pogoplug

Home cloud: Hands-on with the new Pogoplug Series 4

Sick of living in the cloud?

The new Pogoplug Series 4 is a device that looks to take the best of cloud computing and home network-attached storage and combine the two into a seamless experience. Available today, it certainly seems like a perfectly timed idea in the wake of seemingly daily frustrations with services like Apple's own iCloud and iTunes Match.

Maybe the fourth time's a charm: I've reviewed multiple Pogoplugs before, but none of them came close to what this new version offers. The Pogoplug is a NAS drive without the complications, and it's finally hit a sweet spot for price, size, and feature set. The newly released Pogoplug Series 4 is a latecomer to the holiday shopping season, but if you're getting fed up with iCloud and what other cloud services have to offer, then this $99 device might be what you're looking for.… Read more

Got a new PC? Get a perfect starter kit - now 83% off

Just in time for the holidays, CNET has partnered with top consumer software publishers to offer an exclusive bundle of six products worth $177.88 for just $30! That's a 83% discount on the leading anti-virus, system care, PDF creator, compression and remote access software.

This great software bundle lets you protect your computer, create and compress documents, and stream media content from your computer to any connected device!

The New PC starter-kit bundle includes the following six software:

Avira Antivirus Premium 2012 - Protect your computer against viruses, malware, adware, spyware, and phishing: reg.$29.99 Smith Micro … Read more

Exclusively for CNET members: Get 10GB free storage with Pogoplug Cloud

CLICK HERE FOR THE CNET EXCLUSIVES OFFER

Live without boundaries and free yourself from one too many cloud storage options that only limits your ability to get organized. I've tried many other cloud solutions, but none is like Pogoplug. With Pogoplug, I can not only access my files on the go, but I can stream my music and video content that's living on my home computer from anywhere. The beauty of not being limited by the amount of storage is yet another reason why I've moved over to Pogoplug, almost entirely.

With Pogoplug's new Cloud feature, … Read more

Cloud Engines recalls Pogoplug Video devices

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada yesterday issued a formal voluntary recall notice for Cloud Engines' Pogoplug Video media streaming device.

CNET originally reported the problem in mid-June after the San Francisco-based company sent an e-mail to media outlets and wrote a blog entry detailing an overheating issue with Pogo-11, -12, -13, and -14 devices. The CPSC has fully detailed the extent of the issue, indicating that 11,000 Pogoplug products are suspect, affecting 9,500 units in the United States and 1,500 in Canada.

Cloud Engines received three reports of the device overheating, prompting … Read more

The last cloud solution you will ever need - save 50%

UPDATE July 30, 2011: This offer has now ended.

If you are like me, you've fallen madly in love with the ease of use and the easy accessibility of some of the cloud storage solutions out there. At every chance I had, I would try to invite all the people I knew to increase my free storage space until one day, I was maxed out. I now had to choose between deleting some of my files and moving them off of the cloud, or paying an annual fee for a certain amount of storage space.

In the past, I … Read more

Pogoplug Video recalled for overheating, catching on fire

Cloud Engines, makers of the Pogoplug series of products, announced a recall of its most recent Pogoplug Video--a device we've been testing here at CNET. According to an e-mail sent last night, all Pogoplug Video units (Pogo-11, -12, -13, and -14) are susceptible to overheating and, in at least one reported case, erupting in actual flames.

Owners of the Pogoplug Video are urged to unplug any hard drives and turn off the devices immediately. (Update/correction: Cloud Engines is currently asking that owners collect proof of purchase and await further instructions on the return process.)

The recall is only … Read more

Cloudy, with a chance of video

With Apple's iCloud coming next week, hot on the heels of Amazon and Google's cloud services for music, it seems like the years-old dream of cloud media streaming is coming to greater fruition than ever before. That's promising news to me, a person who cut the cord on his cable TV over a year and a half ago. I live off the Internet and my various devices--my laptop, game consoles, iPhone, and iPad--to get my media, be it TV shows, movies, music or books.

So far, it looks like 2011 will be more the year of Cloud Music than that of Cloud Video. And that's a shame, because I'm getting fed up with my half-baked digital-video life.

I've spent the last week with a product called Pogoplug Video, which attempts to do what no one's currently offering yet: the ability to stream multiformat video files easily across multiple platforms, be they gaming console, computer, or phone/tablet, even across the Internet or 3G.

I held high hopes for the Pogoplug Video. The $199 device is much like the Pogoplug Pro we reviewed last year, equipped with a more powerful processor. And, it does what it promises, to a point: video files stored on hard drives or USB sticks plugged into the Pogoplug do indeed technically play back on iPhones, iPads, laptops, or even via DLNA on an Xbox 360 or PS3.… Read more

Buffalo CloudStor Pro review: It's all about the Internet

During the hands-on with Marvell's first plug-in network storage product, the SheevaPlug computer, which later on became the engine of the Pogoplug service, I was wishing that the device were more of a full-featured NAS server, instead of just a tiny device that worked with a USB external hard drive. And the wish came true when Buffalo announced the CloudStor Pro at CES 2011.

But, as they say, maybe I should have been more careful what I wished for.

Will Pogoplug Video now make cloud video sharing easier?

We've reviewed several iterations of the Pogoplug, a unique and pretty easy-to-set-up device that turns any available home hard drive or USB flash drive into cloud-sharable networked storage. While Pogoplug's features are extensive--existing versions can stream music, movies, and photos to computers, mobile devices, and even the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360--we found the performance of video streaming to be a mixed bag. Some video files required lengthy transcoding, and others got pretty choppy when played back.

The $199 Pogoplug Video, now available, clearly aims to fix those problems. While it looks the same as any other Pogoplug, … Read more

How to fix Apple's Time Capsule (and how it will make the iPad 2 even better)

Sure, the iPad's fun. It's thin, it's addictive, it can handle a wide variety of apps and media files. There's only one problem: it still needs to sync to a PC.

If "magical" was the catchphrase most repeated at last year's iPad unveiling, "post-PC" was this year's equivalent for the iPad 2. I had hoped that, along with the iPad 2, Apple would find a way access media libraries wirelessly. They have, in a way, with iOS 4.3's new Home Sharing capability--but it needs a Mac or PC … Read more