So now you can access your own personal media from just about any internet connected device. The personal cloud has arrived! Security is of course always a concern. None of your data is stored anywhere other than on your own drives at home, so no one else has access to it.
Sounds pretty cool, huh? And like I said earlier all of this is powered by Open Source. You can read that interview here. Many of the reasons that both Brad and the Puttermans point to are common themes in start ups adopting open source, but bear repeating. Early adopters of new technology products tend to also be supporters and users of open source tools. There is a huge overlap between the two groups.
Open source folks are tinkerers. By giving root access and using open source components Cloud Engines allows more technologically advanced users to experiment and push the product in new directions.
At the same time they really wanted to keep it really simple for new users to just plug and play. Sort of the family sedan with a hot rod engine under the hood. Using open source allowed Cloud Engines to get to market much more quickly by not having to reinvent the wheel.
They spent their time spec'ing out the hardware and developing the web services APIs which are open to enable the basic functionality. As a result, there has been a tremendous amount of experimentation on Pogoplug. Most of the major Linux variants can run on it, as well as a wide range of Linux apps. In fact there is a site called PlugApps where you can download and find out about many apps that run on Pogoplug and other plug computers.
This represents a real developers community independent of Cloud Engines. Additionally, Cloud Engines maintains a forum at pogoplugged. I think tinkering with the Linux kernel and adding more apps to the box is only the beginning of what can happen using the open source back end here. I think developers may add functionality to the Pogoplug that the Cloud Engines people may not have even thought of yet.
But that is the power of open source at work. Editors' Note: As of November , this product has been replaced by the second-generation Pogoplug. Wouldn't it be nice to quickly access your data from anywhere without a complicated network setup?
That's exactly what the Cloud Engines Pogoplug offers. The device itself is almost shockingly small; it's a tiny white box--measuring just 2 inches by 4.
It comes with only two ports: a USB 2. The Pogoplug can be plugged straight into an AC wall outlet but it also comes with an extension cord in case you want to keep the power outlet clear. By default it supports only one device but you can change that by using a USB hub.
Once you've plugged in the USB drive, the included Ethernet cable running to your home network's router , and the power, you should get a couple of green lights on the unit indicating that it's properly communicating with your home network. Then you need to go through the setup process. For most network devices, that's where the aggravation begins, but the Pogoplug setup process is about as simple and stress-free as it gets. Just fire up your PC's Web browser, go to my.
If the system doesn't automatically recognize your Pogoplug on the home network, you just need to type in the unique digit serial code printed on the unit. Finish up by creating a Pogoplug account mercifully, you need only supply an e-mail address and password , and you're done. There are two ways to access files on the PogoPlug: via my. Both work on a home network or over the Internet. We started with the drive mapping plug-ins, which are available as free downloads on Pogoplug's Web site for and bit Windows XP, Vista, or 7 , Mac OS X, and Linux including a bit version as well.
Downloading any of these will enable the Pogoplug-connected drive to appear as a regular local hard drive. We tested the Cloud Engines Pogoplug by loading it up with an assortment of iTunes music and video files--some DRM protected--as well as a folder of photos and a few short homemade videos. We tried it on both Windows and Mac laptops and found it worked as though the Pogoplug drive was connected directly to the computer.
We noted some occasional hiccups when working over the Internet, from our office to our home, several miles away, but when working within our home network, everything was smooth. Web access also allows users to view or even download and upload files from nearly any popular browser. The simple interface shows your files in a list of icons format, and downloading or sharing any of the files only involves clicking one of the few buttons that appear below each.
Setup is pretty simple. Just plug the Pogoplug into an outlet, hook it up to your router and connect the hard drive. The desktop software is like a cross between SugarSync and Dropbox. It creates a separate drive on your computer, so you can drag and drop files, and it also lets you select folders on your PC to backup automatically. On the road, you can access your Pogoplug files through mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
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