Iomega has announced several improvements to its StoreCenter ix2 network drive. The NAS device now allows remote access to stored content such as images, videos or documents. Users can navigate to a personalized web address from any browser, where files can be securely uploaded or downloaded. Direct peer-to-peer file transfer is also supported, enabling BitTorrent downloads even when the computer is turned off.
QNAP Systems has announced its latest Intel-based network attached storage (NAS) system, the TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS. The device utilizes a 1.6GHz Atom CPU and provides up to 6TB of storage, with support for online RAID capacity expansion and RAID level migration without turning off the server. The NAS can be connected using five USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports. Data can be protected with 256-bit volume-based encryption, automatic policy-based IP blocking, and instant SMS or e-mail alerts to warn of drive problems or failure.
HP has launched an updated home storage/media server with new Mac-specific functionality. Based on the Microsoft Windows Home Server platform, the HP MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 functions as a central repository for digital music, videos, photos and documents from multiple computers on a home network. The device automatically organizes files across all PCs (including Macs), streams media across a home network and the Internet, and publishes photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites.
In time for Thanksgiving, Data Robotics today started offering a $50 holiday discount in the form of an instant $50 coupon for the driveless model of its of its Drobo storage robot as well as the preloaded 2TB and 4TB versions. This comes in addition to recent, permanent price cuts to the 2TB and 4TB Drobo. As before, all offer a hot-swappable drive functionality that lets users keep a perpetually upgradable redundant backup by adding or replacing SATA drives of any capacity that automatically merge their storage existing content.
QNAP has announced its QGet Utillity for Mac users. QGet offers enhancements to QNAP's Turbo NAS Download Station; the Download Station supports BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP downloading, and QGet allows Mac users to access and remotely manage tasks on QNAP NAS servers, over LAN connections or the Internet. QGet for Mac 1.0.0 works with Mac OS X 10.4 and above, and requires the QNAP Pro Turbo NAS TS-509.
LG Electronics announced over the weekend it will soon bring to market the first Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with an integrated Blu-ray drive to consumers. Meant for home and small business users, the four-bay NAS not only gives users support for hard drives with up to 4TB of storage but also the option of backing up data onto Blu-ray discs regardless of where they are at home.
Sans Digital has announced a new network attached storage (NAS) server with RAID and direct attach options, supporting connections to gaming systems. It is available in silver, the MobileNAS MN4L+, and black, the MobileNAS MN4L+B. The server offers digital media playback for the PlayStation (both PlayStation 2 and 3) and Xbox over UPnP and DLNA protocols, adding value to its home server appeal. It provides a Gigabit Ethernet NAS connection and can also be used as direct attached storage over an iSCSI connection. In addition to the iSCSI support, the unit also offers eSATA, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0.
Buffalo Technology today unveiled three new external drive solutions, as well as a new combination HD DVD and Blu-Ray reader-writer, at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. The company says its MediaStation Blu-Ray HD DVD drive is the first device of its kind to allow users to both read and write Blu-Ray content. While the drive can write to Blu-Ray optical media, it is only able to read HD DVD formatted discs. Using a USB cable, users can connect the drive up to a laptop or other mobile device to watch movies. The drive includes a full version of Nero, and will ship during the first quarter of 2008 for $650.
Network-attached storage has often been the reserve of businesses, and is only now catching on with home users wanting to share a common pool of files between their computers or with others online. But what about as the hub for a media center? With some help from Axentra's HipServ software, LaCie is hoping that its Ethernet Disk mini Home Edition is simple enough that it can stand as storage for iTunes or even a game console. We put the 500GB drive through its paces in our review to see whether it can stand in both for work and play.
Netgear today announced new drives in its ReadyNAS line of shared network drives, coming in 1.5TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB Desktop and 4TB Rackmount sizes. The drives feature a Gigabit Ethernet connector to hook the drive up to networking equipment with Jumbo Frames support which provides maximum data throughput speeds. The ReadyNAS drives feature RAID levels 0, 1, and 5, and use Netgear's proprietary X-RAID technology, allowing users to scale their RAID setups from 1 to 4 disks, or more. Netgear is selling the drives starting from $1100, and are available through retailers nationwide.
