I am in a never ending battle to keep my hectic life less cluttered. This fact spans all aspects of my world…from my office space, to my desk at home, to our garage, and everything in between.  Kurt Kay & John Kurcheski of K Concepts have designed an interesting device for mounting some of your sports equipment (aka balls) to your wall, hoop, fence, goalpost, trunk of your car, etc. The Ball Claw is engineered to securely hold your basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and footballs out from underfoot.

The Ball Claw comes in three sizes: large for regulation sized basketballs (29.5″ and 28.5″), medium for #4, #5 soccer balls, volleyballs, and youth basketballs, and small for youth, high school, college and professional footballs.

The Ball Claw is well constructed of a high-quality injection-molded ABS plastic that feels very sturdy when flexed. It can be used indoors and outside.

Sadly, this is one of several ways the Gadgeteer Kid and I store our sports balls. Definitely not he best way to keep/take care of your sports gear and equipment.

Installation was a breeze. The Ball Claw comes with basic installation bits and pieces (aka screws and molly bolts). Using the Bosch impact wrench I reviewed a few years ago, it took the Gadgeteer Kid and me less than five minutes to install all three of the ball mounts to a pillar in our garage.

The Ball Claws definitely work as advertised. They are well thought out, designed to last and at $12, relatively inexpensive. Truly a great way to keep your sport balls organized and out of the way. I do like the Ball Claw and have ordered another to hold a second basketball…..probably should get a second football one too .

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Fitness, Sports, Reviews

Tagged: sports gear, Storage

The Ball Claw Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 9, 2012 at 11:00 am.

I love Timbuk2 messenger bags for their good looks and versatility. I continue to use their custom laptop messenger bag that I reviewed as my every day gear bag. It’s over 1 year old and still looks brand new. When you think of Timbuk2, you think of larger shoulder bags, but you might be interested in knowing that they also offer a nice selection of smaller storage options like the 3 pouches I’m going to show you today.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Timbuk2 Dimebag

The Dimebag is a small zippered ballistic nylon pouch that is available in 4 colors: Green, Red, Blue and Black. As you can see, I was sent the Green version.

There are two ways you can attach this pouch to the strap of your gear bag or your belt.

You can either use the open slot shown here. Or…

The Velcro wrap around holder shown above.

The interior of this pouch is lined with a soft knit material. It’s just one open pocket that is approximately  5.00 x 3.75 inches.

It’s plenty large enough to hold compact digital cameras like my Canon SD1100. The pouch isn’t padded unless you count the fact that the back is thicker due to the Velcro tabs.

In addition to camers, the Dimebag is handy for storing small items that you would otherwise let roll around on the bottom of your purse or gear bag. It’s perfect for holding your lip balm, nail clippers, eye drops, etc.

It’s made just like other Timbuk2 products. I could find no defects in the materials, stitching or zipper. I’m confident that it would offer years of use before noticing any wear and tear.

Price: $12

Timbuk2 Shagg Bag

This zippered pouch is similar to the Dimebag, but offers an extra zippered pocket on the front. It’s available in 3 colors. The Black / Grey you see above, Red / Grey and Blue / Black.

The back side also offers the same 2 ways to attach to a strap or belt.

There’s an open loop for belts.

And wrap around Velcro tabs for straps.

The main compartment has a zipper that wraps around the top and down one side. The interior is lined in the same soft knit material to protect the contents from scratches.

The Shagg Bag isn’t padded, but the back side does have a stiffener in the lining and the front offers some added protection due to the extra zippered pocket on the front.

This pouch can easily hold an iPhone or small compact digital camera like the Canon SD1100.

I do wish that the zipper orientation was reversed. Instead of unzipping from the bottom right corner, I think it would be better to unzip from the top left corner. As is, if you keep lots of little items in the pouch, there’s a chance something might fall out accidentally. If the zipper were reversed, you could just unzip it as far as you like without opening it completely. Other than that, this is another nice zippered pouch that is made well and priced nicely.

Price: $18

Timbuk2 On the Go Shed Pouch

The On the Go Shed Pouch is the only one of this trio that doesn’t have a zipper. It’s been designed for bicycle devotees to hold tools, but you won’t be sent to the gear pouch police if you decide to use it for something else

The pouch is constructed of a water resistant fabric backed tarpaulin material and is only available in one color: Grey. The material feels a bit like vinyl.

This one has a flap that has a wrap around strap to keep it closed.

The strap wraps through a thick metal loop that doubles as a bottle cap opener.

The strap wraps around the back and attaches with… you guessed it, Velcro.

The inside of the flap is made of ballistic nylon or Cordura. Not sure which…

There are 3 separate storage areas in this pouch. There’s a small pocket on the very front that is best used for small thin objects because the pocket folds flat when the pouch is closed.

The main pocket can hold a camera, phone, or a Nintendo 3DS perfectly. Timbuk2 offers a significantly larger version of this pouch called the Tool Shed. It has more pockets and storage capacity for an additional $15.

The other pocket is sewn into the back of the pouch. You can see the Velcroed tab in the image above that is used to open the pocket.

The On the Go Shed Pouch is not padded, but the wrap around design does offer some protection to the contents inside.

I like this pouch, but wish it was available in some colors other than Grey…

Price: $20

Any one or all of these 3 pouches from Timbuk2 can come in handy for organizing your gear in another bag, or to use individually. They are well made and will probably last longer than the gear you carry in them.

What is your favorite way to organize your gear bag?

Filed in categories: Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Pouch, Storage

Timbuk2 Dimebag, Shagg Bag and On the Go Shed Pouch Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 15, 2011 at 6:10 pm.

From the same company that created the HyperDrive, comes the iFlashDrive. This is a 2-way USB flashdrive that can has a 30 pin connector that can plug into iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. On the other end is a standard male USB connector that allows you to plug it into a PC or Mac. A special app (free) on the iOS side will give you the ability to store, view and manage files. The iFlashDrive is an easy way to transfer files to and from the iOS device without using iTunes or WiFi. There’s also a built in music player, text editor and contact backup feature. The iFlashDrive is available in three different capacities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB for $99, $149.95 and $199.95.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: iOS, iPhone, Storage, USB

iFlashDrive – 2 way storage for iOS and PC/Mac devices originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 11, 2011 at 10:00 am.

Do you have a dusty old power strip under your desk? Isn’t it fun to stand on your head to plug and unplug your various gadget chargers when ever you need some juice? The Coalesse PowerPod is a power strip that you can display on top of your desk, instead of hiding it under your desk. It looks great, works great, but has one big fault. Read on to find out what the fault is.

The PowerPod is a great looking accessory that should blend in well to any office, or room. It’s made of a thick White plastic with a brushed aluminum base.

This “power strip” is comprised of 2 parts. The base has 6 15-amp power outlets and a 6 foot cord. The accessory tray sits on top of the base and provides 3 generously sized storage compartments.

The base has 6 grounded outlets that are arranged in a circle. In the center is a push button on/off switch. When powered on, the Coalesse brand name glows white.

Turn the unit over and you’ll find a non-slip rubber base. There’s also a reset switch for the power outlets.

The storage compartments can hold pens, pencils or anything you like. It works great on a desk and looks spiffier than a coffee cup full of pens (which is what I have been using for years).

When you need to plug in an AC adapter, just remove the accessory tray, plug in the adapter and press the center button to turn on the power.

The design of the Coalesse PowerPod looks nice. It’s contemporary, but can fit into any decor. This product is made very well and works equally well. I have no complaints with the design or performance of the PowerPod as a power strip. The only complaint that I have about the PowerPod is the price…. it’s $150.00, which is crazy expensive for a 6 outlet power strip. You can buy a traditional power strip at Walmart for less than $10. Of course, it won’t be nearly as pretty as the Coalesse PowerPod and won’t have storage for your pens and other items. Is the Coalesse PowerPod a really nice power strip that looks and works well? Yes, it is. Is it worth the $150 price tag? I don’t think so. What do you think?

Update: The Coalesse website shows a price of $150, but I’ve been told that the price will actually be $99. I still feel that’s much too expensive. I would consider $50 to be approaching a fair price…

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Charge, Power, Storage

Coalesse PowerPod Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 8, 2011 at 11:00 am.

In today’s connected home we take pictures digitally, listen to digital audio on our MP3 players, and download and watch digital movies on our HD TV’s.  All of these digital media files take up a copious amount of space and the growth of these files is outpacing our ability to store and protect them.  Thankfully, storage has become relatively inexpensive – a 1TB hard disk drive can be purchased for well under $100 and the pricing on 2TB hard disk drives is starting to move in that direction as well.  Not that I can tell the future, but I expect to look back on this article in a year or two and see a 3TB or a 4TB hard disk drive priced at the levels of a 2TB hard disk drive today.

Within the digital home you may want to share your media with others inside and outside of our homes.  To make this possible many vendors are offering home storage systems to store and protect your digital media lifestyle.  These devices connect to your home network and enable you to store and share your media with your family through PC’s and connected devices, such as home theatre systems, digital media extenders, xBox 360, PS3, the Apple TV, and even with friends and family outside of our homes through cloud based services.  Also, with several of the products you can backup your data to cloud based backup services so if there was to be a fire in your home, or a virus outbreak your precious data would be protected.   These services aren’t free, but when you think about your important family albums that are all digital what are they worth to you?  It is a small cost in those terms.

Another other use that I have found for these systems is sharing files between my various home PCs and Macs – instead of dumping files to a USB Memory Stick and Sneakernetting them from place to place I can copy files to my home digital media storage system (NAS Device) and share files among all of my computers.

Having used a number of these digital media storage systems over the past several years I have had to go through the buying process; working through my own requirements, researching and evaluating the options in the market, and finally selecting the right system for my usage.   In an attempt to make your purchase decision easier I wanted to share some thoughts on how to select the right product for your environment.  I am not going to attempt to recommend a specific product because your requirements will likely differ from mine, rather I am going to encourage you to explore many of them by taking a moment to think about what you want to be able to do today and in the future with your digital media.  From my perspective, the worst thing that you can do is buy a product that doesn’t fit your needs and then return it or use it only to have buyer’s remorse.  So, take the extra time and do the research;  laying out your requirements clearly and then buy what best meets your needs – take the time to read reviews online and download and read the product manuals – there are some real gems to be found within the product manuals as well as in the online communities and forums for these products. Unless you live alone you should also talk with your family members to understand how they intend to use the product.  For example, if I was buying something for my mother, it would have to be super-simple and seamlessly integrated with her computing experience as she is not a techie, not even close.  She would need the system to automatically backup her Mac using Time Machine and that would be all that she uses the system for – she rents her digital media through DVDs at RedBox and Blockbuster.

There are several considerations to think about when looking at digital media storage systems, including:

1. Who is going to, and how are they going to use the system?

If you are only storing pictures then you need one type of digital media storage product, like adding a USB connected hard disk drive to your wireless router, which is an option on many of the wireless routers on the market today.  If you are going to be streaming digital media as well accessing your pictures then you may need a totally different system.  Finally, if you are going to stream media throughout your house then you need to think about getting a system with multiple drives, a good bit of memory, and a fast connection to your network.  Now, you are going to ask why?   There are a few reasons why, including:  streaming media requires a good bit of consistent performance, more than you are going to get from a single drive system with a slow connection to your network.  A single hard disk drive can generate between 4-6Mb/s of consistent performance – that is from a SATA-2 drive.  While the vendors of the hard disk drives will claim higher levels of performance, these are usually burst modes and are not consistent, which is what you need to stream media.  Imagine you are watching a HD movie or streaming high quality audio, how much performance do you think that you need?   If you encode your video at 480p, standard DVD, then you are going to need approximately 3 Mb/s of consistent performance to replay the video.  Also, you need to make sure that your home network can support the performance of the streaming media.  Don’t rely on Wi-Fi alone, you may need to physically wire your components together with Gigabit Ethernet to get the best consistent performance.  And, if you are looking at streaming 1080P video then you need to look at 50 Mb/s of consistent performance, which means that you will need to look at striping across several hard disk drives in a RAID configuration.  This is what you need to stream HD quality video from your HD Video Camera or Blu-Ray quality video.

What is RAID?  RAID is an acronym that means Redundant Array of Independent Drives, in other words data is stripped across a number of drives and the performance of the drives is combined, thereby increasing the performance as well as providing resilience and reliability in the case of a single drive failure, using a parity drive.  This article is not about RAID, nor am I going to go into detail on parity configurations, but suffice it to say that many of the vendors that provide these systems have created their own RAID configurations that maximize the available amount of storage from the stripped drives as well as protect your data in case one of the drives fails.  Also, many of the systems offer hot-swap drives enabling you to replace a failed drive on the fly without shutting the system down and they will automatically restore the protection of the system while restriping the data onto the new drive.  While the restriping process is occurring the performance of the system will be degraded because the resources of the system are being used to restore the resilience of your data.  For larger hard drives this can take a day or more depending on how much data is stored on the system.  If you want to read all about RAID I would suggest visiting Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

2. Price

There are products available for under $100 to several thousand $ and everything in between.  And, what you spend depends on what you want the system to do.  Some of the sub $100 systems only use one hard disk drive which can be problematic if the drive dies and you haven’t backed it up.  Many of the systems will come with a single drive and several empty drive bays so you can customize your system based on capacity by adding drives.  Before adding drives to a system make sure that you check the vendor’s website to ensure that you are using tested and supported drives – don’t want to compromise your warranty, or more importantly your data.  Vendors test the drives to ensure that they are compatible and work with their suppliers to work out issues with the drives by upgrading drive firmware, or in some cases disqualifying a drive all together.

3. Physical size of system

Single drive systems are the size of a textbook from college.  You remember textbooks, right?  The larger systems with multiple drives will take up the size of a breadbox.  I always wondered how big a breadbox was and the answer is, approximately 12 inches by 6 inches high and deep – a bit bigger than a large loaf of bread (According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadbox).  The size of the system from a physical perspective does not take into account the airflow that these systems need to ensure they stay cool, so make sure you read the manual and place the system in a location where it gets the proper airflow.  I put my system in my home office closet next to my network printer where it has a good deal of airflow and central access to power and networking connections.  Many of the systems have an information panel on the front of the system that will show you the status of the system as well as used and available capacity.  One other important feature on many of the digital media systems is physical security and many include a standard Kensington style locking slot.

4. Look and Feel

Now, I am all for aesthetics and I want my system to look “cool” , but that is something that is very personal and I am going to leave to each of you to determine what you think “cool” is.
The vendors have designed the systems to look like they would fit into any home technology environment – some of them even look like books on a bookshelf, while others look like small versions of servers.  Most of systems have access lights to show drive access as well as management displays on the front of the main unit so you can see what is going on in real-time.

5. Environmentals (Airflow, thermals, sound, and more)

This is an important part of selecting a system and I was surprised when I purchased my first system to find that the fan in the system made so much noise that I had to place it out of the way behind a door to ensure that I would not hear the sound of the fan.  Further, the system got hot, we are talking hotter than I thought it should and it would burn my fingers if I left them on the system for too long, so I had to put some insulation under it to keep it from burning the shelf that it was on.  I read online that these were known issues with the system, and I should have done more research before buying the system.  My second system was not only quiet, because I checked, it ran cool, and it used 1/10^ththe amount of power that the first system used.  So, in upgrading I not only got a better system in every way, I got a system that delivered on the environmentals.  Finally, one feature that I really liked on the new system was that it automatically shut down the power based on a user selectable calendar for each day of the week and weekend day, meaning it turns off automatically and drops from full power utilization to only a trickle when it is powered off, only to restart early in the day and be ready for my usage when I need it.   Also, the current system that I am using has the ability to remotely monitor a connected UPS.  What does this mean?  If the power to the system is interrupted and the UPS kicks in the system will monitor the UPS and before it gets powered down inadvertently the system will shut itself down cleanly.  By cleanly shutting down the system you avoid having to clean the file system, and no, I am not talking about taking about a toothbrush and some cleaner and physically cleaning the system, I am talking about the RAID program replaying a log to ensure no data was lost when the power was interrupted and market the file system super-bit clean.  Did I use enough techno-babble in the last sentence for you?  If you want to know more about this process you can look it up on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system

6. Capacity and Expandability

Most of the systems on the market today start with a single 1 or 2TB hard disk drive and can easily be expanded by adding multiple hard disk drives.  Adding drives is a simple operation of removing a drive carrier and installing a new hard disk drive per the vendor’s instructions and installing the drive back into the system.  The system will automatically recognize the drive and stripe the data across it, or you may have to configure the system based on the performance and capacity options that you want to have for your specific environment.  Usually, drives need to be added one at a time and the process of getting to the maximum capacity may take time and some of the systems on the market will right-size the drive based on the capacity of the first drive installed, so if you install a 1TB drive and then want to add 2TB drives, the capacity of the 2TB drives will only be seen as 1TB.  To fix this one would need to backup all of your data and then start with all of the same capacity hard disk drives.  Other systems on the market will take whatever hard disk drive capacity you throw at it and build a RAID configuration delivering the maximum capacity to you.

7. Integration-Interconnection

Most of the systems on the market today offer both Wi-Fi and Wired connections.  While Wi-Fi offers a simple connection without wires it sacrifices performance for that simplicity.  We have all read the performance claims of 110Mb/s for 802.11n Wi-Fi networks, but realistically the theory and reality are quite separate.  To really deliver the performance there is no way around a physical wired connection.  Sorry, you are going to have to deal with the harsh reality that technology companies don’t always tell the truth and that streaming media will take every Mb/s that you can throw at it to ensure that you get an entertainment quality experience in your home.  Also, you need to think about how many people are going to be accessing the system at the same time.  In my house we have three “Power Users” that all access streaming media at the same time.  My oldest son will be streaming media from Netflix on his Wii while my youngest is looking at pictures on my home media storage device and I am streaming home movies to my Mac.  I checked the network and we were pumping some serious I/O to the tune of 80 Mb/s.  Now, I wouldn’t say that every user in the house needed to be streaming media, but the idea is that I want them to have that capability and utilize the media when and where they want to.

The Netgear ReadyNAS also supports connecting an external UPS and monitoring it for a change in the status of the power coming into the system and will gracefully shut the system down if the power fails.  I have not hooked a UPS up yet, but am planning to do so shortly.

8. Backup – what is all of this I hear about backup?

In the 70’s and 80’s the number one concern that I heard from my parents related to their media was that they were afraid that their physical, analog home movies and pictures would get burned up in a house fire, or lost.  Thankfully, it never happened, but they made copies and stored them at another family member’s house just in case.

Today, all of those physical memories have been replaced by digital files that live on spinning media that is going to crash at some point and you will need to have a backup to ensure that you can still access your digital memories.  What are your digital photos worth to you?  Your memories?  So, why don’t you back them up?  There are many answers to that question it is too complex, or simply too costly, or I never thought about it, to name a few.  With many of the digital media storage systems on the market today they offer the ability to automatically backup the system to a cloud based backup service on the Internet.  This service is available for a fee and you can access your files securely from any other system that can connect to the Internet.  The fee is modest, under $100 per year for the average user and the pricing is based on capacity.  The system can be configured to only backup certain files or directories (folders) so you only pay for what you think is important, for example children’s pictures.  A word of caution, if you have a lot data, say 1,024GB, a full TB be prepared for a rather lengthy upload process.  You can do a quick calculation to figure out how long your upload will take by measuring the speed of your upload and then dividing your total amount of data to be backed up by the upload speed.  In most cases you are probably looking at least a week to backup a TB of data.  On some of the systems available on the market there is a USB port on the back of the system that enables you to connect a USB hard drive and backup the system.  This is a simple and inexpensive way to backup the system, but it requires you to manually backup the system and will not protect your system should you have a fire or a virus.

9. Sharing your media

Many of the products on the market today enable you to share your media, specifically your pictures, through a publishing mechanism.   By sharing a published link with those that you want to see the media they can easily and securely access the media on the Internet.  My current media storage system lets me share my pictures on the web to my family members who live in other states.   While the capability sounds great, the implementation is less than what it should be.  Picture sharing sites offer a rich experience and enable those who view shared media to order pictures and access the media in a simple and visually rich environment.  The implementations of the current media storage systems seems a bit archaic in comparison to the current set of web based photo sharing sites and I think it is a case of trying to be all things to all people instead of focusing on what they are good at and leaving the photo sharing to the photo sharing experts by creating a digital upload service where photos are automatically uploaded to the photo sharing site by the media storage system.

10. Protocol Support

For every type of media and streaming there is a protocol that you need to support it.  For iTunes, the media server needs to be able to act like an iTunes Server so iTunes clients, such as Macs and PCs can see and share all of the stored digital media.  Most of the media servers on the market today leverage open source technology to deliver many of the major protocols on the market, including those listed below:

• Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA): enables a DLNA certified device to access media on a DLNA certified server.  For more information on this process please visit http://www.dlna.org/digital_living/how_it_works/
• Time Machine:  In every apple Max with Snow Leopard there is a built in backup solution that enables you to roll back and find files in a simple to use interface and digital media systems that support the Time Machine protocol can backup Mac clients remotely and automatically on the network.  For more information on Apple’s Time Machine please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
• iTunes Server:  Instead of having to have all of your music on every system in your house you can use a digital media storage system with an embedded iTunes Server to share your music with all of the systems in your home.
• Windows Media Server:  With an embedded Windows Media Server you can stream Windows Media Files and MP3 files to any connected system.
• CIFS (SMB):  Allows you to share files between Windows and Mac systems on the network.
• AFS:  Allows you to share files between Mac clients on the network
• NFS:  Allows you to share files between Linux and UNIX clients on the network.

NOTE:  Files shared between CIFS and NFS can be seen by both systems at the same time and may leverage Samba file sharing technologies and include a locking mechanism so file ownership is kept intact and keeps you from overwriting one another’s changes to the file.

• BitTorrent:  For file sharing over the Internet a BitTorrent client is standard equipment on many PC’s – with a BitTorrent client embedded in the digital media storage system so you can offload the task of getting files off the Internet from your PC.

11. Support & Warranty

When buying anything in the technology market it is important to check out the support and warranty offerings from the vendor.  I checked through the knowledge base of the vendors that I have purchased from and found them to be chuck full of good information.  I did have a hard drive fail in one of my units and I called the vendor and they processed a RMA and cross-shipped a new drive.  Many of the systems offer three year warranties today and that is a good option to have, but you need to check on the specifics of the warranty and find out what is covered in terms of parts and shipping charges.  Also, I played “dumb customer” and called their technical support center to find out what kind of help I can expect when I have an issue and all of the vendors that I called were very supportive and knowledgeable.  As you know, calling support is the luck of the draw based on who is on the other side of the phone line, sometimes it is a great person, other times it is a newbie who is green behind the ears.  You may also want to check on how frequently the vendor updates their product’s firmware (OS platform) and how their product quality has been received by trolling through their knowledge base.  Most of the products on the market will support an auto-upgrade feature by downloading the latest revisions and installing them directly from the vendor’s website.  This is a good feature and keeps you from making a costly mistake by downloading firmware and then not upgrading the system correctly.

12. Hackability

For “Power-Users” that may read this and wonder if they can hack their systems and improve the performance, change a parameter, or add a new protocol?  The answer is most likely “Yes!”  Communities have sprung up around these media servers and offer the know-how and instructions to hack the systems, but be aware that doing so may void the warranty, or require you to reset the system to get support in case of an issue, which means that you may lose your data when you perform a system reset.  Again, read the directions on the system to know what you can and cannot do before you buy the system.

13. Simplicity-Complexity

All of the systems that I have used are relatively straightforward to setup and manage requiring a minimal amount of tech savvy.  When installed all of the ones that I have used automatically register with the DHCP Server and get an IP address.  From there, you configure the system on a management console that is usually web based.  In the case of my current system there is an application that when launched will find the media storage system and allow you to manage it securely.  All of the systems that I have used allow you to set an administrator userid and password to ensure that only you have access to manage the system.

Other Considerations: A word about copyrights; for those of you that copy music or videos that is the property of others please be aware that you are breaking the law and while I cannot condone your actions, you need to understand that your media is also property, your property, and should only be used by those that you want to have access to it or have copies of it.

So, What Were My Requirements and What Solution Did I Select?

NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ with four drives.

http://www.netgear.com/readynasvault

Other systems that I evaluated included the following:

• Buffalo Terastation
• Drobo – I could not purchase the Drobo due to budget concerns and the Drobo required an external box to connect to the network.  The initial design point for the Drobo was a better USB Storage System for Mac users doing animation and digital video.
  
• Iomega StorCenter – The Iomega seemed a bit clunky and inefficient, but did provide the best performance based on comments on the Internet.
  
• HP MediaSmart Server – This system is based on Windows Server – Home Edition and has a good deal of performance, but I wanted an open source solution so I could hack it.
  

Who is going to, and how are they going to use the system?

In my environment I have myself, a power-user who will stream media of all types, my oldest son who is getting into web development, and my youngest son who is mostly interested in streaming music.  Also, I have my parents and friends that want to see pictures of my family and significant events.    We needed a system that has multiple hard disk drives to support higher performance and delivery of media on the network and Gigabit Ethernet is a must have.  For streaming media alone we needed at least two drives to generate the performance that was required and having four drives gives me a bit of headroom when I go to a higher resolution video – not that I am going to be distributing 1080P video anytime soon – just too costly in terms of capacity and bandwidth at the moment.

Price

In 2009, when I decided to purchase a Digital Media Storage Server I had a budget of $500 for the system with all of the drives and I wanted about 4TBs of overall storage for my current and future digital media storage requirements.  This budget was based on buying a second hand system on eBay or Craiglist. If I was looking to buy a new system I would need to raise my budget a bit too around $750.  I have seen new systems that fit my needs on eBay for less that $500 and I bought my system on Craigslist with 2x500GB drives for $200.  That left me $300 to buy drives and I replaced the two 500GB drives that came with the system with 1TB drives and still have some change left over.  I bought the 1TB drives at TigerDirect, after checking the vendor’s website for supported drives.  The drives cost me $59 each and I needed four (4) of them.  So, I spent about $240 for the drives and had about $60 left, which I quickly spent to upgrade the system memory to 512MB, from the standard 128MB which resulted in an increase in performance of ~20%.  Today, you can buy 2TB drives for $69 each and double your capacity, provided they are supported in your system, which my system supports.

Physical Size of the System

This is an area where I am constrained as I needed to put the system in a closet in my office next to my laser printer.   So, the size is critically important to me as is accessibility to the hard disk drives and other parts of the system.

Look and Feel

This is an area where, admittedly, I have less of a concern as the system is going to be in the closet, but the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is a winner in my book as it has an industrial chrome-silver look that fits in well in my clost.  The current revision of the ReadyNas product has followed the pendulum swing back to black.  Thru the years I have found that the market moves from a gloss black outer to a more industrial look depending on what is hot in the Home Theatre market and today black is back.   The ReadyNAS has a great LCD display and four disk access lights on the front of the system that make understanding the status of the system as simple as looking at it.    The disk status lights also help identify failed drives, should a drive fail.  I would highly recommend looking at systems that show you the status of the drives and location so you don’t remove a good drive by accident and lose your entire data set.

Environmentals

I had owned a Western Digital MyBook World – 1TB NAS in the past and the single fan on the system was so loud that I had to keep the door closed on the closet that contained the system and I could still hear it.  I put some foam insulation around the WD product to help quiet it and it was still loud.  Several websites suggested replacing the main fan to quiet it down.  Instead, I sold the WD system and bought the ReadNAS NV+ which is very quiet.  With the door open I can barely hear the fans or the drives spinning.

The ReadyNAS NV+ also supports the automatic power down – power savings feature.  The system starts at 6:00am and shutdowns at 11:00pm every day.  Below is a picture of the web management tool that is supplied with the system showing the configuration screen for the automatic power down feature.

ReadyNAS Management Console – showing the Power Time for Automated Shutdown and Startup

Capacity and Expandability

I needed ~3TBs of storage for my needs today and for the next few years.  I should give you some background on my media needs.  I have about 25,000 songs, each ~1MB in size, a few hundred home videos consume between 100MB-1GB each.  Additionally, I create backups each few months of my personal and work data that comes ~80GBs for each backup.  So, today, I am consuming 1.3TBs of storage and expect to consume 750GB per year of capacity.  So, with four 1TB drives, I have ~3.4TBs of usable capacity of the system.  The 600GBs of capacity is used for RAID overhead and protects me in case a drive fails, which has happened in the past and I was protected and did not lose any data and when I installed a new drive the system immediately recovered and rebuilt the data from the bad drive. The ReadyNAS system uses a Netgear version of RAID called X-RAID that creates a balance between reliability and capacity which also supports automatic expansion of the system as one adds additional drives.  X-RAID is Netgear’s proprietary “patent-pending”  solution where the “X” stands for “eXpandable” as most traditional RAID environments can only extended by relaying out the data (restriping) requiring one to delete all of the data, while the X-RAID system automatically extends the volume when a new drive is added and restripes the data to take advantage of the additional capacity.  For more information on X-RAID please visit http://www.readynas.com/?cat=54

Integration-Interconnection

The ReadyNAS NV+ is well integrated into my environment as I needed to support streaming media to a variety of platforms including:

• Apple TV with Boxee
• LG LHB-975 supporting DLNA
• Apple Mac
• Windows PCs
• iTunes

Backup – what is all of this I hear about backup?

I use the ReadyNAS NV+ as a backup target for my system and I have yet to do a full backup of the ReadyNAS, other than my main files, which I backup to another USB Hard Disk Drive, so in theory, I am protected in case I lose one set by two backups.  Netgear offers a ReadyNAS Vault Cloud Based Backup Service, but, in my opinion, the pricing is off a bit from where I expect it to be, so I am not using a cloud based service.  Also, I would like to see Netgear, or the Netgear community, which I will discuss later, offer integration with other 3^rdparty cloud based backup services like Mozy, so I can affordably backup my data to a cloud based service.  This would need to be an unlimited capacity option for me as I have a lot of data and I put value on all of it, plus I really don’t want to go through all of my data and categorize what needs to be backed up and what does not need to be, much easier to backup my entire data set.   I expect to see the major cloud based backup services offer this kind of service and integration in the near future as the home market moves from dedicated PC’s to these shared digital media devices.  One solution is leaving a computer on and using it as a shim to move the data from my ReadyNAS to the online backup service, but this could prove to be problematic as the ReadyNAS will automatically power down in the middle of the backup operation and would need to be restarted the next day, over and over again.  With a 500Kb/s upload speed I am looking at a couple of weeks to completely backup my digitial media library.  All of a sudden the upload speed is critically important and the Internet Providers caring for download speeds becomes an out of focus discussion – I need a 10Mb/s asymmetrical Internet connection at the same price I am paying now for my 9Mb/s download with 500Kb/s upload speed.  This would cut down my upload by a factor of 20X – significant.  Integration would put the control of the entire operation in my hands and support the automated power-down and power-up and remember where the job left off so it can restart without having to do so from the beginning of the data set.

I thought of buying a 2TB hard drive in an enclosure for $100+ and use it as a backup target as the ReadyNAS has a one touch backup that works with USB hard disk drives and will backup the entire system to the USB connected drive.  A nice option, but doesn’t really work when you get over 2TB of stored media/data on the system.

Also, the system included backup software for your PC’s and Mac’s on the network that simply backups your data on a schedule to the ReadyNAS system.  I tried the software for a few months and then realized that I didn’t need it as I was backing up the same directory on my PC once a month and could manually handle the task with a quick automation setup in Windows.    For my Mac’s on the network I have Time Machine setup to automatically save their data to the Time Machine on the ReadyNAS – and it is super simple to setup  and I was able to re-purpose my USB Hard Disk Drive for temp space while I edit digital video.  For instructions on setting up Mac Time Machine with a ReadyNAS check out http://www.readynas.com/?p=253

Support & Warranty

The ReadyNAS system that I purchased had a three year warranty and the latest systems from Netgear and others come with a five year warranty.  I used the warranty once and found the support team at Netgear to be very knowledgeable and fixed my problem on the first call.  Also, the Netgear online knowledge base is very good and well categorized.  I was able to resolve several of my questions without having to call Netgear using their online knowledge base.

I would not say the same for the WD MyBook World that I purchased before the Netgear – their support site was very poorly categorized and their search engine was ineffective.  When I had a drive fail in my WD product it took over a week to get a replacement and the instructions for replacement were very poor.  Thankfully, the owners of the WD MyBook World came to the rescue as they had posted copious amounts of information on the procedure and what pitfalls to avoid when attempting the operation at home – as a note, some operations that you may want to do void the warranty, so check out what you are doing before you void your warranty.  Also, understands your level of technical expertise and don’t go in over your head as you can irrevocably destroy your data.  An example of an operation that I was concerned with was when I upgraded the firmware (Operating System) for the ReadyNas from a 3.x to a 4.x revision and the main password changed and I needed to reset it to get into the system.  The operation requires rebooting the system and holding the Power button down until one of the LED flashes and the Power button is released and the system re-installs the firmware thereby resetting the password and your data is kept.  If the LED flashes twice your data is deleted and the system is reset back to the way it came from the factory – suffice it to say that I was very patient when performing this operation as I did not want to reload 1.5TBs of data from my backup on a USB Drive.  The operation went smoothly and I was able to

Hackability

The Netgear ReadyNAS has an online community of users that support each other and share knowledge as well as a group of developers whom have built 3^rdparty applications that seamlessly integrate with the ReadyNAS platform.  This one of the main  reasons that I selected the Netgear ReadyNAS product.  The ReadyNAS Community is at http://www.readynas.com/and there are applications to manage and augment the ReadyNAS product, including iPhone Apps, Picture Sharing Apps, Management Apps, and much more – some 300 Apps in total.  Some of the Apps are from Netgear while the majority come from developers in the community.  One of the more interesting Apps available for the ReadyNAS is a TIVO App that enables you to store your TIVO recordings directly to your ReadyNAS, thereby saving precious space on your TIVO.  Check it out at http://www.readynas.com/?p=4324

Simplicity-Complexity

Setup and configuration of the ReadyNAS was another reason that I selected the product for my environment – it was a simple as plugging it into Power and the Ethernet and it automatically acquired an address from my DHCP Server and I ran the RADAR application on my Mac and it found the ReadyNAS and I was able to access it, setup my network shares for my PC’s and my Mac and I was off to the races;  adding digital media and accessing it from my media streamers and on my wireless network.

The web management utility that comes with the ReadyNAS is supported on all of the major Internet Browsers on the PC, Mac, and Linux, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari, which makes it perfect for mixed environments.

There are some setup options, which you need to read the manual for, but once the system is setup it is very simple to manage the system.  Also, the system automatically checks for upgrades and will download them and install them bringing your system to a current version – a nice feature for those that like to stay current – I must admit that I am more of a get it working and stable and leave it alone kind of guy – as long as it is doing what I expect it to do why change it, or as the old adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Filed in categories: Articles, Audio, Video, TV Gear, Desktop Computer Gear, Home Tech

Tagged: Entertainment, media, MP3, NAS, Storage, Utility

13 Things to Consider Before Buying a Digital Media Storage System originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 16, 2011 at 11:00 am.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a neat freak, but I like an uncluttered house. That’s not saying that my house isn’t cluttered, because it is… except for my basement. It’s been newly remodeled and is the role model for the rest of the house. If you need a kick start to cleaning up some the clutter in your own home, how about starting with your gaming gear. If you are like most gaming geeks, you probably have games, controllers and consoles scattered willy nilly all over your bedroom or family room. LevelUp Ottomans give you a nice looking piece of furniture to store all your gaming gear. There are three different versions, which are constructed of solid wood with a faux-leather covering. Prices start at $29.99 for the ottomans, with $19.99 for the optional storage inserts. You can find LevelUp products at Kohl’s, Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Filed in categories: Gaming Gear, Home Tech, News

Tagged: Gaming, Spotlight Gadgets, Storage

Video Game Storage – LevelUp Ottomans originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 30, 2010 at 10:36 am.

Ok, this is too cool… Giant LEGO bricks that double as storage boxes. Officially licensed by LEGO, these bricks come in three different sizes (they also sell a LEGO head storage container) and several colors. You can even stack them just like the real bricks. I would love a set of these, but unfortunately, they are currently only available in the UK via the Store. Prices range from £17.00 to £26.00

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News

Tagged: LEGO, Spotlight Gadgets, Storage

Store your Stuff in LEGO Brick Storage Boxes originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 17, 2010 at 2:21 pm.

Pogoplug has added a new version of the Pogoplug, available today. We have covered the Pogoplug updates in the past as they added printer support and a wireless adaptor, and added the Pogoplug Biz. This appears to update and replace the Pogoplug, with the following features:

• Built-in wireless capabilities
• All-Black
• Same $99 retail place as the Pogoplug

I recently bought a pogoplug, and will post a review soon. I liked it so much, I’ve already bought a second. I think the built-in wireless is a great add, and I couldn’t stand the pink, so I am a fan of the all black design.

Full text of the press release after the jump

Pogoplug Unveils Latest Version of Award-Winning Product Pogoplug Pro is Available in Best Buy Stores Today

San Francisco, CA, October 11, 2010 – Cloud Engines, Inc, today announced Pogoplug Pro, the latest version of the company’s award-winning multimedia sharing device. The Pogoplug Pro delivers even more flexibility to store, access, and share personal content from anywhere on the Internet.
Pogoplug allows users to easily and securely access, share, and stream their personal content from anywhere, without uploading.  Content remains safely on USB hard drives connected to the Pogoplug device in their home or office, and is available from any Internet enabled device, including apps for the iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry, and Palm.

“Pogoplug is a great option for those who want to quickly and securely share personal files over the Internet,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at The NPD Group.
The Pogoplug Pro includes all of the popular features of the second generation Pogoplug, including the ability to connect up to four USB drives and to print from any mobile device. In addition, Pogoplug Pro adds built-in wireless connectivity.  Owners can place the device anywhere in their home without having to physically connect it to their router.

Pogoplug Pro is available today in Best Buy stores and online for $99 (MSRP).

About Best Buy

With operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, China, Mexico and Turkey, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. The Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $49 billion in annual revenue. Approximately 180,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuy.com.

About Pogoplug Pro

The Pogoplug is a device that connects up to 4 external hard drives to the Internet wirelessly. It is designed for consumers who have an external hard drive and have high speed Internet. Consumers can securely access and share all of their content [Files, Photos, and Video] from any Web browser or enabled mobile device with no additional monthly fees.

About Cloud engines, Inc.
Founded in 2007 by experienced entrepreneurs from the digital media and security industries, Cloud Engines is located in San Francisco, California. The company was formed with a mission to change the way personal content is stored and distributed over the Internet. The Cloud Engines philosophy is that by making a product simple, open and affordable, the community will participate in making it better. For more information, please visit, www.cloudengines.com and www.pogoplug.com

Filed in categories: Gear, News

Tagged: Cloud, pogoplug, Storage, Wireless

Pogoplug Pro Available originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 11, 2010 at 12:01 pm.

LevelUp storage towers keep your PlayStation, XBOX and Wii systems and accessories organized and accessible. The towers snap together easily and have built in ventilation to allow your console to run reliably. Some features include a molded controller dock and soft-coated guitar hooks for gaming guitar controllers used in Guitar Hero or Rock Band, as well as ribbed shelves for storing game or DVD cases. They are available in a glossy black or white finish with silver, green or matte black accents. MSRP $69.99 and available now through JCPennys, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Toys-r-Us and Kohls.

Filed in categories: Gaming Gear, News

Tagged: Spotlight Gadgets, Storage, Video Game

LevelUp Storage Towers for all of your Gaming Gear originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 9, 2010 at 9:20 pm.

Pogoplug is taking pre-order for the Pogoplug Biz. This is a newer, more expensive version of the Pogoplug Janet posted about earlier. They announced the new product on their Blog back at the end of July.

The basic Pogoplug is $99, the Pogoplug Biz will be $299. There are no fees for using the service, and you can connect multiple USB drives to them.

Besides going business black instead of the old hot pink, the new Biz features include (from their post):

• Usage Statistics and Auditing: quickly access a summary of how many times a file or folder has been viewed, streamed or downloaded. Keep track of the number of views, streams, and downloads.
• Customization: customize the look and feel of the Pogoplug interface, including the color, logo, domain name and background image. Customize the look and feel of emails that are sent when you share files.
• Custom Email Addresses: claim your own custom email addresses and let your clients email files to your Pogoplug. Create an unlimited number of custom upload folders and give them each a unique email address to share with your clients.
• Cloud/Mobile Printing: print from any mobile device, including the iPhone and iPad. Print to any printer connected to Pogoplug, from anywhere.
• Web View-Only Sharing: share viewable files over the web while preventing them from being downloaded. Web View is perfect for creative professionals and photographers who want to show clients previews of work but not allow them to download the files.
• Multiple Users: allows an administrator to set access levels and storage quotas for individual users.
• Remote backup: continuously mirror all or part of your Pogoplug storage to a second Pogoplug in a remote location.

It’s an intriguing product. As an independent consultant, I am attracted to the ability to customize the look and feel, user management options and other tools that would allow me to share data securely with multiple clients. As my extended family’s unofficial tech consultant, the ability to mirror to Pogoplugs in multiple locations is interesting as well.

Filed in categories: Gear, Miscellaneous

Tagged: Cloud, Storage

Pogoplug enhanced with a Biz Version originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 26, 2010 at 3:45 pm.

The OWC Express USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure is an exercise in minimalism. In the picture you see the two elements of the case; a mini-USB port and an activity LED. I received a silver model to review. The enclosures come in your choice of silver, white, or black.

When I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro I chose the previously reviewed OWC Mercury On-The-Go drive enclosure. I chose it because I wanted an enclosure that supported FireWire 800. I still use and like this drive. However, more often than not, what you really need is good solid drive enclosure without the bells and whistles, that is where this drive comes in.

What’s In The Box

The drive enclosure comes with:

• The Enclosure
• 2 Screws
• USB cable
• Slipcase
• Manual

Assembly

Assembly is straight forward. The bottom tray contains the connector and circuit board needed for the drive:

I had no problems sliding the drive into the connector. The construction is plastic, but I found the design to be very precise. The drive installs easily, but fits very snug:

Once installed, I put the cover on the drive. The top hinges on one end, and two screws mount through the case and the circuit board on the other.

It all feels really solid when assembled. I have owned quite a few cheap enclosures, but this one does not feel cheap. This really surprised when I saw that it was all plastic.

The included case continues the minimalist bent. It fits snugly around the drive:

There is no wasted material in the case either, it is just long enough to fit the drive:

What I Like

I like the design of this enclosure, it is wonderfully small and efficient. Here it is stacked on my Mercury On-The-Go enclosure:

I also like the included case. Even though it is just a slip case, it doesn’t add much to the size, and should be sufficient to protect it in my computer bag. There was a time I would complain that there is no space for a USB cable, but that is now a standard part of my kit, I always have one in my bag, I don’t need every device to have its own cable.

What I Don’t Like

It’s plastic. I wish it was made out of more durable material, but it is not. However, would I pay more for something that wasn’t plastic. No. It is also only USB. I kind of like my FireWire drive now. However, life is about tradeoffs, and, in my opinion, this drive makes the most of its tradeoffs.

Conclusion

This is a great inexpensive enclosure if you are looking for a USB-only enclosure for a SATA drive. I will not hesitate to buy more of these in the future.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Do-It-Yourself, Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Storage, USB

OWC Express USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 24, 2010 at 3:08 pm.

I finally got around to upgrading my MacBook Pro’s 200 GB hard drive. I could go on and on about how annoying it was to have to go to an authorized service center to get the upgrade since my generation of MBP does not have a user-upgradeable hard drive, but since Julie does not provide a “whine and moan” category, I’ll save you the diatribe.

I wanted to get an enclosure for the drive, and was hoping to get a FW 800 enclosure. There are not a lot of them out there, and they are pricier than simple USB or even USB FW400 enclosures. I settled on the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Drive Enclosure because some of the reviews of the other contestants indicated that it did not always work on USB power alone. And, yeah, I also thought it looked nice. I like the see-through case.

The enclosure comes in three styles:

• USB ($24.99)
• USB/FW400 ($47.99)
• USB/FW800 ($72.99)

I purchased the USB/FW800 drive for 2.5″ SATA hard drives.

The drive included:

• Enclosure
• End Piece
• Board
• USB cable
• FW 800 Cable
• Carry Case
• Silicone Feet
• Assembly guide

The assembly manual clearly explains the assembly of the enclosure. There were only a few steps that did not jibe with what I received, but nothing that was difficult to follow.

I was surprised that the enclosure came with a power switch, the ports are laid out nicely:

Once I completed the installation, I tried out the drive with the Firewire cable. Everything worked great. When I hooked up with USB I had issues. The drive would show up, then dismount, then mount again. I sent an e-mail to their support and while I waited for a reply, did some research on my own. Turns out it is a known issue with MacBook Pro USB ports being under-powered. I have heard differing opinions. The one that reflects best on the MacBook Pro is that Apple follows the USB spec to the letter, and most enclosures want a little more juice than the spec calls for. Regardless, the effect is that USB does not work well on the MBP. It works fine on my wife’s MacBook (turns out the design of the MB allows one port to “steal” juice from the other, while the MBP isolates the two ports).

It actually is not a huge issue for me. I got the FW 800 interface to use it, and it powers the drive fine. If I needed to use it on the MBP as a USB drive, OWC sells an adapter for 7.99. I did not have a FW 800 – FW 400 cable to test FW on the MacBook, but I assume it would work fine.

UPDATE:
I want to make it clear that I am very satisfied with this enclosure. I purchased it so that I could use the FW-800 interface on my MacBook Pro. I was surprised that my MBP did not have enough power to power the enclosure while connected via USB, but had no issues with the FW power. Furthermore, the USB works great on my MacBook (where I NEED to use the USB interface), so the issue is obviously related to the power of my MBP USB port. I re-tested the USB interface on my MBP with a powered USB hub and it worked fine.

My only point in bringing up the USB issue is to make you aware of the issue. Since you are paying extra money for the FW interface, I don’t see it as a big deal with this drive. There are a lot of factors that determine if a USB can power a drive, this includes the power provided by the USB port, the power used by the interface in the enclosure and the power required by the drive itself. In addition to the AC Adapter they sell for the drive, you can also purchase a Y-Adapter for $3.99 that uses 2 USB ports to interface and power the drive if your computer does not provide enough power.

Filed in categories: Laptops and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Firewire, Storage, USB

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Drive Enclosure Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm.

My backup strategy is quite a mish-mash of USB hard drives and an Apple Time Capsule. I have been intrigued by Drobo’s various offerings in the past, but leaned more to a NAS (Network-Attached Storage) solution. The only Drobo option was to purchase a network add-on to an existing box. Today, they announced the Drobo FS. This new box is 100% NAS.

The Drobo FS can hold up to 5 drives an connects with a gigabit ethernet jack:

The Drobo FS starts at $699 with no drives, and costs $1,499 with 5 2TB WD20EARS drives. Here are the key bullet points from their press release:

Drobo FS Features and Benefits

• Plug-In and Share – The Drobo FS connects directly to any Gigabit Ethernet network for a true plug in and share set-up experience. Supports standard data transfer protocols including Apple File Protocol (AFP) and Microsoft Common Internet File System (CIFS).
• 5-Drive Capacity and Instant Expansion to 10TB and Beyond – Customers with growing storage requirements can easily add data capacity by simply inserting a new hard drive or replacing the smallest drive with a larger one, even when all five drive bays are full. With Drobo FS, expansion is automatic, instantaneous, and access to data is always maintained.
• Single- and Dual-Drive Redundancy – The Drobo FS dual drive redundancy option protects against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard drives. Customers can engage this option with a single click without ever losing access to their data.
• Self-Healing Technology – With BeyondRAID, the Drobo FS continually examines data blocks and sectors on each drive to flag potential issues. The preemptive “scrubbing” helps ensure data is being written only to healthy drive areas and automatically keeps data in the safest state possible – even when a drive fails.
• Customizable Storage – Utilizing the growing library of DroboApps, including media and web applications, users can customize the Drobo FS to further enhance their sharing experience.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: drobo, NAS, Storage

Data Robotics Announces Drobo FS originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 6, 2010 at 12:45 pm.

We’re living in the future.  While cancer has yet to be eradicated, many medical conditions which would have meant either a lifetime of pain or even death to people not so long ago are treated by medications developed over the last hundred years.   Me? After an incident when I was 16, I was left with neck pain best described as “horrific.”   While I’m not disfigured or in mortal danger, I use medicine to manage the pain.   For many people, the blessings of these medicines are tempered with the fear that they will fall into the wrong hands with potentially deadly results.   The Rx locker attempts to solve these problems in a way we haven’t seen before.

The Rx Locker is a device that can be instantly understood just by looking at it.  A four-chambered plastic container with a hinged lid  is securely closed by a three-dial lock on the side.   Place four standard prescription bottles in it and lock it up and it will provide a level of security for your potentially dangerous medications.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 70% of teens who have abused prescription medications took them from friends or family. Dr. Drew Pinsky – yes THAT Dr. Drew – says that “1 in 4 High School Seniors admit to abusing Rx Drugs. TODAY, 2500 12-17 year olds will use Rx medication for the first time.” Add to this the fact that more than half of American adults are currently taking prescription drugs and the potential for accidents or abuse is only getting higher. (Source: NIH 2008)

As the father of two children under age eight, I have been concerned that at some point, one of my children would become curious about the bright red bottles in my medicine cabinet and take one or more pills.  Child-proof safety caps certainly help, but the Rx Locker adds another level of safety that makes me more comfortable.

The Rx Locker is made of plastic.  While it feels very solid, it’s clear that it would not stop a determined person from getting it open.  That said, the fact that it’s made of plastic might actually be a bonus in this case.   As I understand it, those who would seek to open the Rx Locker to get at some illicit drug inside would prefer that their theft not be noticed.  The plastic used in the Rx Locker is easily marked and any attempt to pry it open would be instantly visible.  Perhaps this alone would be enough to dissuade someone from even attempting to force it open.

The three dial lock can be easily set according to instructions found on a sticker inside the lid.

The four compartments are separated by removable white plastic partitions.  Particularly large bottles CAN be put in once the partitions are removed.

It’s fairly clear when handling the Rx Locker that there’s really no other way that this could have been done right.   It’s simple in its execution and use.   This is not to say that there aren’t some compromises in the design, however.   The Rx locker is designed specifically for round pill bottles of a small to average size.  If you, like me, have large prescriptions that must be filled every month, your medicine might come in a bottle that’s too large to fit properly in the Rx Locker.  I use the Target pharmacy and at this point, none of the bottles I’ve been given by Target will fit perfectly in the Rx Locker.  I recognize that this issue would not impact most Rx Locker users but it did effect my tests.  When using the smaller of the Target prescription bottles, the lid would barely close and as you can see, the larger bottles did not fit at all.  Here we see that the lid is bulging when placing four standard Target pharmacy bottles in the Rx Locker.

While I’ve pointed out a number of issues found in my time testing the Rx Locker, I am left with a very positive feeling for both the product and the company.  The issues I had are very specific to my pharmacy and would not affect the vast majority of users.  The manufacturer tells me that there might be a new version specifically for larger bottles coming at a later date and this would resolve every issue I have with this product.

Update 9/2/2010

As promised, the manufacturer has sent me the updated RX Locker design.  It does resolve the height issues I had with the previous version.

As I’m on the road at the moment, I’m reduced to giving you shoddy iPhone shots of the new product.  As you can see, the new design is simply taller, giving more room for those three-a-day style pill cases.

As an aside, I set up Google News auto searches for anything I review.   A press release showed up in my mail box the other day from this that directly involves the RX Locker.  A new law has passed in Massachusetts making it a requirement that any pharmacy that dispenses schedule II, III, IV, or V prescription drugs to patients also have for sale lockable containers for purchase.   It looks as if the RX Locker might be a good option for some folks out there.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews

Tagged: Storage

Rx Locker Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 5, 2010 at 6:38 pm.

If you like to share your photographs and you don’t have an Eye-Fi card, you are missing out.  I just bought my first one about a month ago, and I love it.

Fortunately for us mobile shutterbugs, Eye-Fi just announced their latest model, the Pro X2.  At 8GB, it doubles the max capacity of their previous high-end models, adds 802.11n support, and sports a new feature called “Endless Memory”.  This allows the card to remove images automatically as they are uploaded, so you can shoot and shoot and shoot and never have to worry about filling up the card.  Like previous models, the Pro X2 still includes features like lifetime geotagging and Selective Transfer, and all for a ridiculously low $150.  The Pro X2 is available for pre-order on Eye-Fi’s website or through Amazon.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: Geotagging, Storage, Wireless

Eye-Fi Pro X2 adds 802.11n, 8GB capacity, Endless Memory originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 5, 2010 at 11:45 am.

Wearable Inc. has put up a barebones website for their new AirStash device, which is billed as a “wireless media server” for mobile devices (the iPhone is mentioned specifically).  Not much information is given, other than the fact that the AirStash will be officially unveiled at CES 2010 — no price, no availability date, no specs.  It seems safe to presume that the device will use Bluetooth for communications with the iPhone, but it does raise questions around speed and security, not to mention questions of how data stored on an AirStash could be used by the iPhone, or how stability of apps using AirStash data might be affected if the AirStash is suddenly unavailable.

Hopefully we will have answers to some of these questions when the AirStash is unveiled at CES over the coming weekend.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: iPhone accessory, Storage, Wireless

AirStash promises portable wireless storage originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 4, 2010 at 5:16 pm.

The SimpleNET from SimpleTech is a super simple (sorry, couldn’t resist) way to turn a USB hard drive into a NAS device (network attached storage). Just plug this small module into your wireless router and then plug one or two USB hard drives into the USB ports in the module and you’re done. It’s compatible with Linux, Windows and OS X and supports FAT32, NTFS, HFS+ and EXT3 files systems. The price is $79.99 and is available now from various online stores like Best Buy and Amazon.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Wireless

Tagged: NAS, Networking, Storage, USB

Turn an external USB hard drive into a NAS device originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 14, 2009 at 5:46 pm.

General Electric Research have recently unveiled that they have created Optical Discs with 500Gb’s of total storage capacity, the equivalent to approximately 100 DVDs! 

The ‘micro-holographic discs’ are to be aimed more for industrial users (For backup and storage capabilities) but they haven’t disputed the fact that they could also be used by normal home users, as users who store masses amount of data (gamers for instance) will be able to take advantage of these awesome tools!

Micro-holographic discs can store more data than DVDs or Blu-ray discs because they store information on the disc in ‘three dimensions’, rather than just pits on the surface of the disc.

Just imagine backing up ALL of you’re data onto just one (or maybe three of four in my case!!) disc!

GE Research are currently working with a number of hardware manufacturers at the moment, in order to bring these tools to the consumer as quickly as they can.  At the moment, cost hasn’t been made public, but I wouldn’t imagine them to be cheap, but then again, with this type of capacity I’m not sure users will mind spending that little bit extra!

Look out for these over the coming months!

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Optical Discs, Spotlight Gadgets, Storage

Optical discs to offer 500Gb capacity! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 4, 2009 at 7:48 am.