pogoplug video

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

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

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