News and ReviewsMac Edition Radio produces reviews and news stories about the latest technologies, digital imaging, music, & photography.
Review – The Promise Technology Apollo Cloud NAS

Personal storage has been growing in popularity for years. At this point everyone is pretty much used to the idea of cloud storage via Google, or Dropbox, but online services don’t always fit the needs of users. The solution is a shared drive, usually attached to your network. NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems have been the norm for years, so it piqued our interest when Promise Technology introduced their first NAS consumer product, the Promise Technology Apollo Cloud. Featuring a new GUI approach, so that the storage appears to belong only to the logged on user, it’s an easy to use private cloud backup solution. Is the Promise Apollo Cloud for you? Read on to find out!

Harris Fogel & Frank Schramm, posted 11/25/2016

Review – Upgrading to 10TB Seagate IronWolf 3.5-inch NAS Drives in a Seagate 4 Bay NAS Pro

It might be common sense that drives continually increase in size, speed, and reliability, but when to upgrade is a different sort of question when upgrading the drives in your NAS. The easy part is deciding that it’s time for more capacity, but what drives to use and how it works in practice are a bit more complicated a choice. We were curious what the recent upgrade of Seagate’s NAS drives to the new IronWolf 10TB series would reveal. Read our full review to find out.

Harris Fogel posted 11/23/2016

Review – CleverFiles' Disk Drill Pro 3 for Mac OS

Recently, we had a major data crash, a 6TB RAID configured as a multi-disc mirror somehow became corrupted, and since it was a mirror, it dutifully duplicated the corrupted data. To make matters worse, even after other tools were able to get the RAID up and running, we were missing tons of files. Luckily, an invitation to test an app we had never heard of arrived in the nick of time. The app was Disk Drill Pro 3 for Mac OS, and to find out how it saved the day, read our full review.

Harris Fogel and Ken Kramar, posted 11/20/2016

Review – LG Stylo 2 Smartphone from Virgin Mobile

Many smartphones sold today are phablets, with large screens that are great to look at, but not many of them do anything special with that extra real estate. The LG Stylo 2, from Virgin Mobile, uses a stylus with great software to make use of it, but is it enough to justify the nearly 6-inch screen? Read on to find out!

Thomas Fogel-Burlan, Posted 11/19/2016

Review – Black+Decker SMARTECH 20V MAX Bluetooth Equipped Lawn Care and Power Tools

You might not think of Bluetooth and lawn care in the same breath, but if Black+Decker has their way, you will. Their new line of SMARTECH tools and lawn care products use the same Bluetooth equipped Lithium Ion battery. We tested their new EASYFEED™ String Trimmer, POWERBOOST Sweeper, 22 in. POWERCUT™ Hedge Trimmer, and Lithium Cordless Drill/Driver. All use the new SMARTECH 20V MAX battery. How did they perform in our tests? Does Bluetooth and edging your sidewalks make sense? Read our full review to find out.

Harris Fogel and Nancy Burlan, posted 11/18/2016

Review – Etymotic ER4SR & ER4XR Hi-Fidelity Earphones

Etymotic is a company whose name holds a revered position in audio circles. The reason is that founder Mead Killion and his team pioneered the Hi-Fidelity earphone, with a unique balanced single armature design. Their flagship model for the past 25 years was the ER-4, essentially unchanged since 1991. So, when they announced the ER4SR and ER4XR revisions to the legendary ER4 model, audiophiles around the world perked up their ears. How do the new models sound? Read on for our full review.

Harris Fogel and Nancy Burlan, Posted 10/15/2016

Macy Gray’s “Stripped” and John McEuen “Roots Music Made In Brooklyn” on Chesky Records

Two new recordings from Chesky Records are rich with superlatives, extraordinary recording quality, musicality, and performance. John McEuen is country music royalty (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and the contributing list of musicians on this performance is a who’s who of roots music. “Roots Music Made In Brooklyn” is McEuen’s latest gathering of greats. We also listen to the 40th Anniversary remastering of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” a legendary title that McEuen was so instrumental with. An unexpected and marvelous new title, Macy Gray’s “Stripped” finds the singer accompanied by mostly acoustic instruments, allowing her seductive voice to find its place with what is quite possibly the best recording of her to date. Read on for our full review.

Harris Fogel, posted 10/8/2016

Amazon, Apple, and Google and the Future of Home Automation

There's a quiet war going on for the future of home automation and some of the biggest companies in the world are participants. John Mulhern III writes about the current players in this space and the directions they are headed in.

John Mulhern III, posted 9/29/2016

Apple Hides an Incremental Price Reduction in a Storage Increase

Apple released and updated a lot of products on September 7th, 2016. John Mulhern III tells us why he believes that perhaps the most important change at this event was a doubling of the minimum storage in most products.

John Mulhern III, Posted 9/7/2016

Interview – Bryan O'Neil Hughes – Adobe's Mobile Direction – Photoshop World 2016

In this extended interview with Bryan O'Neil Hughes of Adobe, we discuss Adobe's initiatives toward mobile photography and production work. With an expanded set of apps, the Creative Cloud, and more interactivty between apps, the barriers between workflows have been ereased. Listen in to learn more! Recorded by Harris Fogel, at Photoshop World 2016, at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. (32:37)

Harris Fogel, posted 8/26/2016

 

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