storage

After more than a month in beta state, Synology's final latest version, version 4.1, of the DiskStation Manager operating system for its NAS server, was released today.

Synology is one of a few NAS vendors that regularly releases new versions of the operating system, which improves and adds features to its existing NAS servers. DSM has been by far the most advanced operating system for network-attached storage servers, which offers not just a vast amount of features and ease of use, but also the most robust user interface that resembles a native operating system. Like all NAS operating systems, DSM is accessed via a Web interface using a connected computer.

DSM is one of the main reasons Synology NAS servers, such as the DS1511+, or the DS412+, have been the best on the market, for both home and small business environments.… Read more

Let's see if we can get through one day -- heck, one morning -- without the product selling out, shall we?

While supplies last, Best Buy has the SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB flash drive for $7.99 shipped, plus sales tax in most states.

Update: This appears to have sold out online, and is now available in-store only. So much for lasting the morning.

Whoops, sorry, sold out. Nah, I'm kidding -- as of this writing, it's still in stock. But just in case, I've queued up three bonus deals for you below. Because that's … Read more

Generally, the term "hard-core" and external hard drives don't go together. This is because external, portable hard drives are probably the most popular and casual type of consumer storage.

But some of them can get really serious, too.

These are external storage devices that are not just fast or rugged, but also are likely to make you think before purchasing due to their cost. In other words, they are not for everyone, but only those who have the need for them and can appreciate their value.

If you are one of these people, the following five drives are totally worth the investment.… Read more

WD has just upgraded its storage solutions for Macs on both USB and Thunderbolt fronts.

The storage vendor today announced its first USB 3.0-based portable drives for Macs, the My Passport for Mac, and a new Thunderbolt drive, the My Book VelociRaptor Duo.

Apart from USB 3.0, the My Passport for Mac also increases the capacity to 2TB while remaining compact and portable. The reason WD waited until now to release a Mac portable drive that supports USB 3.0 is because USB 3.0 has just been added to the new version of the MacBook Pro and … Read more

And the moral of the story is, even if an item sells out early, don't give up. Sometimes the vendor releases more inventory, as happened yesterday with the Acer Aconia A200 tablet (which, incidentally, is still available as of this morning!).

Anyway, today I bring you something that can't possibly sell out: a 1-year CrashPlan+ subscription for $39.99. Regular price: $49.99.

CrashPlan is an automated backup service similar to Mozy and Carbonite. It works in the background, archiving all your stuff to the cloud, local drives, or a friend's PC.

In other words, you set … Read more

After announcing its intentions to do so a few weeks ago, Microsoft today launches its official SkyDrive app for Android devices. Similar to its sibling apps on Windows Phone and iOS, this newest release lets users access their SkyDrive cloud storage accounts from devices running Google's mobile operating system. While it was designed specifically with Android 4.0 in mind, the app is said to be fully functional with devices running Android 2.3 and above.

From the looks of it, SkyDrive for Android covers all the basics, letting you view personal documents, shared documents, and recently used documents. … Read more

Evernote is expanding its cloud-based clipping and documents platform to small businesses with the introduction of Evernote Business.

Announced amid the Evernote Trunk Conference in San Francisco today, Evernote Business is touted to optimize the "remember everything" app for businesses by allowing employees to create, collaborate and find documents and projects from wherever they are. The extra business-friendly add-on is that the platform should support organization-wide deployment, including the option for company-wide sharing for individual notes and notebooks. However, individual users will still have full ownership over their personal Evernote notebooks.From the management side, Evernote Business includes … Read more

You know the old saying: you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much cloud storage.

Well, that's the saying in my house. No one in my family understands it, but that doesn't stop me from repeating it every day at breakfast.

There are plenty of services that will give you a few free acres in the cloud, like Dropbox (2GB), SugarSync (5GB), and SkyDrive (7GB). But if you have a lot of stuff you want to store and/or share, check out MediaFire: it's offering a whopping 50GB of free cloud storage.

That'… Read more

Microsoft showcased its Windows 8 Release to Manufacturing build last week. Amid the excitement, VentureBeat's Sean Ludwig took the opportunity to check in on Microsoft's updated SkyDrive cloud storage service and its rather strict policies regarding user uploaded content.

The article picks up on reports from February 2011, where German photographer Dirk Salm found his Windows Live account restricted after Microsoft objected to the content of four image files Salm had stored in a SkyDrive folder.

The problems with Microsoft's policies, as VentureBeat maps them out, amount to three key issues.