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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
Iomega releases two new StorCenter NAS drives to contain that ever-expanding data waistline
If you're an advanced user or small businessperson with a storage shortage, then Iomega's new hardware is probably trying to catch your eye. The StorCenter px2 and ix4 are a pair of full bodied NAS systems that offer a secure and speedy haven for your most important data. Using EMC storage technology, the hardware offers a personal cloud and Time Machine support for Mac using backup-fans. The barebones px2 is $500, with the prices running to $1,200 for a 6TB model, and if you're in need of something heftier, the storage-free ix4 sets you back $600, but can take up to 12TB worth of drive if you splash out $1,300.
Netgear D6300 mates 802.11ac WiFi with ADSL, risks one heck of a mismatch
When Netgear teased a next-generation cable gateway with 802.11ac WiFi, it seemed like a natural fit: WiFi that was a perfect complement to 100Mbps-plus internet speeds. Its new D6300 (not pictured here) isn't necessarily in quite in such equilibrium, depending on just who you have as an internet provider. The hardware is billed as the first ADSL modem and router combo with 802.11ac built-in, but you'll need to use the gigabit Ethernet WAN jack with a fiber or cable internet link to get the most out of that fast wireless at home -- stick to the ADSL2+ and you'll face the wonderfully lopsided combination of a 1.3Gbps WiFi router with a maximum 24Mbps internet pipe. If home network speeds trump what you'll need for the outside world, you'll still get many of the benefits of Netgear's flagship R6300, including USB printer and storage sharing. Netgear starts selling the D6300 through stores in October, although it may be just as likely to come in the arms of a DSL install technician as your own.
Synology launches DiskStation DS413j NAS server for your own private cloud
If you like your data local, but crave remote access, you've now got options like Synology's new DiskStation DS413j -- a network-attached storage (NAS) server for your own private cloud. The feature-packed box has four drive bays for a total of 16TB storage, and you can mix and match HDDs of different sizes without losing the comfort of RAID. Along with what you'd expect from NAS, its media server will stream content to your console or TV via DLNA or UPnP and push tunes to your stereo, with iOS and Android apps for couch DJing. The server will sync your files across computers if you wish, and give you access to all that data on the move via the internet or mobile apps. And, if you need more files, you can download directly using your favorite protocols -- it'll even automate them if you trust RSS feeds to make recommendations. All this can be yours for around $380, depending on the retailer, but don't forget to budget for drives to fill those empty bays. %Gallery-164329%
Toshiba launches Canvio Personal Cloud, network-attached storage with iOS and Android apps
It's been a few years now that Toshiba's been making portable hard drives, so it makes sense that the company would want to venture into larger disks as a next step. Indeed, the company just took the wraps off Canvio Personal Cloud, its first network-attached storage product. The drive itself will be offered in two flavors -- 2TB and 3TB -- but the hook, of course, is that you can use various apps to upload your files and then access them remotely. These applications include desktop software, as well as mobile apps for iOS and Android. In either case, the applications are designed to upload music, video, photos and documents, and all of this content is searchable by date and other filters. The drive will be available sometime next month, starting at $220 for the 2TB version and going up to $250 for 3TB. If you're curious, we've got hands-on photos of the UI past the break.%Gallery-163732%%Gallery-163566%%Gallery-163567%
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.
Western Digital enters the router market, higher-end models include built-in hard drives
Western Digital is no stranger to media streaming, but until now its specialty has been moving content off a set-top box and onto your television. Now, though, the company is getting into the wireless game as well: it just announced its first networking products, including four dual-band routers and an Ethernet switch. Across the board, the routers use WD's so-called FasTrack technology to prioritize bandwidth-hogging activities like movie streaming, video chats and online gaming. And, like any modern-day router worth its salt, they include options for parental controls, as well as setting up a guest network. At the high end, the N900 Central (pictured) doubles as network-attached storage, suggesting WD was eager to put its hard drive know-how to good use. That'll be available in 1TB and 2TB flavors, and you can use a WD 2 Go website to access the drive remotely. (There are also iOS and Android apps, with a Windows Phone version coming soon.) Rounding out the list, it has four Ethernet ports and one USB connection. Similarly, the N900 router is rated for top speeds of 900 Mbps, except it lacks the built-in storage. In its place, it has seven Gigabit sockets, along with two USB ports. Moving on down the line, the N750 and N600 each have four Ethernet ports and two USB openings, with the N750 maxing out at 750 Mbps and the N600 -- well, you get the idea. Lastly, that switch has eight Gigabit ports if increasing your wired connections is what you're really after. With the exception of the storage-enhanced N900 Central, these are all available today, with prices ranging form $70 for the switch, $80 for the N600, $120 for the N750 and $180 for the N900. The N900 Central won't be available until next quarter, and will cost either $300 or $350 depending on whether you go for the 1TB or 2TB model.
WD TV adds streaming options, tunes televisions near and far to your Slingbox
A raft of goodies has been tacked on to Western Digital's TV Live and TV Live Hub media players including new streams and Vudu movie downloading, but the addition of SlingPlayer might be the most intriguing. Depending on your region, you'll see new channels on the WD set-tops, including The AOL On Network, Red Bull TV, ABC iview (Australia), Acetrax Movies, Maxdome and BILD TV-App. Walmart's Vudu service will also be added, letting domestic and some foreign users buy or rent from a library of 70,000 downloadable films and TV shows. Finally, if you're a frequent traveler, you can pack your WD box and fire up the new SlingPlayer on your hotel TV to watch hometown broadcasts wherever you may be. Provided you've got a Slingbox back home, of course. To find out more and see what's available in your country, check the source or PR below. Show full PR text New International and Domestic Entertainment Options Complement WD TV® Live™ and WD TV® Live Hub™'s 'Play Anything' Popularity IRVINE, Calif., June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Digital® (NASDAQ: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV® media player family, today introduced a variety of new entertainment options for the WD TV Live™ and WD TV Live Hub™ media players. Current and new users can now enjoy Red Bull TV™, ABC iview (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Acetrax™, Maxdome, the BILD TV-App, and the AOL On Network. They can also watch live and recorded TV with the new SlingPlayer® app and save their premium HD movies to the WD TV Live Hub's internal storage with VUDU. WD's new entertainment choices add to the WD TV media player family's prodigious ability to play personal content such as videos, photos and music by supporting a wide range of media formats. Users can watch content located on any networked PC or Mac® computer in the home, from a network drive such as WD's My Book® Live™ personal cloud storage, and from any directly connected digital camcorder, camera, or USB drive. WD TV Live Hub owners can also save and share pictures and videos from outside the home, using the WD Photos™ app for iPhone®, iPad® and Android™ mobile devices. "WD continuously listens to its customers, and adds the content options they want," said Scott Vouri, vice president and general manager, WD connected home solutions. "With today's addition of hot international and domestic channels, live TV through SlingPlayer, and HD movie rentals, purchases and downloads through VUDU, the WD TV media players truly provide the most entertainment." The WD TV Live Hub is the only media player to offer direct HD movie download service for today's hottest new movie releases purchased from VUDU's large library of movies and TV shows. VUDU is a subscription-free, HD video streaming service, which offers more than 70,000 blockbuster titles including new releases, Hollywood classics, independent films, and TV shows. Because it has an integrated 1TB hard drive, the WD TV Live Hub can save and play back purchased digital content from VUDU, including the high-quality HDX™ video format that features 1080p Full HD and rich Dolby Digital Plus™ 7.1 audio. "By centralizing their entertainment on the WD TV Live Hub, our customers get high-performance full-HD movie playback without overloading their home network or cluttering up the hard drives of other PCs in the house," added Vouri. From "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol" to "The Muppets" WD brings today's top movies to the WD TV Live Hub for a cinema-like experience at home through the available VUDU service. New Services[1] Now Available: SlingPlayer (worldwide) – With a Slingbox® connected in your home, the SlingPlayer app brings your living room TV experience to your connected device in any room – around the home or around the world. The AOL On Network (US) – The AOL HD app, part of The AOL On Network, features high-definition technology, lifestyle, celebrity and entertainment content updated daily from The AOL On Network, which features video from brands like Engadget, TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and Moviefone. Red Bull TV (worldwide) – A unique online portal offering exclusive high quality programs from the World of Red Bull in HD. Available to nearly all devices – Red Bull TV offers worldwide live webcasts and a thematic catalogue of VODs complementing exclusive shows of the multimedia content of redbull.com. ABC iview (Australia) – ABC iview is Australia's most popular catch-up TV service and is run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It features 14-day catch-up from channels ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABC4Kids and ABC News 24. Acetrax movies (UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria) – Available on the WD TV Live only, this service offers blockbuster new release and library movies from the major Hollywood studios. maxdome (Germany) – Available on the WD TV Live only, the most popular German video-on-demand service maxdome delivers over 45,000 major film and TV titles. BILD TV-App (Germany) – With the BILD TV-App users navigate easily and comfortably with the remote control through Germany's largest news and entertainment portal. The application offers the latest news and videos from politics, lifestyle, entertainment and sports, as well as the pictures of the day. Availability The WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub can be purchased at select retailers and online at wdstore.com. About WD WD, a storage industry pioneer and long-time leader, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its storage technologies serve a wide range of host applications including client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own storage systems. Its home entertainment products enable rich engagement with stored digital content. WD was founded in 1970. The company's products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital®, WD® and HGST™ brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information. Western Digital, WD, the WD logo, WD TV, and My Book are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries; WD TV Live and My Book Live are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. Pictures shown may vary from actual products. Not all products may be available in all regions of the world. All product and packaging specifications subject to change without notice. As used for storage capacity, one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment. Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1dpR0)
LaCie's new 100MB/s NAS is 2big, resists that second scone (video)
Gallic storage outfit LaCie is nonchalantly unveiling its 2big double-bay NAS that's purportedly capable of pumping data around your network at 100MB/s. Designed for small businesses, it'll remind any passers by of HAL or GLaDOS, depending on their age. Sporting a 2GHz processor and the company's NAS OS2, it'll also happily interact with Windows 7 Backup or Time Machine and you can access your files on the go with the company's iOS app. It's available from today, prices starting from $299 (£187 in the UK) with a three year warranty. If you'd like to know more, then we've got a short film and some PR after the jump.
Synology outs DS412+, DS112 NAS drives, feeds the data hungry
If you're looking for somewhere to house all those high ISO shots you just took, then perhaps one of these new NAS drives from Synology will see you right. The DS412+ will be the one appealing to the big data hoarders, with four bays each capable of storing a 4TB drive (for a max total of 16). The box itself being is powered by a 2.13 GHz chip and 1GB RAM, which gives it top read / write speeds of 202.63 MB/s and 179.15 MB/s. A built-in redundancy mechanism comprising two 92 mm system fans should help prevent losing all your precious media. If you're not needing quite so much back-up, then the DS112 might be more your thing. A max capacity of 4TB ticks over with 1.6GHz processor and 256 RAM, and will take 3.5" or 2.5" drives. Both have USB 3.0 and eSata ports and run the firm's DSM4.0 operating system. You can start pouring your data inside them today, assuming you've got the $720 or $380, respectively, needed to pick one up.
How-To: Set up a home file server using FreeNAS
Ask Engadget: What's the best budget NAS? Kingston Wi-Drive for iOS hits stores today, lets you create your own portable music server for $130 Tilera sees sense in the server wars, puts just 36 cores in its newest processorIn today's digital world we've all got data, and lots of it. Our libraries are also growing rapidly: where you used to get by setting aside a few bookshelves for your books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes, we now require untold server space to preserve our beloved media in digitized form. We also want our data to be itinerant, or at least seem that way. That is, if you want to take a book or disc to another room of your abode, you pull it from the bookshelf and take it with you. Similarly, if you're working on a document upstairs on your desktop and you want to move to the den with your laptop, you'll need the proper infrastructure working in the background to enable that kind of wizardry. So, how can we create this "digital bookshelf?" Can you go out and buy it now? Can you build it in your garage? As it turns out, the answer is "yes" on all counts. You could go out and buy a Drobo device but in this case, we're going to assemble our own. And we're going to do that with the help of an open source storage platform called FreeNAS. So how involved a process is that? Meet us after the break to find out.
Cloud Engines updates Pogoplug's software-only version with OneView, enhanced iOS support
The smoke from Cloud Engines' Pogoplug Video recall (Pogo-un-plugged?) may still be settling, but on a better note, today the company has announced the first major update to its software-based version. To refresh your memory, it essentially turns any network-connected computer into a Pogoplug, allowing it to be accessed like a NAS drive (think iCloud, but with your drives). The new version's main advantage is OneView, which can display every connected computer's drives separately or compiled together sans duplicates -- iOS devices are also supported in this feature. You'll be pleased to know that the service is free, excluding video and off-LAN music streaming. Those features can be enabled by purchasing the premium version for a one-time fee of 29 bones, and unlike before, a single purchase will take care of your entire stable of devices. You'll find some screenshots of the software below, as well as a PR crash course in 'personal cloud management' just after the break. %Gallery-126839%
Apple unveils updated Time Capsule, bumps storage to 3TB
It's been a good long while since Apple unveiled a new Time Capsule, almost two years since the 2TB model rolled out. At the time that was a volume of storage that you couldn't possibly fill up -- even if you ripped your entire Peter Gabriel collection in lossless. Now, nearly 24 months later, you're out of room for the latest Greatest Hits compilations, never mind Scratch My Back and the subsequent buddy album. Now Apple has your back, releasing an updated Time Capsule offering up to 3TB of storage for all your former Genesis frontman listening needs. Update: The new Time Capsules have finally hit the Apple Store and prices haven't changed -- now you just get more for your money. The 2TB model slides into the $299 slot while the 3TB takes over the $499 position.
Cloud Engines recalls potentially flammable Pogoplug Video (update)
Looks like sharing videos over the cloud may be a risky task -- if you're using the box shown here on the left, that is. The Pogoplug Video hit the retail scene about two months ago, but Cloud Engines has already issued a recall after two devices nearly went up in flames. According to The Official Pogoplug Blog, the internal chip that handles video encoding can experience "thermal runaways" after long periods of use, which could cause the device to reach unsafe temperatures; this despite having a fan to keep things cool. The affected model numbers include Pogo P-11 through 14, and the company asks that owners get in contact to setup a return and refund. In the meantime, it also suggests that the units be unplugged -- a good idea if you want to avoid possibly burning the house down. Update: It appears that Cloud Engines' initial statement has been condensed and slightly modified. Zenverge, the chip's manufacturer, has also informed us that the silicon itself isn't exactly the problem. The end result remains the same, however: this Pogoplug is too hot for video.
FCC reveals Seagate GoFlex Satellite, a WiFi-capable battery-powered external hard drive
For a purportedly doomed manufacturer of magnetic storage, Seagate sure is spinning some interesting ideas these days -- last year, we got modular, upgradable cables, and now the company's testing external hard drives that don't need pesky wires to function. According to filings, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite not only plays the network-attached-storage card with built-in 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, it's also got a 3.7V battery inside its case... making the product's name somewhat apt, don't you think? According to a leaked description, Seagate's also planning a companion iOS app called "GoFlex Media" to let your iDevices stream content directly from the device. Mind you, none of that means you won't be able to dock with your Satellite the old-fashioned way -- FCC docs also mention a USB 3.0 cable that delivers data and power simultaneously.
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?
PogoPlug Video and Buffalo CloudStor now shipping, streaming your stuff all over the place
Yes, you've seen these guys before, and now the latest PogoPlug offspring are ready to ship. Both PogoPlug Video and its storage-sporting cousin, the Buffalo CloudStor, put their own unique twist on the firm's remote access service. As you might recall, PogoPlug Video, which is now available exclusively from Best Buy for $200, allows you to hook up your external hard drives and share streaming video, music, and images to devices anywhere with internet access. Buffalo's CloudStor, on the other hand, provides the same cloud-based access, with a little something extra. It's the first PogoPlug branded gadget to sport integrated storage, and comes in three iterations, ringing in at $150 for 1TB, $210 for 2TB, and $250 for the 2TB Pro version. Now you can share all your favorite kitten clips, without ever uploading them to YouTube. Isn't that precious?
Buffalo launches an HDD into the PogoPlug clouds, outfits external storage lineup with USB 3.0
Buffalo's toyed with that newfangled idea of sharing files over the internet once or twice, but today it's stepping up to the plate, picking up a PogoPlug bat, and sending a hard drive coursing into the upper stratosphere fueled by good intent. Well, perhaps the reality isn't quite as exciting as that analogy, but Buffalo is indeed launching the first PogoPlug with internal storage today, which works just like your run-of-the-mill NAS in everyday use, but can also share files of your choosing with awkward acquaintances around the world through an online web portal. $170 buys you 1TB of storage, $270 doubles that capacity to 2TB, and the end of friends and relatives nagging you to upload Facebook photos is (hopefully) included free with every purchase. If all you're looking for in an external hard drive is improved transfer speeds, Buffalo's got plenty of options there too, as it's revamped four tried-and-true units with USB 3.0. You can nab the blue SuperSpeed connector in a four-drive, 4TB or 8TB DriveStation Quad with up-to-225MB transfer rates starting at $630, a two-drive, 2TB or 4TB DriveStation Duo starting at $280, a single-drive DriveStation Axis with 1TB or 2TB starting at $100, or a more portable MiniStation Stealth in 500GB and 1TB capacities starting at $90. Speedy rotating magnetic platters, anyone? PR after the break.
Iomega Personal Cloud devices host your data, not your water vapor
Finally, a new flavor of Iomega that the EMC fanboys can find palatable. The bigger company consumed the smaller back in 2008 and, while we've seen plenty of products since then, none have really brought the two together like the new Personal Cloud edition of the Home Media Network Hard Drives. In theory, anyway. The idea here is that this is a smart NAS, creating your own little puff and hosting your data for general availability but avoiding the "careless computing" curse by retaining control of your data. It'll naturally play nice with the new Iomega TV and, if you buy two of the things, you can have one perform an automated remote backup to the other. That's the sort of feature that should make a tight-budgeted IT manager's ears perk up. How tight? The first two models of Iomega's Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition devices launch this month: 1TB for $169.99 and twice that for $229.99. %Gallery-112488%
Synology DS1511+ does the 3TB-per-drive dance, backs up most of your neighborhood
Once one network attached storage manufacturer upgraded to 3TB hard drives, it was only a matter of time before the rest followed suit, and this time it's Synology's turn with the DiskStation DS1511+. In case you haven't done the math already, this particular unit can store up to 15 terabytes of your juiciest secrets across five 3TB hot-swappable drives, and its 1.8GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of memory handles a RAID 5 array capable of speeding that data across a local area network at up to 197 MB / sec read speeds and 165 MB / sec writes. If that capacity isn't enough to house your plan for world domination and monitor all the IP cameras in your underground volcano lair, the unit can scale up to 45TB with a couple of secondary expansion units, each with five more 3TB drives of their own. Yours for roughly $900 -- sans storage -- wherever NAS are sold. PR after the break.
