9to5Mac Reviews

I’ve been using Final Cut Pro X on a regular basis since it debuted back in June of 2011. With five years under my belt, I feel pretty comfortable navigating around the interface, utilizing custom keyboard shortcuts, and all of the other benefits that come with being intimately familiar with a piece of software.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts about Final Cut Pro X, you’ve probably concluded that I have a strong affinity for the app, despite some of the hate that it receives.

I’m also someone who likes to recommend Final Cut Pro X to new editors. I think that it’s easier to grasp and much more friendlier to work with on a Mac than competing apps like Adobe Premiere Pro.

So when EditorsKeys, a company that produces a keyboard specifically designed for Final Cut Pro X, asked me to do a review, I was intrigued.
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Back in May I published a post highlighting my voiceover and podcasting setup. In that post, I noted that I had recently switched from the KEF Egg Wireless Digital Music System to the Kanto YU5. While that may seem like an odd choice given how ridiculously good KEF’s drivers sound, I noted that the added flexibility made possible by the YU5’s connectivity options is what convinced me to make the switch.

The Kanto YU5 offers Bluetooth connectivity along with auxiliary input and stereo RCA inputs. The speakers also offer dual optical inputs, a subwoofer output, and traditional non-proprietary speaker connections. There’s even a USB-port to be found on the back of the cabinet, although it’s used for charging only.

Needless to say, the amount of versatility offered by these speakers is a big reason as to why I considered them in the first place. In this area, the Kanto YU5 delivers well.

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As someone who’s been involved in IT for the last 15 years, sitting while working comes with the territory. Since transitioning from IT to full-time blogging, it’s just been more of the same.

Shooting video tends to get me out of my chair on most days, but I still find myself sitting for inordinate amounts of time. Having a good exercise routine is crucial, as many of my colleagues will attest to, but even with regular exercise, it can still be fatiguing to sit for most of the working day.

This is why I ended up researching, and ultimately acquired, a standing desk. Standing desks are great as I noted in my full review of the UpDesk Power Up, but after a month or so of regularly standing for portions of my work day, I craved something more.

Enter the Under Desk Treadmill from LifeSpan. It’s a device that helps transition a standing-while-working routine into to a moving-while-working routine. Can an under desk treadmill really allow you to maintain productivity while in motion?

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I wouldn’t normally describe a portable battery as being beautiful, but Kanex’s just-released $99 GoPower USB-C Portable Battery fits that description. Its aluminum body is like a mix of Apple’s space gray and silver colors, but it’ll look good when paired with any 12″ MacBook.

Good looks are nice, but the real world performance of a battery pack is crucial. How does Kanex’s offering stack up? Check out our hands-on impressions.
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In my continuing quest to find a great iPad Pro case, I’ve been testing out the new BookBook case for iPad Pro 12.9-inch ($99) … and I really like it. Don’t judge a book by its cover; the cute design hides a lot of utility. There’s a display mode for watching movies, an integrated kickstand perfect for typing and sketching as well as a fantastic Apple Pencil holder hidden in the ‘spine’. (Check the Twelve South website if sold out on Amazon.)

As the whole thing zips up, it’s one of few cases that completely protects the iPad whilst in transit. Read on for my full review of the BookBook for iPad Pro after the jump …

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If you’re looking for a 4K display that can be paired with your 12″ MacBook via a single USB-C cable, then your options are fairly limited. It seems that LG is one of the few display makers that has such a monitor available for sale.

LG’s 27UD88-W is a 27″ USB-C-enabled display. Its USB-C port allows MacBook owners to connect a single cable to drive the display, charge the machine, and facilitate data transfer.

As I alluded to in my recent 2016 MacBook post, the 27UD88-W isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the only games in town if you desire a 4K monitor with USB-C connectivity in tow.

If you’re a MacBook owner, should you consider purchasing one? Have a look inside for the details.
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If you own a MacBook and you wish to interface with legacy USB-A connections, you have several options. Apple itself produces a USB-C to USB Adapter, and it’s available for around $19. There’s also no shortage of third-party options available on Amazon and other resellers.

One such option, IXCC’s USB 3.0 to Type-C Convertor Cable, is a cheap and easy way to garner legacy USB device support on USB-C only MacBooks. Have a look at our brief hands-on video to witness the adapter in action.
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I’m not normally one for hiding Apple’s gorgeous designs away inside cases, but my 11-inch MacBook Air is used almost exclusively when I’m out and about, so it does normally live in a TwelveSouth BookBook case to keep it safe on its travels. I adore that case, so persuading me to set it aside for an alternative would not be an easy task.

But I was very taken with the leather iPhone and iPad cases I recently reviewed from NY-based Burkley, so I decided to give one of the company’s snap-on leather MacBook Air covers a try. It currently offers these for the MacBook Air only (both 11- and 13-inch) – though it does also have a non-snap-on variation for the 12-inch MacBook.

Burkley likes to mix up its leather offerings for each product, with the Antique Camel Leather I liked last time not available for the MacBook, so I tried the Special Burned Tan Leather. This is a fairly standard tan color in the center, with darker burned-in edges …

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If you read our review of the ATH-M50x closed-back headphones, I made it pretty clear that I was a fan of what Audio-Technica was offering. The ATH-M50x’s are well-known for giving Beats By Dre headphones a run for their money, and at a much more affordable price.

I also had the opportunity to go hands-on with one of Audio-Technica’s newest offerings, the ATH-MSR7NC. These noise-cancelling cans differ in many ways from the company’s mainstream offering, and at more than double the price of the M50x’s, venture into more premium territory. Should you consider them?
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I’m not a major believer that Apple’s iOS devices can quite fully replace the PC and Mac in most scenarios, at least not for me, and not quite yet. I’m a keyboard fiend, using shortcuts on the keyboard almost more often than I use my mouse. These doubts were ready to be tested when I saw the progress that iOS 9 brought for third-party developers within the iOS ecosystem. With the new SDK, developers were getting the chance to integrate keyboard shortcuts into their iOS apps just like a Mac app. It was then that I knew it was time to start looking for a portable keyboard to take around with me.

This presented a new problem for me. There’s a vast amount of Bluetooth keyboards out there, and I didn’t want to just carry Apple’s bulky Bluetooth Keyboard around. I needed something with a full keyboard size, good battery life, and durability. After a few months of searching, and reluctance on spending money on what I considered an unknown, I gave up my hunt.

I nearly forgot about my keyboard journey until a few months when iClever reached out to me asking if I wanted to take a look at their iOS compatible Bluetooth accessories. I gladly accepted the offer, and began by taking a look at their Tri-Folding Bluetooth Keyboard. Everything I read online from the listing on Amazon made it seem like it could fit neatly into everything I had been previously searching for, so I was excited to get my hands on it.

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Pictured here with my iPhone SE for scale

When a well-respected audiophile brand known for an amplifier costing a cool $150k launches an AirPlay speaker system, you can be sure of two things. One, it’s going to be pretty special. Two, it’s not going to be cheap.

Sure enough, Naim’s first wireless offering – the Mu-so which I reviewed earlier this year – came in at $1500. I did, though, consider it worth every penny. It’s a true replacement for a hifi system, delivering room-filling sound that I couldn’t fault. The design is fantastic, build-quality first-rate and it offers every input source you could ever want: AirPlay, Bluetooth, UPnP, Spotify Connect, Tidal, wired Ethernet, USB, optical and 3.5mm analog.

If you liked the sound of it but thought that $1500 was pushing things a little, there’s good news and bad …

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The iPhone can shoot 4K video, and now even the iPad can shoot 4K video. Yet, there are times when you need the flexibility and power provided by a standalone camera.

Standalone cameras have inherent advantages over smartphone cameras, despite the major strides made by iPhone photography over the last few years. Even with amazing third-party apps like FiLMiC Pro, which lets you adjust things like ISO and shutter speed, you’re still stuck with a constant aperture and fixed lens.

While smartphones have replaced point and shoot cameras for a vast amount of people, standalone cameras, especially ones with interchangeable lenses like the recently-released 24MP Sony a6300, still have their place.

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As someone keen on recording voiceovers and podcasts from an iPad, I needed a Lightning-enabled microphone that could handle such a task. While it’s true that Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter allows iOS to interface with a variety of microphones that it wasn’t able to before, I like the idea of keeping my setup as minimal and as dongle-free as possible.

Enter the Shure MV5 Digital Condenser Microphone. This is a MFi-certified Lightning-enabled microphone that works with the iPad or iPhone using a single microUSB to Lightning cable. By switching out the Lightning cable for a traditional USB cable, you can use the same microphone with your Mac or PC.

This microphone is a digital condenser that can be powered via Lightning or USB. It doesn’t require any special adapters or power supplies to work, just plug it in, launch an app, and start recording.

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For the last few months I’ve been using my Apple EarPods for nearly every application that requires in-ear audio. I use my EarPods for monitoring while recording voiceovers, for podcasting, and for everyday music listening.

Absurd as it is, the last pair of headphones I’d owned, a pair of Sony MDR-7506’s, ended up developing a short in the cable. I simply never got around to replacing them in a timely manner.

Audio-Technica’s ATH-M50, and the updated ATH-M50x, have received rave reviews from tech sites, bloggers and YouTubers alike. The love that these headphones receive on a regular basis convinced me that the next pair of headphones that I tried needed to be these. Do they live up to the hype?
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If a super-slim, high-quality leather iPhone case is on your wish list, the Nodus Shell case has a few perks that make it my new recommendation and go-to everyday case.

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If there was one thing I would have sworn you could never interest me in trying, it was yet another Bluetooth earpiece. There are about a zillion of these available (well, 45,322 according to Amazon), and for the most part my view has always been that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all. Stick them in your ear and get tinny, one-eared sound that is hopeless for music but does the job for hands-free phone calls when you don’t have access to an installed setup in your car.

But I had to admit that the Schatzii Bullet is rather smaller and more stylish than most, with a cute charging system that goes some way toward making up for the somewhat limited battery-life that inevitably accompanies such a small device. It seemed worth a try …

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If you’re looking for a pair of inexpensive wireless earbuds for workouts, then Aukey’s EP-B20 Bluetooth Headset is worth a look. These aren’t the most prestigious earbuds that you can pick up, but they sound decent, feel great in ear, and come with a reasonable $27.99 price.
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Prior to the official announcement of the Apple Watch, there were multiple rumors that the device would be packed with health-related sensors. When it finally launched, however, it got just a heart-rate monitor – albeit a sophisticated one. A teardown revealed that there’s also a pulse oximeter in there, to measure oxygen saturation in your blood, but Apple hasn’t yet activated that functionality.

The apparent turnabout on sensors was explained by Tim Cook, who last year told the Telegraph that Apple wanted to avoid the need for FDA approval as a regulated health product as that would slow innovation. Any additional sensors, he strongly hinted, would be external.

If you don’t want to wait that long, however, health-tech company Azoi has launched the Kito+, a credit-card sized unit that pairs with an iPhone app to measure heart-rate, ECG, blood oxygen, respiration rate and skin temperature. Costing £99 ($145), you can either use it as a standalone unit, or slot it into the supplied iPhone case for the iPhone 6/6s/Plus …

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SanDisk’s new iXpand Lightning to USB drive introduces a new design, faster USB 3.0, and a brand new app, making it one of the most attractive offerings as far as thumb drives for your iPhone or iPad go. I’ve been testing it out to see if it’s worth a recommendation over the many competitors.

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