I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlord, even if it's not a Cylon. Unlike the mechanical robots seen in factories and movies, the Drobo ($499 direct) is a "data robot," as its company (Data Robotics) and product name would suggest. It automatically formats and rearranges data on the hard drives you shove into its four-bay chassis. I originally thought (as many IT folk do) that the robot in the Drobo's name was an arm or mechanism that shifts the drives around within the case. But what the "robot" actually does is automatically move around your data, so you're safe in case one of the drives fails.