A friend of mine made this - not sure it covers everything but maybe a partial answer:
A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#12I think you really want this to be 2 pieces: something "in the cloud" and a local cache.
When you're accessing from your phone (at least when not on your home WiFi) or a computer that's not at your house, it would access the one in the cloud, which would make it faster and not rely on your home Internet working.
Most importantly, if your house burns down, you're not totally fucked.
So the local device interfaces with TVs and such and keeps you from having to wait for anything to download because it's all cached on there. The cloud piece keeps your data safe and makes it a lot less likely that you won't be able to access your data because your Internet is down.
It's possible that you could use Dropbox as the cloud piece and sync mechanism and put together a special server that can do all of the TV/remote control/stereo integration he wants.
One issue is that even 100GB may not be enough for everyone.
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#13You can dust off an old computer you don't use and set up a VPN/web server. Tack on everything on your check list and there you go.
That was my first reaction, too. Once you add enough features (streaming video, web interface) it stops being a "storage device" and quickly becomes a general purpose computer, which have existed for a while now. It's not a sleek and trendy answer, but it would sure do the trick. And it would be a lot more customizable for whatever additional crazy plans he dreams up for it, while any gadget equivalents quickly fade…
Why are you taking his advice literally? His advice is to a hypothetical startup. The point the author is making that a startup that would make what you describe into a zeroconf plug-it-in-it-works solution would be very successful.
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#14This was featured on This Week in Startups which may fit the bill: http://tonido.com/
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#15And please integrate with facebook/google/twitter so I can download/stream movies from my friend's devices.
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#16I would look at a Myth TV box for this. I wonder if someone will build a good business around creating and selling Myth Boxes.
Somebody did. And it appears they are now going out of business:
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#17There's also Windows Home Server, which does everything you're looking for I believe. Here's a list of features from the wikipedia page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server ):
Yes. I do this, although I also use a dedicated HTPC by my TV. A little expensive but gets used all the time and I can stream Netflix, Hulu, watch a movie in almost any format including Blu-Ray.
I've looked into alternatives, (PS3, dedicated media players, etc, etc) but nothing else has everything I wanted.
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my first reaction, too. Once you add enough features (streaming video, web interface) it stops being a "storage device" and quickly becomes a general purpose computer, which have existed for a while now. It's not a sleek and trendy answer, but it would sure do the trick. And it would be a lot more customizable for whatever additional crazy plans he dreams up for it, while any gadget equivalents quickly fade…
Why are you taking his advice literally? His advice is to a hypothetical startup. The point the author is making that a startup that would make what you describe into a zeroconf plug-it-in-it-works solution would be very successful.
It seems to be phrased both ways, like "I want something that does these things, and I think there is a market for it". We were mostly addressing the first part.
I agree that a consumer-oriented gadget to do the same thing easily could be neat. I don't know that there'd be that big of a market though. I suspect most of the general population wouldn't see the need, and the very geeky would tend towards existing free methods of doing the same thing (MythTV and the like).
Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my first reaction, too. Once you add enough features (streaming video, web interface) it stops being a "storage device" and quickly becomes a general purpose computer, which have existed for a while now. It's not a sleek and trendy answer, but it would sure do the trick. And it would be a lot more customizable for whatever additional crazy plans he dreams up for it, while any gadget equivalents quickly fade…
Why are you taking his advice literally? His advice is to a hypothetical startup. The point the author is making that a startup that would make what you describe into a zeroconf plug-it-in-it-works solution would be very successful.
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Re: A startup should create this storage device. I would buy it.
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my first reaction, too. Once you add enough features (streaming video, web interface) it stops being a "storage device" and quickly becomes a general purpose computer, which have existed for a while now. It's not a sleek and trendy answer, but it would sure do the trick. And it would be a lot more customizable for whatever additional crazy plans he dreams up for it, while any gadget equivalents quickly fade…
Why are you taking his advice literally? His advice is to a hypothetical startup. The point the author is making that a startup that would make what you describe into a zeroconf plug-it-in-it-works solution would be very successful.
The author also wrote in the context of a problem and under his "solutions out there" he did not list the self-configuring solution as a possibility. Presumably, the author may not be aware of this solution and we are just throwing it out there as a suggestion. As gdl noted, there are advantages to this solution over a plug-it-in-works solution. It's pretty straightforward to configure and set up too (google instructions, download, and tweak some settings); provided you have the hardware lying around.