Basic HTML Version
ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW HOLLISTER
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
FEBRUARY 2012
I’LL ADMIT IT,
I have an obscene amount
of media: hundreds of apps, thousands
of albums , count less hours of TV
shows and movies, folder after folder
of pictures and who knows how many
plain old documents. That’s at least a
terabyte’s worth of storage space. What’s
a media geek like me to do if he wants
to access all that on the road? Storing it
in the cloud is a prohibitively expensive
proposition—it’d cost me $1,000 a year
to keep it on Amazon’s Cloud Drive (and
that much space isn’t even available on
Apple’s iCloud).
The answer? Make your own cloud. If
you already have an external hard drive
at home with all your media loaded on it,
the easiest way to turn it into a remote-
accessible personal cloud is to plug it
into
Pogoplug
($50, pogoplug.com). This
sleek, router-size device has built-in
so ware that provides an interface for
accessing files on any of the storage drives
it’s connected to. Setup is a cinch—all I
had to do was hook it intomy router with
the included cable, stick the power cord
into anACoutlet and connectmy external
hard drive to one of the Pogoplug’s USB
ports. After a quick automated sign-in,
my personal cloud was up and running.
Now, whether I’musingmy iPad, Android
phone or laptop, I can access my files
from anywhere via my.pogoplug.com. I
can upload, download and share pictures
through e-mail or public links, as well as
download, upload and streammovies, TV
and music—even iTunes purchases—to
any web-connected device. Simple.
Pogoplug is great when I have a wire-
less connection, but when I need to keep
it local, I use the
SeagateGoFlex Satellite
($200, seagate.com). While it looks just like
any other flask-size hard drive, it has one
killer additional feature: the ability to
stream up to five hours from more than
300 movies to an iPad, iPhone, Android
device or laptop via its own localized
Wi-Fi hotspot. That means I can’t use it
to surf the Web, but also that I don’t need
Internet access for it to work.
What’s more, I can watch the pilot of
“Terra Nova” while one of my colleagues
(or familymembers) watches
Bridesmaids
,
since the GoFlex Satellite can stream up
to three different movies to three differ-
ent devices simultaneously. Accessing
the files is as easy as downloading and
opening up the GoFlex Satellite app or
launching your web browser.
These hardware solutions may not
have all the cool push features of iCloud,
but they do give me access to more of my
media at a fraction of the cost. What do
I do with the savings? Buy more music,
movies and TV shows, of course.
Tech columnist
TOM SAMILJAN
also has a
large collection of vinyl and cassette tapes—
none of which are saved online.
Cloud Control
The best personal storage solutions for on-the-go media junkies
BY TOM SAMILJAN
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