News and ReviewsMac Edition Radio produces reviews and news stories about the latest technologies, digital imaging, music, & photography.
Review – FTL: Faster Than Light

Game Review

FTL: Faster Than Light is a little more than a year-old Independent Game in the style of older arcade games with very simple graphics and game play. This strategy game is a must-play for any gamer that will provide hours of fun with a high replay value.  It’s popularity has recently due to its inclusion in the Humble Bundle, a charity that raises money through selling PC and Mobile games, movies, and music. Read on for our full review!

Owen O’Sullivan, Posted 12/8/2013

Review – NEC E464 46" LED Edge-lit Commercial-Grade Display w/ Integrated Tuner

Wander into a big box store and you will see racks of LCD displays. All of them will be stocked with features ranging from Smart TV apps, differing refresh rates, audio options, and backlighting technology, but most of them have something else in common – a short duty cycle and a one-year warranty. Enter the world of commercial displays, designed for signage, but perfectly at home as well. The NEC E464 46" LED Edge-lit Commercial-Grade Display w/ Integrated Tuner is designed for 12-hour-per-day operation, carries a 3-year warranty and has a TV tuner if you’d like to use an antenna for free HD content. Read on for our full review of NEC’s 4th generation of this series.

Harris Fogel and Nancy Burlan, posted 12/6/2013

Review – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

We have been enamored of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom since first participating in its initial beta program. Over the years, each iteration of what many photographers consider to be a key digital imaging software has continued to improve - sometimes with radical steps, and other times with a subtle sense of refinement. How does Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 improve upon its predecessors? Read our full review to find out!

Harris Fogel, posted 12/6/13

Review – Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat – RTH9580

Like most baby boomers and Gen X-ers, we grew up in a home with a wall-mounted thermostat that had four setting choices: on or off, heat or cool. It had a little dial that hid a mercury-filled glass tube on a bi-metallic temperature-calibrated metal spring. There was no formal timer function other than a parent reminding us that money doesn't grow on trees, so turn down the heat and put on a sweater. Now, Honeywell brings us a new kind of thermostat that improves upon digital efficiency, and then some. The Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat – RTH9580 allows full internet connectivity, the ability to create detailed personalized schedules, and more. Read on to see our experiences with HVAC and the internet using the Honeywell Total Comfort Connect app.

Harris Fogel and Nancy Burlan, Posted 12/1/2013

Review – Oppo BDP-105 and BDP-103 Universal Blu-ray Disc Players

Oppo has been garnering glowing reviews across the globe for its line of Blu-Ray players, which we have enthusiastically reviewed. Each iteration of hardware from Oppo doesn't simply introduce radical new features rather each one offers refinements that enhance previous models. The BDP-103 and BDP-105 Universal Blu-ray Disc Players up the ante with revisions to every subsystem, and we wondered how the new models measured up. The verdict is that both models have indeed surpassed our expectations, so read on for our full review to find out how the new models update the Oppo product matrix and which one is right for you.

Harris Fogel, Posted 12/1/2013

Review – The Luci Solar Powered Portable Light Source

The annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas always offers a wonder of technological invention and surprise. Sometimes the surprises aren't big or flashy, or have a large marketing campaign or a sports star behind them. Sometimes they are simple, small, why-didn't-think-of-it ideas that can really make a difference. The Luci solar-powered inflatable light source is one of those rarities. First seen at the ShowStoppers press event during CES in January, the Luci lit up the room – pun intended! To find out the idea behind this novel invention, read on. And for under $15 you can donate one to help out folks in need around the world.

Harris Fogel, Posted 11/29/2013

 

Review – Seagate Wireless Plus 1TB mobile storage device

Most of us have no problem creating and saving data. Movies, music, word processing, images - you name it, and we probably have it. The problem is how to keep all that data organized, how to find it when we need it, and how to share the data. Over the past few years we have seen a steady increase in network attached storage (NAS) with Seagate having a lot of experience in this area. Their recently introduced Seagate Central and Wireless Plus storage solutions are their latest refinement of their vision of shared data. Read on to see how the Wireless Plus worked in practice.

Harris Fogel, with additional reporting by Frank Schramm, posted 11/13/13

Review – Seagate Central shared storage device

The Seagate Central shared storage device is a Network Attached Storage device (or NAS for short) which is essentially a hard drive attached to your network. NAS devices have been around for quite some time, and Seagate created some of the earliest successful consumer products with its GoFlex line. The Seagate Central is a NAS device built for home use whose goal is to assimilate and gather into one place data from a wide variety of devices, social media sites, smart phones, and tablets, along with the ability to share both locally and globally. Read on to see how the Seagate Central worked for us.

Harris Fogel, with additional reporting by Nancy Burlan, posted 11/13/13

Review – Virgin Mobile Free Fest 2013 & Samsung Galaxy S III 4G LTE Cell Phone

Once again, the Virgin Mobile FreeFest day-long music festival, held at the Merriweather Post Pavilion near Baltimore, delivered great fun and good music – plus opportunities to document the day with a Samsung S III 4G LTE phone. This event is more than just a free concert, it’s also a charity event that raises funds to help improve the lives of homeless youth. Read our review to learn how our day went and how the Samsung Galaxy S III 4G LTE cell phone performed!

Nancy Burlan & Harris Fogel, with additional reporting by Jonathan Fogel, posted 10/12/13

Review – The iLine Mobile Music Cable Kit & iRig HD from IK Multimedia

Missing a cable for your iRig on your way to a gig? The iLine Mobile Music Cable Kit from IK Multimedia will patch you up. When the original iRig instrument interface system debuted, it was based on an analog output. The recently released iRig HD addresses this issue by moving toward a digital input into your iOS device for better sound and lower noise. Read more about these new tools for the musician in your life in our review.

Harris Fogel & Nancy Burlan, with additional reporting by Thomas Fogel, Posted 10/2/13

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