Toshiba’s new drive could make networked storage much more simple

There aren’t many network-attached hard drives for the home, and those that exist aren’t always easy to use… not unless you enjoy drive mapping, anyway. Toshiba may just make the experience simpler with its just-shipped Canvio Home, though. This sequel to the Canvio Personal Cloud takes some of the guesswork out of setting up and finding your storage on your home network; if you just need to drag-and-drop files, you could be up and running within minutes.

The cloud, it would seem, is passé. All the cool kids are now backing up their devices to—and streaming media from—personal storage devices that are connected to the cloud, but physically located securely at home. Toshiba joined that crowd today, announcing its new Canvio Home Backup & Share network-attached storage device (NAS). “Canvio Home is a file-sharing and media-streaming device for home network users and people on the go,” said Toshiba product manager Jackie Lee. “You can centralize all your content in one place and protect it.” Toshiba is casting a wide net with the Canvio Home, offering automated backup and streaming software for both the Mac and PC, and mobile apps for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.