Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

Cloud Engines has unveiled a new version of their Pogoplug hard drive mobile access networker sharing thingy. Um, let me take another stab at that: Pogoplug (which we first saw last year at CES) is a little tiny computer that talks to USB hard drives and makes their content accessible from anywhere, and easily sharable with anyone. It doesn’t do anything that you couldn’t do with all kinds of major networking headaches, but that’s exactly why it’s so useful: you just plug it in, it works, and you’re done.

Version 2 of the Pogoplug features a redesign that incorporates a few more USB ports, making it easier to add multiple drives, although you can also use a USB hub to do the same thing. It comes on a weird pink sled, which personally I’m not a big fan of… I kinda liked the unapologetic functionality and smaller form factor of the original. There are also a host of new features on the software side, the most notable of which are automatic media syncing and global search, but you’ll also find new tools for creating and sharing media slide shows and other social features like a sharing address book.

The Pogoplug 2 is currently on pre-order for $129 (looks like the original version is still an even $100), which includes a lifetime of web sharing service.

[ Pogoplug ]

By Evan Ackerman

A NAS (network attached storage) drive is quite a handy thing to have on your home network. You can stuff it back behind your router (assuming it’s not a part of your router, that is) and forget about it, except that it’ll always be available to any computer on your network… It’s an easy way to add flexible storage for things like media that multiple people want to share. Or, it should be an easy way, but it often turns out to be expensive and troublesome.

This little box from Hitachi is called SimpleNet, and it’s able to turn any external USB drive into a NAS drive. From the look of things, you plug your router into one and a USB drive into the other, and that’s it. $80 might be a tad steep for this convenience, but there’s a lot of possibilities with this little device, and it gives you the flexibility to hot swap as many USB drives as you like. I haven’t run the numbers on this, but my guess is that you’ll probably save money (and headaches) if you get SimpleNet and some regular dirt cheap external USB drives, as opposed to a couple external drives designed with integrated ethernet ports. Yes, you’re going to take a speed hit with the 10/100 ethernet port (plus the USB) on the SimpleNet, but I bet it’ll work great for backups and light media access.

The Hitachi SimpleNet USB NAS adapter should be available now(ish) in retail stores.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Evan Ackerman

This little USB accessory from Buffalo has got to be the easiest way to throw an impromptu LAN party anywhere you want without having to resort to something as annoying and under performing as an ad-hoc wireless network. The three port router is powered entirely by one USB port, and means you and two of your friends can get together and frag each other (or exchange massive amounts of porn) at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. It’s nothing particularly fancy, but it works, it’s portable, and it’s cheap, too: it’ll go on sale later this month for about $25.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’ve spent many hours running ethernet cable throughout various buildings. It’s not the most fun thing to do in the world, especially when you’re crawling around in spaces filled with particularly itchy insulation (asbestos anyone?). I’ve seen companies offer networking over powerlines, and while it’s always sounded like a convenient solution, I’ve been wary of actual speeds achieved by such devices. Belkin’s latest offering sounds like it might just be fast enough to be worth checking out.

The first major concern with any powerline networking system is how much bandwidth is lost over a distance. Well Belkin’s new Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit promises 1000 Mb/s speeds. Even if you lose a good part of that bandwidth, most network cards still only operate at 100 Mb/s. If this device holds up to its claims (and can provide a more reliable connection than wireless), it might be worth the $150 price tag.

[ Belkin ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I just replaced an aging Linksys router with a D-Link 655 recommended by a friend, and I have to say I couldn’t be happier with the upgrade. And today things get even better since D-Link has released an updated version of their router desktop widget. It supports Yahoo! Widgets, Vista Gadgets and the Mac Dashboard and provides a dashboard-like real-time read out of your network and internet performance.

The widget is compatible with all of D-Link’s 802.11n routers like the DIR-655, DIR-855 and DGL-4500 and is available as a free download from D-Link’s site. (Note: A firmware update may be required to use the widget.)

[ D-Link Network Monitor v2.0 Widget ]

By Evan Ackerman

No matter how easy wireless network setup promises to be, it’s almost always a minor headache, and occasionally a major headache. Once I get all of my computers talking to each other and to the router and to the internet, I live in fear of a power outage or that one of the cats will mess with the surge protector and electrocute itself and blow a fuse and force me to set everything up again.

This is why I’m still using a 802.11g router, instead of the newer, faster, more powerful, and just generally sexier 802.11n. Oh, and the fact that a new router costs a bunch of money. The TRENDNet TEW-637AP 300Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader purports to make all of these things entirely painless. All you have to do is plug the TEW-637AP into the back of your existing 802.11b/g wireless router and it magically converts your wireless network to 802.11n while preserving all of your existing network configuration settings. In a test by Laptop Magazine, setup took “2 minutes” and and they noticed an immediate increase in speed by 4-5x and boost in range by a couple hundred feet.

Right now, the TRENDNet TEW-637AP 300Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader is $24.99 with free shipping from NewEgg.

VIA [ CNET News ]

By Evan Ackerman

Most people don’t have homes that are wired with ethernet and A/V cables. This sucks if you need to move lots of data (say, streaming high def video) around your house. Yes, all kinds of wireless solutions exist, but they tend to be relatively complicated and slow compared to a physical cable. Luckily, you’ve already got perfectly serviceable wires connecting every room in your house, with electricity running through ‘em. HD-PLC (High Definition Power Line Communication) uses these existing wires and piggybacks high bandwidth data along them, turning every outlet in your home into an ethernet port. Just stick a transmitter into an outlet and plug your router into it, and then plug a receiver into any other outlet in your house and out pops the internet.

HD-PLC is an alliance of a bunch of companies, including Buffalo and Philips, who are working on improving this technology. They have a variety of products either coming to market or on the market, including surge protector routers, wireless network extenders, and even TVs with integrated power line HDMI receivers, which lets the TV access HDMI streams simply by plugging it into a wall socket (which you have to do anyway to turn it on):

Power line data transmission has a bandwidth of up to 100 megabits, which is easily enough to carry three concurrent 1080p video streams plus internet, all of it encrypted. You can use surge protectors and stuff with this technology, although you have to be careful not to use surge protectors that are too good, or else they’ll cut the power line data bandwidth. As far as prices go, you can find some of this stuff in stores (and on Amazon) now, starting at under $100.

[ HD-PLC ]

By Evan Ackerman

Well, okay, maybe it’s not literally zero steps. You do have to plug something in and go to a website. But in practically zero steps, you can turn any USB hard drive into a networked hard drive that’s accessible from absolutely anywhere, without going through all of the complicated and nausea inducing networking drama that’s usually required to do something like that.

Pogoplug is a piece of hardware that looks like one of those A/C adapters we all hate because they’re huge and they take up a bunch of outlets. On the bottom, it’s got a USB port, and an ethernet port. You attach your USB HD to the Pogoplug, and the Pogoplug to your router. Then you go to the Pogoplug website, set up an account, and you’re done. You now have access to your drive just like it was physically plugged into your computer, except it works like that from anywhere you have internet (it just might be a little slower). You can even get at your files via an iPhone app.

I got a demo of the Pogoplug at CES yesterday, and it seems to work exactly as advertised. There was a drive showing up on the demo computer as local network storage, except that the physical location of the drive was in Arkansas or something. It’s completely, impressively transparent. The file browsers online and on the iPhone are simple to use, and I’m told the security is excellent. Oh, and you can even hook up multiple USB drives to one Pogoplug using a USB hub.

Pogoplug is on pre-order at the moment for $79, and even though Pogoplug is also a service, there’s no subscription fee. Look for it in March of this year.

[ Pogoplug ]

By Evan Ackerman

A disadvantage of having a whole herd of computers (is it “herd” or would they have to have legs for that?) is that it’s hard to keep them all synchronized. Inevitably, I’ll be a thousand miles away and desperately need something that can only be had on one of my other computers back in my underground lair… It keeps thwarting my schemes to take over the world. If I could just solve this one thing, you’d all be my servants. This is why I’m optimistic (and you should be terrified) about the LaCie Internet Space network hard drive. It will automatically sync its 500 gigs with as many folders on as many computers as you like, and stream media files to your PS3 or Xbox 360. Also, you can access the files on it over the internet through LaCie’s website, which is a pretty nice feature.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this is totally something you can set up on your own with just a little bit of computer know-how, and at $210 for a 500 gig drive, you’re paying maybe twice as much as you would be for an equivalent network attached storage system without the fancy software. But there is something to be said for plugging it in and having it ready to go in five minutes, and this drive (according to reports) really can do just that. And, you know, it’s got that featureless white slab look going for it, so you know it must be good.

[ LaCie ] VIA [ Electric Pig ]