Access Any USB Hard Drive from the Web with Pogoplug

— -- Pogoplug isn’t very attractive, but what you can do with it is pretty enticing. This $79 box has two ports, one for an Ethernet connection to your router, and a USB port for connecting to an external hard drive or memory stick. Make both connections, plug the Pogoplug into an electrical outlet and you (almost) instantly have an Internet-connected Network Attached Storage drive.

According to Pogoplug’s creators, the only other step required is to register your device on Pogoplug’s site. Then you get a personal Web site with all your content displayed and downloadable. The drive will also show up like a network drive in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder.

If you’re at home, you can access the data through your own home network – you don’t have to go through Pogoplug’s servers to get to your own drive, which should speed up access considerably.

Pogoplug has an open API so that other developers can come up with applications that take advantage of the Web storage. There’s already an iPhone app that interfaces with Pogoplug. You can take a picture on your iPhone and immediately upload it directly to the hard drive at your home.

Pogoplug announced the product today, and it’s available for pre-orders, but the spokesman I talked to said the actual product probably won’t ship until March.