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Get a Pogoplug network storage adapter for $49.95

This nifty gizmo connects up to four USB hard drives to your network and makes your files available anywhere: other computers, the Web, your phone...

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
It may be pink, but the Pogoplug is still plenty cool.
It may be pink, but the Pogoplug is still plenty cool. CloudEngines

This is an update of a deal I posted last year.

The CloudEngines Pogoplug is a seriously cool gadget that turns one or more USB hard drives into network-attached storage. And not just network-attached, but also Web-accessible. And phone-accessible. The key word here? "Accessible."

It originally sold for $129, but the second-generation Pogoplug is on sale at B&H Photo for just $49.95 shipped. The only catch: You'll have to accept the eye-searing pink design.

Here's how the gizmo works: you plug up to four USB hard drives into the Pogoplug, then connect the Pogoplug to your router. This arrangement allows for super-easy file sharing between PCs, remote access to your files (it doubles as a Web server), and media streaming to devices like iPhones and iPads.

If you already have a drive or two (or three or four) to devote to the device, great. If not, well, stick around--I'm always posting deals on dirt-cheap hard drives.

You can find out more about the Pogoplug in my original writeup for Business Hacks, or at the Pogoplug site. Bottom line: I did think the gadget was overpriced at $129, but at 50 bucks, it's mighty hard to pass up.

Bonus deal: Planning on getting an iPad 2 tomorrow? Here's a game you'll want to grab today: Limbic Software is offering TowerMadness HD, regularly $7.99, absolutely free. It is, by many accounts, one of the all-time great tower-defense games. (And it's also compatible with the iPad 1, natch.)