Iomega Announces EZ Media & Backup Center; Saves and Shares Your Photos Automatically

LAS VEGAS-It’s no longer enough for a networked storage drive to simply back up all your files. Iomega’s just-announced EZ Media & Backup Center not only saves all your photos and videos, but, as its name suggests, makes it easy to share them with friends and family in a variety of ways. 

This device, which Iomega says can be setup without an installation CD, has support for both Time Machine and BitTorrent. With a built-in iTunes server and DLNA-certified, consumers can stream their content to a TV or video game console (such as an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3), or other connected device.

The EZ Media & Backup Center has a few other neat tricks: Using so-called Active folders, it can automatically resize photos (but keep the originals intact), as well as add a watermark. Then, it can automatically post those files to your Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr accounts, as well as email photos to designated friends and family. Users can also create a slideshow on the device, and share that with others, too. 

Using the Iomega Personal Cloud, users can access their files remotely using a web browser. 

The Iomega EZ Media & Backup Center is expected to ship in February 2012, and will come in three sizes: A 1TB model will cost $219, a 2TB version will cost $299, and a 3TB model will sell for $399. All will come with a three-year warranty. 

Also announced was the StorCenter ix2 Network Storage drive, which is targeted at small- and medium-size businesses who are looking for a drive that can not only back up corporate data, but be used in conjunction with video surveillance cameras. 

With up to 6TB of storage, the ix2 can support up to five IP cameras, and can be accessed remotely from a Web browser using the Iomega Personal Cloud service, or from an iPad or iPhone using Iomega Link. The ix2 also supports Time Machine, VMWare and XenServer. 

Pricing starts at $199 for a diskless model (no hard drives included), and goes up to $769 for the 6TB version. The device, which will be available in February, will come with a three-year warranty and five-day/13 hours per day support. 

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