Seagate Personal Cloud In Depth Review - New 2015 NAS Network Attached Storage

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Seagate just released their new Personal Cloud Network Attached Storage device (NAS). This new line of products will replace the Seagate Central product that we reviewed a year or two ago.
VIDEO INDEX:
00:06 - Hardware overview
01:58 - Drive replacement
02:38 - Web based control panel and discussion
05:25 - iTunes sharing discussion and issues
07:05 - Backup features
10:06 - Downloadable apps
11:22 - Sdrive application
13:21 - iPhone , iPad and Android mobile app Seagate Media
15:48 - Benchmarks
16:45 - Conclusion and final thoughts
This product's focus is on overall simplicity - there is very little to configure. That may present a problem for more technical savvy users who want to have more control over what the device does.
Sharing permissions are entirely user based - so creating a user also creates a file share for that user. There is no way to share folders between users, so the only option to work collaboratively is to use the drive's "public" folder that is accessible to all registered users on the drive. I don't like that each user has to set up their own backup schedule. It would be nice for the head administrator to be able to initiate a device-wide backup on a regular interval.
It functions as well as other network attached storage devices on a local network.
I like their new "S-Drive" application that allows the disk to be access directly through Windows or Mac when not on the local network. It acts as a mini-VPN service that provides end-to-end encryption for accessing the drive remotely. It has some rough edges still but it's a great way to provide full OS level access to the drive when away from home.
The mobile app is also a bit rough and needs some work. Photos are really blurry and don't take advantage of the full resolution that modern smart phone and tablet displays can provide. The interface could use some polishing too.
Performance is good and about on par with other NAS drives at this price point.
But on balance this is the simplest NAS device I've seen. If you're new to network sharing there isn't anything easier than this.
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