Iomega's Home Media Network Hard Drive backs up files, streams content

Slowly but surely, the multimedia hard drive is becoming more and more relevant. At first, it was outlets like Mvix doing the honors, and then mainstays such as LaCie got in while the gettin' was good. Now, we've got ole Iomega trying its hand at the game, with the introduction of the Home Media Network Hard Drive at Macworld in San Francisco. The drive, which includes the firm's LifeLine software, enables users to easily backup their precious files and stream music, photos, videos and all manners of other multimedia between computers, networked TVs, gaming consoles, etc. For those curious, it'll function just fine as an iTunes server and play oh-so-nice with DLNA certified devices, and aside from the obligatory gigabit Ethernet jack, there's also a USB port for adding a shared network printer or extra capacity. It should be available early this month for $159.99 (500GB) / $229.99 (1TB).