9to5Mac Reviews

The Denon Home 150 is the latest speaker aiming to compete with Apple’s HomePod.

Denon has an impressive track-record in audio products, dating back to gramophone players in 1910, and created its own range of multi-room speakers back in 2014. At the time, it decided to create a sub-brand for those: HEOS. With its latest Home models, however, it has returned to Denon branding …

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At the time of its release back in 2018, the Mac mini had the designation of being the most versatile Mac in Apple’s entire desktop lineup. With the release of the Mac Pro, that designation now belongs to Apple’s professional-oriented desktop machine with PCIe expandability.

But the Mac mini remains one of the most value-laden Macs that Apple currently sells, and it’s the second most versatile Mac next to the Mac Pro. Watch our latest episode of The Rewind as I take another look at Apple’s diminutive Mac.
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Satechi launched its latest multi-device USB-C charger at CES back in January and it comes with the most ports and power you’ll find in pretty much any option on the market. Read on for our full review of Satechi’s 108W USB-C PD Desktop Charger.

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The Danalock has filled the last remaining hole in my smart home armory: a smart lock.

You could say I’m something of a home automation fan. I had near-withdrawal symptoms when briefly forced to live without it for a while after moving home back in 2017. Getting things back up-and-running was a great relief!

Lights and smart sockets were followed by window blinds (later given HomeKit compatibility), smart(ish) heating (though more on that another day), and even a control panel.

But I’d avoided a smart lock for three reasons …

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If you’re looking for a leather MacBook Pro sleeve, the official Apple $199 one is beautiful-looking, but our review found that it had two drawbacks.

My biggest gripe with the MacBook Pro Leather Sleeve, outside of the obvious cost factor, is that it’s not designed to be used in concert with a USB-C charging cable […] Even if you go against the grain (heh) and put the MacBook Pro inside the sleeve “backwards”, the USB-C ports would still be recessed too far inside the case to connect to a USB-C charging cable while completely inside …

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Scosche’s BaseLynx modular charger offers a compelling solution to create the exact wireless and wired charging setup you need for your pretty much all your Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and even MacBooks. Read on for our full review of BaseLynx that lets you charge over ten devices at once and easily reconfigure the setup at any time.

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Today PolarPro launched its LiteChaser Pro photo and video kits for the iPhone 11 with special introductory pre-order pricing. The kits feature a specialized case that can accommodate a detachable grip, along with either a circular polarizer or variable ND filter.

If you currently use or aspire to use your iPhone for serious photography or videography, then these kits might come in handy. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for more details.
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The Nixplay Smart Photo Frame is the latest and smartest digital photo frame from the company that claims to be the most popular brand in the US, with over 2 million units sold.

It’s smart because it can be updated in a bunch of different ways: manually, with the smartphone app; by voice, with Alexa or Google Assistant; and automatically, by linking it to Google Photos…

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The iPad 7, the latest generation entry-level iPad for the masses, is one of the best deals in tech at only $329, and often found for much less on sale. It’s the first entry-level iPad to feature Smart Connector support, allowing users to conveniently connect a Smart Keyboard. It also features a larger display with more on-screen real estate.

In this hands-on review, I discuss why the iPad 7 is indeed the best iPad for most people, and why it’s $329 entry-level price point is a steal given the amount of features packed inside this slab of aluminum and glass.
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Logitech sent us its new $169.99 StreamCam in September to review before its Logitech Capture for Mac software was even ready. Something happened and the project got pushed out a few months until today, but I started using it for the Electrek Podcast in September. Logitech got back to us this week and told us the project was back on and the Mac software was ready.

So this is kind of a weird “first look” at a product I’ve been using for almost a half year…

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Portal is billed as an iPhone and iPad app designed to help you focus, relax, or sleep. It was last year selected by Apple as App of the Day and is a demo app in Apple Stores.

I’m not quite sure I buy the ‘focus’ part of the claim – I personally find silence the best thing for that – but it does tick the relaxation and sleep boxes for me…

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There was a day when you bought a decent pair of headphones and speakers and could look forward to using them for decades to come. That’s far more difficult today, as technology develops at a faster rate. The TMA-2 HD Wireless headphones aim to solve that problem.

Made by the impossible-to-pronounce-but-well-respected Danish audio company AIAIAI, the TMA-2 is a modular headphone system essentially supplied in kit form…

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Earlier this month, popular accessory maker Nomad unveiled its latest premium wireless charger: the Base Station Stand. Featuring an aluminum and leather design, the Base Station Stand packs a premium charging experience with two 10W charging coils, USB-C, and more.

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Glyph, perhaps better than any other external drive maker, has a knack for creating solidly-built SSDs that do a great job of passively dissipating heat. These factors are what made me a fan of the original Glyph Atom, and it’s what continues to make me a fan of the company’s latest external SSD offering: the Glyph Atom Pro SSD. Watch our hands-on video review for the details.

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If you’re looking for a secure external drive that meets both US military and government security standards, there are a number of encrypted external SSD options around. I reviewed one approach a couple of years ago, the iStorage diskAshur 2, which has a built-in PIN pad for entering a seven- to 15-digit code to unlock the drive.

The SecureDrive BT is a similar idea, but instead of a PIN pad, you unlock it via Bluetooth. Specifically, when you plug the drive into your Mac, you can use Face ID on your iPhone to unlock it…

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Not everyone needs 4-bay RAID solutions like the Promise R4i, and not everyone needs ridiculously-fast RAID SSD setups like the Sonnet M.2 4×4 PCIe Card. Enter the Promise Pegasus J2i.

The Promise Pegasus J2i is a two-bay SATA enclosure with a pre-installed 3.5-inch 8TB HDD that fits inside the Mac Pro. Should you consider it? Watch our hands-on walkthrough for the details.
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If you’re looking for the fastest SSD available for the Mac Pro, then this may be the solution for you. When paired with the right SSDs, the Sonnet M.2 4×4 PCIe Card produces speeds of the bonkers variety.

During benchmark tests with the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test utility, I was getting write speeds in that easily surpassed 6,000 MB/s, and read speeds that eclipsed 7000 MB/s.

For comparison’s sake, Apple’s fastest 8 TB SSD produces speeds “only” up to 3400 MB/s, so this setup is capable of running circles around the Mac Pro’s fastest built-in SSD for less money. Watch our hands-on video review for the details.
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I have a very strange memory. I can forget my wife’s dinner order when picking it up from a restaurant, but I can remember the most random details from years ago. One of those is knowing every router I’ve ever used. The first one was a Microsoft 802.11b router, followed by the classic WRTG54G, onto a Netgear 802.11n model, followed by two 802.11ac AirPort Extremes, and finally the previous generation Google Wifi. I recently got a chance to try out the new AmpliFi Alien router, so I was excited to put some of its features (including Wi-Fi 6 support on iPhone 11 Pro) to the test.
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As a happy owner of a Promise Pegasus3 R6 external RAID enclosure, I was excited to try the new Promise Pegasus R4i internal RAID MPX Module, a unit that’s been specifically designed for the Mac Pro.

The Promise Pegasus R4i is a four-drive hardware RAID array that can easily slide into your Mac Pro thanks to its MPX form factor. Adding the R4i to your Mac Pro instantly gives you a ton of on-board storage via four 8TB drives set up by default in a RAID 5 configuration.

Does the Promise Pegasus R4i produce good performance results? Is it easy to install? Does it stay relatively quiet? How does it compare to a standalone Promise Pegasus? All of these questions and more are answered in our hands-on video review.
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Earlier this week the highly-anticipated Mac Pro finally touched down on my desktop after several years of anticipation. In this initial hands-on video, I take a look at the top 2019 Mac Pro features and explain why even the base model Mac Pro might be the best system for you if expandability is at the top of your list.
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I reviewed Woolnut’s previous-generation MacBook Pro Sleeve last year and concluded that it was at least as good as the official Apple one – better in a couple of ways – for half the price. The latest version, the MacBook Pro leather Folio, improves on the protection via a two-sided zip closure but costs more…

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