The new Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive is Iomega’s attempt to deliver a cost effective network attached storage device for the home market. The drive connects to your home network and delivers a centralized storage location for all of your digital content across all of your networked devices.

Powering the drive is EMC’s LifeLife Home Software solution which is a custom Linux OS and application suite. After installing the software, users can access files and set permissions using a friendly user interface. Setting up the Home Media Network Hard Drive should be straight-forward and simple. Just plug the drive into the network, power up the drive, and then install the included software. Since the networked drive also acts as a UPnP media server, you can easily share content to DLNA certified networked media players such as the Xbox 360.

Key features of the Home Media Network Hard Drive include:

• Share files between Windows and Apple systems
• Gigabit Ethernet support
• UPnP AV Media Server – compatible with DLNA certified media players
• iTunes Server
• Supports CIFS/SMB, AFP, and HTTP 1.1
• Add additional capacity by connecting external USB hard drives
• Automatic network discovery by Apple Bonjour and Windows Rally devices
• Backup your data using EMC Retrospect HD backup software
• Oxford 810SE chipset with 370MHz CPU and 64MB RAM
• One 7200 RPM SATA HDD
• One USB port
• Built-in Print Server
• Measures 4.92 x 7.83 x 1.57 inches and weighs 2.45 lbs

The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive will be available this month with the 500GB drive going for $159.99 and the 1TB drive going for $229.99.

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Technorati Tags: Iomega, Home Media Network Hard Drive, NAS, CES 2009

Here’s a growing trend among storage manufactures. Have storage products, will carry multimedia players too. We’ve seen this with Western Digital, Netgear, and of course Iomega. Iomega had two of their latest multimedia players on display at CES 2009 – the ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive with 1.0 TB of disk space and the hard-drive-less ScreenPlay TV Link device.  The ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive is the company’s high end, networked multimedia player with a built-in 1.0 TB hard drive, while the ScreenPlay TV Link is an inexpensive media player without a built-in hard drive.

Here’s a quick summary of features for the two products.

For the Iomega ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive, you get:

• Connects to your home network
• Store and access videos, music, and photo collections
• Browse the network for media
• Record SD video from camera, cable box, or VCR with one-touch capture record button
• Supports native HD
• Audio Formats – MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, DTS, AAC, AIFF, PCM, M4A, AC3, WAV
• Video Formats – MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (HL/ML), .MPEG-4 (part 2, ASP), DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, HD), Xvid, AVI, mov, iso, vob, mp4, mkv
• Photo Formats – JPEG and BMP
• SCART, HDMI, Composite Video, Component Video, Coaxial S/PDIF output
• Video upscale to 1080i
• Supports USB Wi-Fi dongle
• Available for $299.99

For the ScreenPlay TV Link device, you get the following:

• Compact, affordable multimedia player
• Connect a USB hard drive formatted in either NTFS or FAT32
• Video upscale to 1080i via HDMI
• Energy efficient
• includes remote control
• Audio Formats – MP3, AC3 (Dolby® Digital Encoding), WMA, WAV, OGG
• Video Formats – MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB), MPEG-4 (AVI/DiVX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x/XViD)
• Photo Format – JPEG
• HDMI, Composite Video, Component Video
• Measures 3.26 x 3.07 x .78 inches and weighs 0.22 lbs
• Available for $99.95.

Technorati Tags: Iomega, ScreenPlay TV Link, ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive, CES 2009

Iomega has introduced their new ScreenPlay TV Link device which as the name implies, tries to link your digital content to your television display. The device connects to your USB storage device (supports USB (NTFS or FAT32) hard drives, USB flash drives, and the Iomega REV drive) and plays back your movies, music, and photos. Unlike the popular Popcorn Hour device which can house a hard drive, connect to USB drives, or stream content off the network, the ScreenPlay TV Link can only play content from connected USB drives.

The supported formats include the following:

• Audio Formats – MP3, AC3 (Dolby® Digital Encoding), WMA, WAV, OGG
• Video Formats – MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI/VOB), MPEG-4 (AVI/DiVX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x/XViD)
• Photo Format – JPEG

Output wise, the ScreenPlay TV Link has the following audio/video connections:

• HDMI; Composite video and audio R/L; Component video: Y, Pb, Pr; Coaxial S/PDIF output; SCART (RGB) (European Users Only)

The device supports video upscaling to 720p/1080i via HDMI. The ScreenPlay TV Link measures 3.26 x 3.07 x .78 inches and weighs a scant 0.22 pounds. Price wise, you can purchase the ScreenPlay for $94.95.

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Technorati Tags: Iomega, ScreenPlay TV Link

Dell is taking a page out of Apple’s business model by introducing a new line of bags and accessories dubbed “Designed for Dell”. These are products designed by third party manufacturers that complement the latest Dell PCs such as the Studio laptops that were recently introduced. This is Dell’s attempt to create an industry similar to what we’ve seen with Apple’s iPod/iPhone product line – third party products that accentuate the capabilities of the main product. In this case, we’ve got the new Dell Studio notebook which is just begging for matching case designs, cool looking speakers, hard drives for more storage space, and funky mice. Current manufacturers participating in the Designed for Dell program include:

• Belkin: Backpacks and messenger cases
• Built: Computer sleeves, cargo bags and portfolios
• Creative Labs: Headphones and speakers
• Iomega: Portable hard drives
• Logitech: Mice
• Swiss Gear: Backpacks
• Targus: Messenger cases and accessories bundles

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Dell, Designed for Dell, Belkin, Built, Creative Labs, Iomega, Logitech, Swiss Gear, Targus

Iomega is now selling a USB based external hard drive marketed towards the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 game consoles called the Media Xporter. Yes.. I do say marketed because a traditional USB based external hard drive will work just fine with either the PS3 or the Xbox 360. What makes the Xporter slightly different boils down to two umm.. features. Feature 1 – the Xporter has a "cool, contemporary black style" design (though I suppose cool is pretty subjective) and Feature 2 – the drive comes with the Prism Video Converter MX software application which allows users to convert media files into file formats compatible with the 360 and the PS3. Specs on the Iomega Media Xporter are as follows:

• 160GB
• Preformated
• No AC adapter required – USB powered
• USB 2.0
• Meaures 0.625 x 2.93 x 5.15 inches and weighs 0.4 lbs

[Check it out via Ubergizmo]

Technorati Tags: Iomega, Media Xporter, 160GB, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, External Hard Drive