The Digital Home

Is it just me or did the time fly? Just one week ago, I was telling you about great Sunday deals from your local ads, and now I've got a whole net set of them. This week looks like another big one with deals on everything from computers to software.

Take a look:

D-Link DNS-323

(Credit: CNET)

Most of the time here on The Digital Home, I talk about products that may seem more consumer-focused than a NAS soluion. And while this D-Link SATA RAID Gigabit NAS may seem like a more business-use device, think again. For a nicely affordable price and fantastic performance, the DNS-323 is a great addition to any home.

Design

The DNS-323 is small enough to fit on a bookshelf and its black coloring helps it easily become part of any home setup. The front faceplate on the device comes off and reveals two drive bays that allow you to insert any SATA hard drive. A D-Link button on the face of the DNS allows you to power it on, while three LEDs tell which which drives are active and if there is any work currently being performed by the device. All in all, there's nothing too fancy about its design, but the DNS-323 doesn't need to be sexy -- it needs to work. And trust me, this works.

Setup

Setting up the DNS-323 took a matter of minutes. First, you need to find two 3.5-inch SATA hard drives into either or both bays. Once installed, simply plug the NAS into your router with the included Ethernet cable and watch as it assigns itself an IP address with the help of the included software. Once you format the drives and install the D-Link hard drive utility software on your home computers, you can begin the process of mapping drives and establishing RAID.

Performance

As you might guess, the DNS-323 is capable of copying any files from any computer (PC, Mac or Linux) in your home. Even better, you can access the files on the drives from any computer, which makes home file sharing simple and convenient. I found the Search Utility to work quite well and regardless of operating system, the DNS worked as advertised.

The DNS-323 offers four hard drive modes (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID1). Standard mode creates two separate and accessible hard drives for use on any computer. JBOD combines both drives to maximize your space. RAID 0 will give you the best performance and can read at speeds of up to 23MBps and write at 15MBps with the help of a Gigabit Ethernet connection Finally, RAID 1 causes the drives to mirror each other so your chances of losing important information are minimized.

For my testing, I used RAID 0 and found that it worked quite well. Uploading and downloading files and folders to the drive was easy and quick, but the aforementioned speeds that the company promotes were never actually witnessed. That said, it was speedy enough to justify its continued use.

One especially nice feature of the DNS-323 is its ability to send music and movies to UPnP AV Media Players. And as I'll discuss soon, D-Link's Media Lounge series of products is the perfect companion for this feature and streaming my media was quite simple. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to transmit protected or unprotected iTunes songs, so this feature may be useless to many.

Bottom Line

If you're concerned about storage and you currently have files and folders that need backing up, the D-Link DNS-323 is a great place to start. For as little as $150 (depending on where you buy it), the device will continually save and store your most important information. That said, be aware that this is just an introductory product and you will need to buy your own internal hard drives in order to use it. But if you don't mind spending the money on some extra drives, you'll find a nice storage solution in the DNS-323.

Check back each Friday on The Digital Home as Don performs a hands-on evaluation of some of the hottest home products around. Next week: The XM XpressRC. If you want to see prior Hands-on Friday articles from Don, click here.

As I sat here today, trying to decide what the topic should be for this week's Future Implications piece, I thought of the ever-popular topics of computing, smart phones and even HDTVs. But alas, I came across this list from Ethisphere that lists the World's Most Ethical Companies for 2007.

Upon opening the link and examining the list, I was aghast at what I found: most major tech companies were nowhere to be found. Is this an endemic issue in the technology business? And more importantly, what can be done to fix it?

I could have bought a Zune with that $200!

(Credit: News.com.com)

With last week's announcement by Steve Jobs that his company would be reducing the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399, many people were wondering why.

Some said it dropped the price to look more attractive to holiday shoppers. Others claimed it was due to the fact that production costs were lower, and Apple could afford to drop the price and still make a nice profit. And as for me? Well, I think Apple dropped the price because its fanboy well dried up, and the average consumer wasn't willing to spend that kind of money for a cell phone.

I was just reading through my daily news feeds when I came across this interesting little nugget of information from Techdirt.

According to the site, the Vancouver Sun gave away free compilations of songs from artists on the Nettwerk record label in an attempt to appeal to readers and make the newspaper a bit more popular. So, after reading this, I can't help but wonder--can free music downloads save newspapers? I think they can.

The Wi-Fi only iPhone?

(Credit: News.com)

Remember when I told you that I believed Google could kill the cell phone industry by participating in the wireless spectrum auction? Well, what if I told you that Apple may participate in that same auction and the possibility of it destroying the cell phone industry is just as great?

Now, before you raise your hands and say I'm full of it, understand that this is all a guess on my part and there is currently no indication that Apple will (1) definitely participate and (2) do what I am about to say. That said, the company still might participate in the auction and my predictions could, could come true. So, without further ado, here is how I think Apple could kill the cell phone industry.

Some Sunday Deals

(Credit: CNET)

I'll admit it -- I'm obsessed with the Sunday ads. Each morning, I run to the paper, open it up, take out the electronics ads and go find a secluded place in my house to see what kind of deals are available at my favorite stores. It's one of my favorite past times.

So, with that in mind, how would you like if I gave you some deals every Sunday? This is something I just thought up today while I was reading it and thought it would be a nice summary of what deals you can get for the week. I'm going to try it out for the next few weeks and I'd appreciate any comments or feedback you may have. Hey, even better, post some of your own deals you found in the comments.

I don't know about you, but I really can't stand buying something on a Saturday for full price and seeing it offered at a 20 percent discount the next day. There's something terribly disconcerting about the fact that I just spent more money than I had to in order to buy a new device. Let's put an end to this every Sunday and see what kind of deals are available in brick and mortars as well as online.

So, without further ado, here are some of the best deals I've found in my area for some of the most popular electronics stores. As I said above: if you would like to add some, please share.

Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System

(Credit: Logitech)

When I use my computer, I typically find myself listening to music and podcasts, or maybe even watch some videos. And while my six-year old Altec Lansing speakers do a pretty nice job of reproducing sound, the Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System does it far better than any other computer surround sound system I've used.

Design

The Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System is well-equipped and quite attractive. It comes with four speakers (FL, FR, RL, RR), a center channel, subwoofer and a control pod that does your bidding. The subwoofer is cased in a nice black plastic, while the speakers are small, yet adequately sized to fit any space. Even better, the G51 came with extra designs that you can cut out and apply to the side of the speakers for additional customization. If you'd rather to do it yourself, you can also surf over to this page to download software and artwork. If that still doesn't work, you can always design your own and insert it into the "patent-pending mod system" on each satellite speaker. Sure, it's not the greatest of add-ons, but it does add some personal flair to an otherwise run-of-the-mill design.

G51 Speaker System

(Credit: Logitech)

The box of doom?

(Credit: CNET)

As I've mentioned before, I believe Sony is in for a rude awakening with its PlayStation 3. The company's expectation that video game consumers will flock to the PS3 because of its technical prowess was disastrously incorrect, and the notion that Sony can sell hardware that is too expensive and difficult to develop for is something it has yet to address.

And while some Sony fanatics have called me biased, I assure you, I'm not alone in my assertion that very little can save Sony and the PlayStation 3.

Yoichi Wada, president of game publisher Square Enix, told reporters Friday that Sony must change its strategy if it wants to see the release of the PlayStation 4. According to Wada, "Sony first unveiled the PS3 as a mighty home electronics product. Then, after some badgering from game companies, it shifted the position of the console closer to a game machine. (The future of the PS3) would be tough if its marketing strategy is not straightened up."

The verdict is in: one of the most important video game developers in the business is saying the PS3 is in trouble. Isn't that enough for Sony to overhaul its entire strategy?