Type of Article: MacNews News Article

Sonnet Technologies has unveiled the Allegro USB-C PCIe card, a two-port USB-C 3.1 adapter card that enables data transfers from connected devices at speeds up to 960 MB/s.

It provides users with a way to add two USB-C ports to Mac Pro tower and Windows computers with PCIe slots, and to Mac and Windows computers with Thunderbolt ports when the card is installed in a Thunderbolt-to-PCI Express card expansion chassis. This Sonnet adapter card simultaneously supports two bus-powered devices, such as SSDs, hard drives, and external DVD and Blu-ray disc drives.

AKVIS (www.akvis.com) has released SmartMask 10, a selection tool designed to make image masking fun and simple. Version 10 provides users with the new Refine Radius tool, enhanced Magic Brush tool, and other improvements.

ProjectWizards (www.projectwizards.com) has conjured up version 4.3 of Merlin Project, its project management software for macOS.

The app is is now optimized for mac OS High Sierra. However, all Merlin Project users will benefit from an update as several optimizations have been implemented, according to the ProjectWizards.

The software is now available in Japanese and Simplified Chinese. Also included in version 4.3 is a stability update.

Merlin ProjectMerlin Project costs $289 for new users. A demo is available for download.

The keynote for MacTech Conference will be Trammell Hudson of Thunderstrike and Magic Lantern fame. He’s a programmer and reverse engineer who focuses on low-level software and hardware security.

At Two Sigma Investments, Hudson is a security researcher and is developing Heads, an open source firmware for slightly more secure systems. Previously he developed lightweight operating system kernels and message passing systems for the world’s fastest supercomputers at Sandia National Labs.