mac.iLounge

Wireless storage and backup is clearly the way things are going, and LaCie’s new CloudBox ($120-$180) is one of the cleanest implementations we’ve seen. Like many of the the company’s drives, this one is designed by Neil Poulton and it looks great: it’s a simple white box with just two ports: one for power and another for an Ethernet connection. With it you can store and stream files from multiple devices and multiple users, in the house or outside of it.

CloudBox comes in 1TB, 2TB, or 3TB capacities that should enough storage for any size family. It shows up as a drive that can be accessed by Macs and iOS devices, with shared and private folders. For backup you have the choice of using Time Machine, LaCie’s own Backup Assistant, or Wuala Secure Cloud Storage. Sharing is easy too. Think of it as your own personal Dropbox, only locally stored and with a lot more space.