Type of Article: MacTech Web Site

B-Eng (http://www.b-eng.ch/) has announced SSD Health Check 1.0, the company’s new hard drive utility for macOS. It will alert you when your solid state disk is in a critical state or reaches other critical limits.

SSD Health Check reports data such as operating temperature, unexpected power losses and power cycles, as well as the number of uncorrectable errors and wear level count or parameters such as erase fail count. It requires macOS 10.7 or later.

SSD Health Check 1.0 costs $0.99. It’s available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Utilities category.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) officially adopted Bluetooth 5 (www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth5) as the latest version of the Bluetooth core specification. Consumers can expect to see products supporting the spec in two to six months.

Key updates to Bluetooth 5 include longer range, faster speed, and larger broadcast message capacity, as well as improved interoperability and coexistence with other wireless technologies, according to Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG.

Synology (www.synology.com) has released Surveillance Station 8.0, an update of the smart surveillance system for macOS and Windows. It offers flexible deployment and a smoother live view experience, according to Jonathan Wang, product manager at Synology.

He adds that Surveillance Station 8.0 includes the following new features:

° Surveillance Station Client: in addition to checking live views and managing channels within browsers, users can now install Surveillance Station Client to enjoy improved performance and efficiency, and be free from browser limitations.

Schoettler Software has given us CalcTape 1.2 (http://tinyurl.com/zmxlruy), an update to their desktop calculator for macOS.

The tool is a substitute for the classic desktop calculator machines. All entries are recorded on a virtual paper roll. The app features logging of all your calculations, and allows for changing numbers, writing comments and correcting errors afterwards. Templates may be created for repetitive use and open calculations may be emailed to business associates. Version 1.2 brings new memory buttons.