For a number of years now we have been living with "central" A/C-Heating system in our home. Naturally, our place came with the generic thermostat that could only be controlled by standing in front of it and flicking the switch, (which is especially annoying at 3am when you're freezing).

Last year at the CES show we learned of a high-tech gadget that potentially would save us the trouble and money (in the long run) so we made the hard decision to shell out $250 on the NEST (we looked for stores that allow full refund - just in case).

Now, by the time we got the wind of the NEST the second generation was already in stores, so this review is based on NEST version 2.0 which is 20 percent slimmer and adds compatibility with 95 percent of low-voltage home HVAC systems, up from 75 percent.

Meet the Nest Learning Thermostat

Synology's 2-bay NAS units have consistently performed well in our tests.?Today we are looking at the latest offering from the company, the DS213+, a high performance 2-bay NAS full-featured storage solution for small and medium businesses.

Unboxing

Our DS213+ unit arrived safely packaged in a fresh green and white box with a prominent Synology logo on it. Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials.

Bundled with the DS213+ chassis you will find the following included items:

• AC adapter
• Ethernet cable
• Software Installation CD for PC and Mac
• Synology Quick Start Guide
• HDD mounting screws (used to screw the hard disk drives into the bays)

First Impressions

The DS213+ features a black glossy removable front-panel on a mat-black chassis. In vertical order the LED's and ports available on the front are:

• Status LED
• LAN LED
• Disk 1 LED
• Disk 2 LED
• SD card port

Dyson has done it, DirtDevil too; now Neato Robotics' introduces XV-22... just kidding its XV- 21 but that didn't rhyme. 

We are talking about a robotic vacuum geared for households with resident pets and excessive allergens. The new robot is shaped familiarly like its original cousin (see our review of the Neato XV-11) yet features a new filter for 3x improved airflow and suction and new bristled brush that works specifically to pick up pet hair.

Set for an April 2012 release with a reported price tag of $429. The great news is that is you already have Neato you can get  away with simply an upgrade to the latest firmware via USB and a $60 Pet and Allergy kit.

A big thank you to all our supporters and beta testers, unfortunately the project did not gain enough traction to warrant further development.

After careful consideration we have made the decision to suspend development of Grid Junction 2.0 for the foreseeable future. We have decided not to release the source code or any unfinished versions of Grid Junction 2.0. If you currently have Grid Junction 2.0 beta installed, please uninstall it at your earliest convenience.

We felt it was time to share with our readers the latest project that we have been crafting for months.

This is not a home server app, but something even better... an app for smart mobile devices (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone) PC and Mac which makes it easy to transfer content across your devices, so without further suspense... Meet TWORB!

Currently TWORB is in a private beta but we invite you to take a look, encourage you to get in touch and await for your sign-up via our newsletter.

A few months ago we announced that our Windows Home Server add-in, Grid Junction, designed to manage an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) via the Windows Home Server Dashboard, was being revamped for WHS 2011 and SBS Essentials 2011. After months of private beta testing Grid Junction v2 is now released for public testing.

In case you are not familiar with Grid Junction, which means you're not jumping for joy just yet, the original add-in was designed for Windows Home Server to manage an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) via the Windows Home Server Dashboard. Grid Junction integrates seamlessly to issue power alerts and help protect Windows Home Server from power problems such as brownouts, or blackouts by safely powering down the Windows Home Server when battery levels reach a set threshold.

Protect your Server!

Whenever your Windows Home Server 2011 or Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011 suddenly looses power or otherwise halts or restarts without warning there's a possibility that the file system may have been in an inconsistent state at that time due to data writing or disk balancing activities. If you are unlucky, this can not only corrupt your file system requiring a reinstallation of the Operating System but possibly destroy important data.

2012 is almost upon us and one company that isn't afraid to suggest "bring it on" is Synology. The company unveiled a pair of new DiskStation NAS servers that include the DS212+ and the DS212. Both of the new Network Attached Storage devices are dual-bay units with the DS212+ aiming at small and medium business and the DS212 as a successor to the DS211. We reviewed the Synology DS211 a couple of months ago and found it to be well worth its sticker price and then some. Today we are looking at the latest offering from the company, the DS212.

And now that we have got our hands on this newest member of the Synology DiskStation family, we are prompted to bring our readers a much awaited review. As always we like to begin by showing the un-boxing of the product. From the sturdy and sound packaging it's obvious that Synology values and protects their products even after it leaves their warehouses.

After thorough beta testing that began back in July of this year, the creator of the popular Advanced Admin Console add-in, Andreas Miceli announced that all the bugs and wrinkles have been ironed out.

Andreas released one last version before the final build, version 0.9.6 under the name of "Release Candidate Refresh". The copy will be good until 02/01/2012. After that a license will be required for the Advanced Admin Console 2011 software.

The Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate Refresh will work until February 1, 2012. Starting that day it will switch to reduced functionality mode for home users and will cease to function for business users. Both groups of users will need to purchase a license (pricing TBA) in order to be able to make use of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 feature set after that date.

For now if you have the previous beta version of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 add-in, be advised it will no longer work after 12/01/2011 so please be sure to download the latest release right away.

Ever dream of being on a cloud nine? How about owning your own "private cloud" instead?

Intel is giving everyone a chance for just that, simply share your storage story with them now through December 17th, 2011 and be entered to win a full-featured Network Attached Storage unit with Intel Inside®.

This contest is part of Intel's "Redefine Your Network" movement, where the company is showcasing a number of leading NAS devices such as Thecus, Netgear, QNAP and Synology, and we hear those may be included in the prizes themselves.

So, if you have a storage story to tell, please visit https://redefineyournetwork.com/ and cross your fingers for a chance at your very own top of the line Network Attached Storage device with Intel at its heart.

We all make time to take funny, quirky and memorable photos with our cellphones, party cameras, professional looking all cool when traveling cameras, but then what?... we typically store all these images onto an external hard drive or network storage device, perhaps upload a few onto facebook and flickr but ultimately we frequently forget about them. We suggest enjoying those memories daily and what better way to do that then to take pleasure in your photos multiple at a time.

Collage

Per wikipedia:  A collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.