The good gents over at Electric Pig were one of the first people to see the Toshiba StorE TV, a home server for all your digital media files. It combines local storage (up to 2TB) with streaming to ensure that you’re able to play that totally legally acquired movie on your big screen HDTV.
You’re probably already familiar with the basic concept. You place the StorE TV—no idea how to pronounce that, by the way—next to your TV, then either stream files (video, photos, music, etc.) to it, or place said files on the built-in hard drive. Nothing too complicated.
There’s also hints of “Internet services.” What could that be? Presumably things like Picasa integration.
My guess is that this thing will live and die by its price and how “user-friendly” it is. People need their tech spoon fed to them lest they freak out.
The server will be available in September, at least in the UK. What’s the sense in staggered release dates these days?