Western Digital on Wednesday introduced new My Book World Edition network storage drives in 1TB and new 2TB capacities that can automatically back up the files on multiple network-connected PCs and/or Macs. The drives have can be quickly setup by plugging them into a network router and setting them up to back up files via a relatively straightforward interface. Any changes to selected files on the connected and synced computers is then automatically saved at user-set intervals.

The My Book World Edition drives also double as multimedia servers, capable of streaming photos, music and videos to any computer or DLNA 1.5 media player, including Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation3 gaming consoles, wireless digital pictures frames, audio receivers or TVs. The drives also work as UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) media servers and iTunes music servers. Western Digital ships the drives with remote access software and service, letting users remotely access files on the World Edition drives from a remote Internet connection.

Users can extend the storage of the WD My Book World Edition drives or have another option of copying files to or from the drives thanks to their USB 2.0 port. They connect to networks via a Gigabit Ethernet connection, and there is a capacity gauge to allow users to see how much space is left on the drive.

The My Book World Edition network hard drive is now available in a 1TB capacity, priced at nearly $230, with a 2TB version coming later in February and priced at just about $450.