Lenovo has some experience in the online storage market. They released a Networked Attached Storage (NAS) Device as recently as 2009, but the Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Center may be their first device where the technology has caught up to the idea.
The Beacon Home Cloud Center is equipped with an HDMI port for streaming videos directly to a TV, but it also supports streaming through another XBMC client or Home Theater PC.
The $199 price tag gets you 1GB of DDR3 RAM and a dual-core Intel CPU. What it doesn’t get you is any space. You could technically call The Beacon Media Server a “barebones” system because while it has room to accommodate up to 6TB of space, you’ll have to purchase it on your own.
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But its not all bad, 200 bucks isn’t bad for a fairly powerful Linux box. The box runs a custom version of Linux, has built in WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0 and an ethernet port.
The device can also be controlled with an Android device, using an app Leonova developed. An iOS version is planned but no information on when it will be come available was provided.
The Beacon Cloud Drive can be used for a variety of tasks, from a simple PC backup device to storage expansion to an all-in-one media device.
The Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Center comes with XBMC pre installed and will go on sale in April for $199.
