. For networking there are four Gigabit Ethernet ports, which should hopefully keep up with most small business networks. The box runs on a Celeron M CPU to manage all the crazy storage and bandwidth, and supports USB RAID if you'd like to get all redundant on your flash drives. Thecus has added AFP and NFS network support -- along with the usual suspects -- and are even throwing in an admin utility for Macs. Overall, the device is quite feature full, and its RAID6 and RAID10 support make it a haven of redundancy. No word yet on price or availability.
