This first statistic comes from a report from DeepField Networks called File Sharing in the Post MegaUpload Era. This same study had MegaUpload downloads representing no less than 30-40% of all file sharing on the internet. As MegaUpload’s own MegaVideo and the other biggest sharer of files after that, Filesonic, both shuttered their doors effectively on January 18th, their percentages (34.1% for Mega and 19.1% for Filesonic, if you’d like to know) were distributed amongst the rest of the next biggest hosts. According again to DeepField, “MegaUpload sprawled over more than 1000 servers and 25 petabytes of data in Carpathia facilities.” That’s an intense amount of copies of Skyrim, that’s for sure.

On the 19th of January it was Putlocker up top with nearly 30% of all the file sharing on the web with several services next in line like MediaFire and NovaMov. Both the graphics you see above and below come from DeepField.

What we’re seeing here is the spread of the wealth to many disparate sites rather than one titanic monster in MegaUpload. This hasn’t been a pretty site though, as TorrentFreak reports not just a few sites shutting down in the wake of MegaUpload: Filesonic and Fileserve banned third party downloads, Uploadbox.com and X7.to have shut down entirely, VideoBB and VideoZer have changed their programs drastically.

According to Sandvine, Megaupload accounted for roughly 1% of total traffic to fixed access networks in North America, and that does not include the rest of the affiliate sites MegaVideo, MegaPix, MegaLive, and MegaBox. What’s happening now instead of that massive bulk of traffic coming out of servers here in the USA, the shift is going towards groups like Putlocker, NovaMov and MediaFire, each of these with data based in Europe for the most part. So though file sharing may have taken a hit when MegaUpload was knocked out, the sharing remains – it’s just coming from over the ocean.

[via ITWorld]

Meanwhile, the company has announced new figures on Pogoplug Cloud adoption. Over one million “personal clouds” – that is, Pogoplug hardware devices, or computers running the Pogoplug app - are now in operation. More than 150 petabytes of end-user data is now entrusted to a Pogoplug product.

The Pogoplug Series 4 is priced at $99.99 and sits at the top of the company’s range. It offers two USB 3.0 ports, SD, one USB 2.0, and a 2.5-inch SATA/USM/Seagate GoFlex ultra-portable drive input for hooking up your choice of storage.

As for the Pogoplug Mobile, it has a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot, and is $79.95. The Pogoplug Cloud app is a free download with 5GB of storage, and can be upgraded to as much as 1TB of capacity.

This solution works with Iomega’s QuikProtect software, this working with a built-in iTunes server, the ability to work with your files through Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. In addition, you can work instantly with your new mac’s Time Machine feature to do instant storage with no effort at all. Torrent support is included as well, this for your soon to be gigantic collection of downloads that are, again, available to access from any of your home-based machines.

The Iomega EZ Media & Backup Center comes DLNA certified for you to be streaming video, audio, and photos across your network. You can stream to multimedia players, digital picture frames, game consoles, and of course mobile devices and your desktop and laptop machines. The models this device will be coming in will be 1TB will cost SRP $219.99, 2TB will be $299.99, and the 3TB will cost $399.99, and all of this should be available in February of 2012. Sound like the solution for you?

Hardware

Pogoplug used to be known for its bright pink “internet devices”; now the company has matured into a far subtler black box with a discrete blue logo that doubles as an indicator light. It’s considerably smaller than the original design, though you pay for that in connectivity: just one USB 2.0 port instead of five. You still get a gigabit ethernet port, but whereas the AC adapter was integrated previously there’s now a wall-wart plug instead.

What you do get differently is a full-sized SD card slot on the side, meaning digital photographers can instantly get their pictures and videos onto the network. Those who have more external drives can step up to the Pogoplug Series 4, $20 more than the $79.95 Pogoplug Mobile, which adds a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a SATA/USM connection. The original Pogoplug v2 – now known as the Classic – remains on sale at $49.95.

Setup is indecently straightforward: plug in the power, hook the Pogoplug Mobile to your router via the included ethernet cable, and then open up the company’s site to register a free account. That also gets you 5GB of free online storage, which is handy for offsite backups of your most important files. Pogoplug reckon you can do it all in sixty seconds, and as long as you’ve got a spare ethernet port on your router and a spare mains socket nearby, they’re probably not too far off.

After that, it’s simply a case of choosing what storage you’d like to use and plugging it in. Any USB drive should work, with mobile drives being powered from the port as usual, and you can have both a drive and an SD card connected simultaneously.

Software

Pogoplug Mobile is most easily accessed through the browser interface, either across your home network or remotely. You can, however, mount the volumes as drives in OS X and Windows for more straightforward drag/drop use. The internet-based UI offers access to files, as usual, and various multimedia sections, but Pogoplug has also released the Pogoplug Browser app for PC and Mac. That too shows files and folders, as well as gallery, jukebox and cinema sections that automatically pull out all the multimedia files on your storage and present them in a simple manner.

Files to be added to the Pogoplug can be dragged and dropped straight to the Pogoplug Browser app, and there’s sharing support as well to make firing off photos or other content via email or other routes easy. You can also set up an auto-sync folder that automatically copies any files saved to it over to a dedicated folder on the Pogoplug storage.

It’s the mobile apps that the company is really pushing with this new model, however. Versions for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad and Android are available, each a free download, with generally the same remote access options as the desktop software. You can browse through files/folders, stream photos, music and video, or download multimedia directly to the local storage on your handset. Conversely, you can set the apps to automatically upload photos and videos taken by the phone to your Pogoplug Mobile storage, meaning they’re ready and waiting when you get home. It’s a little like Apple’s iCloud, only with cross-platform support for both iOS and Android devices.

Performance

The bottleneck of the Pogoplug Mobile’s data-transferring abilities will inevitably be the USB 2.0 connection; factor in the inherent shortcomings of even 802.11n wireless networks and it’s inevitable that for most users access speeds will be significantly curtailed in comparison to a directly-connected drive. Still, we were able to watch an HD video stored on a USB 2.0 drive and streaming over an 802.11n WiFi connection to our laptop.

On the move, the mobile apps are very much dependent on your connection – both the download speed of your mobile network and the upload speed of the broadband connection the Pogoplug Mobile itself is connected to. Whereas you can generally rely on a commercially-hosted cloud storage service having a fat upload pipe, most domestic upload speeds are a fraction of the download speed.

That’s not so great an issue for accessing the odd file, browsing a photo gallery or even streaming music, but video could be a trickier issue. The mobile apps offer a choice of watching the original format clip – as long as you have a suitable playback app to handle the codec – as well as an “optimized” version that the Pogoplug Mobile converts into a more mobile-friendly format. The downside to that is the time and space required to actually do that transcoding; you can set it to automatically convert all video or do so on demand, the former obviously occupying space on your hard-drive, and the latter generally proving too slow when handling 720p/1080p original files to watch the clips when we actually wanted to.

Wrap-Up

Compared to regular cloud-storage services, the Pogoplug Mobile costs more upfront – the $79.95 unit itself, and then whatever storage you choose to plug in – but, with no subscription fees, less over time. If you’ve already got a USB drive you’re halfway there; alternatively, there are dual-HDD USB drives that you could plug in if you want some hardware redundancy. Since the Pogoplug Mobile itself is fanless, if you opt for an SD card then you’d have a silent, cool-running storage device that’s easily hidden away.

Alternatively, rely on USB drives for regular storage and then SD cards for when you want to quickly review the photos you’ve just taken on a tablet or phone which lacks a full-sized memory card slot (in other words most of them). It’s certainly convenient, as is dumping all your photos, music and video onto a single drive and streaming them around the home, rather than maintaining copies on each computer and gadget.

Those who can put up with a little noise and who aren’t bothered by SD compatibility might choose to grab the Pogoplug Classic, saving money and getting some extra USB ports in the process. For most mainstream users, though, the Pogoplug Mobile ticks most of the important boxes: ease of setup, ease of use and low cost of ownership.

Pogoplug charges $9.95 per month for 50GB of cloud storage or $19.95 per month for 100GB. Alternatively, pick up a Pogoplug or Pogoplug Mobile - for $79 or $99 respectively – and plug in your own choice of hard-drive, and you can host a companion cloud from the home or office that sits alongside the one on Pogoplug’s servers.

“To get 2 terabytes of storage in the cloud with other companies costs hundreds or thousands of dollars” Pogoplug points out. “With Pogoplug, you can buy a $99 device and an $80 2TB HDD and you’re set. Expansion is basically unlimited, and the various Pogoplug products all work together and talk to each other based on your email address.”

Alternatively, if you don’t mind leaving your computer on, you can use the Pogoplug Software and turn your PC or Mac into another Pogoplug drive. You can sign up for a free 5GB account here.

Backup Basics

Drives fail: it’s a fact of life. Many people upgrade their PC or laptop more frequently than the average HDD/SSD lifespan, but there’s always the possibility of a spontaneous hardware failure to really put a dampener on your day. Then there are accidents – dropping your laptop, spilling coffee into it, having it stolen or simply losing it – and user errors, such as inadvertently deleting files that subsequently turn out to be vital. With many media collections being entirely digital these days, it’s important to have a second copy just in case the worst should happen.

There are several ways to make that second copy, some local and some remote. The “cloud” – or basically somebody else’s servers that you access through the internet – is a fashionable option today, though can grow expensive the more space you take up, and can be slow depending on the speed of your broadband connection.

More common is local backup: some sort of secondary drive that you use to store a copy of your primary data. A few years back you could squeeze most of your important files onto a DVD or a Blu-ray; now, with ever-growing quantities of digital content, optical media is generally insufficient. Instead a second drive (or a number of drives) come into play, the simplest setup being a USB/eSATA/FireWire/Thunderbolt/etc external HDD directly connected to a single computer, or else network-attached storage (NAS) which hooks into your local network and performs backups from one or more computers over ethernet or WiFi.

The benefit of a NAS is that it’s readily shared between several computers: with enough storage, you can replicate the contents of a number of drives with a single unit. They’re also more likely to feature drive redundancy, where two or more HDD/SSDs are used to keep mirrored copies of your data. If a backup drive subsequently fails, the entire backup isn’t lost. That’s where the DS411slim comes in.

Hardware

The DS411slim may be – at 120 x 105 x 142 mm and 660g – smaller and lighter than most of the company’s other NAS, but it doesn’t stint on power. Inside the black plastic chassis there’s a 1.6GHz processor with 256MB of RAM, while in addition to the four 2.5-inch HDD bays you get a pair of USB 2.0 ports (one upfront with a dedicated copy button to instantly backup a USB drive) and an eSATA port to add storage or share USB printers across your network. A single gigabit ethernet port gets the NAS online.

Opting for notebook drives keeps the DS411slim small; Synology is also keen to point out that HDDs intended for laptops are usually quieter and cooler, suffer less vibration, can have increased MTBF (mean time before failure) and are more resilient to bumps than desktop drives. On the flip side, they’re more expensive per gigabyte than 3.5-inch drives and offer a reduced maximum capacity: most models top out at 1TB, versus the 3TB of the physically larger versions.

Of course, since the DS411slim has four bays, that’s a maximum of 4TB supported. Each drive screws into a snap-in plastic tray and slots into the NAS itself. They’re cooled by a 60mm fan that, in general, proved so quiet as to be unobtrusive: even under load, it was only when we got up close to the Synology that we could really hear it.

Software

Like other Synology products we’ve reviewed, the DS411slim runs the company’s DSM 3.2 software, and it’s one of the SlashGear team’s favorites for NAS management. Laid out across a Windows/OS X style desktop, each aspect of DSM’s functionality – and there are plenty – lives in its own draggable, multitasking window. Out of the box there’s support for multiple user accounts (with optional usage limits), site and mail server hosting, DLNA/UPnP media streaming to your PS3, Xbox 360, computer or PMP, standalone downloads (including BitTorrents), printer sharing (for up to two printers) and FTP support.

Optionally, the DS411slim can be turned into a VPN server, a Squeezebox or iTunes media server, various types of enterprise-focused drive, or – with various free iOS and Android apps – offer up its content to your phone or tablet.

DSM 3.2 supports regular RAID – including Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6 and RAID 10 – but we opted for Synology’s own Hybrid RAID system. This can create a redundant array across multiple drives of different sizes, and automatically adapts if a new drive is added: that means you can start off with two HDDs and then, as you need more space, add more as necessary, without having to start your RAID array again from scratch.

Setting up the NAS to work with Time Machine on OS X was straightforward. By creating backup-specific user accounts – one for each computer – with individual limits on how much HDD space they could take up, we stopped Time Machine from running amok and consuming the entire array. Incremental backups happen automatically, and even over a WiFi 802.11n connection were not too intrusive to other network use. Windows users, meanwhile, get a copy of Synology Data Replicator 3 on the bundled DVD, allowing PCs to do the same thing.

Performance

We installed two 1TB Toshiba 5,400rpm hard-drives, and let the DS411slim set up a Hybrid RAID array: we ended up with 912.45GB of available space. Should one of the drives fail, our data would still be safe on the other, and after installing a new drive the NAS would automatically rebuild its array. It’s worth noting that the drive bays aren’t hot-swappable, so you need to shut down the DS411slim in order to swap out or add in disks.

Over a gigabit ethernet connection, the DS411slim managed 43.2 MB/s write speeds and 59.6 MB/s read speeds. You’ll get faster speeds if you set the NAS up as a RAID 1 array, but no drive redundancy. It’s worth noting that the bottleneck for most users is unlikely to be the core drive speed itself, but the network: with more and more home users relying on WiFi, sheer network throughput is going to have the biggest impact on things like backup times.

Wrap-Up

There’s a price/performance/convenience balance to be made with the DiskStation DS411slim. The barebones RRP of $319.99/£232.99 compares well to other four-drive NAS, but you’ll spend more on drives and get less maximum capacity too. On the flip side, your backup system will likely be quieter and smaller than most of those rivals.

In the end, while business users and those with a taste for HD video may want to look to a NAS that accommodates 3.5-inch drives, the DS411slim holds plenty of appeal for the regular consumer. Backup support for multiple PCs and Macs, a wealth of media sharing features and DSM’s software flexibility to turn the DiskStation into a mini server, webhost, ‘Torrent station or jukebox add up to a system with broad appeal and flexibility. Factor in the straightforward UI and compact footprint and you can see why the Synology DiskStation DS411slim comes highly recommended.

Each accepts 3.5-inch desktop hard-drives, and comes with a front USB 2.0 port (with a dedicated copy button) along with two USB 3.0 ports on the rear for adding extra external storage. Although most home users are unlikely to have the network bandwidth to take advantage of USB 3.0 versus USB 2.0 data rates, Netgear tells us the new NAS should be its entry-level options for at least 12-18 months, and expects home networking speeds to catch up somewhat in that period. A single gigabit ethernet port hooks the ReadyNAS to your router.

Netgear has refreshed its setup wizard and browser-based UI, RAIDiator 5, and now claims it’s less than eight steps from plugging in to being up and running. Up to 96 MBps read rates and 60 MBps write rates are claimed – for real-world performance testing, check out our ReadyNAS Duo v2 review – with hot-swappable drive bays allowing you to replace a faulty drive or add a new one without powering down the NAS. The X-RAID2 software can automatically expand your RAID volume if a new drive is added, with no downtime.

Netgear is particularly keen on its ReadyNAS Photos II app, which basically allows you to turn your “personal cloud” into a private Flickr or Picasa. Custom URLs can be created, to invite friends and family to view certain galleries, or you can throw open the door to public access. Because you’re hosting it, not somebody else’s servers, you can offer full resolution pictures – something many sites demand subscription fees for – though, as ReadyNAS senior product marketing manager Matt Pahnke explained to us, what viewers actually see will depend on their device and connection.

“Photos II automatically optimizes resolution based on the network speed of the consuming device” Pahnke told us. “The goal here is to provide all users with an efficient way to enjoy the photos stored on the ReadyNAS without having to endure lengthy download times. If a user with a sub-optimal connection would like to view the photos at a higher resolution, they do have the option of overriding the optimization.”

There’s also a Remote Access app, available for Windows, OS X, Android and iOS, allowing for browsing and downloading over a secure VPN connection to your ReadyNAS at home. In the future, Pahnke confirmed, Netgear intends to add support for its Netgear Vault cloud storage service (already available for the company’s more advanced NAS) so that ReadyNAS owners will be able to mirror some or all of their content in true cloud backup.

The ReadyNAS Duo v2 will be priced at $199 as a diskless drive, or at $269 pre-fitted with a single 1TB drive. A version with a single 2TB drive will be $299. As for the ReadyNAS NV+ v2, that will be $399 diskless, $499 for a 2TB version and $599 for a 4TB version. Netgear says that, while the cost of hard-drives may rise as supplies grow temporarily scarce, it has secured storage to cater for estimated demand this quarter and will only be passing on its own increased costs, nothing more (the diskless models will remain the same price). They’re all available from today.

There’s a new central set of controls made specifically for IT administrators, and Dropbox is now offering phone support as well as centralized billing to cover all users on the Team. The initial cost of nearly $800 will cover a full year for five users, while each additional user will tac on another $125. That $795 basic plan includes one full terabyte of shared storage between all users, while each user added beyond the first five in the group adds on another 200 gigabytes (GB) of space. Sound like enough room for all your event photos?

Dropbox is also pushing their security features this week with a note on how all files are stored and encrypted with Amazon’s S3 service in secure data centers. Amazon S3, for those of you that don’t know, is Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, designed “to make web-scale computing easier for developers.” Basically its a dedicated and secure place for data trusted by thousands of already-satisfied customers, if you know what I mean. In addition to this, as with all Dropbox accounts, you’ve got the option of backing up all your files on a Dropbox folder that can sit on your own computer’s desktop.

Sound like the deal for you? Get droppin!

Three of the USB ports are on the back of the LaPlug, and the fourth is up front for easily connecting a memory stick or portable drive. If you want to use it as a centralized backup station, LaCie bundles PC backup software and the box is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine on OS X. FAT32, NTFS, HFS and HFS+ (both journaled and non-journaled) drive formats are supported. It’s worth noting that the LaPlug’s WiFi only supports client mode, so you can’t use it as a router or, presumably, for direct connections between your computer and the drives.

With the demise of the Pogoplug Pro, Pogoplug’s WiFi-enabled model, LaCie finds itself offering something relatively rare given the wireless support in the LaPlug. If you’re sharing and accessing large files then you’ll probably want to use gigabit ethernet anyway, but at $74.99 with both WiFi and wired options, you can’t really knock the LaPlug.

Backup Basics

Generally speaking, there’s local backup and remote backup. Local, as the word suggests, is on-site: anything from burning a DVD of important files and keeping it in your desk drawer, to a USB (or eSATA, or FireWire, or some other connection) hard-drive you plug in directly, or a network-attached storage (NAS) device that serves one or more computers on your local wired or wireless network. Remote backup could be as simple as leaving a copy of your home DVD or HDD files at work or with a friend, or – more commonly now – online in some sort of “cloud” repository.

Redundancy is another key part of backup: basically, how resilient the backup system itself is to hardware failure (and other issues, like theft or damage). Burning two DVDs rather than one is redundancy, but more common is using a so-called array of drives (either directly-connected or NAS) that each carry a copy of your data. If one drive dies, the data is safe on the second (or third, or fourth, etc.) and can be repopulated on the new drive you slot in to replace it.

Increasingly popular is a hybrid of local and remote backup, and that’s where the LaCie CloudBox comes in. It consists of both a local NAS drive and a companion online cloud store, automatically copying anything placed onto the drive up into the cloud.

Hardware

LaCie’s favorite designer, Neil Poulton, does the honors with the CloudBox, though the external drive itself is probably more a case of what was left out than what’s been included. A compact 4.6 x 4.6 x 1.5 inch black plastic box, the only real elements of interest are the recessed status LED in a notch under the leading edge (which flickers blue with varying degrees of frequency while active, and red when frustrated) along with a gigabit ethernet port, power input and button on the back, the latter the only physical control and used to turn the CloudBox on or off.

Inside is a 100GB 2.5-inch hard-drive, non-user-accessible. That sounds small and, indeed, it is. Even the most humble of netbooks of recent years have offered more storage, and with some desktop-replacement laptops packing 1TB+ the CloudBox seems hopelessly naive at first glance.

LaCie’s intention, though, is seemingly to force a sense of perspective on the would-be user. Local storage can be capacious and swift; cloud storage is generally more expensive and, being limited by the narrow-bore upload pipe of most home internet connections, time-consuming to shuttle files up to ‘net-based safety. There’s no choice as to which files get replicated online: everything placed onto the local drive is copied to the cloud. Sure, you could dump all of your video files onto the CloudBox, but it’s really more for vital documents: your email backup, your tax returns and all those Word files you’d be distraught to lose; your final year project or your latest work report.

Noise levels from the box, even when the hard-drive is active, are very low. There’s no warning on heat levels, beyond the on-device logs, though the CloudBox will email you notifications when space is running low.

Software and Performance

As you’d hope from a product with simplicity as its watchword, setup of the CloudBox is straightforward. Physically, it’s a case of plugging it into a spare ethernet port on your router with the bundled cable, plugging in the power supply and then waiting for the light to steady on blue.

A bundled CD offers LaCie’s Network Assistant tool, basically a CloudBox-seeker which lives in the system tray of your PC or Mac and works as a shortcut to the browser-based setup page. More adept users will bypass it altogether and surf to either http://cloudbox or its IP address (assigned and revealed by your router). First up there’s the Setup Wizard, used to establish an administrator username and password as well as punch in the contract number for the complimentary 12-month subscription to the cloud storage service.

From that point on, anything more complex is optional. You can simply begin dropping files onto the CloudBox – mounting it as a network drive in your OS of choice makes this easier – and relax in the knowledge that they’re being funneled up into the cloud shortly after. By pairing local and remote storage, your computer needn’t be on while the time-consuming upload process takes place: the CloudBox itself handles all that. We whipped out the power cable during the initial upload, then turned the NAS back on and it automatically picked up where it had left off. Obviously, had we taken an axe to the local drive before it had finished uploading, our data would be in so many unrecoverable slices, but simple power failures needn’t be a headache.

There are plenty more settings to be tinkered with in the LaCie CloudBox dashboard, however, including a simple counter showing how many out of the 100GB have been done, and when the most recent cloud upload took place. Some network information, details on user accounts – you can set up multiple users, each having access to their own files but nobody else’s, and optionally with a set quota of the total storage that they can use – together with log records, a countdown to when your cloud backup plan expires and the option to manually set upload and download speed limits so as not to saturate your broadband connection are also easily accessed.

Then there are the restore buttons, either to selectively restore certain files from the cloud to your computer, or to fully restore everything in the cloud to the CloudBox. The latter is useful if the hard-drive in the local NAS dies, and you want to repopulate its replacement (your user settings are also restored). The cloud storage keeps the last ten complete backups, so you can step back through previous versions of files: handy if you discover a file was recently corrupted and that the most recent backup has preserved that corrupted file.

What you can’t do, however, is log into the cloud store and access files remotely. Unlike most cloud-based backup systems, LaCie makes no provision for grabbing files while on the move, either using a browser-based interface or a smartphone app of some sort. The cloud, instead, is resolutely intended as another layer of redundancy; 128-bit AES encryption is applied as standard by the CloudBox itself – before the files ever leave your home or office network – and only your username and password can unlock them.

Pricing and Value

At $199 (in the US; £179.90 in the UK) for 100GB, the CloudBox is hardly the cheapest external drive we’ve ever seen. For the same amount, or less, you could have a 2TB+ NAS with drive redundancy, though obviously you’d then lack the cloud element of the LaCie option. It’s worth bearing in mind that many NAS drives support online backup too, though you’ll have to set up – and pay for – a cloud backup account; it’s all less straightforward than the CloudBox makes things.

That, then, is what you’re really paying for: simplicity. The CloudBox forces a conscious decision about which files are really important, locks them up with AES encryption automatically, and mirrors up to ten versions online, all after a few minutes setup. A further 12 months of cloud rental is priced at €99 in Europe.

Wrap-Up

Most users with any amount of network proficiency would probably be able to piece together a cheaper, more flexible local/cloud backup system than the CloudBox. That’s not to say LaCie’s drive misses the mark, however. Whereas a regular NAS might be a weekend’s frustration for basic users – arguably the most likely to avoid backing-up altogether – the CloudBox’s convenience makes it a plug & play option in which the “plug” aspect doesn’t demand a degree in computer science to complete. You could reasonably mail your tech-naive family or friends a CloudBox and expect them to have their essential files secured with minor effort.

What is true is that the CloudBox will most likely only work as one part of a backup solution. 100GB is insufficient for most individual users to fully backup their entire digital lives; share that out with several people, as LaCie makes easy, and that’s an even smaller proportion of each hard-drive covered. Dollar for gigabyte, it’s a wasteful way of preserving all but the rarest of digital music and video collections. A workable system might include the CloudBox for securing documents, precious digital photo originals and email backups, while cheaper external drives (either directly connected or networked) handle space-hungry multimedia. Yes, there’s an extra element of risk, but then that’s the implicit balance you find with any backup strategy.

The drives are hot-swappable, and the DS24+ supports Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6 and RAID 10, as well as Synology’s own Hybrid RAID system. The company reckons you’ll see 165 MB/sec write and 195 MB/sec read speeds on average, and the impressively comprehensive DSM 3.1 software supports Apple Time Machine and other backup systems, along with various server options, control of network cameras, network printing and UPnP streaming.

Power consumption is listed as 38.5W in hibernation and 104.5W when active, though that’s perhaps no surprise given all those drive bays. It’s shipping now, priced at $1,699.99 for the disk-free DS2411+, while the DX1211 expansion module is around $1,299.99.

Background

Pogoplug started off with a basic Marvell Plug Computer design back in 2009, offering a simple way to share a USB hard-drive over the internet. The second-gen model boosted the number of ports to four, and subsequent updates threw in cloud printing support, WiFi and a sober business version dressed all in black.

The company’s premise was straightforward: a sixty second setup experience, made ultra-streamlined with automatic network discovery, sensible default sharing options and a convenient web interface. Mobile apps for iOS and Android meant you could access files and multimedia from home rather than store them locally.

In fact, the only real hurdle was the price: $99 for the magic box itself. Now, with Pogoplug Software, the company is taking on Dropbox and others with a hybrid of the web-accessible cloud model, using local storage and a browser/app-based interface.

Setup and Usability

Rather than plugging in a physical Pogoplug box there’s an app to be downloaded instead, available for both PC (roughly 36MB) and Mac (roughly 16MB). That walks you through setting up a new (free) Pogoplug account or logging into your existing one; multiple Pogoplug boxes and app installs can be linked to the same account. Next there’s the option to share various preset folders – for instance Movies, Pictures, Desktop and Documents on OS X – and then a quick seven pane tour of the main features.

Finally, there’s a link to the my.pogoplug.com site, which pops up in your browser already logged in and showing what folders you’ve shared from your computer. As well as the software client, Pogoplug has updated the web interface and it’s much cleaner than before. Any Pogoplug connections – hardware or software – show up in the left hand column, with tabs for basic file manager view, a Jukebox of music files, Gallery for images, Cinema for video, Sharing for any files or folders you’ve enabled third-party access to, and Backup for automatically copying folders between drives.

Active Copy isn’t new to Pogoplug – the company has offered it on its hardware devices before now – but it gets a whole lot more affordable with the software app. Previously, you’d need a separate Pogoplug device if, say, you wanted to keep an offsite backup of certain files on your computer; now, all you need is the free Pogoplug app.

You don’t have to access files via the website; the Pogoplug app also adds a folder to your computer through which you can easily see any files that have been shared with you. Sharing was one of the easier elements of the Pogoplug experience, and that’s carried forward with the new software. Hit the share button, choose the folder(s) you want to grant access to and then enter one or more email addresses and, optionally, a personal message.

The recipient of a sharing email can, depending on how you’ve set up the invite, be prompted to create a (free) Pogoplug account or, alternatively, access the files simply by clicking on the link. It’s all browser-based, and galleries are automatically animated into neat, parent-friendly slideshows.

You can also automatically add a link to the folder on your Facebook friends’ walls, by logging in with your account details and then choosing their names. Alternatively, you can publish a public link to Twitter or MySpace, or indeed open up the folder completely and even create an RSS feed so that people can keep up to date in their reader app.

There are plenty of neat touches. “One View” automatically hides duplicated files from your various Pogoplug drives (physical or software) to make browsing more straightforward, while you can also share folders by simply right-clicking on them, as long as the local settings app is running. That app also allows you to turn on and off remote access, add folders to Pogoplug, choose to share locally-attached printers, manage the Active Copy backup, and set other Pogoplug units to show up as local drives on your current computer.

Streaming and Apps

Although Pogoplug allows you to access files in any folder, it can also stream directly to a mobile device. The company offers an iPad app, an iPhone/iPod touch app and an Android app, from which you can browse your folders as normal or stream photos, music and video without having to store them on your phone or tablet.

Photo streaming is included in the free package, but there’s a one-time, $29 fee if you want to stream music and video. That’s per Pogoplug account, not per computer, so you can feasibly install the app on multiple PCs and Macs and only pay the fee once. Physical Pogoplug units include music and video streaming in the purchase price, incidentally.

It has to be said, the iOS apps show more polish than the Android app. The latter is very list-based, and we had a couple of forced-closes during testing. In contrast, the iOS app looks great and makes it very easy to navigate through files and streaming media. There’s the choice to share files directly from the app itself, and thumbnails are loaded progressively so as not to slow the whole experience down unnecessarily.

Usability and Security

Pogoplug’s usefulness has always been constrained by the size of your pipe. That is, the upload speed your home or office connection has, since you’re basically hosting your own cloud. It’s fine for documents and photos, but videos and music and be a stretch. Streaming quality it automatically adjusted depending on what upload and download speeds are available, but you definitely won’t get the same 1080p experience remotely accessing Full HD video files as if they were stored locally. Similarly, opening up several folders for sharing can, if multiple people take you up on the invite, clog up your connection.

The recent DropBox security debacle has left many wary of cloud-based storage and who might inadvertently gain access to their files. While Pogoplug leaves all your content stored locally, rather than putting it into the cloud, the web-based login does mean that it’s potentially vulnerable to hacks and similar. Still, if the worst happens, you can always deauthorize your computer with a single click.

Wrap-Up

Back when we reviewed the second-gen Pogoplug, we praised its ease of use but bemoaned the speed bottlenecks of home network connections and USB 2.0 drives. The new Pogoplug Software carried forward that easy setup and remote access, and while the network limitations are still present, the external drive speed issue isn’t necessarily a problem any more.

The obvious competitor is Dropbox, and each service has its compromises. With Dropbox, once you’ve uploaded files any subsequent downloads are reliant on the service’s own fat internet pipe; however, you’re also either stuck with a relatively small amount of free space, or paying a monthly fee for a bigger virtual drive. The Pogoplug app gives you as much space as you have local drives, but the limit shifts to being your broadband upload speeds.

Both offer free starter options, though, and as such there’s nothing stopping you from using each of them as the situation demands. If you’re looking for a straightforward way to remotely access your files and don’t want the cloud in-between, then the Pogoplug software is a great way of doing it. Just make sure you have the upload bandwidth before you pay for the $29 audio and video streaming upgrade.

Want to save $29 and get a free premium upgrade? Pogoplug has offered 200 SlashGear readers a free upgrade: click this link for more details. Be quick, though – once they’re gone, they’re gone! Update: All of the free upgrades have been snapped up, but Pogoplug is offering a $10 discount for SlashGear readers. Click the link to get premium service for just $19!

They each have a gigabit WAN port, too, for hooking up to your cable or DSL modem, along with three gigabit ethernet ports for wired computers. A USB port allows you to hook up external storage or a printer, and share it across the network.

Other specifications are broadly in-line with the first-gen Time Capsule. You get native Time Machine support for backing up your Macs, along with MAC address filtering, NAS firewall, and WEP/WPA/WP2 wireless encryption. There’s also support for time-based access control, to allow guests temporary access to your network.

So, no integrated iCloud functionality, unless Apple has some surprises up its sleeve when iSO 5 arrives. Pricing is yet to be confirmed for the new models.

Update: Ouch. The 2TB model is $299, while the 3TB model is a whopping $499. Both ship within 24hrs.

Once connected, you can browse movies, pictures, music and documents stored on the GoFlex Satellite from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android smartphone or laptop. Currently Seagate only has an iOS-specific app, GoFlex Media; Android phones and tablets, and any other devices, have to access shared media through a web interface. The company tells us an Android version is in the works, however, and should arrive later in the summer. Up to three devices can connect simultaneously, either viewing the same content – so three iPad users can watch a film together in the car – or accessing different media.

Seagate predicts GoFlex Satellite users will see five hours of active video streaming out of a full charge, or up to 25hrs standby. The iOS GoFlex Media app actually caches the video you’re watching on the device itself, so that the drive can go into standby. There’s some intelligent content management, too: dump all your videos, photos, music and documents onto the drive however you want, using the bundled Media Sync app for Windows or Mac, and it will automatically index them into categories for the app or web interfaces. The drive is visible to third-party apps, too, so if you have DivX video you want to watch on your iPad, you’ll be able to play it using VLC for iOS or an alternative app.

Right now, the biggest issue is that the drive demands a direct WiFi connection, which means that you can’t, say, hook your iPad up to it and simultaneously have the tablet connect to your WiFi router or mobile hotspot. However, Seagate is promising a firmware update in the near future that will allow the GoFlex Satellite to connect to a WiFi router itself and – since it actually has twin wireless radios inside – bridge that connection to whatever gadgets are accessing its storage.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite will go on sale in the US in July 2011, priced at $199.99. Global availability should be later this summer.

Press Release:

SEAGATE DEBUTS FIRST MOBILE WIRELESS STORAGE FOR iOS AND OTHER MOBILE DEVICES

GoFlex Satellite™ Mobile Wireless Storage Expands the Media Capacity
Without Wires or the Web

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — May 16, 2011 —Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), today announced GoFlex Satellite™ mobile wireless storage, the first battery-powered external hard drive to wirelessly extend the storage capacity of any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device. With 500GB and Wi-Fi access over 802.11 b/g/n and a rechargeable battery, this latest member of the GoFlex® family provides the ability to carry an entire library of video, music, pictures and documents with you. Devices are wirelessly connected directly to the GoFlex Satellite drive by use of the free GoFlex Media™ app—available now on iTunes and the Apple App Store—or a web browser. GoFlex Satellite is available immediately for preorder from Seagate.com, Amazon and BestBuy.com for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199.99, and is scheduled to arrive in Best Buy stores in July 2011. Global availability is planned for later this summer.

“With the growth of the tablet and iPad markets and the larger volumes of high-quality media now being consumed, there is a clear need for access to content that is not plagued with the challenges of streamed video over the Internet,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate’s retail group. “The unfortunate fact is that these popular new mobile devices are hampered by their limited storage capacity while one of their primary functions is that of media consumption.

“With the GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, we wished to create an elegant solution that provides real value to the multitude of iPad users out there by delivering a seamless connection to local storage. No longer will a consumer feel as though it is a compromise to purchase a lower capacity tablet or iPad. With GoFlex Satellite, people will be able to carry their entire media library with them without the need for wires or the web at a fraction of the cost of adding 3G or purchasing or a higher capacity tablet.”

Streaming over the Internet has enabled video access for tablet owners, but the quality is at the mercy of the Internet connection, be it over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G. With more connected devices per hotspot, it’s often difficult to watch video without choppiness or pixilation. Rather than rely on a buffered stream from a distant provider, GoFlex Satellite mobile storage wirelessly serves up media content as a local attached storage for up to three devices at the same time. With a stand-by battery life of up to 25 hours, the powerful lithium polymer battery delivers up to 5 hours of continuously streaming video. To help with extending battery life, the free GoFlex Media™ app provides a progressive download feature, which temporarily loads the video on to the iOS device it is being streamed to, allowing the drive to go into stand-by mode.

GoFlex Media™ App

Initially available for Apple iOS devices, such as: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; the GoFlex Media app provides a seamless way to connect the mobile wireless storage to your iPad or iPhone. The Android app is expected to be available by this summer. Those that currently use an Android smartphone or tablet can access content on a GoFlex Satellite device through its browser.

Media Sync software

The easy-to-use Media Sync software, also included free with purchase, makes grabbing media from a Windows® PC or Mac® OS X computer a breeze. Wherever the files are stored, whether that is a file structure of your own creation or in an iTunes library, the Media Sync software will load all of your desired music, videos, photos and documents on to the GoFlex Satellite drive. Media Sync is easily configured to only place files on the drive that are compatible with your iOS device. Even music and videos purchased through iTunes can be loaded to the GoFlex Satellite drive and will play on all authorized devices.

Loading Media

For rapid loading of media content, the wireless mobile storage comes equipped with the superfast USB 3.0 cable to get files from your computer to the GoFlex Satellite drive. The USB 3.0 cable will also continue to work with USB 2.0 ports and is easily removed for portability. In addition to the USB 3.0 cable, the GoFlex Satellite drive comes complete with a car charger and a compact wall charger.

The DNS-320 – which was actually announced for the UK market all the way back in December 2010 – has an 800MHz processor and 128MB of RAM. As for the DNS-325, that has a 1.2GHz processor and 256MB of RAM.

Both have standalone P2P functionality, internet photo sharing, FTP, various forms of RAID support and more. Pricing is $109.99 for the DNS-320 and $199.99 for the DNS-325, drive-free, while 1TB pre-configs will be $199.99 for the DSN-320-110 and $279.99 for the DNS-325-110 following on in May 2011.

Press Release:

D-Link® ShareCenter® Solutions Offer Easy Backup, File Sharing, Media Streaming, and Remote Access for Today’s Digital Home

New 2-Bay Network Storage Solutions with Superior Performance, Re-designed Interface and Enhanced Media Functionality for Home Users Now Shipping

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – April 6, 2011 – D-Link today announced the availability of its ShareCenter® 2-Bay Network Storage devices, the DNS-320 and DNS-325. With shared storage serving as an essential element in today’s digital home, these network-attached storage (NAS) solutions feature an upgraded hardware platform and intuitive user interface, enabling consumers to easily share documents, files and digital media with everyone on a home network[i].

The next generation of the award-winning DNS-321 and DNS-323, the new DNS-320 and DNS-325 provide users with centralized storage to help protect, manage, share, stream and remotely access data. Both products feature two SATA HD bays for 3.5-inch drives of either 1TB or 2TB capacities, ensuring plenty of storage for today’s home users. Whether streaming movies, sharing files, or storing video from a network camera, D-Link® ShareCenter storage solutions are designed to let consumers work, play, and share from any room in the home or from a remote location, over the Internet. A complementary piece to D-Link’s digital home solutions, consumers can utilize ShareCenter products for a number of applications – whether it’s connecting directly to the wireless router, storing video from mydlink-enabled IP cameras, or streaming video to your TV using the Boxee Box by D-Link.

“From music for your iPod to photos from your digital SLR to videos for streaming, the need for centralized storage has increased dramatically in today’s connected households,” said Daniel Kelley, associate vice president of consumer marketing, D-Link North America. “Our new ShareCenter products enable users to easily backup their digital lives with added capabilities and advanced technology to get the most out of their home networks.”

Installation of ShareCenter devices is simple, and if more storage is needed, easy expansion allows consumers to add additional hard drives without using tools or attaching any cables. Both solutions include Farstone’s Total Recovery Pro Backup software to manage scheduled and incremental network backups, enabling users to backup all the computers in their home without having to hassle with physically connecting each device to a USB drive. In addition to content back-up and RAID support for data protection, the DNS-320 and DNS-325 also feature remote access to files through a built-in web file server app and FTP server. With the included remote backup application, users can easily backup content to a second storage device at another location to protect against data loss in the event of a catastrophe. And, using the USB port in each device, users can share a single printer among all of the computers in a household over the network. Additionally, users can automatically download content from the web without powering on a PC with the integrated Peer-to-Peer Downloader or access their files at top speeds without bottlenecking with the Gigabit Ethernet port.

The DNS-320 includes its own internal 800 MHz processor, a simplified interface and software for finding and managing files. The DNS-325 features increased speeds due to its upgraded 1.2 GHz processor. Its rugged, compact design makes for easy desktop placement. It also includes applications, such as a photo gallery, an audio streamer and a Blog application that allows users to host their own blogs directly from the device, making the DNS-325 an ideal solution for not only storage, but also for streaming media over a home network. It can also support additional add-on applications as they are developed. Both products also feature AFP and Time Machine support for Mac users.

The DNLA-certified DNS-320 and DNS-325 both feature an upgraded warranty of three years, compared with the one year warranty of prior ShareCenter products.

Availability and Pricing
The DNS-320 and DNS-325 are currently available throughout the D-Link network of retail and e-tail outlets in North America, including Fry’s Electronics, Micro Center, J&R, Amazon, Tiger Direct, NewEgg, Buy.com, and at the company’s online store, http://www.dlinkshop.com. Street prices for the DNS-320 and DNS-325 are $109.99 and $199.99, respectively. In addition, D-Link will also launch the DSN-320-110 and DNS-325-110 (pre-configured with a 1TB disk drive) in May 2011 for $199.99 and $279.99, respectively.

About D-Link
D-Link is the global leader in connectivity for home, small business, mid- to large-sized enterprise environments, and service providers. An award-winning designer, developer, and manufacturer, D-Link implements and supports unified network solutions that integrate capabilities in switching, wireless, broadband, storage, IP Surveillance, and cloud-based network management. For more information visit www.dlink.com or connect with D-Link on Facebook (www.facebook/dlink) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/dlink).

The Pogoplug Video automatically transcodes video streaming on-the-fly so that no matter what device you’re using to remotely access the content, you should be able to play it. It’ll also support the usual multiple USB hard-drives – in Pogoplug’s unusually-shaped, but this time black chassis – for file and multimedia access.

As for the Buffalo CloudStor, that will be available as the 1TB CloudStor (CS-WX1.0TL) for $149.99, the 2TB CloudStor (CS-WX2.0TL) for $209.99 and the 2TB CloudStor Pro (CS-WV2.0TL) for $249.99. It pairs internal storage, a gigabit ethernet port, a USB port (for adding external storage) and a spare internal drive bay (for adding internal storage and optionally setting up a RAID array) with the same cloud-access as on the Pogoplug Video.

More details on Pogoplug in our review.

Press Release:

BUFFALO SHIPS THE REVOLUTIONARY CLOUDSTOR

Seamlessly Access and Share Content with Anyone, Anywhere with No Fees

AUSTIN, TX – April 4, 2011 – Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the highly anticipated, revolutionary Buffalo CloudStor™ personal storage solution is now shipping. First revealed at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CloudStor goes beyond simple storage, creating a portal to freely access and share photos, videos, music and much more with anyone, anywhere through the cloud. Unlike online storage services, CloudStor has no capacity or service fees. Just plug it in, turn it on and create your free account at mycloudstor.com. CloudStor comes with everything you need to get started. You just have to be free to share.

“Digital content consumption has moved beyond traditional channels along with how it is stored and accessed,” said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology. “Bringing CloudStor to market delivers on Buffalo’s promise of simplifying data mobility, allowing you to access and share your content freely, with anyone, anywhere.”

At the center of every CloudStor is the Pogoplug® cloud service. The popular service connects users to their storage and allows them to freely access and share their storage anywhere in the world. CloudStor is the first and only Pogoplug device with integrated storage. Files are securely shared between people and there is no need for user setup; just email a link to your family and friends. Consumers’ digital content always resides on CloudStor and the online service is only used to connect users and guests to specified files on the device.

In addition, CloudStor offers many traditional consumer network attached storage features including private share support for LAN based network sharing and pairing with the popular µTorrent™ client, allowing users to offload the task of downloading torrent files from computers to CloudStor. Buffalo CloudStor can also stream to popular media devices, including Sony PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360®. Plus, CloudStor has an integrated Time Machine® backup system that allows Mac® users to use Time Machine to backup their systems to CloudStor when at home.

Pricing and Availability

The Buffalo CloudStor is backed by a limited one-year warranty that includes toll-free 24/7 US based technical support. CloudStor is now available at an estimated street price of $149.99 for the 1 TB CloudStor (CS-WX1.0TL), $209.99 for the 2 TB CloudStor (CS-WX2.0TL) and $249.99 for the 2 TB CloudStor Pro (CS-WV2.0TL). Buffalo products can be purchased through distribution, online resellers and Buffalo’s ecommerce website. For more information about Buffalo Technology and its products, please visit the company’s web site at www.buffalotech.com

The TS-112 is the baby of the range, a single-drive box which can be expanded via USB or eSATA, and works as a home file server, DLNA/UPnP streamer, USB printer sharer – for up to three printers – and SqueezeServer functionality. There’s also optional standalone wireless use, with a USB WiFi dongle, together with a gigabit ethernet port.

The TS-212 does much the same as the TS-112 but accommodates two drives with data protection. It has the same feature set as the one-drive version, including Full HD 1080p movie streaming. Finally, the TS-412 packs a full four drive bays and offers a choice of Single Disk, JBOD, RAID 0/ 1/ 5/ 6/ 5 + hot spare setups. No word on pricing at this stage, but all three will go on sale in February 2011.

Press Release:

QNAP Debuts New Affordable High Performance Turbo NAS Server Family for Emerging HOME, SOHO, and Prosumer Users

New TS-x12 Lineup Includes 1, 2, and 4-drive Models Featuring Embedded Marvell 1.2GHz CPU and 256MB of DDRII RAM, Delivering Great All-around Performance, Low Power Consumption, and a Wealth of Applications for Home Networks.

Taipei, Taiwan, January, 2011 – QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Media Players today announced the TS-x12 lineup of affordable high performance Turbo NAS servers intended for the fast-growing home and SOHO market segment. The new models utilize the latest Marvell 1.2GHz processor and include 256MB of DDRII memory and Gigabit LAN ports, offering up to 8TB of networked storage with a unique blend of solid performance, high reliability, and advanced features at very affordable price points. The TS-x12 series includes the 1-drive TS-112, 2-drive TS-212, and 4-drive TS-412.

NAS is becoming a popular addition to home networks as they solve the problem of how to centrally store and share digital content among computers in the home – especially in mixed Windows/Mac networks. QNAP’s new TS-x12 models are easy to attach to existing networks and provides easy file sharing within the network, centralized backup of all networked computers, website hosting, printer sharing, even recording of surveillance video from IP cameras.

“The new TS-x12 series Turbo NAS servers offer affordable high performance coupled with ultra-low power consumption and virtually noise-free operation,” said Tony Lu, Product Manager from QNAP. “Home users no longer need to sacrifice performance for lower cost NAS; and the new TS-x12 series offers advanced features like RAID and iSCSI support, making them an incredible value for the money.”

The new TS-x12 models also improve the multimedia experience and capabilities for home users. The built-in UPnP media server (TwonkyMedia) feature of the TS-x12 series supports numerous UPnP-compliant media players such as the Sony® PS3 and Microsoft® Xbox 360 gaming consoles. Users can even use their iPhone and Android phone to stream music and video or view digital photos stored on the NAS in real-time from anywhere they have a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

Availability
The TS-x12 series will be available starting in February through popular commercial distributors, resellers, and retailers globally.

Each of the drive bays are hot-swappable, and there are twin gigabit LAN ports for hooking up to your network. Keeping things churning are a 1.8GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM (3GB supported), and there are four USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA for hooking up external drives or using the DS1511+ for printer sharing duties.

Despite the storage potential, Synology reckons the DS1511+ only gobbles down 68W in use, and since it runs the same great software as we reviewed on the Synology DiskStation DS211, you can set it up as everything from a basic network drive to a media server, mail server, FTP store, IP camera station and more. It’s available now, priced at around $870 for the drive-free DS1511+ unit itself, or in various pre-configured forms.

Press Release:

Synology® Unveils High-Performance DiskStation DS1511+ with Greater Scalability and Full-Featured NAS Solution for SMB Users

Taipei, Taiwan—Dec 21, 2010—Synology® Inc. today unveiled DiskStation DS1511+, a high-performance NAS server that offers greater scalability, significant storage capacity and full-featured business NAS solutions for SMB users.

As information data increases exponentially by the minute, the performance of data transmission becomes a predominant requirement for setting up a centralized file server in a business environment. “With link aggregation, the DS1511+ surpasses its predecessor to deliver an astonishing 197 MB/sec in reading speed under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment, and 165 MB/sec in writing,” said Chad Chiang, the product manager of Synology Inc. The 2 LAN structure with failover support coupled with hot-swappable drives thus ensure high data availability.

The DS1511+ provides space for five hard drives – with a single drive reaching a 3TB capacity – that can be scaled up to a total of 15 drives for a maximum of 45TB by connecting with two Synology DX510 expansion units. The default 1GB RAM can also be upgraded to 3GB to enhance work process performance. Running on a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, the DS1511+ only consumes 68 watts of power during operation, while the multiples scheduled on/off, wake on LAN/WAN and hard drive hibernation facilitate energy saving and low operating cost. The reliability of DS1511+ is solidified by Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.

Blessed by the Synology DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) operation system, the DS1511+ can fit to a business environment easily. Windows ACL support allows for customized privilege setup on files and folders through existing Windows user interface. Moreover, user account can be managed more efficiently and productively by utilizing the Windows ADS integration to reduce burden of IT administration.

For anyone seeking an alternative of Storage-Area-Network (SAN), the affordable and cost-effective iSCSI support in DSM 3.0 allows SMB users to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts with the illusion of locally-attached disks. The DS1511+ also serves as a seamless storage solution for virtualization servers, such as VMware® vSphereTM, Microsoft Hyper-VTM, and Citrix® XenServerTM.

The Synology DS1511+ has many features that enhance the effectiveness of resource sharing. The comprehensive network protocol support assures seamless file sharing across Windows, Mac® and Linux platforms, while file access on the Internet is simplified by the encrypted FTP server and the web-based file browser. In terms of security protection, the presence of HTTPS, firewall, IP auto-block and AES 256-bit encryption engine provides users with a peace-of-mind during file sharing.

Availability

The Synology DS1511+ is now shipping globally.

They include hard-drive hibernation and “Green Ethernet”, which intelligently controls networking power consumption based on the state of your cabling, together with a smart fan that automatically adjusts according to temperature. You can also schedule fixed downtime, turning the NAS off when you won’t be needing it, and use it with Apple’s Time Machine backup.

Despite the consumer focus, there’s FTP server support and user quotas, along with print server and USB backup (with a one-touch button) functionality; you do only get one gigabit ethernet and one USB 2.0 port, however. It’ll go on sale in the UK today, priced at £89.99 ($141) with no drives.

Press Release:

D-Link launches first new product from its ShareCenterTM storage range

ShareCenter Pulse let you easily share, stream and protect your digital content

London – 6th December 2010 –To help consumers access and secure their Digital Home content, D-Link today announces the launch of its ShareCenterTM Pulse (DNS-320) network storage solution, which is primed to capitalise on the increasing market demand for digital storage in the home. ShareCenter Pulse is the first product in D-Link’s new storage range, recognising how today’s consumers require reliable and easy-to-use storage as they are creating and purchasing more digital content (including photos, music, movies and work files) than ever before.

“The appetite for digital content today is already staggering and this will only grow as consumer behaviour continues to evolve,” said Chris Davies, general manager D-Link UK and Ireland. “Our new ShareCenter products will provide home users with easy-to-manage, plug & play storage capability that will enable them to share and back-up their personal digital content. With our Boxee Box now on the market, ShareCenter Pulse is an ideal complementary product for users looking to access and share content over the network or the Internet.”

Access, share, stream, protect

D-Link’s ShareCenter Pulse (DNS-320) allows consumers to centralise, secure and share all of their files in an easy and convenient way. ShareCenter effectively acts as a central digital hub users can treat as a bank for their digital content, which they can top up or withdraw from in any location. Every ShareCenter product connects directly to a home network by plugging into the router and allows files to be accessed from any networked device in a home, as well as offering remote access to friends and family.
Digital content, such as music or movies that have been downloaded or streamed from the Internet, can be saved directly onto ShareCenter before being shared, or watched from the comfort of the home. Important files, like photos, music, movies and documents, are automatically backed up and protected with built-in ShareCenter backup, while managing content stored on the device is simple through the user-friendly interface. As consumers begin to increasingly rely on digital content, the home storage experience must be optimised for all their needs while being easy to use. As such, D-Link is committed to making storage technology accessible for all consumers, irrespective of their technical expertise.

Product specification:

ShareCenter Pulse (DNS-320):
Two 3.5″ SATA HDD bays
Direct media streaming with UPnP Media Server
FTP server for remote access to files across the Internet
iTunes server
Built-in BitTorrent client to download without a PC
User quotas for security and confidentiality
ShareCenter Pulse is also an eco-friendly NAS appliance with the following energy saving features:
- Hard drive hibernation – which helps to reduce power consumption and noise, and also extends the life of the hard drives
- Low power consumption – the device is powered by low power consumption CPUs and therefore consumes less power
- Smart fan design – fan speed automatically adjusts based on the internal temperature to efficiently dissipate heat and conserve power
- D-Link Green Ethernet – the device supports D-Link Green Ethernet allowing the device to optimise power usage based on dynamic cable detection
- Schedule power off – the schedule power off feature offers the ability to power down the device when not in use
Pulse is available from the 6th December for a RRP of £89.99 including VAT, and can be purchased from D-Link’s network of partners, including Amazon, Dabs and ebuyer.
END OF ANNOUNCEMENT

About D-Link
D-Link is one of the world’s leading networking companies, delivering innovative, high-performing and intuitive products for consumers. D-Link’s consumer products sit at the heart of the Digital Home ranging from wireless routers, media players, storage devices, PowerLine and the award-winning Boxee Box (CES 2010 ‘Last Gadget Standing’), its entertainment gateway which brings the power of the Internet to the TV. D-Link is very committed to standards-based products and is DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified. This gives consumers the confidence that their network will work with a multitude of devices now and in the future.

For more information, please visit www.dlink.co.uk

There’s also optional 256-bit encryption and a “Snapshot Backup Utility” which can apparently grab an image of the current data setup for restoring should the active copy subsequently melt. Plextor is also talking up the PX-NAS4′s eco-credentials, saying it uses 60-percent of the power of a typical NAS (58W in full access mode; 25W in standby). It will go on sale at the end of the month, priced at $399.99 drive-free.

Press Release:

New PX-NAS4 Network-Attached Storage from Plextor

Plextor announces a new four-bay, 8TB NAS device

(Fremont, CA – November 17, 2010) – Plextor LLC (www.plextor.com ), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the PX-NAS4, its latest network-attached storage (NAS) device. The PX-NAS4 offers an exceptional performance, massive storage capacity, high data reliability and security, and low power consumption, making it a perfect solution for today’s small and medium sized business environment.

With dual LAN ports, the PX-NAS4 provides substantial bandwidth up to 2Gbps data access to support the increasing data demands and needs of small and medium-sized businesses. PX-NAS4 has the capacity to store up to 8TB of data across four hot-swap drive bays. Also, the PX-NAS4 has a storage expansion option available via built-in eSATA and USB ports which allow for the connection of additional external hard drives to meet continuous storage demand.

The PX-NAS4 offers the convenience of iSCSI, making its storage available as consolidated network storage over existing low cost networks. Valuable data stored in the PX-NAS4 is always protected with an advanced volume encryption using an AES 256-bit algorithm. PX-NAS4 is password-protected allowing only authorized users’ access.

“With today’s increasing amount of digital data, businesses need to save such data in a secure and accessible area,” said Clifford Sun, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Plextor, “Plextor is excited to offer our next phase of network-attached storage providing a reliable, secure and convenient storage solution for small and medium businesses.”

The PX-NAS4 offers multiple disk configurations: JBOD, RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10, with a hot spare bay provided for immediate drive replacement if a drive fails (RAID 1 & 5 only). The PX-NAS4 also features Snapshot Backup Utility, a method of backup that takes a picture of the current state of the NAS, to protect and safeguard precious data.

A low-power consumption design makes the PX-NAS4 Energy Star compliant and reduces the energy demands to 58 Watts in full access mode (25 Watts in standby). The device requires only 60 percent of the power of a typical 200 Watt NAS, saving electricity and running costs.

The PX-NAS4 will be available end of November with an MSRP of $399.99.

Meanwhile there’s also Drobo Sync, included free with the DroboPro FS (i.e. the networked version of the DroboPro), which supports simple off-site backup. It’s worth remembering, though, that it seems to require another DroboPro FS at the other site, which could end up expensive.

The new Drobo S v.2 will go on sale today, priced at $799 for the base unit (with no drives); alternatively it will be available with 5TB, 7.5TB or 10TB of storage pre-loaded, for $1,299, $1,549 or $1,799 respectively. It will also be available through HP from November 18.

Press Release:

Drobo Continues to Fuel Exceptional Growth with Advanced New Products and Channel Expansion to Include HP Small Business Direct

Drobo Introduces Most Expandable USB 3.0 System and World’s Easiest-to-Use Remote Backup

SANTA CLARA, CA – November 16, 2010 – Data Robotics, Inc. (“Drobo”), the company that delivers the best storage experience ever, today announced a major new product, breakthrough data protection capabilities and channel expansion to include HP® Small Business Direct, HP’s online store focused on small businesses. These announcements come on the heels of record sales of the Drobo product family to small and medium-sized organizations worldwide.

“Today’s announcements will serve to further accelerate what our customers and partners fondly call the ‘Drobo Invasion,’” said Tom Buiocchi, chief executive officer, Drobo. “Our quest to provide the best storage experience for small and medium-sized businesses just progressed significantly with today’s new product advancements and our growing partnerships in the industry.”

Drobo has unveiled its new Drobo S system to provide a number of industry firsts and breakthroughs by leveraging USB 3.0 technology. The company is also announcing the immediate availability of Drobo Sync, the world’s easiest-to-use remote backup for small and medium-sized businesses, which is available with the company’s new DroboPro FS system. All Drobo systems feature patented BeyondRAID ™ technology which enables greater ease-of-use, data safety, affordability, and expandability for organizations who rely on digital storage but who do not have deep storage expertise.

Breakthrough Features and Benefits Delivered by New Drobo S
The Drobo S is currently the most expandable USB 3.0 product in the market, with “industry first” support for multiple storage volumes and capacity of up to 32TB and beyond
The accelerated performance of the Drobo S is up to 10X faster than existing USB 2.0 solutions
The new Drobo S also features enhanced backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 systems (laptops, PCs and servers) to provide further investment protection and “future-proofing”

“When USB 3.0 was released, many storage vendors simply added a basic connector to their systems, but that precluded small and medium-sized businesses from taking full advantage of its promise,” said Mark Peters, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “In contrast, by specifically engineering the Drobo S to incorporate USB 3.0, Drobo has been able to optimize performance and ease-of-use, both of which being characteristics that such businesses will appreciate.”

Simple but Powerful Remote Backup
Drobo also announced the immediate availability of Drobo Sync, the easiest to use remote backup software, for its new DroboPro FS product family. Drobo Sync can be configured in just minutes with a few mouse clicks, and is included free of charge with all new DroboPro FS models to provide small businesses, resellers, and service providers with a cost-effective alternative to cloud-based solutions for backing up terabytes of data.

Pricing and Availability
The new Drobo S is available at a starting price of $799 MSRP with multiple configurations up to $1,799 MSRP for a 10TB bundle. Drobo Sync is included for free with the purchase of any new DroboPro FS and is available as a free software upgrade to existing DroboPro FS customers. The DroboPro FS is available at a starting price of $1,999 MSRP with multiple configurations up to $3,299 MSRP for a 16TB bundle.

Both products are immediately available from select partners worldwide and will be available from HP Small Business Direct online store (www.shopping.hp.com/deals/drobo) starting November 18. For a complete list of partners, please visit www.drobo.com/where_to_buy.

Additional Resources
• Review the specifics on the new Drobo S and learn more at http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-s.php
• Review the specifics of DroboPro FS with Drobo Sync capabilities and learn more at
http://www.drobo.com/products/drobopro-fs.php
• Follow Drobo on Twitter http://twitter.com/drobo
• Follow Drobo on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Drobo/54443011765

About Data Robotics
Data Robotics, Inc., the company that delivers the best storage experience ever, develops the award-winning Drobo family of automated storage products that are designed to ensure data is always protected, accessible and simple to manage. Based on the patented and proven BeyondRAID technology, Drobo provides an unprecedented combination of advanced data protection features and ease-of-use. For more information, visit Data Robotics at www.drobo.com.

Basically, all you need do is plug the C3 Wireless into your PC or Mac via its USB port, allow it to perform the first backup, and then unplug it. Left quietly turned on (and hooked up wirelessly to your router) the C3 will automatically backup any changes every hour. Multiple computers can be registered and backed-up in this way, as long as they’re all using the same wireless network.

That means no software to install on the computer itself, and very little in the way of technical knowledge required. Restoring from a backup is also meant to be straightforward, as is browsing the C3 and picking out individual files, and it can be used to share music as well as automatically send photos to Facebook galleries or via email.

In fact the only thing we’d like to see is a bigger hard-drive; 500GB doesn’t seem like much for backing-up multiple computers. The Clickfree C3 Wireless is available now, priced at $179.99.

There’s also printing support, thanks to the most recent firmware update, which allows you to hook up a USB printer and send files not only from your PC or Mac but from your smartphone.  The company has apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Palm to remotely access files and multimedia content shared using the Pogoplug Pro.

The new version is available now, priced at $99, and will be on sale through Pogoplug’s own online store and at Best Buy stores.  If you’ve got an original v2 Pogoplug, you can always add wireless using the company’s USB WiFi b/g/n stick.

Press Release:

Pogoplug Unveils Latest Version of Award-Winning Product

Pogoplug Pro is Available in Best Buy Stores Today

San Francisco, CA, October 11, 2010 – Cloud Engines, Inc, today announced Pogoplug Pro, the latest version of the company’s award-winning multimedia sharing device. The Pogoplug Pro delivers even more flexibility to store, access, and share personal content from anywhere on the Internet.

Pogoplug allows users to easily and securely access, share, and stream their personal content from anywhere, without uploading. Content remains safely on USB hard drives connected to the Pogoplug device in their home or office, and is available from any Internet enabled device, including apps for the iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry, and Palm.

“Pogoplug is a great option for those who want to quickly and securely share personal files over the Internet,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at The NPD Group.

The Pogoplug Pro includes all of the popular features of the second generation Pogoplug, including the ability to connect up to four USB drives and to print from any mobile device. In addition, Pogoplug Pro adds built-in wireless connectivity. Owners can place the device anywhere in their home without having to physically connect it to their router.

Pogoplug Pro is available today in Best Buy stores and online for $99 (MSRP).

About Best Buy

With operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, China, Mexico and Turkey, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. The Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $49 billion in annual revenue. Approximately 180,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuy.com.

About Pogoplug Pro

The Pogoplug is a device that connects up to 4 external hard drives to the Internet wirelessly. It is designed for consumers who have an external hard drive and have high speed Internet. Consumers can securely access and share all of their content [Files, Photos, and Video] from any Web browser or enabled mobile device with no additional monthly fees.

About Cloud engines, Inc.
Founded in 2007 by experienced entrepreneurs from the digital media and security industries, Cloud Engines is located in San Francisco, California. The company was formed with a mission to change the way personal content is stored and distributed over the Internet. The Cloud Engines philosophy is that by making a product simple, open and affordable, the community will participate in making it better. For more information, please visit, www.cloudengines.com andwww.pogoplug.com

As with other Data Robotics products there is single or dual drive redundancy using the company’s BeyondRAID system. There’s also a new Drobo Sync application for automating backups across multiple machines, while the DroboPro FS supports simultaneous off-site replication to a remote unit as well.

The basic unit starts at $1,999 without drives, but various preconfigured packages will also be available.  These will top out at $3,299 for a full 16TB unit made up of eight 2TB hard-drives.

Press Release:

DATA ROBOTICS CONTINUES INNOVATION FOR SMALL BUSINESS WITH BREAKTHROUGH FILE SHARING AND OFFSITE BACKUP SOLUTION

New DroboPro FS Leverages Proven BeyondRAID Technology and Drobo Sync Backup Application to Deliver Unprecedented Ease, Affordability, and Data Safety

SANTA CLARA, CA – October 5, 2010 – Data Robotics, Inc. (“Drobo”), the company that is changing the way the world stores and protects digital content, today introduced DroboPro FS, the newest member of the Drobo family of automated storage products. Building on the success of the award-winning Drobo FS (introduced in April, 2010), the DroboPro FS with the newly integrated Drobo Sync application is tailored to enable small businesses to deploy network storage and offsite backup without complexity. DroboPro FS is ideal for any small office environment that requires a simple, safe, and affordable device for sharing and backing up files over the network.

“There is a significant need for simple, expandable storage solutions that address the relentless data growth happening within personal and small to medium business markets,” said Liz Conner, Senior Research Analyst, Storage Systems and Personal Storage at IDC. “Data Robotics has had success in addressing the personal and SOHO storage market with its Drobo FS. The company is aiming to meet the increasingly rigid requirements for data availability with its DroboPro FS by enabling off-site backups while preserving its simple-to-use nature that can scale with the capacity needs of its users.”

“We are reinventing storage solutions that meet the specific requirements of small business owners,” said Tom Buiocchi, chief executive officer, Data Robotics. “Your typical small business needs data storage and protection, but has limited budget and technical resources. We provide the smart alternative to the overly complex and expensive solutions being offered. The DroboPro FS delivers ease of use, functionality, and affordability that many small businesses did not know could exist in a single solution.”

DroboPro FS Features and Benefits

BeyondRAID Technology for The Best Storage Experience Ever: Like all Drobo products, the new DroboPro FS is based on patented BeyondRAID technology, which provides unprecedented and unmatched ease of use, affordability, self-healing data protection, and expandability.
Pay-as-you-Grow Storage Capacity – Small businesses with growing storage requirements can easily and affordably add data capacity by simply inserting a new SATA hard drive or by replacing the smallest drive with a larger one, even when all eight drive bays of the DroboPro FS are full.
Network File Sharing: The DroboPro FS connects directly to any Gigabit Ethernet network for a true plug in and share set-up experience, supporting Microsoft, Apple, and Linux computer systems.
Automated Backup: Every DroboPro FS includes the new Drobo Sync application that will automatically backup (locally or remotely) all data to another DroboPro FS. Drobo Sync is both efficient and flexible, only transmitting portions of files that have changed and allowing backups to be conveniently scheduled.
Redundant Network Connections for High Availability: DroboPro FS provides two Gigabit Ethernet ports with network protection mode to ensure the highest data availability over the network.
Automated and Continuous Thin Provisioning: Unlike any competitive storage system in the market, the new DroboPro FS provides automated and perpetual thin provisioning to customers, allowing users to further stretch their storage investment and utilization.

“Our SMB customers are looking for a cost-effective storage product like the DroboPro FS that combines key features including instant expansion, self-healing technology, and offsite backup and recovery. Data Robotics clearly understands the needs of SMBs and we’re excited to be the preferred launch partner for the DroboPro FS”.

Pricing and Availability

DroboPro FS is currently available from select partners worldwide, including preferred launch partner CDW (www.cdw.com) at a starting price of $1,999 MSRP and multiple configurations to $3,299 MSRP for a 16TB bundle. For a complete list of partners, please visit www.drobo.com/where_to_buy.

On the back there are three gigabit ethernet ports – which will work as a switch – and an upstream gigabit port, together with a pair of USB 2.0 ports for hooking up external drives or printers.  Another USB 2.0 port is on the opposite edge, while inside there’s 2.4GHz single-band WiFi b/g/n and either a 1TB or 2TB hard-drive.

Media – whether photos, audio or video – loaded onto the Wireless Space can be shared easily using UPnP or DLNA, and Mac users can set it up with Time Machine as if it actually were a Time Capsule; it’ll function as an iTunes library, too.  It’s available today, priced at £179.90 ($281) for the 1TB.

Update: US pricing is $229.99 for the 1TB and $349.99 for the 2TB.

Press Release:

LaCie Wireless Space: Versatile Wireless Storage

LONDON, UK (Thursday 16th September, 2010) – Today, LaCie introduces its first network-attached storage solution to feature Wi-Fi. The LaCie Wireless Space can operate as a file or media server for multiple Mac® and PC users, from anywhere in the home – making it the most compatible and multifunctional network hard drive on the market.

Leveraging Wi-Fi technology, the Wireless Space can connect to your existing Wi-Fi network, allowing you to access files wirelessly throughout the home, and can serve as a central storage solution for all your backups. If you wish to increase your Wi-Fi performance, the Wireless Space can also act as a b/g/n access point, and even serve as a full-featured router.

“There are a variety of network devices you need to buy to have a full solution to connect your computers, share media and back up your files,” remarked Julien Ott, Product Manager for Network Attached Storage, LaCie. “LaCie is thrilled to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to the Wireless Space and deliver a truly all-in-one solution for the varying different network needs of any home.”

For users with a large media library, the Wireless Space can also act as a media server. It’s compatible with UPnP/DLNA and iTunes, and you can stream music, movies and photos from a central location and play them on any device.

Additionally, the Wireless Space is Time Machine compatible, so Mac users can use it as a target for their automatic backups and be confident that all important files and media are safely protected. LaCie also delivers Genie Timeline Software for scheduled backups on the PC.

Designed exclusively for LaCie, Neil Poulton’s sleek, polished black design is engineered for natural heat dissipation and near-silent operation. The sophisticated design and Wi-Fi functionality of the Wireless Space makes it a perfect addition to any home network.

Availability
The LaCie Wireless Space is available as of today, in 1TB and 2TB capacity through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Corner, and LaCie Reseller+ starting at £179.90. For more product information, visit www.lacie.com/uk.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the Pogoplug now supports printing. So, if you’ve got your mobile device that can access the Pogoplug’s home server interface, then you get your printing on. And considering most of those mobile devices can access full documents, even ones stared in a Dropbox or on Google Docs, you’ve got plenty of options out there for your printing needs. Printer side, you’ll need an HP or Epson-manufactured device from the year 2005 or newer to get your printing on. The firmware upgrade is rolling out right now, so get ready.

As for that previously announced 802.11 b/g/n wireless adapter, the company has come clean that the device is now shipping. And, surprisingly enough, so is the Pogoplug Biz model, which is focused on the whole Enterprise market. For your reading pleasure, we’ve included the press release below.

Press Release

Pogoplug Gains Two New Products and Enables Web Printing!
A series of new Pogoplug features and products go live today!

Today we are delighted to begin rolling out a new firmware update to our customers that activates a number of new features we have announced in recent months, including our new cloud printing feature. In addition, both the Pogoplug Wireless Extender and
Pogoplug Biz are now shipping.

The print feature that we announced at the beginning of summer allows users to print from iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and any other Internet enabled device from anywhere in the world! The setup is simple; all users need to do is plug any HP or Epson printer made since 2005 into a USB port on the Pogoplug, or if it’s a network printer, simply have it on the same network as the Pogoplug. The firmware update begins rolling out to Pogoplug users today, and all users should have the update by the end of the week.

Our newest product, the Pogoplug Wireless Extender, allows users to place the Pogoplug anywhere in their homes where there is wireless internet access, without having to connect it to a network router or wired Ethernet port. The Pogoplug Wireless Extender begins shipping today.

Pogoplug Biz is an all-new version of Pogoplug specifically for businesses that gives business owners all the great features from the original Pogoplug, along with business specific features like customizable emails, a custom look and feel, file download and access statistics, and multiple users.

If you haven’t already, order your Pogoplug Biz and Wireless Extender now!

Find out how to get a free Pogoplug Wireless Extender after the cut

To celebrate the price reduction, Pogoplug are offering existing owners a free Wireless Extender dongle.  To find out more, check out the company’s Facebook page; basically, you email them with your purchase details from a registered Pogoplug device address.

We’re checking on when the Pogoplug Wireless Extender will begin shipping, and the company tells us the price reduction on the Pogoplug itself should take place online sometime later today.  More details on the Pogoplug in our review.

Press Release:

Pogoplug Gets a Wireless “Little Buddy”

Our #1 requested feature now resolved: Wireless Adapter enables Pogoplugs to be placed anywhere in the home; existing users can get it for free!
Pogoplug is giving people what they want. Our customers have bombarded us with requests to add wireless connectivity to the Pogoplug, and we heard the message, loud and clear. Starting today, anyone can pre-order the Pogoplug Wireless Extender that makes any existing Pogoplug fully WiFi-enabled. Now users can place the Pogoplug anywhere in their homes without having to permanently connect it to a network router or wired Ethernet port.
The Pogoplug Wireless Extender is compatible with all previous versions of Pogoplugs and the recently announced Pogoplug Biz. Other recent improvements we’ve added to the Pogoplug include cloud printing, the updated Pogoplug Android application, the ability to share and collaborate on documents directly on the Pogoplug, and a very simple system of email upload. We are constantly striving to make the Pogoplug even better, and we would love to hear what your experience has been and how we can improve it. Keep sending those emails!
The Pogoplug Wireless Extender will work on 802.11 b/g/n networks and is available for pre-order now for $29.
In addition to the introduction of the new Wireless Extender, we are reducing the price of the current Pogoplug from $129 to $99.
Because of this price move and as a thank you to existing Pogoplug owners there is a special limited time offer; any existing owner of a Pogoplug can receive a promo code to get the new Wireless Adapter for free. To find out how, visit our Facebook page or our website support page.
The standard model Pogoplug can be ordered starting today for $99 at www.pogoplug.com.

Alternatively there’s a USB 2.0 port which can be used to add external drives, or to share a USB printer across the home network.  Digital media files can be streamed around the network – there’s an ethernet port built in, but you’ll need to hook up a wireless router if you want WiFi support – and the GoFlex Home is compatible with both PC and Mac for backup purposes.

As for remote access, like we’ve seen on the Pogoplug you can share photo albums, videos and documents with friends and family via an invite-only webpage; Seagate also offer an optional premium version of the service, Seagate Share Pro, which allows for remote cellphone access, Facebook and Flickr integration, and RSS updates to new content.  The Seagate GoFlex Home is available today, priced at $159.99 for the 1TB model and $229.99 for the 2TB model.

Press Release:

SEAGATE DEBUTS GOFLEX HOME: EASY-TO-USE CENTRALIZED STORAGE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Wireless Backup, Sharing and Streaming of Music, Photos, Movies and More
from Multiple Computers in the Home

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – July 19, 2010 – Seagate today unveiled the newest
addition to its

GoFlexT family of hard drives-the GoFlex
T Home network storage system. When this easy-to-use device is
connected to a wireless router, an entire household can centrally store,
easily access and continuously back up files wirelessly from both WindowsR
and Mac OSR X operating systems on the home[1] network. The new centralized
storage system simplifies the backup process by being compatible with AppleR
Time MachineR, as well as including a version of the backup application for
both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. With the GoFlex
Home storage system, families can also wirelessly stream photos,
movies and music to most network connected DLNA devices, such as game
consoles or a
GoFlexT TV HD media player, from any room in the house. With just two
cable connections and a simple, illustrated, step-by-step installation tool
that gets the device up and running in minutes, the GoFlex
Home system solves the household storage puzzle in a snap.

Available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, the GoFlex
Home storage system provides plenty of room to help safeguard precious
digital memories for the whole family and is ideal for use with home
laptops, netbooks, or other devices
with limited storage. Unlike other single-drive network solutions, its
modular design also enables the included drive to be upgraded when needed by
simply removing the drive from the base (no tools required) and replacing it
with a higher capacity GoFlex
T Desk hard drive. Families can also add more storage to
the GoFlex
Home system by simply connecting additional drives to the USB port.
Additionally, this same USB port can be used to wirelessly share a USB
printer with every computer on the network.

“With broadband and home networks reaching higher levels of penetration and
operating at higher speeds, consumers are increasingly downloading and
streaming content into their home and wanting to access that content from
anywhere,” said Darcy Clarkson, Seagate vice president of Retail Sales and
Marketing. “The GoFlex
T Home system makes it easy for families wanting to quickly and
effortlessly backup, enjoy, and share their favorite home movies music or
photos from any room in the house. We spent a lot of time focusing on
simplicity with this product and believe people will find it very intuitive
to set-up and get started. With the GoFlex
T Home system, now home networking is within reach for today’s digital
households.”

A recent report by In-Stat predicts the consumer network storage market will
continue to grow between 25 and 50 percent over the next five years. In
addition, the number of devices connected to the home network, and the
number of devices that are mobile or portable, are creating desire for
consumers to move in and out of their home networking environment2 with
their content. Using the included remote access and file sharing service on
GoFlex
Home system called Seagate ShareT service, families can easily access
movies, music or photo files stored on their GoFlex
Home system from any internet connected computer in the world. The
Seagate Share service also allows families to share photo albums, home
movies and documents with friends by simply selecting the files or folders
they want to share and typing in an email address. Those friends will
receive a notification with a direct link to a customized webpage where they
can view the shared files.

“Consumers are showing increased interest in downloading and streaming
content from the Internet into the home, connecting devices in the home to
social networks, and demanding easy access to content both within the
household and beyond the reach of home networks,” said Norm Bogen, vice
president, Research, Digital Entertainment with In-Stat. “Solutions designed
to help access content from multiple devices in the home, distribute it over
the home network and stream to other devices and products, will be appealing
to active digital media consumers.”

The GoFlex
Home system also offers a premium service option-the Seagate Share Pro
remote access service-that allows families to access content stored on the
drive from mobile devices such as an iPhoneR, iPadT or BlackBerryR,
integrate photos or files with FacebookR and FlickrR, and keep friends and
relatives updated with the latest shared files using Integrated RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) notifications.

In addition to delivering quick and easy wireless, file access, streaming
and multi-computer backup of digital files, the GoFlex
Home network storage system has been designed with the cost and
environmentally conscious households in mind. The GoFlex
Home system also includes a power saving (idle) mode that
automatically runs after 30-minutes of inactivity and a power switch that
allows it to be shut off while families are away for extended periods.

All three models have four 3.5-inch drive bays and support various levels of RAID configuration.  The DS411+ runs an Intel Atom D510 processor and sucks up 60.5W during use, while the RS810+ uses 68W; both support wake-on-LAN, HDD hibernation and power scheduling.  Meanwhile the RackStation RS810RP+ gets a second, redundant power supply.  Both it and the RS810+ support hot-swapping of drives, can have their 1GB of standard RAM expanded to 3GB, and have modular motherboards for easier maintenance and repair.

Of course, as well as backup there’s web hosting functionality – each unit can host up to 30 different sites simultaneously – and IP camera control, Windows ADS compliance and more.  The diskless DS411+ will be priced at $650 and carry a 2 year warranty. The diskless RS810+ is $1399, RS810RP+ is $1899, and RX410 expansion system (which can boost storage to up to 16TB) is $550; all 3 rackmounts carry at 5 year warranty.

Press Release:

Synology® Unleashes Scalable RackStation RS810+ and DiskStation DS411+ High-performance NAS Servers with Extensive Functionality for SMB Users

Redmond, Washington—July 16, 2010— Synology® America Corp. today officially launched the RackStation RS810+ and DiskStation DS411+, 4-bay NAS servers with rich, business-oriented features, appealing to SMBs that demand flexibility and great performing network attached storage solutions.

Businesses need a strong foundation to face mission-critical tasks, and can rely on the Synology RS810+ and DS411+ to deliver high-performance. Tested in a RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment, the Synology RS810+ and DS411+ deliver an average of 112MB/sec reading speed while RS810+ writes at 107MB/sec and DS411+ writes at 106MB/sec. The web server responsiveness rates are remarkable; the Synology RS810+ and DS410+ take less than 32 seconds to handle 1,000 simultaneous requests.

For forward-thinking and continuously expanding SMBs, the Synology RS810+ offers scalable storage up to 16 TB with the RX410, and is expandable to up to 3 GB RAM. The Synology RS810+ was certified to be VMware® ready, delivering a reliable storage solution for virtualization deployment. The hard drives are hot-swappable to ensure continuous service uptime when a drive needs replacement. The modular design allows for rapid in situ replacement of the motherboard. For businesses that require uninterrupted data sharing and protection, the Synology RS810RP+ comes with a redundant power supply, which optimizes data availability and safety.

The Synology RS810+ operates at 68 watts while DS411+ draws at 60.5 watts. With energy conservation features such as Wake on LAN/WAN, scheduled power on/off, and hard drive hibernation, users are not only able to reduce monthly bills, but also reduce their carbon footprint.

“The Synology RS810+ and DS411+ run on the award-winning operating system, Synology DiskStation Manager 2.3 (DSM 2.3), and are specifically designed for businesses that want an affordable alternative to various network devices or costly PC servers,” said Rosiel Lee, product manager at Synology Inc. The Synology RS810+ and DS411+ will host up to 30 websites with Web Station, become affordable NVR solutions, supporting up to 20 IP cameras with Surveillance Station, and act as mail servers with Mail Station. In addition, comprehensive business- oriented features are provided, including cross-platform data sharing, encrypted data storage and transmission, all-round backup solution, iSCSI capability and Windows ADS integration.

Availability

The Synology RS810+, RS810RP+, RX410 and DS411+ are now shipping worldwide.

Connectivity includes twin gigabit ethernet and four USB 2.0 ports, which can be used to add extra external storage.  It’s also straightforward to backup external content to the BlackArmor array, or vice-versa, and you can use it to perform Bare Metal Restores across your home or office network.

DLNA, an iTunes server, remote access, various degrees of access control and quota settings, and ten user licenses of Windows-only backup software round out the deal.  The Seagate BlackArmor NAS 400 is available either as a barebones unit for $399.99, or in 4TB, 6TB or 8TB pre-configurations for $899.99, $1,199.99 or $1,499.99 respectively.

Press Release:

Seagate Unveils Customizable Small Business Network Storage Server
New BlackArmor® NAS 400 Server Delivers Protection, Performance and Flexibility

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – July 13, 2010 – Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) today introduced the BlackArmor® NAS 400 network storage server, a secure, scalable and reliable 4-bay network storage enclosure designed for the growing storage needs of small businesses and households. This newest addition to the Seagate BlackArmor family of storage solutions allows customers to customize the box to meet their specific requirements and add more storage as needed. Available immediately through Seagate.com and CDW, the BlackArmor NAS 400 server can be purchased for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $399.99.

The BlackArmor NAS 400 server gives customers the option to install the disk drives of their choice, selecting from an variety of Seagate-certified products¹ including Seagate Barracuda® low power drives, Barracuda 3.5-inch 7200 RPM drives or the new Barracuda® XT hybrid drive for maximum performance. A scalable solution, the BlackArmor NAS 400 server allows customers to start by inserting one drive and add up to three more as their business grows.

Similar to Seagate’s other two-and-four bay NAS solutions, the BlackArmor NAS 400 network storage server includes:

Backup and protection tools for up to 50² network-connected PCs with incremental and full-system, automatic backup.
User-configurable RAID 0/1/5/10 & JBOD capabilities, providing a variety of data protection options to help avoid data loss due to hard drive failure.
Hot-swappable drives — no tools required.
Microsoft® Active Directory 2003/2008 support.
Secure remote access with intuitive, web-based management interface, allowing customers to designate user access manually or integrate with Microsoft® Active Directory 2003/2008.
Windows 7 certification.
Ability to centralize, stream and share media files and documents from computers on a network, share them with other DLNA® compliant devices and computers on the network running iTunes® software.
Full system recovery of the operating system, programs and settings, in the event of a system crash or failure with SafetyDrill+™ software.
Event notification to help prevent and manage drive errors or disruption.
Four additional USB ports to connect extra USB storage, share a USB printer or connect an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) to safeguard from power failure.
A 3-year limited warranty.
The BlackArmor NAS 400 server completes Seagate’s full-line of small and home office business solutions, providing customers with an variety of either plug-and-play or customizable four-bay NAS products from which to choose. With products ranging from 1TB to 8TB, businesses and advanced consumers can buy what they need now and have the confidence that their storage capacity can scale as their business or storage needs grow.

Under the hood lurks Intel’s Atom 1.66GHz processor – a single-core chip in the Ultra 4 and a dual-core chip in the Ultra 6 – together with 1GB of RAM and a choice of four or six 3.5-inch drive bays.  They can be configured in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6 striping for data redundancy, and of course there are various USB ports including a front port with a dedicated backup button that will automatically suck the content from whatever drive or memory card reader you plug in.

Unfortunately, all this functionality doesn’t come cheap.  The Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 will be $899 for twin 2TB drives while the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 6 will be $1,349 for six 1TB drives when they both drop later this month.  The company will also sell the enclosures drive-free, and are planning a smaller model for release later in 2010.

Documents wise, here’s the list of supported formats:

Microsoft

Doc (Office 95 and newer) – .doc, .docx
Excel (Office 95 and newer) – .xls, .xlsx, xls5, xls95
PowerPoint (Office 97 and newer) – .ppt, .pptx
Microsoft Office open XML (.xml)

Open Office

Documents (.stw, .sxw)
Drawings (.sxd, .std,.odg)
Presentations (.sti,.sxi)
Spreadsheet (.stc,.sxc)

PDF, CSV, TXT, HTML, XHTML, OOXML, and RTF. Unlike the previous versions of Pogoplug, you’ll be able to access all of these document types without having to open up your word processor on your computer, like Open Office or Microsoft Word. Instead, it’ll open up in a friendly web-based word processor, right in the Pogoplug environment. You’ll be able to easily access it from the my.pogoplug.com site, which means you’ll be able to access the information quickly and easily, without having to open more applications.

Lastly, but definitely not the least, is the ability to now email documents, and other major attachments, to your Pogoplug. By emailing it to a dedicated email address, which is then authenticated by your own email address, it’ll get sent directly to your Pogoplug and no one else’s, from which you’ll be able to access it right away. The company sees it as a way to make customers, both business and non, have an easily accessible and always available document archive, for both text documents and pictures.

The update is beginning its roll-out starting today. You won’t need to renew anything, or configure any new settings, so it should be something that just gets handled, and you only notice the shiny new features, and not the hassle. If you get the update and check it out for yourself, let us know in the comments what you think of it.

[via Pogoplug]

The HDD can be submerged in water up to a meter deep for as long as 30 minutes without any damage. The USB 3.0 connectivity allows the driver to support up to 5Gbps of data transfer. Other features include a LED light to show drive activity and an integrated USB cable that tucks into the side of the drive chassis.

The drive measures 139 x 96 x 18mm and weighs 270g. The drive gets all the power it needs directly from the USB port so no AC adapters are needed. The drive is offered in 640GB, 500GB, or 320GB and it comes in blue color. Pricing and availability are unknown.

A bit of backstory first. Clickfree’s drives generally consist of what looks like a regular external USB 2.0 hard-drive, loaded with some special software that – when you plug in – automatically scans your computer, spots any important data like documents or multimedia, and copies them over to its safe clutches. Subsequently, only new or modified files are copied, and you can plug the one Clickfree drive into multiple computers and have independent backup profiles for each.

The Clickfree C2N takes that concept and moves it one stage further. As before, it looks like a regular external drive – available in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB or 640GB capacities – but now it can backup not just the local computer it’s physically plugged into, but multiple machines on the same home or small office network.

Now, the obvious way of doing that would be to give the Clickfree an ethernet port and turn it into a NAS, but that’s arguably too complex for its target audience. Instead, Clickfree have come up with BackupLink: plug the drive (using the tethered USB cable that slots neatly into a niche for transport or storage) into whichever computers you want to include in the mass backup and it automatically installs an app that allows the USB drive to easily connect to that machine again over the home network. As long as you leave the C2N hooked up to one of the networked machines, it will be able to remotely back-up any of the computers on that network you’ve previously plugged it into.

So, say you have a laptop and a desktop, and you want to keep backups of both machines. First, you might plug the C2N drive into the laptop and install BackupLink, performing the first backup – which takes the longest, as it’s saving all your data rather than what has just been incrementally changed – while it’s locally connected. Then, you plug the C2N into the desktop and follow the same process, only this time you leave the drive attached. BackupLink installs an icon in the system tray of a Windows machine (it’s also compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, and you can have a mixture of PCs and Macs backing up to the same Clickfree drive) from which you can not only trigger a backup of the local machine (in this case, the desktop PC) but of the remote laptop too. Thanks to BackupLink running in the background on the laptop, the Clickfree drive spots it over the network and performs an incremental backup as if the C2N was physically connected via USB.

While you can manually trigger a backup of any computer from any machine with BackupLink installed, you can also schedule automatic backups to take place daily, weekly, etc, at a time of your choosing. The app will wake a computer from sleep mode to do so, though it can’t power up a hibernating Windows PC. Similarly, while the C2N supports 256-bit hardware-based data encryption – useful if the drive is stolen – if that’s active you’ll need to type in the password before the scheduled backup can take place.

There are some limitations in comparison to a proper NAS, of course. Only one computer can be backing up to the C2N at any one time, and – while there’s support for browsing the contents of each separate backup volume – it’s not really designed to act as a shared drive for frequently-accessed, communal files. You’ll need Administrator access to each computer initially, too, to install the BackupLink app. You’re also limited by the speed of a) your network, b) USB 2.0 and c) the speed of whatever computer the C2N is plugged into, whereas a decent gigabit NAS and a gigabit router/switch will be faster and more self-sufficient. Currently there’s no RAID option either, so, should the Clickfree drive’s HDD fail, all your backups are lost.

Still, for Clickfree’s target audience the comparison would more likely be using the C2N or nothing at all; they’d not even consider using a NAS, or be put off by the complexity of networking and setting up backup software. In contrast, the C2N makes it all incredibly easy: you can choose specific files or locations to backup, or alternatively you can let Clickfree’s software dig through your drive and identify files automatically. It will even pull out email attachments, and allow you to share photos via its own UI to Flickr, Facebook and MySpace. If you start to reach the limits of the internal storage, Clickfree include an app that streamlines transferring data to a CD or DVD.

You do pay a premium for all that functionality, however, at least in a dollar-per-gigabyte comparison with a regular, “dumb” USB drive. The 250GB C2N comes in at $139.99, the 320GB at $159.99 and the 500GB at $179.99; in contrast, a normal 250GB portable drive can be had for around $55, while 500GB can be had for around $80. We’d be more tempted by Clickfree’s Transformer NE, a $99.99 adapter cable that offers the same BackupLink functionality but rather than coming with internal storage has a USB 2.0 port to plug in a generic external drive. You could even plug in a USB RAID array, if you want to couple Clickfree’s simplicity with the reassurance of multiple-drive data redundancy.

Simplicity comes at a price, then, which is hardly new. A cheap external drive may be easier on your wallet, but it’s a false saving if you then neglect to actually copy your data across to it. In contrast, the C2N streamlines the process to the point where even the most tech-wary of users could get to grips with it. In an ideal world we’d all have redundant local and off-site backup and not even a single byte would go missing; in the real world, Clickfree’s C2N manages to make the company’s own easy products even easier.

Compared to the sober first-gen Pogoplug adapter, which looked little more than a wall-wart AC adapter with a couple of ports, this second-gen hardware is quite the departure. Around the size of a thick hardback book standing on its edge, it’s a distinctive combination of white and clear plastic with a bight pink stand-cum-cable-tidy. Where the original had a single USB 2.0 port, this model has four: one on the front panel, above the status indicator LED, and three on the back above the gigabit ethernet port. The AC power brick has been subsumed into the main body of the Pogoplug, which is a neat touch, and with no fans it’s a silent box that, even powered on 24/7, doesn’t get more than warm.

Where regular NAS boxes integrate one or more drive bays into a single box, as well as the network connectivity, the Pogoplug keeps things more modular. Reasonably inexpensive USB external drives are used instead, or even USB memory sticks, and while there are four ports to choose from you can also throw in a USB hub and hook up even more storage. The benefit is that you can repurpose existing HDDs and make them network-visible, while adding capacity is the simple matter of plugging in another drive rather than having to open up a NAS chassis.

Pogoplug promises a 60-second installation, and while we weren’t quite that fast it was nonetheless straightforward getting set up. The Pogoplug hooks up to your router via the included ethernet cable, to the mains with the power cable, and then you plug in at least one USB 2.0 drive. The company’s setup site automatically recognises the drive and prompts you to create a username and password, before giving you access to the online control panel.

It’s all reasonably intuitive, with the system automatically scanning for movie, photo and music content on any attached drives and lumping them together under straightforward headings. Alternatively you can browse by files added or modified today, from the past week or past month, or go into specific volumes (including separate partitions on individual drives) and browse in a more granular fashion. It’s also possible to upload new files directly to one of the attached drives, though you can’t drag & drop across from a local folder to the web UI.

More usable, then, is the local software app, available for Windows or Mac, and which mounts the Pogoplug volumes as simple drives which can be navigated, copied to and from, and generally handled as normal. Our only issue with the local app was when online with our test MacBook Pro while outside the home network; whenever we attempted to use a photo upload service (unconnected with Pogoplug) the browser would hang. We soon realised this was due to the upload tool trying to check the Pogoplug drives every time; shut down the local app and the problem went away.

Pogoplug also promises to make sharing more straightforward, and there’s a prominent “Share This” button which, when clicked, allows you to invite people via email to look at the contents of the folder(s). There’s an address book for dealing with frequent contacts (though it doesn’t link into your computer’s address book) and you can add a personal message before sending the invite. Alternatively you can set the folder to automatically publish to one or more social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, as an RSS feed, or as a public folder which doesn’t require a specific invite. Finally there’s an option to resend an invite whenever the contents of the folder changes.

The most obvious use is sharing multimedia content with friends and family. Rather than emailing out a huge ZIP of holiday photos, add them to a shared Pogoplug folder and invite people to view them remotely; keep a single folder of baby photos and let Pogoplug automatically alert grandparents whenever there’s a new batch to be coo’d over. Best of all, rather than a barebones FTP interface, contacts are presented with a dynamic gallery, streaming photos, audio and video straight into their browser. The online UI has a simple “Files I Share” pane to show what you’re offering at any one time, and there’s also a “Shared With Me” pane which, if you know someone with another Pogoplug, displays content from those remote drives. The latter could be useful if you have a Pogoplug at home and at work, for browsing media and documents from a single UI rather than logging in and out of two accounts.

There’s also sharing functionality for home use, with one of the recent Pogoplug firmware updates adding PS3 and Xbox 360 media streaming. A console on the same local network or connected remotely can see the drives automatically. The same update also brought with it updates to Active Copy, which is a basic folder/drive duplication tool. Originally, Active Copy used the Windows/OS X app to monitor one or more folders on your computer and automatically duplicate any new files to folder(s) on a Pogoplug drive. Now, in addition to that, you can have folders be automatically duplicated between Pogoplug-attached drives, plus if you’ve more than one Pogoplug you can have an attached drive (or a folder on a drive) be automatically copied from one Pogoplug to the other, handy for remote backups.

It’s useful, certainly, but it falls short of the kind of data security a proper RAID array would offer. RAID – where, in most configurations, drives are mirrored so that should one experience hardware failure the data is preserved on at least one other disk – is quicker at duplication, thanks to not having the USB 2.0 bottleneck to contend with, and it’s automatic across the whole volume, rather than being on a selective folder-by-folder basis. Of course, the benefit to Pogoplug’s system is that you can choose to duplicate only certain, particularly important folders, and the drives don’t – unlike RAID – need to be the same size. You could feasibly set up the Pogoplug to automatically copy any files on a USB memory stick plugged into the front panel port to a bigger HDD, for instance, offloading day to day documentation. There’s also nothing stopping you from plugging in a USB RAID array, which are rarer than NAS RAID storage but not impossible to find.

We touched on the USB 2.0 bottleneck, and that’s a point worth returning to. While it’s theoretically capable of 480 Mbits/s, in day to day use USB 2.0 is unlikely to ever get that high. That means transferring large files (or large numbers of smaller files) will take longer than on a regular NAS, and it’s worth pointing out that, when we tried to move around a few particularly large videos, the system froze and required a power-cycle. You’ll also probably want to make sure your router has gigabit ethernet ports, too, if the drives are likely to be accessed by several people simultaneously. It’s disappointing that the Pogoplug only has USB 2.0 and not FireWire, eSATA or even USB 3.0 connections, but perhaps that’s asking too much for the $129 sticker price (and, arguably, unlikely to be required by the mainstream consumer who is a big part of Pogoplug’s target audience). The takeaway message is that if you’re looking for the fastest way to backup or access files across a network, or to stream high-definition content, then you should probably choose a more normal NAS.

Most “normal” NAS don’t come with a range of mobile clients, however, and that’s another big plus in the Pogoplug’s favour. Currently there are iPhone and Android apps (the former being compatible with the iPod touch and the iPad) which allow you to log into your Pogoplug from the handset, browse folders, view video, audio and photo slideshows, and even – handset depending – upload files like photos directly to the remote storage. The apps work well, though we did have a couple of crashes on the Android version, but it’s worth noting that there’s currently no iPad-formatted version. Instead you can either use the regular iPhone app, doubled in size, or log directly into the online control panel which Pogoplug have – as an interim measure of sorts – made fully HTML5 compliant so you can still stream video and audio despite the lack of Flash support. We’re guessing there’s a native iPad version on the way, though there’s no public timescale for its availability. Still, if your media gallery exceeds the storage capacity of your mobile device then it’s a handy way of having access to masses of content with very little headache.

“Very little headache” is actually a good way to describe the Pogoplug. If you’re looking for a set-and-forget backup system then it’s not quite ideal – RAID duplicates everything on the drive, after all, whereas you’ll need to make sure your Active Copy folders are set up correctly on the Pogoplug – and the freedom to use regular USB drives comes with a sacrifice in speed. However, for most home users (and perhaps some small business ones too), network backup is only part of what they’re expecting from a NAS-style solution, with media sharing, painless online access and an affordable entry price all carrying equal import. On those fronts the Pogoplug does much better, with a straightforward UI and a sharing feature that should be usable by all but the most tech-phobic grandparents.

Our guess is that a USB 3.0 version is on the cards somewhere down Pogoplug’s roadmap, but that’s likely far off in the distance and, for the moment, USB 2.0 is probably fast enough for home users. It’s the ease of use that makes the Pogoplug such a success, though; if you’re a netbook user, have picked up an iPad or iPhone with limited onboard storage but still want a big catalog of video to choose from, or simply prefer to keep your files locked up at home rather than on a notebook or memory stick that could be lost or stolen, Pogoplug represents a straightforward workaround. And hey, if you really do find the color that offensive, you can always hide it under the desk.

Video demo after the cut

While the hardware has changed, the software is also much tweaked to take advantage of the network connectivity.  The Drobo FS supports media streaming – using the DLNA and UPnP protocols – and can act as your central iTunes store, as well as a standalone BitTorrent downloader and remote-access. That’s because of DroboApps, a new platform of community-created and community-supported applications that can be loaded onto the Drobo FS.

As for pricing, the new Drobo FS will go on sale – drive-free – for $699, with Data Robotics selling it with up to five 2TB drives for $1,449.  It’s expected to hit virtual shelves today.

[flv]http://www.drobo.com/videos/drobo-fs/drobo-fs-demo-video.flv[/flv]

Press Release:

Data Robotics Delivers Breakthrough Solution for Easy File Sharing

New Drobo FS Leverages BeyondRAID Technology and Customization via DroboApps to Deliver the Best File Sharing Experience for Small Office and Connected Home Users
SANTA CLARA, CA – April 6, 2010 –Data Robotics, Inc., the company that delivers the best data storage experience, today introduced Drobo FS, a breakthrough Drobo designed for simple, expandable file sharing. By providing network file sharing capabilities along with automated data protection, the Drobo FS greatly simplifies shared storage for connected home, home office and small office users. Based on the revolutionary BeyondRAID technology and a flexible platform for adding features and capacity as needed, the Drobo FS can quickly and easily be customized and scaled to meet current or future storage requirements.

“Adding to Data Robotics’ offering of self-managing storage solutions, the Drobo FS offers users the ability to share data between computers quickly and easily,” said Liz Conner, research analyst for IDC’s storage systems and personal storage device & systems. “More than ever before, home users and small offices want to access and share a growing amount of data, but they don’t need a large, expensive system that requires specific expertise or extensive management. With the Drobo FS, Data Robotics addresses a need for which many Drobo users have been looking forward.”

With Drobo, Five Guys Enterprises is able to backup essential corporate data and ensure that it remains accessible even in the event of simultaneous hard drive failures. Using disk-to-disk backup, all of the company’s media and backup files are stored entirely on a Drobo solution for fast, reliable data protection.

Drobo FS extends automated data protection across connected systems using Data Robotics’ award-winning BeyondRAID virtualized storage technology. Drobo FS features a one-click toggle between single- and dual-drive redundancy and provides protection against up to two simultaneous drive failures. In addition, the Drobo FS enables users to add storage on-the-fly without ever losing access to data.

“We have been using Drobo solutions to store our data for almost three years and continue to be happy with their performance and simplicity. With four computers on our network, we also needed a solution that would allow us to share data between users. Typical shared storage devices were complicated or too expensive, so we’re thrilled that Data Robotics has created the Drobo FS,” said Seth Resnick, Co-Founder at D65. “Drobo FS comes with just the functionality we need, so it is easy to use while still providing the automated data protection that comes with BeyondRAID. The additional DroboApps allow us to add new features as we need them, which is really unique.”

Drobo FS Features and Benefits

Plug-In and Share – The Drobo FS connects directly to any Gigabit Ethernet network for a true plug in and share set-up experience. Supports standard data transfer protocols including Apple File Protocol (AFP) and Microsoft Common Internet File System (CIFS).
5-Drive Capacity and Instant Expansion to 10TB and Beyond – Customers with growing storage requirements can easily add data capacity by simply inserting a new hard drive or replacing the smallest drive with a larger one, even when all five drive bays are full. With Drobo FS, expansion is automatic, instantaneous, and access to data is always maintained.
Single- and Dual-Drive Redundancy – The Drobo FS dual drive redundancy option protects against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard drives. Customers can engage this option with a single click without ever losing access to their data.
Self-Healing Technology – With BeyondRAID, the Drobo FS continually examines data blocks and sectors on each drive to flag potential issues. The preemptive “scrubbing” helps ensure data is being written only to healthy drive areas and automatically keeps data in the safest state possible – even when a drive fails.
Customizable Storage – Utilizing the growing library of DroboApps, including media and web applications, users can customize the Drobo FS to further enhance their sharing experience.
“This is the decade of being connected, no matter where you are or what kind of data you are storing. The Drobo FS was designed to best serve the needs of our customers with file sharing needs – from small offices and home offices to connected homes. By reducing the complexity of data sharing and providing a truly flexible platform for adding capacity and features, the Drobo FS is ideal for users that have the need to share ever increasing amounts of data,” said Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Data Robotics.

Pricing and Availability Drobo FS is currently available at a starting price of $699 MSRP, with multiple configurations to $1,449 for a 10TB (5x 2TB drives) bundle. Drobo FS is available now from authorized partners worldwide and on www.drobostore.com. To learn more about Drobo FS, please visit www.drobo.com/drobo-fs/.

Data Robotics, Inc., the company that delivers the best storage experience ever, develops automated storage products designed to ensure data is always protected, accessible, and simple to manage. The award-winning Drobo storage arrays are the first to provide the protection of traditional RAID without the complexity. The revolutionary BeyondRAID technology frees users from making the difficult and confining choice of “Which RAID level to deploy?” by providing an unprecedented combination of advanced features and automation, including single- and dual-drive redundancy, instant expansion, self-monitoring,data awareness, self-healing, and an easy-to-understand visual status and alert panel. For more information, visit Data Robotics at www.datarobotics.com.

According to Pogoplug, your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 should automatically see any attached hard-drive and automatically be able to stream video, photo and music content from it across the network.  Meanwhile, the updated Active Copy will obviously require you to have a second Pogoplug somewhere else, but it could be handy if you want to mirror data at both the home and the office.

Pogoplug say the updated firmware will be automatically pushed out to units worldwide from this morning, as long as they have an internet connection.  The functionality answers two of our main criticisms of the device, and brings it back into the game against Iomega’s iConnect which we reviewed last week.

Press Release:

Pogoplug™ Launches Media Streaming and Offsite Backup

San Francisco, Calif. – March 16th, 2010 – Pogoplug, the multimedia sharing device that allows users to access their media anywhere on the web, today adds two new features to the award-winning device. Starting today, Pogoplug users can stream content to Xbox 360 and PS3 game consoles. The enhanced Active Copy feature now automatically copies files to a Pogoplug in another location.

With game console support, Pogoplug owners can now easily access, share, and stream their media directly to their Xbox 360 or PS3 from any local or remotely located Pogoplug. Gamers can watch home movies from their Pogoplug connected external hard drive on their Xbox 360 or PS3, share slideshows or listen to their entire music library without ever putting down their game controller. The Xbox 360 or PS3 automatically sees the drives connected to the Pogoplug and the contents of other shared Pogoplugs.

“By adding media streaming capabilities to the Xbox 360 and PS3 through your Pogoplug, we are making it easier than ever to access your media on your television,” said Daniel Putterman, Cloud Engines CEO. “The new version of Active Copy is revolutionary. Now anyone can easily keep a safe copy of their files in another location.”

Active Copy enables users to backup folders on their computer to a Pogoplug connected drive. Whenever new files are added, or changes are made to an existing file within the Active Copy enabled folder, these files are automatically copied to a chosen destination folder. Now users can also use Active Copy to automatically backup key files from one Pogoplug to another off-site Pogoplug, for additional safety and redundancy.

Both features came from user requests and both update to all Pogoplugs worldwide via an automatic firmware upgrade today. For support or other questions, please visit the support page at www.Pogoplug.com/support and the community website, www.pogoplugged.com.

The iConnect resembles a small USB hub, measuring 6.3 x 1.1 x 5.2 inches. Ports include a single gigabit ethernet along with four USB 2.0 sockets and a power supply input; inside, meanwhile, there’s WiFi b/g/n connectivity and a 1GHz Marvell 6281 processor paired with 256MB of RAM. Iomega reckon it’ll suck just 5W while active. In the box you get the iConnect itself, an ethernet cable to hook it up to your router (if you’re not going with the wireless option), the PSU, a Quick Start guide and a CD with the full user manual and the Iomega Storage Manager app.

As a concept it’s pretty straightforward. Rather than buy a dedicated NAS (Network-Attached Storage) you plump for the iConnect and hook up cheaper USB hard-drives and thumb-drives for your shared storage. The iConnect acts as a middle-man, making the drives visible not only to computers on your local network but, assuming you have an internet connection, to remote access via a secure webpage.

It’s not just drives that you can attach, however. Up to two of the iConnect’s ports can be used to host regular USB printers, sharing them over the network too. It’s also a DLNA certified UPnP media server, and can stream content from the drives to compatible media players, whether they be computers, consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3, standalone audio/video streamers and other devices. As we’ve seen on some of the more advanced NAS units, there’s a BitTorrent download client (which means you can leave a file downloading without having to have your computer turned on), while a one-touch QuikTransfer button can be programmed to replicate a common task.

Setup is reasonably straightforward, but you have to complete the initial steps with a wired ethernet connection even if you plan to switch to wireless later on. The Iomega Storage Manager app automatically locates the iConnect (and leaves a shortcut – which opens a browser admin page – in the PC system tray or Mac menu bar) at which point you use the web interface to setup via a wizard. By way of bare minimum you have to give the iConnect a name by which it will be known on the network, fill in at least one email address (to which status updates will be sent) and set the clock. At this point you can go to the Network Settings tab and search for your wireless network, then pull the ethernet cord if you so desire.

Unsurprisingly, though, given the amount of things the iConnect will do there are plenty more settings panes you can work through. On a Windows PC the basic setup will have already triggered the assignment of drive letters so you can start accessing files on whatever storage you’ve plugged in. The most common request is likely to be setting up different users, and that’s easy enough to do; if you’ve chosen to make one or more shared folders limited-access, you’ll then be able to pick which that user has access to. That can include read/write, read-only or none. There’s also administrator privileges, which are distinct from all-folder-access privileges.

Iomega include a copy of Retrospect Express (with versions for PC and Mac) for performing regular backups, but as long as your backup app can see a networked drive then it should be able to use the iConnect. Iomega have also made it Time Machine compatible, so Mac owners can use their in-built backup functionality instead if they so desire. Since you can have more than one drive plugged in at any one time, you can set up Copy Jobs – basically macros that copy data from one volume to another – and these can be manually initiated or set to run at scheduled times. There’s also the option to have files copied from volumes discovered on the same network subnet as the iConnect, and you can assign a Copy Job to the QuikTransfer button on the front panel which will act as a one-press trigger to suck files over from a USB thumb-drive or similar to a preset folder. Finally, there’s Picture Transfer Protocol support which will automatically copy images on a connected digital camera to a preset folder, optionally deleting them from the camera in the process.

Does it work? Yes, and slickly at that. In no short order we had several users set up, each with varying levels of access to multiple folders on different drives. On the client machines the Iomega setup app made it simple to map drive letters, or of course you can do so manually. There’s obviously more lag involved in navigation and opening files than when they’re on a local drive, but both the wired and wireless connections were fast enough for everyday use.

Using the iConnect as a media server is also simple; once turned on it automatically scans all drives for videos, music and pictures and then makes them available to UPnP clients across the local network. You can choose to deselect various storage volumes you don’t want to share, as well as use it to host a shared iTunes library by dragging and dropping over your existing media. Like other media-sharing NAS, scans are performed periodically rather than continuously, so it’s worth remembering to hit “Scan Now” if you’ve just copied music across and are wondering why it doesn’t show up on your PS3.

Like the Pogoplug, you can access files through the iConnect remotely, though it’s not set up by default. It’s an easy enough process, however, and you get free 12 months of basic subscription access with your iConnect purchase, then $9.95/year after that. That allows you to pick a sub-domain address to which you’ll go whenever you want to log-in (like yourname.iomegalink.com) from Iomega’s existing selection. Alternatively there’s a premium version which allows you to choose your own domain or use one you already own. Once that’s done, visiting that URL and punching in your username and password will allow you to browse the volumes attached to the iConnect, presuming you have user-level access.

There’s plenty more flexibility with the Iomega iConnect, but the good news is it does the basics – and more – very well. Setup is reasonably simple, as is user management, and with some forethought the Copy Jobs functionality can really speed up daily chores such as drive mirroring. Your system can be as basic as a single USB drive or as complex as a row of USB RAID arrays, and Iomega’s web interface is clean and clear.

It’s also cheaper than the Pogoplug – $99.99 versus $129 – though on the flip side the rival system doesn’t involve any subscription fees; after 12 months of basic remote access you’ll have to stump up for another year’s worth of service. Still, the Pogoplug lacks integrated WiFi – it’s ethernet-only – as well as DLNA streaming support, though we’re told that’s on its way in a future firmware update. There’s plenty to like here about Iomega’s system, and the ability to simply add in extra storage (either permanently or temporarily) is great. Best of all, your setup can be as complex or as basic as you prefer, rather than the outlay for a huge, prebuilt NAS (or a cheaper, smaller one you may later regret opting for). There are frustrations – the subscription for remote access being the biggest – but of course if you don’t want to check your files from afar then you don’t need to pay for it. Generally, then, the Iomega iConnect comes highly recommended.

While Atom chips generally balance performance with power savings, in this context – and with the I/O controller – they can fight above their weight.  Intel reckons the platform will allow up to 20 users to simultaneously stream high-definition-level (30Mbps) data within a local network; it also supports six PCI Express lanes, twelve USB 2.0 ports, a port multiplier function and eSATA, along with an integrated gigabit ethernet controller and hot-swap drive capabilities.  Compatible OSes include various Linux builds and Microsoft Home Server, and one of the first devices to use the platform will be LG’s N4B2.

Press Release:

Intel Expands Intel® Atom™ Processor-Based Platform to Home, Small Office Storage Devices

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Intel releases its first storage-optimized Intel® Atom™ processor-based platform for the growing home and small office/home office storage markets.
New single- and dual-core chip options provide performance scalability and flexibility and run on Microsoft Windows Home Server* and Linux operating systems.
Leading storage vendors LaCie*, LG Electronics*, QNAP*, Synology* and Thecus* plan products based on the new Intel Atom processor-based platform.
Intel Atom processors also introduced for embedded applications are ideal for multiple market segments including print imaging, digital security surveillance and industrial.

CEBIT, HANNOVER, Germany, March 4, 2010 – Intel Corporation today launched its first Intel® Atom™ processor-based platform optimized for networked home and small office/home office (SOHO) storage devices.

The energy-efficient platform consists of the Intel® Atom™ processor D410 single-core or D510 dual-core and the Intel® 82801IR I/O Controller and delivers the processing performance and input/output (I/O) connectivity required to meet the throughput demands of leading storage vendors such as LaCie*, LG Electronics*, QNAP*, Synology* and Thecus*.

Home server and SOHO network-attached storage (NAS) devices based on the new Intel Atom processor- based platform act as centralized hubs that organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music throughout the home and small office. This makes it possible to keep digital content safe and available anytime, anywhere. “NAS systems have traditionally been found in businesses to manage, store and access data,” said Seth Bobroff, general manager, Intel Data Center Group, Storage. “Today, households and small offices have an ever-increasing number of computers, laptops, netbooks and mobile phones that create and consume digital content. This advancement in mobility coupled with the explosive growth of data and media are creating the need for centralized, easy-to-use network storage solutions for the home and small office.”

With an up to 50 percent power reduction and improved performance1 compared to Intel’s previous generation of Intel Atom processors, the new Intel Atom processors paired with the Intel 82801IR I/O Controller enable vendors to deliver cost-effective, feature-rich and reliable systems that scale to support the demands of the evolving home and small office storage market.

“The introduction of Intel’s Atom processor is a critical advancement that will dramatically change the scale of storage solutions across LaCie’s target markets,” said Erwan Girard, professional business unit manager, LaCie. “We are excited to work with Intel and leverage this game-changing technology to offer a new level of powerful and robust features to our customers.”

Powered by the Intel Atom processor D510, LG’s N4B2 NAS device performs fast “reads” and “writes” of large data files and allows up to 20 users to simultaneously stream high-definition-level (30Mbps) data within a local network. “As multimedia libraries grow, so does the need for secure, redundant storage,” said Dong-Keun Lee, vice president, DS Division, LG Electronics. “Network-attached storage has become more than just a fancy disk drive. It is now a secure, redundant vault for your irreplaceable photos, songs and documents. With the innovative, fast data processing features of N4B2, we are emerging as a leader in this segment.”

The new platform features six PCI Express* lanes, 12 USB 2.0 ports, a port multiplier function and eSATA ports that give OEMs the ability to add peripheral devices and expand storage capacity outside of the box. It also features hot plug capabilities for easy capacity upgrades and an integrated gigabit Ethernet MAC controller for improved data transfers to and from the home server or small office NAS device. The storage platform also offers the flexibility to support Microsoft Windows Home Server* and open source Linux operating systems. Additional information is available at intel.com/go/storage.

Intel Atom Processors in Embedded
In addition to the introduction of the storage platform, Intel also announced two single-core Intel Atom processors, the N450 and D410, and the first dual-core Intel Atom processor, the D510, for embedded devices. With 7-year lifecycle support to meet the performance-per-watt requirements of embedded devices, the Intel Atom processor-based embedded platform is ideal for small, energy-efficient designs for print imaging, digital security surveillance and industrial market segments.

The three processors are paired with an I/O controller designed for the embedded market – the Intel® 82801HM I/O Controller – for a 2-chip solution that provides rich I/O capabilities and adds flexibility via high-bandwidth interfaces, including PCI Express*, PCI*, SATA and USB 2.0 connectivity.

In the box there’s the DS710+ itself, along with the AC adapter, screws to fix your hard-drives into the caddies, a Quick Start manual and warranty guide, installation CD and an ethernet cable. Accessories are packaged in a separate box to the NAS itself, and everything arrived scratch-free. The front of the DS710+ has a column of LEDs – for status, LAN, HDD1, HDD2 and eSATA activity – together with a power button (and LED); there’s also a USB 2.0 port, for plugging in a memory stick or memory card reader, complete with a “copy” button that automatically grabs the contents to a preset directory.

The back panel is dominated by the two HDD caddies, which are made of reasonably sturdy plastic and held in by simple clips; it’s an easy matter to disengage them and slide them out, though of course you’ll need a screwdriver to actually add/remove the drives themselves. As for ports, there are two USB 2.0, a gigabit ethernet, power and an eSATA connection, along with a Kensington lock hole, reset button and a blanked-off VGA port. The latter appears to be a legacy of the mainboard Synology have used, which is based on a 1.67GHz Intel Atom processor paired with 1GB of memory. Only one fan is fitted, a standard 80mm unit at the front, though while the textured front panel looks like it could be a fan grill it’s actually solid plastic; instead the DS710+ sucks in air through an array of holes at the bottom front edge.

Setup is straightforward; Synology provided us with a pair of 750GB Samsung HD753LJ hard-drives, which quickly screwed into the plastic caddies and slotted into place. While the temptation is to ignore the installation CD, it’s actually pretty important; it downloads the latest version of the DiskStation Manager firmware (DSM) and installs it, a process which takes a few minutes. The advanced setup allows you to specify a fixed IP address and rename the NAS, but once that’s all done the rest of the setup is completed via the web interface.

First stop is the Storage section, where you can choose from the various RAID setups on offer: Basic, JBOD, RAID 0 or RAID 1. With only two internal drive bays there’s obviously nothing more complex than simple mirroring, but you can add extra external RAID 1 drives using the ports on the rear. We picked RAID 1 and then had to wait a few hours while the array was established; of course, after you’ve done that you can subsequently replace one of the drives with the DS710+ still running and have it automatically repair the array. That’s made a little trickier by the rear-access to the dual caddies, but it’s unlikely to be something you’ll be attempting often.

Synology’s current DSM release is version 2.2, and there’s a long list of potential functionality depending on how much or how little you expect from your NAS. Obviously there’s basic network-access and backup, and you can create various partitions and directories, user and group accounts and the typical access restrictions (read, read/write, etc). Given the small office focus of the DS710+ you can set the NAS to automatically email new users with access instructions, together with sending out status messages to whoever is logged as administrator.

From there, though, the sky is the limit. The DS710+ can act as a UPnP/DLNA or iTunes media server, squirting out audio, video and image content across your network, and as a standalone BitTorrent download station. You can use it to host a website (with MySQL and PHP support) or merely as an FTP site, with an optional AJAX-based file and photo browser and support for smartphone access (iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later; WM 6.0 or later, Symbian OS 9.1 or S60 3rd Ed or later). You can plug a printer into one of the USB 2.0 ports and share that over the network, or use the DS710+ to store recorded video from up to sixteen IP cameras. There’s even a standalone media player app, which lets you plug in a set of USB speakers and control audio playback directly from an app in the web interface. Best of all, the vast majority of the interface is clear and straightforward, with little in the way of hurdles to get things up and running, and if you disable certain functionality then the menu generally is hidden so as to avoid confusing matters.

Just around the corner, however, is DSM 2.3 – currently in beta – and that adds even more flexibility. Recognizing that many users want offsite backup along with local storage, DSM 2.3 introduces support for Amazon S3, the company’s subscription-based cloud storage service. There’s also a new iPhone app called DS Cam, with the ability to remotely watch live IP CCTV footage managed by the DS710+, and Synology have made improvements to the onboard media player and AJAX photo browser too. Of course, if you’re relying on the DS710+ for your sole backup you might not want to put all your faith in the DSM 2.3 beta, but it’s an interesting taste of what’s to come.

A NAS with poor performance is of no use to anybody, and so we’re pleased to report that the DS710+ suffers no such shortcomings there, either. We used our gigabit ethernet network to transfer a 1.4GB file from a Mac Pro workstation to the DS710+, a process which took around 115 seconds (just under two minutes) in RAID 1 configuration and 102 seconds in RAID 0 configuration. Copying back that same file from the DS710+ to our Mac Pro took longer, however, at around 205 seconds (just under three and a half minutes) for RAID 1 configuration and 182 seconds in RAID 0 configuration.

The biggest problem we have with the Synology DS710+ is the price. Diskless, you can pick up the NAS for around $560, while a pre-configured DS710+ 2100 with twin 1TB drives will set you back around $860. That’s a serious step up from other dual-drive models in Synology’s own range, which actually run the same software (and so have the same feature list). Yes, the DS710+ is a speedy performer, but you really have to need that extra speed advantage in order to pick it. Still, make the investment and you’ll have a strong performer with bags of flexibility.

Quick Look Video