Timemachine, an over-priced locked-in product. Yes it is an Apple product but one of the worst for storing and backing up your data.  A vastly superior option is the QNAP TS-119 NAS ^(*1).  QNAP had stopped selling the TS-119 and I was greatly upset to the point of contacting the company and detailing why this product needs to continue.  Given that the $100 price drop, it is more attractive than ever ^(*2).  The TS-119 makes Timemachine look like an antique because it is more than just a storage device, it is also a complete server solution.  There are so many options with this QNAP device that I feel like I should be selling the stuff.  Having tested many different NAS products from Iomega, DLink, and Netgear, the QNAP product stands out as the only truly cross-platform solution.  Unfortunately I do not have shares in the company...

I have managed to install a 3TB drive with a few tricks (due to firmware changes to accomodate the latest 3TB drives).  I did notice that a 1TB drive is much quieter than a 3TB 7200RPM. However, the noise level was not annoying.

Why TS-119 over all the other models of QNAP which are way more expensive?  Simply fanless...it is the only model that does not use a fan. The advantage is quiet operation, the disadvantage - there isn't two drive bays for RAID....However, 2 QNAP devices can talk to each other, which means that you can backup remotely between devices.

Now why do all this when there is Dropbox?  Atonomous philosophy!

References

^(*1)http://web.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=112

^(*2)http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822107024