Hasta La Gadget!

You have plenty of options if you’re looking for an external hard drive or some home storage that does more than just keep your files and data backed up, but the new Western Digital My Book Live is a network attached storage (NAS) device that lets you put your files anywhere in the house and access them from any other network-connected device.

The My Book Live adds a 100MBps Ethernet jack on the back of the popular My Book line of external drives, comes in 1TB or 2TB models, and retains its USB 2.0 port in case you want to daisy-chain the device to another hard drive for expanded storage. The My Book Live also functions as a media server and allows you to stream music or movies on the drive to other devices in the house, like your XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PC or Mac running iTunes, or just as an open network share.

Western Digital isn’t the only manufacturer in this game: LaCie’s Wireless Space and Verbatim’s MediaShare are among a number of others vying for position in this market. Still, Western Digital has huge brand recognition, and the New My Book Live has a good price point: $169.99 for the 1TB model and $229.99 for the 2TB model. Both versions are available now.

The My Book Live definitely doesn’t mark Western Digital’s first foray into the world of connected storage, but the devil’s in the details on this one. The company’s newly released network drive falls into the budget-friendly My Book line, but promises access to files at up 100Mbps, or triple the speed of standard USB 2.0 units. Additionally, Apple Time Machine support comes baked in from the factory, and there’s also an integrated DLNA-compatible media server that can stream photos, videos and audio through any number of devices (WD TV Live Plus HD, Xbox 360, your Blu-ray player, a PlayStation 3, etc.). It’ll also double (triple?) as an iTunes music server, and when paired with the company’s refreshed WD Photos app — which is now optimized for iPad and iPhone 4 — users can flip through their photo albums remotely. The My Book Live is now available for $169.99 (1TB) / $229.99 (2TB), and the aforementioned app can be sucked down as we speak from the action-packed App Store.

Western Digital debuts My Book Live NAS / media streamer, revamped My Photos app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was inevitable, really. First comes the business-oriented DroboPro, then comes the network-savvy Drobo FS. Mash the two together, and out pops the DroboPro FS. Design wise, it’s the same 3U form factor that DroboPro users will recognize, but internally, Data Robotics has bumped the CPU speed from 800MHz in the Drobo FS to 1GHz here. There are eight total bays within, and a pair of gigabit Ethernet jacks around back; by default, the second port is used to connect to a different subnet (possibly for offsite file replication), while users can opt for a protection mode during setup if they’d rather it act as a fail-safe (in case the primary port kicks the bucket). More important than all of that, though, is the new Drobo Sync feature, which will be exclusive to the DroboPro FS for at least the time being. During setup, users simply input the IP address of another DroboPro FS; once that’s plugged in, they can schedule automatic offsite backups as often as each hour or as infrequently as once per day.

Here’s the thing: this automatic offsite sync only works with a pair of DroboPro FS devices, so you’ll need to pick up two from the start and have ’em shipped to different addresses if you’re interested in taking advantage. The good news, however, is that an intelligent syncing system specifically scans for minute file changes, so if you only change two cells in a 105MB Excel chart, only a few chunks of data will have to fly over your network rather than resending and overwriting the entire 105MB file. As for pricing? Given that these are meant for small biz, it’s up there — the empty base unit goes for $1,999, while at 8TB model (2TB x 4) lists for $2,699 and a 16TB behemoth (2TB x 8) sells for $3,299. The company also has plans to sell a two-device bundle (16TB x 2 units) for $6,399, aiming this at folks who want an offsite solution from the get-go. The box itself is available today from CDW, B&H and a few other e-tailers, and even if you’re not feeling spendy, you can hit that More Coverage link for a chance to win yourself a gratis Drobo FS. It’s a win-win, we tell ya.

Continue reading Data Robotics debuts 8-bay DroboPro FS with automatic offsite backup option

Data Robotics debuts 8-bay DroboPro FS with automatic offsite backup option originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How does one make a Canvio hard drive better, you ask? By adding USB 3.0 support, of course! Toshiba has just unveiled the latest rendition of its stylish pocket drive, the Canvio 3.0. As with practically every other HDD on the market, this one is also making the SuperSpeed leap in order to provide transfer rates around ten times higher than those of prior generation units. Naturally, it’ll play nice with your USB 2.0 machine (albeit at USB 2.0 speeds), and will ship in capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1TB. For the Windows users in attendance, Tosh is tossing in NTI BackupNow EZ software for free, and if you’re tired of the standard black motif, you’ll be thrilled to know that it’ll ship in high gloss black with red, green, blue, white, or silver graphical accents. Check ’em right about now in North America for $119.99, $129.99 and $179.99 in order of mention.

Continue reading Toshiba takes Canvio portable hard drive line to SuperSpeed heights

Toshiba takes Canvio portable hard drive line to SuperSpeed heights originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At first blush, the new Verbatim Store n’ Go Clip-it USB Drive is a great way to include a bit more information with something like a business card, a folder full of documents for a meeting or presentation, or a media kit at a conference (I’m betting we’ll see these at CES in January.) The more you think about it, however, doesn’t including a USB drive full of documents connected to a document kind of defeat the purpose of printing the documents in the first place?

Verbatim doesn’t think so, and suggests using the new Clip-it drives like paper clips, to keep documents together, regardless of whether those documents are electronic or paper. The Clip-it USB Drives are available in seven different colors, and in 2GB and 4GB flavors. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.