Iomega Announces Home Media Network Drive

Iomega says their new Home Media Network Hard Drive is so easy to use novices can be backing up computers and streaming media in less than five minutes.

Storage vendor Iomega has announced its new Home Media Network Hard Drive, a new media-savvy NAS storage device in 500 GB and 1 TB capacities that the company says is so easy to use, even computer novices can be backing up computers and streaming media around their home networks in less than five minutes. The drives operate under EMC’s Linux-based LifeLine software and support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP); the drives can also act as an iTunes server and support Digital Network Alliance (DLNA) devices, meaning users can stream content to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles…as well as network-savvy HDTVs.

"The Home Media Network Drive does the serious work of backing up and protecting digital files, but it also does the fun things like streaming photos and videos to game consoles, digital picture frames, and networked TVs," said Iomega president Jonathan Huberman, in a statement, "all for little more than the cost of a USB direct-attached desktop hard drive with comparable storage capacity."

The Home Media Network Drives pack gigabit Ethernet and a USB port for hooking up a printer or additional FAT32 or NTFS-formatted storage capacity. The drives ship with EMC’s Retrospect backup software, along with access to EMC’s MozyHome online backup service for storing up to 2 GB offsite for free. (Additional online backup capacity is, of course, available for purchase.) The units support HTTP, AFP (Macintosh), and SMB/CIFS (Windows) network file protocols, along with a printer server and Apple Bonjour/Windows Rally auto-discovery services. The drives sport an unspecified "high performance" processor, and easy-to-use Web-based administration that lets users get up and running quickly.

Iomega says the drives will be available in early January at suggested prices of $159.99 for the 500 GB edition and $229.99 for the 1 TB edition. And, of course, the drives can be seen at Iomega’s setups at both CES and Macworld this week.