I was lucky enough to attend Cloud Engine’s launch party for the second generation Pogoplug on Thursday night and came away impressed by the device’s potential. The new direction, we were told, for the Pogoplug is for it to become more of a Internet media streaming and sharing storage device with social networking features. MORE »

If you remember about a year ago, Iomega released the first StorCenter ix2. Today the company is announcing the next-generation version of their product, the StorCenter ix2-200, with a refreshed design, energy-efficient hard drives, and newly added support for BitTorrent downloads and Time Machine backup for Mac OS X. Like its predecessor, the StorCenter ix2-200 offers a DLNA certified UPnP AV media server, Bluetooth connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet, RAID 1 data protection, IP security camera support, print server, remote files access, and cross-platform compatibility with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Pricing: $269.99 – 1TB, $369.99 – 2TB, $699.99 – 4TB. MORE »

The Pogoplug has been out for a few months now and recently added some new social sharing features, so I decided to see if I could get my hands on one to keep and review. One thing I noticed, though, is that many of the past Pogoplug reviewers just talked about how to attach the Pogoplug to a home network, adding a USB drive, and some of the features the web interface allowed you to do. While all that’s well and good, I never got a true sense on how well the Pogoplug actually did its job. MORE »

We first got a glimpse of the QNAP NMP-1000 at CeBIT back in March. The device, which has just now been released to the public, provides four essential duties: 1) playback of stored media from its 3.5-inch SATA HDD to a TV; 2) a central location for networked PCs to send their shared media; 3) easy access to online media from sites like YouTube and Flickr; 4) automatic network PC backups. The best way to think of the NMP-1000 is that it’s a 1080p HD capable digital media adapter with NAS capabilities which can play nice with Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. Unfortnately, the price remains a mystery since it’s not listed on any of the partner websites at the moment (will update once the device makes an appearance). MORE »

Today NETGEAR is introducing a new 2-bay home media server called Stora, which has been designed for “non-technical” users. The consumer-friendly NAS provides remote file access and music streaming from any Internet location via MyStora.com, is DLNA / UPnP compatible (works with DLNA-enabled photo frames, media adapters, game consoles), has the ability to export photos to online services like Flickr, can automatically backup network PCs, and is able to provide mirrored RAID storage when an optional second drive is used. Out of the box NETGEAR Stora (MS2110) comes with a single 1TB hard drive and retails for $229. NETGEAR Stora is compatible and accessible with Windows, Mac, Linux PCs and Smartphones. MORE »

Oh, my…. Belkin has stepped up to the plate with a seriously heavy handed hitter. The company is introducing the most advanced 4-port wireless USB hub we’ve seen to date. The $129.99 Belkin Home Base offers 1Ghz of processing power, 802.11n / Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, network access to USB storage / printers / cameras / SD webcams, Flickr / Picasa photo sharing, automatic Mac OS X / Windows PC backups, and DLNA / UPnP support for digital media adapters and game consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. With these attributes and price point, there’s little doubt the Belkin Home Base is going to be a hot seller – once people figure out exactly what it does. MORE »

It’s about time a CE manufacture thought: “Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if our NAS had Wi-Fi and a DVD burner built-in?” Congrats, LG, I wholeheartedly agree. LG’s new N2R1 NAS in 1TB ($299) and 2TB ($399) configurations is an attention grabber. The N2R1 can be configured in RAID 0/1, transfer files over 802.11g (sorry no 802.11n) or Ethernet, stream media to DLNA / UPnP / iTunes compatible devices, and backup and burn data to disc with its built-in DVD / RW drive. The N2R1 also includes a top position memory card read and USB port for instant backups. Oh, and it plays nice with Windows, Mac, Linux. The N2R1 should hit retailer shelves later this Fall. MORE »

If you’re in the market for an all around kick-butt 4-bay NAS server, make sure to check out QNAP’s latest model, the TS-419P ($599). The QNAP TS-419P supports both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch SATA drives (hot-swappable) and the company’s new AJAX powered browser manager (with support for 50 languages) that makes easy work of configuring and maintaining your server. Like previous QNAP NAS products, the TS-419P is designed to work in a mixed network Windows, Mac, Linux PC environment and can function as a web, file, print, ftp, surveillance (records IP webcam video at 30fps in MPEG-4 with 2-way audio support), and DLNA / UPnP (TwonkyMedia) media server. MORE »

All I can say is, WOW. Xtreamer will soon be launching a new 2-Bay NAS product to compliment their Xtreamer Media Streamer. The new device will be known as the Xtreamer eTRAYz and will be available to current Xtreamer Media Streamer owners until October 31, 2009 for just €59 (plus €20 shipping)! But don’t let the low price fool you… the Xtreamer eTRAYz is a powerhouse of functionality. Below are some of the highlights mentioned in the announcement FAQ. [via] MORE »

I was browsing some of my YouTube subscriptions and I stumbled on an episode of Geekbrief TV from July (#590) that I thought you folks might like (I know I did). Cali Lewis goes through the process of unboxing a PogoPlug and then configuring it in real-time. Cali also demos the remote media streaming functionality of the device, which you’ll see is pretty impressive. If you’re unfamiliar with PogoPlug, it’s essentially a $99 wall-wart sized NAS adapter for a USB drive that plugs directly to a power outlet and router. Once connected, PogoPlug acts as a file server (both on the network and remotely) and a streaming media server utilizing UPnP.