Iomega’s Mac Companion hard drive is a 2TB ($349, 3TB model is $449) desktop drive with a few features that make it interesting to the average Mac (or PC) owner. While it doesn’t have the bells, whistles, and network access of many NAS and home storage devices, it does look good next to your iMac.

The drive is clad in brushed aluminum with a black glossy top panel and a two-port USB hub in back. You can also daisy-chain Firewire devices through the rear Firewire ports for 800mbps data transfers.

The drive inside is a 7200RPM modem with 8MB of cache. Three lights on the front signal available capacity if you download a small helper app.

My tests found the drive to be more than adequate in terms of speed. Maxing out at 73MBps over Firewire (compared to a 70MBps for a similar SATA drive), the Mac Companion is a useful back-up drive or scratch disk for video editing.

Can you get a cheaper, less attractive drive for half the price (or less)? Sure, but Iomega is banking on looks and performance to push this drive into the premium space. While I can’t recommend it unequivocally, it is a strong contendor for sexiest drive of the year.

Bottom Line
Sometimes a hard drive is just a hard drive. While $349 is way pricey for 2TB of space, the added USB hub and Firewire passthrough, performance, plus sexy styling make it a worthy addition to your desktop arsenal. Too rich for your blood? A basic 2TB drive costs $99 these days so there are cheaper alternatives.

Product Page

I’m a big fan of backing up. Do it all the time. That’s why I’m intrigued by this Iomega Superhero iPhone Back-up solution. It’s basically a charger with an SD card built in. To use it, you have to download a free iPhone app, plug in the included 4GB memory card, and drop in your phone. The app allows you to back up your contacts and other personal info to the card and it charges the iPhone. It also backs up your photos.

Once you’ve installed the app, the entire process is automatic. It produces incremental back-ups after the first, longer initial back-up. A back-up of my own iPhone took about five minutes.

The device, to be fair, is quite clever and well-designed. It’s clad in brush aluminum and there are no buttons. It is essentially a fire and forget backup system. You could, for example, carry it with you on a business trip, thereby allowing you to back up your iPhone on the go instead of connecting to a potentially nasty PC on the road. However, I worry that the average business traveller won’t want to carry this hockey puck around instead of the original, tiny iPhone charger.

It works with all of the iPhones and the iPod Touch. It does not back up your music. It costs $70.

Regardless, it makes for a great way to backup your iPhone when you plug it in for the night and, I presume, that an IT person would like this for his or her charges, thus ensuring that if the iPod is never tethered it will at least be backed-up in some capacity. While not amazing, it’s an interesting idea and an excellent implementation.

Product Page

http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=V2cjgxMjrRX2m5-019D2iJ31RktCmVzQ&version=2

Short Version: This seemingly everyday USB 3.0 hard drive hides a couple dirty secrets. tl;dr don’t buy this drive. Why you ask? You’re going to have to click through for that.

Features

• 1TB storage
• USB 3.0 interface
• AES 265-bit hardware encryption
• $159 MSRP
• Product page

Pros

• Rugged design
• Good transfer rates

Cons

• Included software suite is loaded on a virtual CD drive (craziness)
• Bundled USB 3.0 Cable doesn’t work  with other USB 3.0 devices

Review

I don’t get it. How in the world can someone mess up an external hard drive? The formula is dead-simple: take a notebook hard drive and put it in the smallest possible external enclosure. Profit! Somehow the committee in charge of the Iomega eGo 1TB external hard drive dropped the ball.

It all boils down to one grievous issue. When you plug in the drive, it loads a virtual CD drive along with the hard drive. This isn’t simply a partition either as it shows up as another physical drive in Disk Management. On this virtual drive is the bundled encryption software (which I can’t get to install) and so, it’s not that much of a journey to see how this virtual drive came to be.

What’s the very first thing you do when you get an external hard drive? Delete all the crap software, right? That’s what I do. Someone at Iomega must of have realized this and so instead of leveraging the Internet’s fine ability to distribute software, this method was enacted to make sure the bundled software would remain on the drive for all of time.

This separate drive wouldn’t be that big of a deal if Windows didn’t insist on autorunning it every time the drive is connected even if instructed not to — or if there was an easier way to delete it. Because, you know, you bought the drive and should be able to use it how you want.

Then there’s the issue with the included USB 3.0 cable. I have three other USB 3.0 external hard drives and it won’t work with any of them. I can’t figure out why, either. It seems like a standard USB 3.0 drive with an extra end to help power the drive if needed. But it’s a no-go on my other devices.

The drive performs fine and finishes along side the other USB 3.0 drives I’ve tested with the average read/write speeds clocking in at 83.2 MB/s and 71.3 MB/s over USB 3.0. But it really bothers me that the owner does not have complete control over the drive. That’s a massive dealbreaker in my book.

Please be advised: from here on out all of Iomega’s portable hard drives will be fully USB 3.0 compliant. Of course, this is useless to you unless your motherboard works with USB 3.0, or you add a USB 3.0 card to your setup. (Don’t worry: Iomega sells those items, too.)

At the very least, Iomega isn’t using the transition from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 as an excuse to gouge its customers.

In fact, it seems Iomega sent us just such a drive a few weeks early. Woo~!

Iomega writes, and quite proudly, “The new all-USB 3.0 eGo Portable Hard Drives will feature hardware encryption and super toughness, too, thanks to a drop spec twice the industry average – all at USB 2.0 product prices.”

The new portable hard drives, in 500GB and 1TB sizes, should start trickling out in October. Right now, I can find the 500GB eGo Portable Hard Drive for $108 (less on discount), so expect the new USB 3.0 model to be right around there. Well, I mean, it should exactly be $108, given the “all at USB 2.0 product prices” line, but we’ll see.

Yup, that’s about it.

I compared the 500GB version of the eGo to other external drives, and found that, along with the eGo being the smallest device, data transfer was a bit faster, even when both were using a USB 2.0 connection. In fact, I didn’t really need to do a side-by-side comparison to see that the transfer speeds on the eGo are exceptional.

The cables are a bit short for my liking, but the focus is on the portability of the device, so they may see this as something you won’t typically use as a permanent fixture in your workspace. The eGo comes with a free year of the Protection Suite, which provides a few services, including online backup (though only 2GB are free).

This is the nicest looking portable hard drive I’ve used, and the fact that it’s so fast and efficient makes it an easy recommendation. The 500GB unit costs $129.99, making it a very good deal if you’re looking for a good-sized storage unit.

Product Page

• Available in three different designs
• Uses Iomega’s “Drop Guard” to protect from dropping up to 51 inches (at least to carpet)
• Includes Iomega’s backup software, via download
• Works with PC or Mac
• MSRP: $119 for 500GB, street price around $89

Pros:

• Bus powered
• Small size, build quality feels good
• Offers an alternative to the plain old box design

Cons:

• Tries a little too hard to be hip

Product page

Full review:
It’s a hard drive. You put stuff on it, or back up your computer to it. Hopefully, if something bad happens, you can get your stuff back off the drive. The drive functions as expected, the USB 2.0 interface is the typical speed that we’re used to, nothing special there.

Where the drive does stand out is the design. Iomega teamed up with Skin Inc. designer Al Borda to create a product that appeals to the more fashion conscious user. Just like the old “beige box” computer was eventually replaced by glowing LEDs and cold cathode lighting, external hard drives are trying to get prettied up too. There are three different options in the Skin line, Iomega sent me the “Radical” which is a retro logo on a black top, with a yellow bottom. I’ll admit, my tastes run more to the understated, but the design doesn’t look bad at all. There are two other options, the “Red Hot” which is a red top with a black base, featuring the Skin logo, and the “Knock out” – a silver top on a black base, with the Skin logo in a gothic design. Obviously these are more aimed at the college aged crowd rather than your IT professional, but if you are looking for something that’s different from the standard box enclosure, I say go for it.

The enclosure by itself impressed me, just based on the build quality. It feels solid in your hand, but it’s not heavy. Iomega says in their product information that the drive is designed to withstand a drop of up to 51 inches without damage. That’s probably more than enough for the casual user, and my drop tests were successful; the drive continued to function despite repeated tests.

One thing that didn’t impress me was that Iomega didn’t pre-load the backup software on the drive. There is a small pamphlet on how to download the “included” software, but if you don’t have an internet connection, you’d have to use whatever backup solution is included in your OS. Additionally, and perhaps this just because I’m not a college student, the concept of hiring a designer to put a logo on an external drive just seems a little contrived to me.

Conclusion: The Iomega Skin hard drive is a great product. It has that Iomega quality, with a little dash of design flavor to make it different from the other offerings out there. Plus if you go online and look around, you can pick one up for less than $100. If you’re the kind of person who likes the Skin designs, go get one. You won’t be disappointed.

The ix12-300r will be available in the U.S. on May 10th from CDW at $4,999.99 for the 4TB configuration and comes with the EMC Lifeline backup and management software.

Devices like the Iomega iConnect allow us to place storage space on our internal networks and expose that data to the world, as needed. However, the iConnect also creates a local iTunes share, adds a Time Machine back-up location, and performs a few other tricks all for $99. While it’s not perfect, it’s pretty cool.

Features:

• Four USB ports
• iTunes/Time Machine support
• Printer support
• Wireless

Pros:

• Shares data locally and with the world
• Compact
• Built-in Ethernet port

Cons:

• iTunes sharing not selective
• Set-up a bit wonky
• Doesn’t work with Drobo

The Iomega iConnect Wireless is, in short, a NAS without drives. You can stuck up to four devices onto this thing and even print wireless over your network. When you need to grab a file from one of your drives – and if you’re like me, you have plenty – you just connect to that drive. When you take the drive out of the network it disappears. Add it again and it reappears. The system also offers a remote access service with your own private URL mapped to the iConnect.

The device is fairly easy to set up. You connect to a network, run the enclosed software, and add a disk. As soon as a disk is plugged in it appears as a share on your network. A click and you’re in.

Setup is very straightforward. The desktop UI is barebones and the web UI isn’t much more complex. It isn’t for the average user but you could set it up for Grandma and tell her how to watch her soaps. Besides, it has a Torrent client built right in so she can DL her things on the DL.

For $99 you get a lot of features. Is it better than something like the Netgear Stora? That depends on how many loose drives you have in your collection. If you need to get your data online in a hurry, however, this is a good solution.

In the comments for our quick look one reader, Bryan, found that the device doesn’t support the Drobo, which is a problem. It also seems to only support FAT, FAT32, and NTFS, which could be a problem for larger files. However – and I haven’t tested this – most devices like this will handle large files thanks to the sharing properties and protocols used. The disk format seems to be invisible to OS X.

Product Page: Iomega iConnect

Ever since Iomega announced the iConnect Wireless at CES we’ve been thinking long and hard about our NAS usage. Do we really want a NAS with built-in drives? Why can’t we be free of NAS hegemony?

Well, the $99 iConnect promises to break our shackles. It’s a NAS without a drive. Here’s a quick hands on and we’ll do a full review this week. The press release, for your edification, follows.

Iomega’s New iConnect Wireless Data Station: Share Files, Manage Torrents,
Access Your Data Remotely, Backup Your PC and Mac
And Much More for Only $99
***
Transform Your USB Hard Drives and Flash Drives into “Smart” Network Storage

SAN DIEGO, January 5, 2010 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the worldwide launch of the Iomega® iConnect Wireless Data Station, a powerful and yet inexpensive device that provides a simple way to bring all of your USB storage into your network, allowing you to connect, share and access files anywhere, even over the Internet – all for only $99.99.

On display this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (Booth # 31823, South Hall 3) in Las Vegas, the iConnect Wireless Data Station has no onboard storage, instead allowing users to bring all of their desktop and portable USB storage into their network. Connect the Iomega iConnect device to your router in either a wired or wireless configuration*, and it’s as easy as plugging external USB drives or USB Flash drives (any brand) into any of the four USB ports on the Iomega iConnect device, making the drives automatically connected to and accessible from any computer on your network or remotely via the web.

With that simple set up, users of the iConnect Wireless Data Station not only have incremental storage on their network to save, share and enjoy, they also enjoy such capabilities as a UPnP™ DLNA Certified AV Media Server that streams photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices; a torrent download manager for managing peer-to-peer file transfers; Time Machine® support for Apple® users; device-to-device replication for data protection; print serving to the network and much more.

“For computer users with plenty of USB-connected storage devices, the new Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station is great way to save money and make your USB storage drives ‘smart’ at the same time,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “For less than $100, users now have a NAS device that offers everything from remote access to torrent download capability to a built-in iTunes and media server. The iConnect Wireless Data Station is a great way to utilize what you already own in a whole new way.”

Benefits and Features of the new iConnect Wireless Data Station
The new iConnect Wireless Data Station utilizes the acclaimed EMC LifeLine™ software, a fully-developed Linux operating environment and suite of applications that is designed for cross-platform support with Windows®, Mac® and Linux computers. Users of the iConnect device interact with an easy-to-understand interface that provides all the latest in multimedia serving as well as remote access features, making it a breeze to access your own data, whether in the office, the home, or anywhere else in the world.**

Among the many value-add features of the iConnect Wireless Data Station:

• Easy file sharing, data backup and print serving from any networked Windows® PC, Mac® or Linux workstation.
• Gigabit Ethernet and wireless connectivity by connecting directly to your router in either a wired or wireless (802.11b/g/n wireless protocol) configuration.
• Remote access allows you to connect securely from anywhere in the world and get full access to pictures, videos, files – everything stored on the connected USB drives. An added bonus: remotely access and administer the iConnect device through a personalized web address.
• Simple expandability means you can add storage capacity by simply connecting more or larger external USB drives.
• Device-to-device replication for data protection allows you to define a job to copy and/or synchronize files to and from the connected USB drives or any other shared storage on your network. Iomega makes it easy with one-touch copying with the QuikTransfer button on the front of the iConnect device.
• Print Serving with intelligent print sharing capability for up to two USB printers.
• Time Machine support allows Apple users to easily backup any Mac computers running OS X (10.5 or later) using Time Machine.
• UPnP™ DLNA Certified AV Media Server provides the ability to stream photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices, such as game consoles (Microsoft Xbox® 360, Sony PlayStation® 3), audio bridges, iTunes® players, networked digital picture frames, Iomega® ScreenPlay™ products and more.
• Photo slideshow capabilities with an integrated utility based on the Cooliris™ technology for quick browsing of pictures stored on the connected USB drives.
• Torrent download manager allows the iConnect device to manage peer-to-peer file transfers without the need of a dedicated PC.
• Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) provides no touch, automatic transfer of photos from digital cameras via one of the four USB ports on the iConnect device.

Backup and Security Software for a Total Data Protection Solution
The new Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station comes complete with a portfolio of backup and security software, including native security support with robust username and password authorized access. RSA® BSAFE® encryption security technology is included, too, for protecting installs and upgrades from viruses or malware. RSA is the security division of EMC that protects digital data at many of the world’s largest banks.

Also included with the iConnect Wireless Data Station is the Iomega Protection Suite of software. Available via download, the Iomega Protection Suite includes Iomega QuikProtect for simple scheduled file-level backup; a choice between EMC® Retrospect® Express or Express HD to back up your data, plus applications and settings; and a free subscription to a market-leading software that protects your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware, and web security protection.

Compatibility
The iConnect Wireless Data Station is compatible with Windows®, Mac OS®, and Linux® PCs. The interface is localized for 11 languages (including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, German, and Russian).

Price and Availability and Warranty
The new Iomega® iConnect Wireless Data Station, on demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show (Booth # 31823, South Hall 3), January 7-10, in Las Vegas, will available worldwide starting in February for $99.99. (Pricing is U.S. suggested retail.) The iConnect Wireless Data Station is backed by a three-year warranty (with product registration).

Features:

• Dual gigabit ethernet
• Comes in 2TB or 4TB sizes
• Case well ventilated, looks nice
• LCD display provided up to the moment information on storage, status

Pros:

• Supports Bittorrent
• Compatible with most backup programs
• Crazy number of features

Cons:

• Cost – you can’t get it without hard drives
• Too many features, might be intimidating
• Setup can be tricky

A good NAS should be invisible. You should be able to set it up, start your schedule for your backups, plug the thing in, and forget about it. As such, reviewing a NAS is a very difficult thing to do.

So let’s talk about the basics. The ix4-200d supports dual gigabit ethernet, along with a laundry list of compatibility and features. Want to use it with Windows Backup? No problem. Time Machine user? It’s got you covered. Something more esoteric, like VMware, iSCSI, or BlueTooth picture transfer? It’ll do that too. The ix4 will even work with Axis network cameras to function as a DVR, and record from up to 5 different video sources.

The NAS in itself isn’t terribly impressive looking, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a power button, three status lights, a USB port, and an LCD display on the front. The LCD display shows you that status of the device, including if there are any jobs working, and how much space you have remaining. The back has two gigabit ethernet ports, and the power plug in point. Oddly, the cover to the case sits sideways, meaning that the drives are mounted sitting sideways as well, instead of facing out of the front of the case. Iomega puts four drives in the NAS for you, and you can select from the various RAID configurations to choose the one that works best for you. Drives are hot-swappable of course, based on the level of RAID selected.

The problems start when you install the software that comes with the device. I’m an experienced user, and consider myself to be quite knowledgeable, so it was a bit of a disappointment when I was unable to get the NAS set up at first. After reading the instructions further, I was able to determine that you must install the software first, before you plug the NAS into your network. That will allow your computer to talk to the NAS and set up the various network options and formatting, and allow the system to work. Once the software is installed and configured however, it works perfectly with any computer on your network. Back up processes happened as scheduled, and never missed a beat.

One extremely convenient function is the QuickTransfer. You can plug a USB device into the front of the NAS and press the transfer button, and the data on the device will automatically download into the storage device. This could be a USB drive, or flash drive, and I even used a memory card reader and downloaded photographs directly into the file server. It’s fast, efficient, and easy to control from the LCD screen.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked the ix4-200d. It did what it was supposed to do, without issues, and worked as intended. As far as the feature set goes, it’s almost too much. This makes the set up a little difficult, but once you get through the process it’s seamless. Additionally, as a photographer, I love the QuickTransfer feature. I’d come home from shooting, plug my card reader into the NAS, push the button, and it would automatically back up my images. This made backing up really easy.

The Iomega ix4-200d is currently available from your favorite electronics retailer, for a MSRP of $699.99 for the 2 TB version.

Overview: With the dollar to terabyte ratio decreasing every day, there’s no excuse for not having adequate digital storage space. The new Iomega ix2-200 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) unit makes adding storage to your home or business network about as easy as it can get. Its a very powerful, versatile unit that is quite nearly plug-and-play.  Let’s take a closer look shall we?

The Hardware: First off, this thing feels like it could survive being run over by a tank. And if tanks can’t destroy your data, what do you have to fear? Inside the metal enclosure is a 1.0 GHz Marvel processor, 256MB of RAM, and two SATA II platters. The disks are set up in a RAID 1 mirror, although you can disable the RAID and run it as JBOD instead. All of this is controlled by a Linux OS, EMC LifeLine. You also have three USB 2.0 ports, one in front, two in the back. Gigabit Ethernet jack, power input, and one of those nifty security lock ports if you have problems with people walking off with your hard drives.

Getting Connected: The setup for this thing was a breeze. Plug in power, plug into router, run install disc and you’re ready to start storing data like its going out of style. Instead of having to install some sort of UI software, you’ll be greeted with the above page in your web browser. From this control interface you can have full administrator access from any machine on your network. You can see the list of various settings below. I’ll go through and hit the big stuff.

Backup and Restore: The ix2 makes backing up your drives almost a fully autonomous procedure. Using what Iomega calls “Copy Jobs”, you can set the source and destination of the files, put the job on a reoccurring schedule, even tell it to only import new and modified files. You can set up multiple Copy Jobs for different drives or for different locations. Want to backup another external drive every week? Not a problem. Do you want pictures to be saved in one folder, and important documents in another? Just a few clicks away. The ix2 also has full Time Machine and Retrospect support to back up your computer.

One of the cooler features of the ix2 is the QuikTransfer button. You can assign one Job to the QuikTransfer button located on the front of the device. Now you can activate that Job, even if you’re computer isn’t up and running. Its really useful for downloading any new files you need very quickly. Just pop a flash drive directly into the unit, press the button, and a few thousand revolutions later, you’re up to date.

Disks: Here you can change the RAID configuration of the unit. Default is the mirror-protection mode. Essentially writing your data twice, so that in the event of one disk failing, all your data is on the other disk. The downside is that you have half as much space to work with. The Disks menu also has the option to securely erase your data, making it unrecoverable. You know, for sensitive material.

Email Notification: Pretty self-explanatory, but useful. Should any problems arise, the ix2 will send an email to you detailing the problem.

Event Log: Another straightforward feature. This log keeps track of which users accessed which files, when they did so, any errors that occurred, etc. It all downloads as a text file for your convenience! Useful for making sure your employees aren’t using your network to seed the latest season of Dollhouse.

External Storage: You can attach up to three external storage devices, and ix2 will make them available on the network.

iSCSI: More for business users, the ix2 has iSCSI, iSNS, and Mutual CHAP capability. If you don’t know what those mean, don’t worry about it. You won’t be needing it.

Media Service: Here’s another place where the ix2 shows some pretty cool innovation. First, this device is a UPnP and DLNA certified media server, allowing for streaming music, videos, etc. all over your network. But you can also wire in up to 5 security cameras into the ix2 and turn it into a surveillance station. The video streams can be remotely viewed, or recorded.

Network Service: More technical jargon to throw at you. The ix2 supports multiple file sharing protocols including, AFP, Bluetooth, NFS, rsync, SNMP, and CIFS. Whew!

Power Management: Designed to suck as little power as possible, the ix2 only activates the fan when the internal temperature gets to a certain point. This not only reduces the amount of power used, it keeps the drive from sounding like a freaking jet engine on your desk.

Printers: Just like with external storage devices, you can plug in a standard, wired printer, and the ix2 magically makes it wireless! No way! Or at least available to the network. Plugged in my HP Photosmart, worked like a charm.

Remote Access: If you’re out on the road, but still need to access important files you left back home you’re options are usually limited. The ix2 has a unique URL that allows you to access it from any internet capable computer. I like this option better than having my files “in the cloud”, hosted by some 3rd party.

Security: This one is another very useful tool. When you assign others on your network a user ID and password, you can also set the level of access the have on the drive. You can set read or write privileges for each individual folder on the drive, giving you a lot of flexibility in your security options. Keeping your video tech out of the financial records and the like.

Torrent Download: Quite possilby my favorite feature of the ix2. It comes with its own torrent client built in. Meaning you can set torrents to either leech or seed, and you don’t need to leave your computer on to do so. The ix2 will automatically download or upload the data independently. Brilliant!

Concluson: Well, we made it to the end. As you can see, the ix2 has a lot to offer personal and small business consumers. If you haven’t started using external or network based storage yet, I highly recommend you start. The ix2-200 comes in 1 TB, 2TB, and 4TB flavors, at $269.99, $369.99, and $699.99 respectively. Plus, external drives are easier to ditch when the RIAA comes pounding down your door looking for all of your pirated legally obtained, and properly licensed media.

The ix2-200 is available now from your favorite e-tailer, and prices vary based on storage size. The 1TB version is priced at $269.99, the 2TB version is at $369.99, and the price goes up for there.

From the press release:

SAN DIEGO, October 8, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the next generation of its popular double-drive desktop NAS appliance with the worldwide launch of the new Iomega® StorCenter™ ix2-200. Based on industry-leading enterprise-class EMC® storage technologies, the versatile yet affordable StorCenter ix2-200 wraps ease-of-use around big business data management functionality and advanced media serving and other consumer features that make it the ideal NAS appliance for small business users and home users.

Available in 1TB*, 2TB and 4TB capacities, the new ix2-200 utilizes a very simple four-step setup to be operational in a matter of minutes – be it in a business setting or in the digital home.

Starting at less than $270.00, the ix2-200 employs an easy-to-understand interface to provide robust data management and protection for the serious business user, as well as the latest in multimedia serving and remote access features that makes it a breeze to access your own data, whether in the office, the home, or anywhere else in the world.**

Among the standout business features of the new StorCenter ix2-200:
· Device-to-device replication for business continuity and file recovery
· iSCSI block-level access for efficient storage utilization
· RAID 1 configurations for optimized data protection
· Windows® Active Directory support
· A new front panel QuikTransfer button for easy copying of selected files
· User replaceable hard drives
· Multiple IP security camera support
· And for the forward-thinking small business, VMware® certification for virtualization installations.

The new StorCenter ix2-200 also has a treasure trove of features for the digital home, including:

· A DLNA® certified UPnP® AV Media Server that makes the ix2-200 the central repository for serving up all your movies, pictures, music and other files to any compatible device on your network
· Serves as a Time Machine® target for Apple® computer backups
· Built-in torrent support for file-sharing without the need for a dedicated PC
· Bluetooth® capability for uploading all kinds of digital content from a smart phone
· Cooliris™ slide show plug-in allows for easy photo viewing
· And remote access to the ix2-200 from anywhere in the world

“The new StorCenter ix2-200 is definitely the easiest to use small office and consumer network storage appliance in the marketplace today,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “Combining EMC’s world class enterprise storage and security technologies with advanced media serving features makes the ix2-200 a versatile and affordable NAS appliance that gives smaller organizations, work groups and home users not only cost-effective and robust network storage but some of the same sophisticated data management capabilities as a Fortune 100 corporation – but without any need for IT experience.”

The new Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS appliance is now available in the Americas and Europe from retailers, VARs and IT resellers, including valued Iomega partner CDW.

“When it comes to managing and protecting digital content, small businesses today face many of the same challenges as much larger organizations,” said Matt Troka, vice president, Product & Partner Management, CDW Corporation. “Iomega’s new StorCenter ix2-200 delivers cost-effective network storage with advanced enterprise features at extremely affordable prices. For the budget conscious small business with a need for dependable network storage that is easy to setup and maintain without any internal IT expertise, the compact StorCenter ix2-200 offers a great value proposition, which makes it a viable data storage and back-up solution for our customers.”

The Little Compact Desktop NAS Appliance with Lots of Capabilities

The new StorCenter ix2-200 NAS desktop appliance utilizes the acclaimed EMC LifeLine™ software, a fully-developed Linux operating environment and suite of applications that is designed for cross-platform support with Windows®, Mac® and Linux computers.

The LifeLine operating system presents a simple-to-use graphical interface that makes it easy to perform valuable business tasks while remaining confident that your data is securely stored, protected, and accessible whenever and wherever you need it.

Small office users will enjoy the ix2-200’s fast Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and high-performance embedded architecture, which boosts productivity by making data readily accessible and secure over a local network at the office or in the home. The ix2-200 also boasts the versatility of three USB 2.0 ports for adding printers or additional storage capacity with external USB drives.

SAN DIEGO, May 18, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the worldwide availability of a new generation of the exciting Iomega® eGo™ Portable Hard Drive, featuring new look USB 2.0-powered models with superior ruggedness and the broadest suite of bundled data protection software in the industry, and all backed with a three-year limited warranty. Available in four different colors and up to 500GB* in capacity, the new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive is the ultimate embodiment of style and function in portable drives today.

“The new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drives are the perfect companions for home users and professionals that want to take their files anywhere with the assurance of a superior rugged portable drive that has style to spare and a compact form with flair,” said Jonathan Huberman, President of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “After two very successful years with the previous model, the new eGo drive sports a compact, sleek new aluminum enclosure in eye-catching colors and comes complete with a suite of backup and anti-virus software to protect your data and your laptop, netbook or personal computer. Top it all off with the best drop spec in the industry and the new eGo drive is the portable hard drive this summer for dads and grads and everyone else.”

A key element of the Iomega Protection Suite is McAfee® VirusScan Plus, the market-leading anti-virus, anti-spyware software.

“In today’s world of increasing attacks on consumers’ data by the bad guys, it’s as important to protect your external hard drive data as it is to protect your PC’s local data,” said Todd Gebhart, President, Consumer Products, McAfee, Inc. “Iomega is the first to recognize this fact and we’re pleased to be partnering with them in this fight.”

Cool Hardware with Superior Functionality

The new USB 2.0-powered eGo Portable Hard Drive comes in variety of colors and capacities: the bright Ruby Red model is available in 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities; the sparkling Silver model comes in 320GB; and the deep Midnight Blue model is available in 320GB. (Color and capacity combinations vary in international markets.)

Inside an anodized aluminum shell little more than a half-inch thick (16 mm) and weighing less than 7 ounces (200 grams) is a state-of-the-art 2.5-inch portable hard drive. Iomega’s Drop Guard™ feature protects data on the new eGo drive from drops of up to 51 inches, or 40% above the industry average! The new 500GB Iomega® eGo™ BlackBelt Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0, available in June, comes complete with a black eGo Power Grip Belt and Iomega’s Drop Guard™ Xtreme, which provides unparalleled protection for the drive from drops of up to 7 feet (2.1 mm) – over twice the industry average!

All of the new USB 2.0 eGo Portable Hard Drives receive power from a laptop or computer’s USB port so there’s no power supply to carry around. And unlike other portable hard drives, the new USB 2.0 eGo Portable Hard Drives ship with a “Y” cable which gives users the flexibility to use two USB ports to power the drive, if needed. And with up to 500GB of capacity, the new eGo drive can store up to 2,000,000 photos, over 9,250 hours of music or 750 hours of video**.

Most Powerful Software Package Bundle with a Portable Hard Drive Today

Bundled free of charge with the new USB-powered eGo Portable Hard Drives is the new Iomega Protection Suite, a one-stop portfolio of backup and anti-virus software giving users added protection for their photos, videos, music and other files.

The Iomega Protection Suite includes:

* McAfee® VirusScan Plus: a free six-month subscription to this market-leading software that protects your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware, 2-way firewall, and web security protection (PC only).
* Iomega QuikProtect: backup software for simple scheduled file-level backup of data to hard drives and network-attached storage devices (for Windows and Macintosh desktops and notebooks).
* EMC® Retrospect® Express or Express HD: backup all of your data plus applications and settings (for Windows and Macintosh desktops and notebooks).
* MozyHome™ Online Backup: Convenient online backup service with 2GB of online capacity for free (unlimited online storage for $4.95/month). MozyHome Online service allows you to restore your most important data from any computer with internet access, at any location in the world.

All of the software elements in the Iomega Protection Suite are accessible via easy download to new eGo Portable Hard Drive owners.

Compatibility

The new Iomega® eGo Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 models are compatible with Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, and Windows Vista™, and Mac OS X 10.4 or above. MozyHome software is available for Windows XP and Windows Vista, along with Mac OS X 10.4 and above. EMC Retrospect software is available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

New eGo Portable Hard Drive Accessories

Available for purchase at www.iomega.com are two new accessories for the new USB-powered eGo Portable Hard Drive: a durable black carry case, and the Iomega Power Grip Belt (like the one on the eGo BlackBelt Drive), available in black and translucent colors.

Pricing, Availability and Warranty

The Iomega® eGo™ Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 family of drives are available today, except for the new Iomega® BlackBelt Portable Hard Drive 500GB USB 2.0, which will be available in June. The 250GB Ruby Red eGo model is priced at $84.99; the 320GB Ruby Red, Midnight Blue and Silver eGo models are $94.99; the 500GB Ruby Red is $134.99; and the 500GB BlackBelt eGo model is $139.99. (All pricing is U.S. suggested retail.) All of the new USB-powered eGo models include a 3-year limited warranty, and are available from online retailers, VARs, resellers and select retailers, as well as at www.iomega.com.

In June, Iomega will announce additional new eGo Portable Hard Drive models with multiple interface combinations.

Short Version: A good value for a NAS drive thanks to nice extras like a built-in print server, easy setup, and a straightforward interface. The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive would be right at home in a small office or a multi-user household.

Features (according to Iomega):

• Simple to use—Three step set-up – simply plug into your router, power on, and install the software CD. Friendly web screens for easy management.
• Sharing—Access files from any networked Windows PC or Apple computer for easy file sharing.
• High Performance—Gigabit Ethernet connectivity combined with a high performance processor.
• UPnP AV Media Server—Compatible with DLNA certified media players, able to stream photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices like game consoles, audio bridges, DMAs (digital media adapters), picture frames and more.
• iTunes™ Server—Store your audio content in one central location and share it across your iTunes players.
• Network File Protocols Supported—CIFS/SMB (Microsoft), AFP (Apple), HTTP 1.1
• Expandability—Add storage capacity by connecting external USB Hard Disk Drives. Supports FAT32 and NTFS formatted hard drives.
• Network Discovery—Automatic network discovery by Apple Bonjour and Microsoft Windows Rally devices.
• Data Protection—Touch-free professional-level backup for all your critical data with EMC® Retrospect HD backup software. Effortlessly back up files on a pre-set schedule.
• Print Server—Intelligent network print sharing capability for one USB printer directly attached to the HomeMedia drive

MSRP: $159.99 for the 500GB version, $229.99 for the 1TB version

Setting up and using the drive

Believe it or not, this NAS drive is ridiculously easy to set up. You power up the drive, plug it into your router, and install the software on your computer. When the installation’s all done, a window pops open with five default drives: Music, Movies, Backups, Public, and Photos.

They’re all accessible using Iomega’s interface or as separate networked hard drives inside your operating system. Notice that, again, they appear as five distinct drives.

There’s a pretty straightforward web-based interface for creating new drives and tweaking various settings. As you can see, I created some extra essential drive-spaces: Bucketlist, Dreams, Enemies, Fashion, Hopes, Hotpants, Raffle, and Recipes.

Unfortunately, I meant for “Raffles” to be “ROFLs” – a place to store hilarious jokes and whatnot but I wasn’t able to easily change the name from Raffles to ROFLs, so I just deleted it and made a new drive. Also, each drive name has to be all one word without any spaces. I would have liked to have “Bucket List” and “Hot Pants” but, alas, t’was not allowed. Any new drives that you create will appear as network drives in your operating system as well.

Once everything is set up, you can add users and dole out various levels of access, or just keep everything open to everyone. This drive would work really well in a small office or in a family where the parents are into some weird voodoo that they don’t want their kids to see.

Nice extras

The drive comes with EMC Retrospect, which is automated backup software. It’s easy to use and lets you set a schedule for backing up important files. The getup also comes with 2GB of free Mozy online backup service. You can get 2GB free from Mozy no matter who you are or what drives you own, though, so it’s mostly just a little extra fluff.

From a hardware standpoint, there’s a USB port on the back of the drive that can be used to hook up a second external hard drive or as a print server. That’s a great little feature that I think adds a fair amount of value to this thing. You can just place your printer and your backup drive next to your router and be done with it.

The drive also works seamlessly with iTunes, Xbox 360, PS3, and various other network-enabled devices. My Xbox 360 picked the Iomega up as a networked hard drive and streamed an HD movie file (Ethernet to Ethernet) with ease.

Noise and heat

The drive doesn’t get too hot thanks to a built-in fan, but it’s that same fan that emanates a dull whine all the live-long day. I had this drive sitting right next to me on my desk and I’d have to turn the whole thing off after about an hour. It’s not loud, so it’s possible that the noise could easily be drowned out if you work around other people or listen to music all day but I prefer to work with as few distractions as possible, so I could definitely hear the drive. If I were to use this drive as my own, it’d be in a drawer or on the other side of the room for sure.

Here’s an audio file: Iomega.mp3

As you can hear, it’s not that bad at all. It’s just that dull whine bobbing up and down every so often that gets agitating after a while.

Transfer speed

The internal drive has a 7,200 spindle speed but most of the bottleneck is going to occur at your router. I transferred a 3.64GB file wirelessly (802.11g) from my laptop to the drive and it took just under a half hour. Naturally, hard-wired speeds will be much faster but keep in mind how you usually access your network and plan accordingly.

Conclusion:

The Iomega Home Media Network Drive is an easy-to-use, affordable solution if you need a backup solution that multiple computers can access. The included print server and user management features make it a great option for any small business or medium-to-large family.

Product Page [Iomega]

New Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive
Brings Cost-Effective Storage, File Sharing and Media Streaming
To Your Home
***
For a Small Cost Above an External Hard Drive and in Under Five Minutes,
You are Streaming Digital Files Throughout Your Home
 
 
SAN DIEGO, January 5, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the debut of the Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive, a new standard in easy-to-use network storage for the digital home.  With EMC’s acclaimed LifeLine software, in three simple steps users can configure up to one terabyte* of network storage for backing up all of their files as well as streaming music, photos, video and other multimedia files between computers, networked televisions, popular game consoles and other under-utilized digital home entertainment devices.
 
Iomega will be showing the new Home Media Network Hard Drive at the MacWorld tradeshow in San Francisco, January 6-9, 2009, and at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 8-11, 2009.
 
Starting at just $159.99, the Home Media Network Hard Drive is available as a 500GB or a 1TB single-drive device.  Consumers with multiple computers can use the Home Media Network Hard Drive to centralize their computer storage as well as access files on everything from a laptop to a big screen TV to a Microsoft Xbox 360 or a Sony PlayStation 3.  Sharing and streaming multimedia files to a home entertainment system creates lots of enjoyment for the whole family, and the 1TB Home Media Network Hard Drive can store plenty of entertainment – more than 4 million photos, 18,500 hours of music, or 1500 hours of video.**
 
“Iomega’s new Home Media Network Hard Drive is a powerful network storage device that’s so straightforward that even a novice can be backing up multiple computers and streaming media around their home in less than five minutes,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC.  “The Home Media Network Drive does the serious work of backing up and protecting digital files, but it also does the fun things like streaming photos and videos to game consoles, digital picture frames and networked TVs, as well as automatically feeding music into iTunes® for easy playback – all for little more than the cost of a USB direct-attached desktop hard drive with comparable storage capacity.”
 
Key Features of the Home Media Network Hard Drive
The new Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive operates EMC’s LifeLine™ Home software, a custom Linux operating system and application suite that can be set up in three easy steps: simply plug the Home Network Hard Drive into a router, power on, and install the software CD.  A friendly user interface screen makes it easy to access files on all networked computers, as well as control which family members have access to certain folders.
 
The Home Media Network Hard Drive supports iTunes™ and Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance™ (DLNA) certified devices, which makes the Home Media Network Drive a robust media server that can save, store and stream digital content not only to laptops and desktop computers but popular game consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, as well as digital picture frames, networked TVs and any other compatible device on a home network.
 
Fast network performance is achieved through a Gigabit Ethernet connection that plugs directly into a router.  The Home Media Network Hard Drive also boasts a fast processor so users can save and access large media files quickly, as well as a USB port to add a shared network printer for multiple computers, or an external USB drive for incremental storage capacity.
 
The Home Media Network Hard Drive is specifically designed to operate cool, thanks to an efficient fan that also adjusts its rotational speed automatically for quiet operation.  The drive has a burnished gun metal exterior and a small footprint, making it aesthetically pleasing out in the open, yet small enough to be easily stowed away.  Because the Home Media Network Drive is always turned on to serve up content, the product’s power supply is Energy Star® compliant for power conservation and a better environment.
 
Backup Software and Online Storage, Too
The Home Media Network Hard Drive is a total network storage solution that provides data backup and protection with integrated award-winning EMC Retrospect® Express backup software.  During the set-up process, users choose files and folders for scheduled automatic backups from all the PCs and Macs on the network.  After that, any changes or additions are updated and saved automatically.
 
For added protection, home networks utilizing the Home Media Network Hard Drive also get the benefits of online backup with EMC’s MozyHome™ online backup service, a secure way to store, protect and access important files.  MozyHome online backup service provides 2GB of free online storage for backing up selected folders to world-class EMC data centers.  Users can also upgrade to unlimited online storage for just $4.95 per month.
 
Compatibility
The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive is compatible with Windows®, Mac OS®, and Linux® PCs. The user-friendly interface is localized in 11 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Traditional and Simple Chinese, German, and Russian). Other supported devices include uPnP AV devices, digital media adapters, iTunes™, and digital picture frames.
 
Price and Availability
The Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive 500GB will be available worldwide in early January for $159.99; the Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive 1TB will also be available in early January for $229.99.  (All prices are U.S. suggested retail.)

Reviewing a NAS is probably not at the top of my list of things to do, but the Iomega ix2 is a dead simple network storage solution that works well. The model I reviewed is the 2TB variety and I finally caved and started backing up my files. Even though I set it up RAID 1 style, 1TB was ample enough to handle all of my content with plenty of room to spare. I wouldn’t recommend this to the more veteran folk, but it’s ideal for novices looking for a simple to use network drive solution.

Setup is a breeze. Pop in the CD that comes with the network drive and follow the on-screen prompts for a couple minutes and then you’re up and running. The UI is easy to navigate and this is where you can tweak the drive the way you like.

The all-black enclosure houses two 1TB drives, but these can’t be accessed or swapped out. Kind of lame, which is why I wouldn’t recommend this to the more veteran folk, but this particular NAS does support Bluetooth via USB. I don’t typically use Bluetooth for anything, but it’s there and I’m not sure many, if any, NAS servers support BT. You can also expand the storage capacity by hooking up two external USB drives. The ix2 supports both FAT32 and NTFS formats. Score!

During a demo of this device prior to my review, the folks from Iomega hooked up an Axis network camera and I had to have one for this review as well. The CG office isn’t that exciting, so I didn’t capture any perps snooping around my cube, but I’m sure the more adventurous can think of ways to use the network camera to record their kids, babysitter, or whatever else you can think of. You can even access the live feed on your iPhone or iPod Touch. I may have to break into John’s house and set this up in his kitchen so I can monitor his eating habits, but don’t tell him!

I wasn’t anal enough to benchmark read and write speeds for the ix2 in either RAID 1 or JBOD, but it was neither lightning fast nor was it turtle-like.

My only gripe with the Iomega StorCenter ix2 is that you can’t swap the hard drives out and with a one-year warranty, it might not make the long haul. But I’d still recommend this for home use as it’s simple to use and features like Bluetooth support and expandibility are quite nice.

Product Page
Axis 207W Wireless Network Camera

To be fair, you don’t have to own a MacBook Air in order to purchase Iomega’s eGo Helium portable hard drive. It is, however, “a perfect match for the new MacBook Air notebook” according to Iomega. It’s even pre-formatted to the HFS+ file system.

The drive itself has 320GB of storage space, weighs less than half a pound, and requires no external power supply. You’ll also get some software included: EMC Retrospect and MozyHome (2GB version), although you’ll have to download it. Oh, and you can get 2GB of Mozy service for free no matter who you are. So not a huge deal there. You’ll get a license for the EMC software, though, which is nice.

It’ll be available in October with an MSRP of $149.99, although it’s currently listed at $142.49 on Iomega’s site (not in stock yet, of course).

Ike has you rained in for the weekend and you already folded enough Netflix envelopes? Grab that IOMEGA Zip Drive at the bottom of your parts box and throw some new life into it. The video above will guide you through the steps needed to turn the unused device into a hard-drive enclosure, project case, bank, and even a little splayed out mannequin. Come on, you know you wanna grab that flat-head and tear something apart this weekend.

via Makezine

As many of you are no doubt aware, I do my fair share of downloading. Movies, music, terrible TV shows, and so on. Usenet, BitTorrent, plain ol’ HTTP, whatever. So be it. Those of you who read the site closely—God bless you—also know that I have a rather ghetto entertainment setup: an iMac connected to a TV via HDMI, and good-enough surround sound system via toslink. It does the job for this cheap, foolhardy hack, and it should be able to do the job for most of you, too. Most of you, provided you don’t mind stringing meters and meters of cable to and fro’.

But what if you do? What options do you have?

For the past week or so, I’ve been playing around with the Iomega ScreenPlay HD, which is essentially an external hard drive with built-in AV inputs, including HDMI, coax, component and old school RCA. (Not surprisingly, there’s no HDMI cable included. Why make life any easier, right?) The idea here should be fairly obvious. You load the device with video files, plug it into your TV, and away you go. Useful for those of you who have your main PC—and I do mean PC, since the drive doesn’t play well with Macs—and TV are in separate rooms. The device, to Iomega’s credit, doesn’t look completely out of place when situated in a home theater.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me return to a previous thought—lack of Mac support. As John “Beetle” Biggs alludes to every day, most of us here use Macs exclusively. That’s not to say we can’t run Windows&mash;I must sometimes(tv streaming&mash;but listen closely: this little guy does not go well with Macs. That is to say, if you have a Mac, and aren’t willing to use Boot Camp (or maybe Parallels?), this device does you no good. Plugging it into a Mac results in a plain jane Iomega hard drive mounting. That’s a problem, for the Iomega software is such that you need to deposit video files into a specific directory. And lo! that directory is unwriteable (word?) from a Mac. Conversely, it works just fine when plugged into a Windows machine. Well, XP, at least—I’m not a glutton for punishment enough to run Vista on Boot Camp (or otherwise!).

So yeah, she doesn’t work with Macs. Fair enough, as it’s only listed on the box and in the documentation as being compatible with Windows . That said, you could reformat the drive and just use it as a regular external hard drive if you’re on a Mac.

So, Mac qualms aside, how does she work?

OK. But just OK, and for one reason that could possibly be remedied with a future firmware update: she doesn’t support MKV files! What madness this is!

The name of the device itself, ScreenPlay HD, suggests that you can, and ought to, use it to view HD files on your TV. Explain to me, then, whose idea it was to release this without MKV support out of the box? That, to this surreptitious pirate (Toshiba, at a press event two years ago, called pirates “surreptitious;” it hurt my feelings, though Biggs was too busy stuffing his face with free sushi to pay much attention to my fragile emotional state.) is unacceptable.

Though it doesn’t support MKV, it does support plenty of other formats. MPEG1, 2 and 4, including h.264-encoded material, XVID, DIVX, yada, yada. Pretty much every video type I’ve encountered online except for the dominant MKV. So if you’re keen to re-encode scene HD rips into a compatible format, be my guest, but I suspect it’s not worth your time. Or maybe you have an HD camcorder? That’d work fine, too.

As for the on-screen interface, one word comes to mind: basic. In fact, let’s throw in a superfluous adjective while we’re at it: very. Very basic. Once you’ve booted the device, you’re presented with a list of filenames; that’s it. Use the provided remote, select your file, press enter and call it a day. Nothing flashy—very basic&mash;and no where near the sophistication and polish of, say, XBMC’s user interface. Truth be told, what you get is all you really need, but a little razzle dazzle doesn’t hurt.

I’m not one to give out numerical scores since I think they’re rather pointless. What I can do, however, is provide my opinion, and hopefully guide you in the right direction. First, stay home, Mac users, as this girl isn’t for you. (Again, forgivable, since it’s not advertised as such.) Got a PC? If you’re keen to watch standard-def scene-encoded XVIDs, then by all means give it a whirl. If you’re all about going to go alt.binaries.hdtv.x264, download the There Will Be Blood in MKV format and use it here, then hold off for now. If Iomega updates the firmware so that it supports MKV, then all of my reservations disappear, and this would be a pretty decent purchase. Until then, the HD support is a little too limited for my liking.

Overall, OK. No more, no less.

ScreenPlay HD

Iomega wants to make sure you never run out of DVR space with its just announced DVR Expander Drive, a 500 gigabyte external hard drive that plugs right into your DVR, thus expanding your storage. Compatible with eSATA Scientific Atlanta DVRs, the drive should be of use to people with Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Rogers and Cox. The 500 drive can store some 300 hours of standard def programming, or 60 hours of high def programming. Things to record: the remaining games of the NBA Finals, Euro 2008, Good Eats, etc. Live life like its your last day, you know?

Note that because of DRM you’re not able to take the DVR’d shows and simply transfer them to your computer. I mean, maybe you can through some hacking around, but it’s not supported out of the box nor endorsed by Iomega. No one wants to get sued.

So yeah, a qucik and easy way to expand the storage of your DVR; it looks like it’d fit right in with most home theaters, aesthetics-wise. Look for it later this month—it’s shipping in the next coming days—for $200.

Want to hear something crazy? I don’t even have a DVR!

Iomega