WD My Book Live, New Home Network HDD (2TB, $230)

Western Digital Corporation introduced its My Book Live home network drive (photo), which gives consumers storage and access to their content among consumer-grade network drives and provides a set-up for centralizing a home’s digital media.

The drives present a way to consolidate movies, music, and photos in one location while providing access to digital content from multimedia devices in the connected home.

WD has leveraged the latest processor technology to deliver transfer speeds up to 100 MBps, more than triple the speed of traditional USB 2.0 drives and at least double the speeds of other network drives in its class.

My Book Live home network drive’s built-in media server makes it a solution for users who wish to view videos, music and images on any Mac or PC connected to the home network and stream digital media to a television set through a DLNA-certified multimedia device such as WD TV Live Plus HD media player, Blu-ray Disc player, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game console. Users can also play music and videos stored on their drive in iTunes, as well as view their digital photos on their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with the swipe of a finger through the included WD Photos application. Users can also securely access and share all the content and files stored on the My Book Live from any Internet-connected PC or Mac using WD’s free remote access service.

"Network attached storage presents tremendous opportunity for families wishing to centralize all of their digital content and enjoy it on computers, TVs and smartphones around their home and beyond," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. "Our consumer research tells us that consumers need a simple way to set up a one-stop shop for their digital media. WD’s My Book Live home network drive makes it easy for anyone to enjoy the benefits of network storage and delivers blazing read speeds to boot."

My Book Live home network drive features:

• Simple set-up – ready in minutes;
• Seamless video streaming with a built-in DLNA media server;
• Automatic backup with WD SmartWare software for Windows;
• Apple Time Machine compatibility;
• Gigabit Ethernet technology for speeds faster than USB 2.0 drives; and,
• A 3-year limited warranty.

Capacity and Compatibility
My Book Live home network drive is available in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard, as well as DLNA/UPnP enabled devices.

Price and Availability
My Book Live home network drive has a 3-year limited warranty and is now available at select U.S. retailers and online at the wdstore.com. MSRP is $169.99 USD for 1 TB and $229.99 USD for 2 TB.