Product Reviews, Tech Trends, and More

I’ve recently been given the opportunity to review one of Drobo’s latest creations: the Drobo FS. The FS, which stands for file sharing, is a 5-bay NAS that plugs into your local network via gigabit ethernet. In plain english, you plug the Drobo FS into your wireless router and all the computers in your home (or small office) instantly have access to a huge hard drive. From a technical standpoint, there is a lot more to it than that, but the beauty of this device is you don’t _need_ to know what is going on behind the scenes in order to reap the benefits. –> read more

The other day I sank into the driver’s seat of my two-door, shoved the key into the ignition, and brought the machine to life. I quickly powered on my head unit – that’s audio enthusiast speak for car stereo – and began toggling through the sources. Like most fossil fuel burning Americans, I had a few options –> read more

Antennagate, death grip, faulty proximity sensors, black labs, and free cases – boy this is an iPhone release for the history books. Last month I wrote my initial thoughts on the infamous iPhone 4. It has been nearly a month and I wanted to do a follow-up post and share my experience with the phone the world cannot stop talking about. –> read more

I finally had the chance to install Seagate’s new Momentus XT hybrid hard drive, and let me tell you, this thing is cool. What is a hybrid hard drive you ask? Well, it is basically a 7200 RPM hard drive topped off with 4GB of solid state memory. Seagate says the memory is “intelligent,” meaning it knows to store the data you frequently access for enhanced read/write times. So how does this little guy perform in a MacBook Pro? Quite well. –> read more

I know. It has been a while. The schedule has been packed to the brim and now even more so with my recent move into a full-time gig at Nasuni. So what better a topic to get back into the swing of things than to talk about my last few days with the latest and greatest from my favorite fruit company, the iPhone 4. –> read more

Last week, Elgato announced a new TV tuner/DVR solution for the Mac. It is called the EyeTV HD and pulls 720P HD cable content right from your set-top box. The device was born out of the need to get television shows and movies out of the living room and on to the multitude of devices people are using to get their daily fix. –> read more

Back when I first started using eBay in 2001, it was a close-knit community of like-minded, and respectful auctioneers. Everyone was looking for a good deal on a used video game or a hard to find artifact of generations past. I had much luck as both a buyer and a seller, lining my pockets with a few extra dollars here and there by hawking my old cameras, iPods, and laptops. –> read more

It may seem slightly crazy, but believe it or not, there is no built-in way to manage a collection of PDF documents on the iPad. You can view them as attachments in email, but there is no way to save or bookmark the files. Not to worry – the folks over at Good.iWare LTD have got us [slightly insane] iPad early adopters covered with their app, appropriately titled, GoodReader. –> read more

Continuing with their run of April news announcements, Apple has just released an update to their popular MacBook Pro line of notebook computers. Not much has changed, but what has, is significant. The new pro machines have been updated with Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors, offering substantial performance gains through the use of a new 32-nanometer manufacturing process, Turbo Boost, and Hyper-Threading. –> read more

For those not familiar with Adobe’s excellent photo management/editing software called Lightroom, think of it as Picasa or iPhoto on steroids. Adobe took the management/RAW processing side of Bridge and some of the popular post-production features of Photoshop and made one solid application. I could get into why this program is great for amateurs and professionals alike, but the purpose of my ramblings is to discuss how Adobe has handled the Beta testing of the upcoming version 3. –> read more