Western Digital updates My Book World Edition with "green" drives, continuous backup function

Another day, another NAS device. This time, it's storage giant Western Digital stepping up to the plate with a revamp of its My Book World Edition network drive. In addition to larger capacities (1TB or 2TB), the new version comes with a couple of features that may help set it apart from the ever-growing pack.

If it works as well as it sounds, My Book's new continuous backup function is just the type of simplicity people demand out of network storage: you can set it up to automatically save a copy of every new file on your network to the drive. This compares favorably to having set up a backup routine of some kind, even if it occurs at regular intervals. WD also uses its Green Power Drives in the new My Book; they run cooler and are a third more power-efficient than other drives.

The drive, clad in Mac-friendly white plastic, also comes with the usual gallery of features today's NAS devices should offer: iTunes and DLNA server capabilities, browser-based remote access to files, a USB port to attach an external drive for additional storage, Gigabit Ethernet port, etc. The 1TB version of the My Book World Edition is available now for $229.99, while the 2TB version will ship next month for $449.99. Yes, the extra terabyte will cost you an additional $200+, but remember that's a single drive, rather than just WD inserting another terabyte drive into a second bay. (As a point of reference, a Western Digital 2TB internal Caviar Green drive costs $299.)