The race to the cloud just heated up today: Cloud Engines, most known for their white, instant-server-in-a-brick Pogoplug network-attached storage device, launches two software-only versions that turn your Mac into a home-based server.
Cloud Engines launched the first Pogoplug in early 2009 and has since updated the hardware several times, most recently launching a powerful video-streaming capable Pogoplug in April. But this is a big step for the company, because it conspiciously lacked a sofware-only product like Tonido, Air Video or the now-defunct ZumoCast.
There’s also a new viewing option in the Pogoplug web interface called One View that consolidates multiple copies of the media file — say you’ve got files of the exact same song or movie spread across several different machines — into one.
We had a chance to play around a little with the new software, with its over-the-Internet $29 upgrade; it functioned, but streaming music and video seemed a bit slow and wonky over the ‘net; hopefully they’re still working out the kinks. Pogoplug users should also notice that the Pogoplug web interface received a minor facelift.