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Three 'version' stories January 2012 - March 2014

Synology gets even better w/ version 5.0: Why every Mac & iOS user should have a DiskStation

Jordan Kahn Mar 10 2014 - 3:21 pm PT

Synology-Mac

I’ll admit, I’ve never felt the need to purchase network-attached-storage (NAS) hardware for storing and accessing my media or backing up my files. These days most of my content, from photos and movies to back ups of important files for work, are already stored in the cloud. My photos are (supposed to) auto backup to Photostream in iCloud, iTunes has all of my music downloadable from all my devices from the cloud, and any important files and everything else go directly to Dropbox or Google Drive. Around 90% of my content is already stored and accessible from anywhere in the cloud.

That being said, for the last year or so I’ve been hearing more and more about Synology DiskStation products. Coworkers can’t stop talking about them, and the products have received a lot of praise from many other reviewers as well.

I’ve been putting the Synology DiskStation hardware and brand new DiskStation Manager 5.0 software to the test in recent months to see if I could really benefit from a NAS solution despite all my content already being on the cloud and backed up. With today marking the release of 5.0, the company’s biggest software update yet, I thought now would be as good a time as any to share my experience.
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Philips updates ‘Hue’ app with geofencing, recurring schedules & visual cues for weather, email, social media, more

Jordan Kahn May 14 2013 - 7:25 am PT

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FdvqZNJP6oA

Philips today launched a big update to the Hue app that provides users with control over their network connected Philips Hue lighting system which the company began selling exclusively through Apple Stores last year. Version 1.1 of the app adds a ton of new features including Geofencing to trigger scenes when you leave or return home, recurring schedules for functions such as alarms, a new synchronous scenes, and much more.

Philips-Hue-app-update-03 One of the big announcements accompanying the launch of the updated app is a new IFTTT (If This Then That) channel for Hue. IFTTT is a service that allows online applications to talk to one another by letting users set up actions for one app that are triggered by another. For example, with the Hue channel, users can have “access to any application programming interface (API) on the Internet, allowing Hue smart bulbs to act as informational gateways and visual cues for updates on weather, stock quotes, sports scores, email, social media and more.” Imagine getting a notification through Hue related to a weather forecast or update on a social network.

The Philips Hue starter kit is available now for $199 with 3 bulbs and additional bulbs are available to purchase for $59 each.

A full list of what’s new in the update Philips Hue app is below:

What’s New in Version 1.1.0

– Geofencing feature: Scenes can now automatically turn on when coming home and turn off when leaving home
– Scenes can now be switched on or off using a timer between 1 and 59 minutes
– Alarms can now be set to recur in a weekly schedule and with a random offset for the start and end time
– Fades of alarms now start at the set time instead of ending at the set time
– Increased reliability of alarms
– Improved vibrant colors for LivingColors and hue lights and added support for LivingWhites
– When activating a scene the lights change at the same time synchronously
– Compatible lights can now be added to the system using their serial number

Skype releases beta version 5.5 for Mac with improved UI and call quality

Jordan Kahn Jan 12 2012 - 12:07 pm PT

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Skype just announcedthe latest beta for Mac with version 5.5. The release includes a number of improvements including an upgraded call UI, and an option to accept a call with video enabled or disabled. Other enhancements include optimizations to stabilization and call quality.

Today, we’re pleased to announce an update to Skype for Mac with the launch of Skype 5.5 for Mac Beta… We have improved the discoverability of Call UI like Windows and iOS that users can easily mute, send video, share screen, send file and add people during a call.

As always, you can download the latest version, Skype 5.5 for Mac, from Skype’s website.

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