Cloud Engines Pogoplug Pro DIY cloud box
Your data, available globally
Review Since Reg Hardware reviewed the earlier version of this device in February, the vendor, Cloud Engines, has made some significant firmware and hardware improvements that justify a second visit.
Cloud Engines' Pogoplug Pro: manly colours, this time round
The obvious change to this new "Pro" version is the colour: the white and shocking pink livery that stirred controversy in the always lively Pogoplug forum has been replaced by a sombre piano black, although the eccentric "wingless doubledecker flyingboat" design remains.
Inside, the switch from the single-core ARMv5 processor of the pink model to a dual-core ARMv6 CPU running the SMP version of Linux is probably less significant than it might seem. Rather than increase its power, the aim is make the machine more responsive while still retaining the sub-5W power rating that puts it in the "plug" class.
The other hardware change is the addition of built-in wireless, 2.4GHz 802.11n, to be precise. Owners of the previous pink version can upgrade to wireless networking by adding a USB dongle, but this obviously reduces the available USB sockets from four to three. The built-in wireless works well, but I'm not inclined to bury my long-term aversion to piping HD media through anything short of a CAT5 cable where possible.
Three USB ports round the back, in addition to the one on the front
Like its predecessor, the Pogoplug Pro works as a LAN fileserver, although it doesn't offer regular Windows sharing, aka Samba or SMB/CIFS. Instead, Cloud Engines supplies a local application for your Mac, Linux or Windows machine.
Next page: Native desktop access
COMMENTS
Send photos on Grandma's printer
I can imagine installing one of these at Grandma's house with a little photo printer. Then I can send photos of little Grandson and Granddaughter at any time. Grandma likes prints because she can show them to her buddies. The nice thing about the pogoplug is that I don't have to be a technical wizard and consultant should something go wrong. A photo site is nice, but then I have to teach G'ma about photo sites and how to navigate and how to print and....
Got one of these
It's not ready for prime time. Slow and buggy, I've hit a bug where my drives will disappear from the device every single day until it has been rebooted. I don't know what the iPhone one is like but the Android's application is useless.
What ?
"The advantage over Samba sharing as usually implemented is that the drives attached to the Pogoplug can be formatted for Window, Mac or Linux, and still appear as accessible shares on the desktop."
Are you sure ? Samba would work with and present the share regardless of how the drive is formatted. Please try harder...
If you're a proper nerd,
you'll have installed a proper *nix OS, and all the gubbins you want, (like me), and been chuffed to fsck!
What's the processor?
I have a sheevaplug which is great, but firstly it's a couple of years old now (and there are better chips available) and secondly it's on the other side of the planet.
So what are the actual specs here?
I'd love to hack debian linux on to it....
