MyBook and MyClood, Consumer line and EX Pro line, have NO reasons to be separate. Is it because of the ever stockholder parasites who do not only **bleep** money, innovation, credibility but also ultimately growth out of a company?
Instead of having to multiply production and marketing costs, which is less efficient at making the market share grow since people choose either one or the other product, or even none since it’s getting complicated, instead of making one simple versatile and 10x more appealing line for everybody?
Also why is Western Digital so far behind in wireless hard-drive still there’s no wifi drive, and MyCloud still doesn’t include the versatile possibility of both connecting a computer directly through USB3 for maintenance and be a NAS, since it relies on a router or connection that can fail at any moment and so make it unaccessible or even changeable…?
WD made great effort on design and apps, why is it screwing the actual conception of product line and their options/features?
Saying it’s complicated would be like saying that it’s complicated for Apple to make a phone with a touch screen, but they don’t have that untallented lazy loser mentality.
Being able to connect ANY device, let alone one as crucial as a hard drive or a server through USB be it for maintenance or simple transfert should go without saying in 2014.
I hear people complain about bugs or such issues…but I wouldn’t even do that if know that there is NO WAY I will buy and store my datas on a hard drive that is dependant of a router or internet box instead of being able to simply do a basic connection through USB. This doesn’t make sense, and I think it doesn’t make sense for 90% of consumers…
“Being able to connect ANY device, let alone one as crucial as a hard drive or a server through USB be it for maintenance or simple transfert should go without saying in 2014.”
When you connect USB devices to your computer, they treat your computer as the host…in other words the USB device acts as a client to your computer (server)…so you do realize you are talking about a NAS server acting as a server on most occassions and as a client when connecting via USB. I hope you realize the complexity of making a device both act as host and as client…if you don’t, then you’re fundamentally missing how devices connect. Not saying it can’t be done but it’s not a trivial engineering feat…it will raise costs, not to mention the size of hardware.
Besides, the dashboard web interface is there for maintenance…don’t see the need to connect via USB for that. As for transferring files, well isn’t the very name NAS the reason why you are connecting to the storage via the network? Otherwise it’d simply be an external storage device connectable via USB.
While I am sure that there are a lot of complex coding that must go into makhing this happen as he mentioned its 2014 and the entire MyCloud lineup is missing a lot of features and design elements that the most basic units from other companies have. Thats the real problem is that take the EX4 for example if you spent a thousand dollars for that one device you would still have more features and less problems than the entry level produce at synology and QNAP.
…take the EX4 for example if you spent a thousand dollars for that one device you would still have more features and less problems than the entry level produce at synology and QNAP.
Well, I would hope so - if you spent more money, you should get more features and less problems than compteting products
Yea but for the most part thats not the case! The EX4 has more problems and less features then the entry level prodcuts offered by Synology. Take for example Synology’s quick connect this one little feature removes the need for port forwarding which from reading multiple post on WD forums is a major headache to achieve beacuse it can be difficult for entry level users(Myself included I was only able to get remote dashboard access by spendign 4-5 hrs on the phone with support).
EX2/EX4 are prosumer models and are NOT meant for entry level users!!
If port forwarding is too complicated then I’m afraid you aren’t the customer the EX4 product is aimed at. I read the manual from start to finish, twice, before I bought my diskless EX2…after making sure it met my requirements. Problem I find with many people grumbling on these boards (not saying you are guilty of it) is that most don’t do their homework well enough BEFORE buying the product. Most are like, oh look, a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS from WD…lemme buy that…I’ll figure out the rest later. And then they have a hard time with port forwarding, etc. which are trivial tasks for whom the EX products are meant for…but I know aren’t trivial for many non-techie folks. Read the manual first ALWAYS…BEFORE purchasing a product. Almost all tech companies make the PDFs available for anyone to download anytime, without buying it first. I bought a multi-function printer a few months ago, and I read it’s manual too before I purchased it.
I would understand the problems you’re mentionning if it was 2010.
But do you realize that stating something as “said consumer shouldn’t buy said prosumer product because it’s too complicated for them” isn’t a good thing and doesn’t match the current technology product conception and marketing paradigm?
The most important point about the “Cloud” marketing scheme and gimminck, is to depart from the complexity of the two decades old NAS/server technology which has gone on the general consumer market for a long time. I never used a NAS or Server but I’m internet-technology savvy enough to state that I can’t fathom more than 10% of the population being able to understand and use flowlessly such a product.
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But do you realize that stating something as “said consumer shouldn’t buy said prosumer product because it’s too complicated for them” isn’t a good thing and doesn’t match the current technology product conception and marketing paradigm?
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Isn’t a good thing?? Well, if WD themselves are marketing the EX products as “Expert series” (see → http://wd.com/en/products/personalcloud/) and entry-level users are going to ignore that distinction and buy them anyway and still expect to get a very user-friendly experience then I am afraid, I am not sure what to say other than that some folks need to better manage their expectations.
It’s akin to an amateur in photography (like me) going out and buying a top of the line dSLR camera from Canon or Nikon because I wanted the power and flexibility of a dSLR and then when I have some trouble in configuring the settings because they are more complicated than a point-and-shoo, I then start griping at the camera maker instead of recognizing that I did not set realistic expectations in the first place.
I cannot find what type of drives the “Mirror” uses.
I know EX2 comes with Red drives installed.
That description is not in “Mirror” product.
Could this be the only difference from EX2?
It does make sense to me if they used, say, Green drives in it, but I don’t understand why they don’t publicize it.
I share WD’s philosophy of not going for Wi-Fi NAS. Physical storage can stay where the wire is. (or the fiber, for that matter)
Good question (about drives). Somehow I suspect though that these are Red (NAS) drives too because hardware-wise there doesn’t seem to be much difference from the little that we know (general processor and memory info)…but I can’t be sure.
And I am with you on the NAS requiring wired connection. There are already a few external portable drives from Seagate and others - if someone needs a storage solution with built-in wifi they can buy those products.
bout drives). Somehow I suspect though that these are Red (NAS) drives too because hardware-wise there doesn’t seem to be much difference from the little that we know (general processor and memory info)…but I can’t be sure.
Thanks for your response, Cybernut1.
The reason I thought that they may have Green drive in stead of Red is their price.
If I take Amazon’s price as the data, EX2 4TB (2TB x 2) is $370, and Mirror 4TB is $20 less.
Green 2TB is $85/pc, and Red 2TB is $99/pc.
Lower price for Mirror compared EX2 might be explained if the drives were cheaper.
I am not sure the difference between Green drives and Red’s, except for Green being claimed to be more quiet, which I actually may prefer. – I don’t know how noisy/quiet EX2 is though…
There should be a reason that WD is willing to sell Mirrors for less than EX2, and I would like to know what it is.
You are right - greens are supposed to be quiet…but are also less power-consuming and therefore less-heat generating. But from my short experience of owning the EX2, I don’t find they are at all noisy…the Red drives are very quiet too.
You may be right about the Cloud’s mirror drives having green drives…I am not sure. But I don’t think there really is much difference between the hardware and drives of the mirror versus the EX2. I have dug around the code of the EX2 quite a bit plus based on the website marketing material of the EX2 and Mirror, what I gather is that they have stripped some of the “power user” features of the EX2, like third party apps, etc. and have packaged it as the Mirror. Unless someone really gets one it’s hard to confirm whther or not that’s a correct guess. But I doubt the drives are any different…since the Mirror is still going to be used like a NAS… WD is just marketing it as NAS-lite, for the entry-level consumers, who don’t need some of the bells and whistles of EX2.
I am not sure the difference between Green drives and Red’s, except for Green being claimed to be more quiet, which I actually may prefer. – I don’t know how noisy/quiet EX2 is though…
There should be a reason that WD is willing to sell Mirrors for less than EX2, and I would like to know what it is.
I am beginning to understand the difference in features.
I compared the manuals of EX2 and Mirror, and they are different in the number of pages by 6 out of about 170 (in Japanese version).
I wish WD posts a “comparison chart”, for those who wants quick understanding, just like me.
Comparison of the TOC of the manual can already be a help.
I will perhaps wait for a few reviews to show up on the net for the Mirror and buy either of EX2 or Mirror. In fact I was going to buy an EX2 in about a few weeks before I learned about the Mirror.
Currenly I am inclined toward the Mirror, partially because of its cosmetic (white fits better in my place.)
If they start to offer EX2 in white, the choise might become slightly difficult for me. :wink:
Since I am just looking for a replacement for my 7yrs old NAS, and I would like a RAID1, probably Mirror would do.
I’d be interested to see that comparison too, but from my side as an owner of a MyCloud Mirror, to see quite what I may be missing out on (and whether an EX2 may have been a better option).
But so far the Mirror is doing its job OK aside from an issue that it seems to be only very rarely visible to Smartware/Quickview on my wifi-connected machines on my network (but fully visible and accessible by SMB), and even that I think is more down to my soon-to-be-replaced aging router than anything else.
It seems to be reasonably flexible (mine arrived as RAID1, but is currently running JSON as it’s a back-up drive for my various machines rather than a file-server, so as I don’t need 3 copies of everything I’ll gain 2TB of drive space back thank you). And it does have some app support on it, although the list is quite short and there’s nothing there that particularly interests me (not sure what may be available for download from WD or elsewhere).
The last point is regarding USB connecting - you do realise that if push comes to shove you can just connect the LAN cable from the Mirror directly to the LAN port on your computer and use it direct-wired? Works fine (it appears under the Network tab under Windows, just like it does when router-connected) and of course is very quick - it even appeared on my machine under Smartware, hence my thinking that my router is too ancient for the job (it doesn’t appear even if both the machine and the Mirror are LAN-connected to the router). And if it’s a wifi machine you don’t lose anything as the LAN port would be redundant anyway, although of course on a desktop it gets more problematic…
