14 DAY TRIAL // Western Digital, like all of its competitors, has been releasing storage units of all kinds, and the latest one comes under the guise of the My Book Live home network drive, an external storage unit with network connectivity.
Network-attached storage devices have become quite widespread among those that set up or keep small office or home networks.
The new product that Western Digital came up with, however, is not exactly a NAS, since it does not actually have the multi-drive bay construction that such solution usually sport.
The My Book Live has a weight of 1.09 kg and measures 167 (H) x 139 (D) x 50 (W) mm, its main purpose being to store media collections and stream content to third-party devices with support for DLNA.
To this end, it boasts a Gigabit Ethernet interface and, as a bonus, the WD SmartWare software, which performs automatic backup tasks.
"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," Pistilli added.
The product can be set up in minutes, is compatible with Apple's Time Machine and comes with two available capacity options.
To be more specific, end-users can select between one with internal storage of 1 TB and one with 2 TB, each with a price of $170 and $230, respectively.
Both are backed by a three-year warranty and can be seen in detail on the official product page.