Reviews, tutorials and news (previously: IT Enquirer)
The T4 Thunderbolt 3 is CalDigit’s newest RAID storage solution. Except for the Thunderbolt 3 interface, the new T4 comes with a DisplayPort that allows you to connect to any monitor with a resolution of up to 4K@60Hz. It also has the ability to charge an attached laptop through the Thunderbolt 3 port with up to 85W of power.
Screen captures are often a necessity for use with presentations, magazine articles, and tutorials. The ability to create them comes with your operating system, but TechSmith’s Snagit offers a lot more flexibility and adds the ability to create short videos of your screen as well. Its latest version adds the ability to grab and recognise text, while Smart Move lets you move elements on screen that can be considered to be independent screen components.
Animation for anything from presentations to games and goofy Youtube movies is possible with CrazyTalk Animator 3. This, the developer says, is the world's easiest 2D animation software that enables all levels of users to create professional animations with the least amount of effort, and I agree – up to a point.
Lately, OWC has been making devices that are blazingly fast at a price that is hard to compete with. With hard disks at its core and SoftRAID 5.6.5 as the controller – which can’t quite keep up with the fastest hardware RAID controllers out there – it’s only slightly better than an averagely performing RAID box.
Codex creates digital production workflow tools for independent films, motion pictures, commercials, and TV productions. Within some 30 days after NAB, it will be shipping ColorSynth, a layered colour grading plug-in the Indie market can afford, and Keys, a control surface priced equally affordable.
Sometimes you come across a product that you didn’t know you needed until you see it, try it and are amazed you never thought of it before. ScreenFloat is such a utility, available for macOS only. It’s compatible with High Sierra and you get a 15-day trial period without the watermark nonsense some other vendors insist on.
Quark only just announced the upcoming availability of QuarkXPress 2018, the next new full version of Quark’s graphic design and page layout software. Coming on 16 May 2018, QuarkXPress 2018 will bring creative professionals new typography, and print and digital publishing features necessary to meet daily creative and productivity demands. The new features and functionality …
OWC’s portable drive, the Envoy Pro, originally came in a USB 3 version, but with the push for ever higher throughput speeds required for 4K, HDR and 8K video shooting and streaming, the company has introduced another, new 300g lightweight Envoy Pro EX that’s been equipped with a captive Thunderbolt 3 cable. The Thunderbolt 3 Envoy Pro EX actually is a series of devices, all equipped with Thunderbolt 3, but split up in the Envoy Pro EX series and the Envoy Pro EX (VE) series, which is even faster and has bigger capacities.
All-in-one computers like the iMac – even the iMac Pro – rarely have enough ports to satisfy our needs. CalDigit’s small-footprint, cast-aluminium Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus is – what we usually call – a dock that adds a whopping 15 ports to any Thunderbolt 3 machine. The options go beyond the conventional, expanding connectivity as well as charge laptops.
The newest SSD Crucial recently released has Micron's new 64-layer NAND memory and is the first high-speed SSD to leave the factory since the Lexar brand was sold. The MX500, as it’s called, is in some tests the fastest SSD currently available. It’s so fast that it suffers from the performance limitations of its form factor, which is a 2.5in SATA disk.
