Synology

Around these parts, Synology is better known for its NAS boxes, which are storage drives that you access over the network and that come with a slew of optimized Android apps dedicated to accessing videos, photos, audio, documents, files, and notes from your mobile device. But it looks like Synology is casting a wider net with the release of the new RT1900ac router.

Synology, purveyor of network attached storage, has brought updates across the range of their Android interfaces for their products. Perhaps most interesting and useful is the latest update to DS photo+, which now allows you to stream photos and video via Chromecast or DLNA from your Synology NAS. If you utilize the private cloud setup offered on many of their devices, this could allow you to take your personal media to work, friends, or wherever else you may want to go.

DS Cam is Synology's interface for interacting with its surveillance camera from an Android device. Version 2.5 adds a number of new features, most of which require Surveillance Station 7.0. One is the ability to control the lens, specifically auto-panning, auto-focusing, and tracking objects. With two-way audio, instead of simply hearing what's going on, you can now project your voice through the camera's speaker as well.

These days, there are tons of way to store files. Locally, in the cloud, on the network...or any combination of those. Personally, I'm a cloud storage kind of guy - ever since Dropbox and Drive have been a thing, I've relied on them to keep everything in sync across all of my computers and mobile devices. Keeping my most-used files accessible whenever and wherever I want has changed the way I use my gear (for the better).

There are many reasons not to want to hop aboard the cloud computing bandwagon. One reason is the lack of internet access in all the places where you need it, and there's nothing you can really do about that. But another common complaint is the need to trust another company enough to manage your data, and there are ways around that. Synology NAS (network attached storage) users get to build their own cloud without having to give up all of the convenience that comes with the likes of Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SugarSync, or whomever else comes to mind. Now the company has rolled out a bunch of new stuff.