nas

Ugreen’s new NASync DH2300 and DH4300 Plus network-attached storage devices aim squarely at everyday home users, the consumer electronics maker said Wednesday. In other words, those who want local storage as an alternative to iCloud, but without the complexity typically associated with NAS systems.

Starting at a low price of $209.99 $188.99, the two-bay DH 2300 device joins the more capable four-bay DH4300 Plus ($429.99 $364.99) in Ugreen’s effort to make personal cloud storage accessible to non-technical users. Both are on sale for launch, too. 

Billing it as “the world’s first truly portable network attached storage (NAS) device,” StationPC launched PocketCloud NAS on Kickstarter this week. The compact device blew through its crowdfunding goal with more than 40 days still to go, virtually assuring it will go into production, according to a StationPC representative.

So PocketCloud, available at a steep discount to early buyers, offers Apple enthusiasts a way to manage their growing media libraries and important files without relying solely on iCloud or external hard drives.

“PocketCloud revolutionizes portable data management with a sleek, compact design that eliminates the complexities of traditional NAS systems,” StationPC said. “Its modular backup system ensures secure on-the-go storage and seamless synchronization when docked. With intuitive controls, robust durability, and high-speed transfers up to 800 MB/s, it’s ideal for photographers, content creators, and everyday users.”

Ugreen hopes to make waves at CES 2025 with a lineup of cutting-edge products incorporating artificial intelligence and advanced connectivity — especially AI-powered NAS storage devices, the company said Sunday. But it also unveiled a shockingly powerful, 500-watt fast GaN charger and a Thunderbolt 5 dock.

Moving from a product lineup dominated by small chargers to a broader selection of tech wares, Ugreen unveils its latest products under the theme “Activate the Possibility of AI.”

The Black Friday sales period in late November can be a great time to stock up on practical items, whether they’re gifts or just items for yourself. Take chargers, power banks, USB-C hubs and data storage solutions, for example. Everybody can use them, and Ugreen Black Friday deals abound on Amazon for such items. Markdowns range from 15% to 35% off. Check out a selection of sale items below.

Known for compact and affordable chargers, Ugreen jumped into network-attached storage (NAS) devices in a big way Tuesday with a crowdfunding campaign for its new NASync products on Kickstarter.com.

That’s where you can pledge and save 40% on items that suit home and business users alike with high-speed, huge-capacity data storage, the company said.

Seagate unveiled the world’s highest-capacity hard drive Wednesday with its Exos Mosaic 3+ HDD platform, hitting the 30TB mark for the first time, the company said. That’s enough space to store a thousand Blu-ray movies.

The company said it used several new technologies to get there, and its road map shows the arrival of even bigger storage devices in the coming years. And while businesses will certainly go for these megadrives, they will also be available to many kinds of end users and require no special hardware to read.

Apple Music enlisted clothing company LRG to become the latest company to handpick songs for a new set of curated playlists.

LRG, short for Lifted Research Group, became popular for its street wear thanks to endorsements from some of the biggest rappers and R&B artists in the world. As you’d expect, its new playlists are highly influenced by those genres too.

The first trailer for Apple’s new documentary Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story has finally landed, giving a glimpse into the film that chronicles the rise of Sean “Diddy” Combs and his record label, Bad Boy Entertainment.

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop explores the history of Bad Boy via a series of in-depth interviews with icons such as Nas, Mary J Blige, Puff Daddy, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and even Apple’s own Jimmy Iovine.

Check it out:

Kanex’s MeDrive looks like an essential bit of kit for anyone with an iDevice and a whole mess of media files. It’s a personal file server, only unlike most solutions we’ve seen, it lets you hook up any USB drive to share and access its contents.

FileBrowser, the – uh – file browser app for iOS, has gotten a slew of new features in a recent update, one of which will make movie-downloading iPad owners very happy: Now the app can not only browse network-attached drives (like the Time Capsule), it can stream movies of any format to other apps on your iPad.

Launched a few weeks ago, the Pogoplug Series 4 ($100) is Cloud Engines’ latest attempt at making their network-attached storage device as ubiquitous as the microwave oven. Like its predecessors, the S4 allows you to attach a hard drive or flash drive to create your own cloud, which you can use to stream media, share files or create slideshows, all of which can be accessed over the Internet and shared with others. Additionally, it can also be used for remote backup.

Pogoplug has been busy. For a company that focuses really intently on a single concept — namely, putting your stuff in the cloud — it has released a prolific number of products since the original Pogoplug first debuted in early 2009. Today brings their latest offering: The Pogoplug Series 4 ($100).

Cloud Engines, the outfit that makes the Pogoplug, sent us an Series 4 to check out, and we got a little hands-on time with it before the launch today.

Yes, cloud computing is all the rage these days; question is, d’you plonk all your stuff down on a distant server, or keep your digital junk safe and dry inside your own home, with your own personal cloud? If you picked the latter, Akitio’s new NAS device might appeal to you.

They’re running through the entire playbook over at Pogoplug for a touchdown (yeah, guess I’m jonesing for the football season to start). Their latest move is the Pogoplug Mobile ($80), out today.

Review by Kelly Keltner

I have a love/hate relationship with routers. I love what they do and the freedom they give me; hate that they never quite live up to my expectations. I’ve been through numerous routers over the years and have yet to find one that truly impressed me. However, Belkin’s N750 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router ($130) might be the first that I’ve had a good overall experience with right out of the box.

Among a slew of other changes and upgrades in OS X Lion, it has been confirmed that the new version of Time Machine in Lion temporarily kills the option to backup to a third party NAS server.

Apple stresses the importance of the Time Machine mentality in Lion, with the Versions feature working in the same way to keep backups of your documents and other files. Killing the ability to backup to a third party NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive reflects Apple’s desire to, well, have you buy more Apple hardware.

Apple has already revealed that Steve Jobs will talk about iCloud, iOS 5 and OS X Lion during his WWDC keynote on Monday morning.

In addition, it’s rumored that Apple’s wireless Time Capsule backup/router will get a big update.

Here’s how iCloud and the new Time Capsule will work, according to a source close to the company who asked not be identified. It’s pretty surprising:

It’s a little admitted secret, but one of the biggest reasons people like Network Attached Storage drives is for Torrent downloads. They’re the easiest ways to download obscure British TV shows, for example, that can’t be easily had here in the U.S. After downloading a couple of shows, users watch them via WiFi streaming on their MacBooks or iPads.

Trouble is, Torrent downloads slow everything on the home network to a crawl. Everyone complains when the network is clogged with Torrents of Shameless or The Killing. Well, not any more. You can set up one of Iomega’s new Home Media Network Hard Drive, Cloud Edition at work and use the office’s net connection to download Torrents at night. Then you stream them over the net to your home.

I’ve been testing one of the Home Media Drives for several weeks. There’s a been a few glitches, but on the whole, it works well. Now I’ve got my own little Amazon S3 system, with none of the monthly fees.

Just like Pogoplug and ZumoCast (the latter currently MIA from the app store), Tonido is a service that’ll let users stream media and access files on a computer from a mobile device. It sort of combines features from both — it’s completely free, works via a mobile app that connects to server software (free download from Tonido) running the user’s computer and allows access to music, videos, photos and even plain ‘ol documents. In fact, pretty much everything on a connected hard drive is accessable.

The big difference with Tonido though, is that virtually nothing is stored in a cloud — not even your account password (“think of the Tonido server like a giant router” says co-founder Venkat Ramasay). Don’t want to use your computer as the server? Tonido sells a remarkably-Pogoplug-looking NAS device for $99 that you can plug an external HDD or USB stick into. Ramasay says the software footprint is also very small, and that’s it’s also intended to run on home routers.  The next version will also support Airplay.

The interface seems a little rough around the edges — I wasn’t able to stream music because I couldn’t figure out a way to simply select music to play, for instance — but it’s free, so worth taking a look at.

We’ve been keen followers of developments at CloudEngines, the outfit behind the Pogoplug network-attached storage device, ever since we reviewed the first one back in late 2009. This month, a little over two years after the Pogoplug debuted, brings a whole raft of new offerings from the company — including one that may bring a big surge to NAS popularity in general.