nas

There's more to digital storage than you might be aware of, and your needs often require devices across the entire spectrum. Start with the internal drive, then get an external drive, then a portable drive, then something you can access remotely or stream content from. Or just maybe, you might find you need something that works both as a portable drive and a media streamer, even when you're out and about. Yes, you could just realize that you want too much!

But no worries, you won't need to spend too much time on your search. The six … Read more

For some reason it's a common belief that Android devices and Macs just don't get along. This misconception may have been true back in Android's infancy, but nowadays there's a long list of methods, apps, and services that let you use your Android device with your Mac. It's impossible to cover every app and service available, but I'm going to share the best of the bunch.

Most of the services listed below rely on the cloud to make the process of moving data between devices painless, while other methods require the tried and true … Read more

You can share files between your Android device and a Mac by using a USB cable and running Android File Transfer on your Mac. If both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, however, there's an easier way: Droid NAS. Droid NAS is an Android app that makes your device appear in Finder as a Bonjour computer. There's no need to open a Web browser or run a separate program on your Mac.

Launch Droid NAS on your Android device, then select which profile you want to use. You can choose among the three profiles that are … Read more

After almost two months in a beta state, Synology's version 4.2 of its DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system is now live.

The new version offers a host of improvements for both home and business users, especially in terms of ease of use. For example, Quick Connect -- a feature that quickly configures the router to facilitate the NAS server's Internet-based applications -- now supports the setup of more apps, including Cloud Station, DS File, DS Audio, DS Photo+, and the new DS Cloud app.

DS Cloud adds a Dropbox-like sync service for mobile devices. Other improvements … Read more

If you haven't heard of Seagate's BlackArmor NAS servers, including the 220 and the 440 models, you didn't miss much or you have missed everything. Almost four years since first introduced, they are now obsolete.

Seagate announced today the replacements, a totally new line of network attached storage servers for small businesses or professional consumers, called Business Storage NAS. The new servers promise to offer a lot more, with faster speeds, better cloud integration, and a host of features.

The storage vendor says the new servers offer powerful backup solutions for Windows, Mac (with native support for … Read more

LAS VEGAS--LaCie showed off today at CES 2013 its latest high-end network attached storage (NAS) server, the 5big NAS Pro, which is a major upgrade to the company's previous 5big Network 2.

Powered by a dual-core 2.13GHz Intel 64-bit Atom processor and 4GB RAM, the 5big NAS Pro is a five-bay server that offers a massive amount of storage space (up to 20GB), and promises data rates up to 200MBps via its two Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The most prominent feature of the 5big NAS Pro, however, is its totally new novice-friendly SimplyRAID mode and cloud features

A new … Read more

LaCie's 5big NAS Pro is a major upgrade to the company's previous 5big Network 2. The new server is now significantly faster while retaining the excellent physical design of its predecessor.

The 5big NAS Pro does have some shortcomings, however, including a spartan feature list and the lack of customization options. The sever also doesn't provide a way to quickly set up its hard drives into a RAID configuration.

All things considered, at the current price of some $500 (disk-less version, or $1,100 and $2,000 for 10TB and 20TB, respectively) it's an excellent choice … Read more

It's been an exciting -- and busy -- year for networking and storage, two very important categories in consumer electronics. Important because they are at the core of information technology -- without either, most or all of your gadgets will come to a grinding halt. And as far as I know, we haven't yet seen the limit of what they can do.

That said, here is a quick roundup of the current state of this sector and what we can expect, based on my educated guesses, heading into CES 2013.

802.11ac This year will be remembered … Read more

Following its recent announcement of the availability of a new 4TB hard drive, Western Digital today announced that its RAID-capable NAS server, the My Book Live Duo, now offers up to 8TB of storage space.

The My Book Live Duo is the dual-bay version of the single-volume My Book Live and originally had a storage cap of 6TB.

The server houses two user-serviceable 3.5-inch hard drives and supports both RAID 1 and RAID 0 configurations. The top 8TB capacity is available only in the RAID 0 setup, which is fast but provides no redundancy. If you want data safety, … Read more