May 21 - 7:30am EDT   Acer on Thursday contributed its own more frugal entry into the home server space within the US through the Aspire easyStore Home Server AH340. Similar to HP's MediaSmart LX195, the easyStore runs on a 1.6GHz Atom to manage traffic to and from the server without the cost overhead of other processors. Acer's larger design, however, affords it four 3.5-inch drive bays that can take as much as 8TB of storage if completely filled. [full story]

December 29 - 10:00pm EST   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. [full story]

December 29 - 8:45am EST   HP has announced the existence of two new server products, the ex485 and ex487 MediaSmart Servers. Unlike most such systems, the new ones are intended for home use, and are thus based on Microsoft's Windows Home Server technology. Each allows for the backup and storage of various media files on a home network, such as music and video, along with more general file types a user might need to access. A MediaSmart can also be used to share content online or via LAN. [full story]

September 8 - 2:00pm EDT   Microsoft's next Windows Home Server may share some design cues from Mac OS X, a job posting by the company reveals. The firm is searching for a software engineer that would design a "slick" user interface for the networked media storage hub, with examples of the intended changes coming from other software. The device will ideally have a visual restore tool similar to Mac OS X Leopard's Time Machine; it should also integrate tightly with Microsoft's own Windows Media Center and Live Mesh interfaces. [full story]