Seagate DockStar and 1TB Go drive

Seagate pushed its external drive technology today by launching its first cradle for network-attached storage as well as capacity boosts for its more portable 2.5-inch external drives. The DockStar cradles a FreeAgent Go drive and links it over Ethernet to share its storage with the local network It's moreover one of the first third-party devices to have Pogoplug support and lets users download files from anywhere through a web browser.

An iPhone app is also coming soon that will let owners send photos directly to the attached drive from anywhere. Photos already stored on the drive can be sent to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and it has RSS feed creation to automatically update users with new data as it's updated on the device. Three USB ports give room for adding more storage, including third-party drives. Seagate ships the DockStar immediately for $100 with a free one year subscription to Pogoplug; continuing the subscription costs $30 per year.

The FreeAgent Go line is now taking advantage of recent breakthroughs in 2.5-inch hard drive storage and will now include 750GB, 880GB and 1TB capacities on top of existing models; these newer models are somewhat thicker but will still support the DockStar as well as the FreeAgent Theater+ HD. All of the new drives attach through USB and are pre-formatted for Windows with backup software to match, though they can be reformatted for Macs. Seagate hasn't said how soon these will ship or at what prices.

By Electronista Staff