GadgetReview

What is it: The IOGEAR 4-port USB Sharestation puts up to four USB devices on the network. This one-ups other USB to NAS adapters by allowing multiple devices on the network, including USB hard drives, printers, flash drives, etc.

Features: Allows four USB devices to be accessed over the network. Ethernet port, four USB ports, requires external power

Availability: End of March

Price: $99.95

[Engadget]

While the Twitter machine is plowing full steam ahead and getting a ton of press, not many people know that the start up company is actually three years old.  People didn’t hear about Twitter until July 2006 but today is the official birthday.  Everybody from celebrities to politicians to soccer moms are on Twitter, and it has definitely gone viral.  Check out the old logo pic below.  Not bad looking but the R looks like an A.  Also check out our Top 10 Celebrity Twitter Feeds! Follow GadgetReview!!

[TechCrunch]

Early last December we took a look at the Addonics NAS adapter.  In short, it enables any storage drive with a USB interface to become a NAS.  In just a few weeks time they’ll face some stiff competition from the Pogoplug.  Although the Pogoplug is $24 more and lacks a Bit Torrent server (it could be modded via Linux to include this, so says Erik), it can be plugged into a USB Hub allowing multiple drives to be accessed.  So yes, it costs more than the Addonics NAS Adapter, but you’ll only need to purchase one adapter to access multiple drives and thus the savings.  Notably, they’ve also built an iPhone application enabling easy access to your files no matter your location.

The Pogoplug will ship sometime  in March.  You can preorder one now for $20 off the regular price of $99.

From Addonics’ website:

Q: Can I attached an USB hub to the NAS adapter to have multiple hard drives on the Network?
A: No. The NAS adapter does not support USB hub

From Pogoplug’s website:

Q: Can I attach multiple hard drives to my Pogoplug?
A: Yes! Use a USB hub with your Pogoplug and you can attach multiple hard drives that all show up under your account.

[Pogoplug]

What is it: The Winstars networking USB 2.0 Server M4 is a small, palm-sized device that puts up to 4 USB devices onto your network. It only has 1 USB port so you’ll need to connect a USB hub to share devices such as USB hard drives, flash drives, multi-function printers, you name it, it’ll probably support it

Features:

• Share up to 4 USB devices through your home or office network by connecting to a USB 2.0 Hub 
• Wirelessly share your USB devices through your wireless router.
• Share an external hard drive, flash drive or memory card reader with multiple users over your network
• Share a USB webcam over a network
• Enjoy music stored on any networked PC with a USB speaker*
• Allows multiple users to share a Multi-Function Printer (MFP) over a network to print, scan, and fax from any networked computer
• Supported protocols:, LPR/LPD, DHCP, UPnP
• Supports USB 2.0 and 1.1 devices
• Supports Windows Vista Rally Technology
• Works with any home or office Ethernet network

Availability: Here

Price: $33

[Slashgear]

Living vicariously through celebrities has always been an American infatuation.  Even my mom has Perez Hilton bookmarked.  Now the microcosm that is Twitter lets you get even closer to celebrities without having to dumpster dive for Keith Richards’ blood transfusion leftovers.  Here’s the top 10 Twitter celebrity feeds:

Click to follow:

1. Britney Spears

2. Snoop Dog

3. Dalai Lama – Unverified

4. John Hodgman The PC Guy

5. Claire McCaskill

6. Lance Armstrong

7. Shaquille O’Neal

8. Arnold Schwarzenegger

9. David Lynch

10. Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore

Follow GadgetReview!

[Time]

What is it: The Tripp Lite USB extender does exactly that, it extends a USB connection (up to 150ft) using cheap Cat5 (LAN) cables.

Features: It has a transmitter and receiver. Comes in two models, the U224-1R4-R and U224-4R4-R. Plug and Play, USB 1.1 compliant, and requires no drivers

Availability: TBA

Price: TBA

[Slashgear]

D-link has sought the holy route of convergence this year.  Today they unveiled the DIR-685, an all-in-one router that incorporates 802.11n WiFi, printer server, NAS storage options (you’ll need to add your own 2.5-inch hard drive) and a 3.2-inch, 1.6 million color LCD screen for photo viewing, diagnostics, video streams and weather updates.  For added expandability, there’s also 2x USB ports for plugging in an external hard drive and if you’re of the pirating type then you’ll be indulged with the built-in BitTorrent client.

No word on price or availability.

Every once in a while I’ll request something to review that I can’t fully evaluate because I am a MAC owner. When I request products I just assume that they will work for a MAC because MAC’s are the best! At any rate, I am here to review, to the best of my technological ability, the Swann Networking IP-3G ConnectCam 1000. For the sake of not copying and pasting that long name, I’m going to just refer to it as the IP-3G from here on in.

The IP-3G is a day & night wireless 802.11G network camera that can be used across a wide spectrum of applications: a security device in your home or business, or as a video chat camera, or even as a monitor to see if your roommate is using your HDTV when he shouldn’t.

Let me make this abundantly clear, the IP-3G is not made for the MAC! This first thing I will say about Swann as a company, which is widely recognized for their security cameras, is that their customer service is fantastic! They fielded my tech questions and had responses with in 24 hours, which was impressive. They said that I would not be able to get the IP-3G to work with a MAC whatsoever, but with the help of a MAC guru buddy, we got it to work ‘visuals only’ through a Linksy’s router. Simply put, the IP-3G has a web server that you need to connect to. It can be accessed through local and global IP addresses. We got it to work by “port forwarding” it through the router and giving it a fixed IP address. We had to take this route as none of the included software worked on my MAC, but we got the core feature, the visuals, to work at least. The quality of the visuals were moderate at best, with day usage lacking colors, and you could tell it had a night vision grain to it. The night vision was nice and very reminiscent of anything night vision you’ve seen in movies or video games.

As far as features are concerned, the IP-3G has a plethora. From the general audio-visual admin and network menus, you can do two-way audio, MPEG4 & MJPEG compression for storage via USB stick or hard drive, and set the motion detector to take a snap shot and then email it to you. The latter feature, the motion detector email, is something conventional security camera’s don’t even touch. Additionally, you don’t need a PC to set up and use it if you have a 3G enabled phone, just not a 3G iPhone!

The IP-3G is constructed of a high density bright white plastic that looks attractive. It’s also fairly small, but I wonder how well it would deal with rainy, windy, or inclement weather conditions. And despite the fact that it’s wireless, it still uses a wired power source which could prove to hamper some set up scenarios. To be noted, the IP-3G isn’t a huge bandwidth leech as it only impacted my speeds around a negative megabyte per second, and you can run it wired if you like through the ethernet jack on the back. Also on the back is an eighth inch jack to plug speakers into, as well as a microphone on the front in order to accomplish the two way audio feature. All in all, the IP-3G has a ton of cool features allowing for some deep customizations styles and options to tool around with, just not for the MAC.

When it comes to technology you should always research before you buy, and as I have just learned, I should research before I review, instead of just request. Oh, this looks cool…not anymore! Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and I will not make the same mistake again! The IP-3G seems like a great piece of gear from the way I see it, though the way I see it is not an optimal one.

Pros

• Many Customizable Features
• Theoretically Easy Setup
• Small Compact Design

Cons

• Is Not MAC Compatible! Weak Sauce!
• Pricey For A “Web Cam”
• Still Needs Wired Power Source

Buy it for $260 here

What is it: The Addonics NAS adapter turns any USB hard drive into a NAS enabled device. What does that mean? Basically, it turns your USB hard drive into a network device so you can access it from anywhere on the network

Features: USB to ethernet adapater, LED status lights, built-in bittorrent client, DHCP server/client, web-based management

• Convert any USB 2.0 / 1.1 mass storage device into a Network Attached Storage device
• Great for adding Addonics Storage Tower, Storage Rack or any Addonics USB storage device onto the network
• Great for creating a custom Network Attached Storage appliance.
• USB port can be used to power most 2.5″ USB hard drives or any low powered USB storage device.
• Support Fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps.
• Simple to install
• Small and light weight. Size slightly longer than a C size battery. Can be installed practically anywhere
• Can be set as DHCP server or client.
• Support Samba server for up to 64 concurrent clients.
• Support FTP server for up to 8 concurrent users.
• Can be set as a print server to attach any USB printer to the network
• Built-in Bit Torrent client for direct download to the attached USB storage device
• Can be set as a UPnP AV server to share photo/music files stored on the file server with XBOX 360 video game consoles connected to the LAN
• User management to allow read only or read/write access to folders
• Administrative management access via web browser with password security.
• Compatible with all Windows OS, Mac OS, Linux 2.6.x and above

Availability: Here

Price: $55

[Crunchgear]

By: Albert S

LG announced what may be the first Network Attached Storage device with a built in Blu-Ray burner. With this handy storage unit you can store all your files via the network and burn a backup on a Blu-Ray disc. It features 4 Terabytes (that’s four T’s!) of storage so it should keep you occupied for quite some time.

[Slashgear]