Lacie’s LaPlug is identical to the Pogoplug in concept: plug in any USB HDD and it magically transforms into a Time Machine-compatible NAS drive that’s accessible from outside your home network. This is a product trend I like.
Hard drives die. That’s a fact. What happens to your NAS once your drives go bad? The drives aren’t always user replaceable. But if you have something like the LaPlug, when a drive dies, you’re not completely without NAS powers. The last time I used a Pogoplug, however, it was cripplingly slow. I’m hoping these types of products have gotten faster since then. $US75. [Lacie via Engadget]