Western Digital Likes Text Files A Lot. Do You?
Western Digital is a big fan of text files, and assumes you are too. It has disabled the ability of its 1TB network-ready drive to share MP3, AVI, MPEGs... well, pretty much any audio or video file you could name. The "My Book World Edition" drive assumes the world is full of typists, I guess.
Access to multimedia files is allowed only by the primary user registered on WD Anywhere Access, the remote desktop client embedded on the NAS device, said Brian Miller, director of marketing at Western Digital.
Anywhere Access is based on the MioNet remote desktop client, which allows users to access, read, edit and share files on remote desktops. The Anywhere Access client allows remote users access to Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and other files, Miller said. Files on the My Book World Edition NAS device can be accessed either through MioNet client software or through Web browsers.
However, it doesn't allow sharing of multimedia files.
The client was built to make file-sharing easy, and the company had no intent to inconvenience customers, Miller said. Miller said multimedia file-sharing might be added to the drive in later generations of the drive, but he wouldn't comment directly on future products.
An "intent" to inconvenience customers doesn't really seem to have a lot to do with it. The reality of inconveniencing customers will do the trick. Who exactly does Western Digital think needs a terabyte of storage? People with PowerPoint fetishes? Serve your customers, WD. The RIAA is not your customer.
Access to multimedia files is allowed only by the primary user registered on WD Anywhere Access, the remote desktop client embedded on the NAS device, said Brian Miller, director of marketing at Western Digital.
Anywhere Access is based on the MioNet remote desktop client, which allows users to access, read, edit and share files on remote desktops. The Anywhere Access client allows remote users access to Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and other files, Miller said. Files on the My Book World Edition NAS device can be accessed either through MioNet client software or through Web browsers.
However, it doesn't allow sharing of multimedia files.
The client was built to make file-sharing easy, and the company had no intent to inconvenience customers, Miller said. Miller said multimedia file-sharing might be added to the drive in later generations of the drive, but he wouldn't comment directly on future products.
An "intent" to inconvenience customers doesn't really seem to have a lot to do with it. The reality of inconveniencing customers will do the trick. Who exactly does Western Digital think needs a terabyte of storage? People with PowerPoint fetishes? Serve your customers, WD. The RIAA is not your customer.
