Category: Tech

Gadget Review: Iomega NAS Media Server

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I have a lot of media on my various computers, music, photos, videos and the like, but I’ve never found a satisfactory way of storing them all. My solution was to put them on my main laptop, which has a large hard disk, and then share the folders to my other laptop and Xbox 360. This is fine, except I tend to reformat my laptop quite often, and don’t keep it at on all the time at a desk, instead it’s packed away in its bag when not i use, making playing some music from my Xbox a bit of a hassle. So I decided a NAS box was what I needed. My only consideration really was price, I really don’t care about speed since most of the time I’ll be using 802.11g to access the files and so the Iomega 1TB drive is what I picked. It cost £120 from PC World, which I thought was good value. I’d read a few reviews, but since these reviews Iomega has released a new firmware (which came preinstalled on mine) and so a lot of the drawbacks have been addressed.

NAS BOX

I have to say, I am very impressed. The drive is fully accessible via SMB, meaning the software that comes with the drive is not essential (I only needed to install it once to find out what IP address my DHCP server had assigned it). The drive is actually a very small computer (probably running Linux, though I can’t be sure) and so it offers extra functionality. So called “Live Folders” allow you to create a folder that’s contents gets uploaded to Facebook, YouTube or resized for example. The NAS box can also act as a bit-torrent client, but unfortunately can’t be set to download a large file over FTP/HTTP. The device is also an iTunes server as well as a DLNA server (this is an open standard that the Xbox 360 uses to stream music and video over a LAN). If only TV shows purchased from iTunes didn’t have DRM, I’d buy a few, since being able to download a series of 24 straight to this device and watch it on my Xbox would be amazing. Still, having all your media always available via Media Centre/Xbox/ITunes is great.

The downsides to this device are the hard disk appears to be FAT32 (according to another review I read) – this means it’s not journaled and in the event of a power-cut the drive/data could be corrupted. There’ is only one hard disk, and 1TB of data is a LOT of data to be held at the whim on someone spilling something on it, or a cat knocking it over, so I will still be keeping the stuff I value most in two places. Anyone wanting a proper backup solution rather than a media server solution would be wise to get something that has RAID. It’s also quite noisy and doesn’t spin down the hard disk when it’s not in use.

Overall, I am pleased with this purchase and would recommend this media server to other looking for a good value solution.

Update:

I found the following information in the manual that states the drive actually uses the XFS filesystem, which was one of the first journalled filesystems. Hooray!

The Home Media Drive shares files using the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol and stores its files on XFS (built-in), FAT32 (external), and NTFS (external) hard drives.

I didn’t mention this before, but you can also plug in a USB drive and share it, or you can plug in a USB printer than share that instead. Shame there’s no SSH access however 🙂

The application bandwagon?

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A couple of years ago I remember reading in the technology press about how desktop software was dead, and that the web was the future. Skip forward to today and I still hear the same thing, only with the word ‘web’ replaced with ‘cloud’ – cloud being a buzzword, simply meaning some server, somewhere.

I liked that promise, in a world where Microsoft Outlook takes about 10 times longer than the combination of Google Chrome and Gmail to load, web based software certainly seems to me to be the future. So I was surprised today when I discovered that the BBC is launching some new pieces of client software for mobile phones. These days, all the major web sites have their own ‘app’ – The Guardian, RadioTimes, WordPress, even the White House to name just a few examples – yet nearly all of those apps could work just fine in the web browser. Does this mean the web application is dead? I pondered this, and came to the conclusion that no, web apps aren’t dead. The fact that The Guardian and The Whitehouse haven’t released an application for Windows or MacOSX tells me that this is just a mobile thing, and that installable applications are perhaps easier to use than web sites, with their caching, gestures and smooth animations. The BBC’s applications will feature high-quality flash, something Apple don’t allow inside the iPhone’s web browser so that’s probably their reasoning. Installable applications (on the iPhone in particular) create a desktop presence, you can bet that people who’ve installed The Guardian’s app visit The Guardian more often that those who have a bookmark buried away somewhere, or type the address manually, so there is added benefit to the content provider. Of course, as the Windows Quick Launch area taught us, too much branding on the desktop can get annoying, so maybe it is a fad after all, and we’ll all be using web based mobile apps in 2 years time?

Is that client software? Google cleverly pretends to install client-side software, when it is in fact, just a web application.

Goodbye Nokia N95, Hello iPhone

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For 2 years now I’ve been using the Nokia N95. At the time of release it was revolutionary. Even today it holds its weight when compared to the majority of phones on the market. From a top quality camera with a flash and autofocus, a GPS receiver and built in sat-nav, DVD quality video recording, to the more gimmicky 2-way slider, the N95 really is the bee’s knees.
So it was time for an upgrade. I was seriously contemplating sticking with T-Mobile and the N95 and just getting a cheaper tariff. But the N95’s biggest flaw, let me down. Build quality. My first N95 had a loose keypad, and the volume-up button broke. After about 20 months, the volume-up button broke on my second handset. Google it, it’s a common fault. Whereas once a Nokia would have been virtually indestructible (think 3310), the N95 was a fragile ornament. Other aspects of the N95 started to bug me also. The upper keypad is too cramped. It’s too easy to accidently cancel out of an application when trying to hit the ‘C’ key. Application start-up times are also slow, nothing seems seamless. I decided I needed to get a new phone.
I was torn between the iPhone and the N97. After the shocking build quality of the N95, I’d sworn never to go back to Nokia, which is a big thing for me. I’ve owned the 3330, 3510i, 6630, 6100, and 6230i – oh and the N95 of course, since 2001…. I had a play on the N97 and it looks amazing. The camera is top notch, and it feels a lot more solid than the N95. The touch screen however is very poor. A bit like the 5800, it’s resistive, and so works on pressure making it a real chore to use. The UI isn’t designed for touch, rather than adapted, and poorly adapted in my opinion. But the slide-out keyboard, and integrated flash in the browser were still enough to keep my interested.  I decided to stick to my guns, and not risk another N95. I went for the iPhone.
I’ve had many iPods before. I hate iTunes – it’s a true example of bloatware. I have used iTunes since 2001 when it was version 1, and came with Mac OS 9 – so I have a lot of experience with using it. From about version 6 onwards, it just got really slow. On Windows it has an annoying bug where it will steal focus every couple of minutes, this can be fixed by setting Windows Live Messenger not to display your song information. I’m sure Apple make iTunes on Windows run a slow as possible to make Microsoft look bad. I mean, why the hell does QuickTime, a crappy media player that no one ever runs (except as a plug-in) need a notification icon? What is it notifying me of exactly? Anyway we all know iTunes sucks, but it for syncing music and downloading podcasts, it does the job OK.
The iPhone, like the N97, looks great. Unlike the N97 it’s not at all obvious where the SIM card goes, so be sure to read the manual, or Google it as I did. The screen in capacitive, which works by conducting electricity from your figure. It’s a lot smoother and more enjoyable to use. The browser and email are great, but I do miss a few things about my N95

  • The calendar. An iPhone will only let you set a reminder for 2 days before an event. No good for a car service, or a big birthday present where you might like to be reminded a week or so before. Seems like a pointless limit, or oversight to me.
  • Bluetooth. The iPhone might as well not have Bluetooth, since you can’t send photos or contacts using it. I can understand Apple restricting music, but photos, contacts, and calendar entries? These are basics Apple and you’ve got them wrong.
  • Apple are in bed with the network operators. You can’t download podcasts over 10MB or use the iPhone has a modem, the N95 could do all of this. It was a phone not a marketing tool for 02.
  • 3G reception seems to be bad – when compared to other phones on the same network in the same room.
  • The camera is bad. The newer 3GS that I have still is poor and doesn’t have a flash.

I don’t want to be all negative – the iPhone is a worthy upgrade from the N95. Email is much quicker, and supports HTML (although Apple limit you to sending 5 photos as attachments), as well as syncing emails and calendars with exchange. The N95 would take about 30 seconds to ‘think about’ my emails after receiving them, which was just plain annoying. Direct upload the YouTube, along with some great games, and applications put the iPhone ahead of Nokia. Facebook, Twitter, even Windows Live Messenger via push (although the application author writes that the program is under review by Apple, no doubt because it might eat into network revenues) all work seamlessly. The interface is a pleasure to use.
So I’m glad I upgraded – just missing a few key bits of functionality!