Western Digital intros consumer-level network storage
updated 11:00 am EST, Wed February 21, 2007
My Book network storage
In an unconventional approach, Western Digital has designed its new My Book World Edition drives as consumer-level network storage. While they operate as normal external hard drives on a local basis, owners can connect them to the Internet, and use integrated Windows options to save and copy from any location without an FTP client. Perhaps more importantly, only a drive and its Internet connection need to be on for transfer to work; this means that a business traveller, for instance, could shut off his computer but still access important documents from a continent away. There are two models of the World Edition: a 500GB basic version, and the 1TB World Edition II, which can mirror a computer's contents in real-time using RAID. Both drives come with backup software, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a USB 2.0 port for added storage. The basic drive is retailing for $279; the World Edition II is $499.
