Pogoplug Mobile takes aim at cloud streaming services that charge monthly or yearly fees for serving up streaming media, such as Amazon’s Cloud Drive & Cloud Player and iTunes Match. While Amazon has been pretty generous in giving you lots of free storage right off the bat, and iTunes Match will only cost $25 a year once it launches, Pogoplug Mobile takes your entire media library and makes it accessible through the Internet for a one time fee of $79. While the upfront charge could save you money in the longrun, you still need the upstream bandwidth and a media library stored on an external hard drive or SD memory to take advantage of its streaming capabilities.
The downside to Pogoplug Mobile is that you’ll have to use Pogoplug’s proprietary media library apps on your iPhone and iPad, meaning you won’t have music synced to their default locations as you’d have with iTunes in the Cloud. The upside, however, is that you’ll have access to your entire media library including music, movies, and pictures without having to store that content locally. Media access doesn’t necessarily require a mobile device either — Pogoplug will make available your entire library from the web if you log on from an office or campus computer. Provided you own lots of content not available in the iTunes Store, Pogoplug Mobile might be a great alternative if you want to free all of your indie artists from your home network.
Pogoplug Mobile is currently available for $79 in the United States and on pre-order for €59.99 in Europe.
