Mike Wuerthele

corebeliefs said:

It seems you're referencing MaxTech with your sideswipes about controversy. The problem with indirectly criticizing other channels, it makes you look weak and cowardly, not them. MaxTech gets a lot of heat because they set the tone with investigative reviews of Apple products. They're not afraid to have strong opinions. They make reviewing a long-term conversation. All of these things help clicks, as the trolls have pointed out. But they also reflect the reality that tech products take time to understand in real-world use.

Have a problem with what they're saying? Reference them directly. It will only improve your site. I've watched many channels and sites try to bury their influence with indirect innuendo. And yet, MaxTech still leads the way because they're talking directly to viewers and not playing the industry game like you are here. 

dewme said:

JustSomeGuy1 said:

Mike, good overall review. I think you missed one major aspect of this, though, except for a tiny mention at the end: ongoing support.

This is a serious issue because a device like this requires serious LONG-TERM support. For an example of how this sort of product can go wrong, look no further than last week's news about zillions of WD My Book devices being remote wiped due to security flaws not being patched.

This device runs a Linux OS whether you install a fully accessible interface to it or not, and a pile of app code on top of that. Over time flaws will be discovered, and probably (if the devices gain any traction in the market) exploited. Will Asus support it long-term? I have no idea. They make a LOT of things, most of them of good quality and a few not, but supporting their own distro of Linux - which is effectively what we're talking about here - is a whole new thing for them. I'd be cautious.

That doesn't mean you should always buy Synology instead. But it would be a big factor in any decision I'd make about this sort of gear. (Though in general, I'd build my own - I'm not exactly their target market.) And thus I think it should have been a bigger part of the review. What's their track record with these devices? How long have they been in the market? What's the support like? Do they have any track record with other software-heavy products? Etc.

Great point about support. Another player in this same exact market, QNAP, suffered a serious ransomware attack in April of this year. Nobody is immune from security threats, but having an active support team in place that can respond quickly may help to limit the damage. This would be true for non-security issues as well, i.e., how quickly does the product maker respond to software and firmware bugs in general.

One challenge of course is whether independent product reviewers can accurately assess the quality of long term product support provided by the manufacturer of these devices, or any device in general. Track record, market longevity, and market position are fine, but with some products you don't really know if a "clean" track record means that you've been very good because you're proactively testing and stressing your product or you've simply been lucky and nobody has tried to topple your house of cards - yet. But I agree that even a reputational and qualitative assessment is better than nothing if you're lacking a good way to do a quantitative assessment.

chadbag said:

I am a little confused.   Per the article Twitter introduced this feature in 2017 but is now, in 2021, discontinuing it after 8 months?   Did it really take Twitter more than 3 years to make the feature available after introducing it 4 years ago?

maltz said:

Thanks, that's the sort of information I really look for in a storage review.  Most of the rest I can get in the spec sheet.  lol  I do have a question, though...

"do a complete secure erase format of the drive writing zeros across the entire capacity"

For an SSD (and actually other drives) a "secure erase" has a fairly specific meaning, and it isn't "writing zeros across the entire capacity".  Can you clarify the process you're talking about here?  Does this device support TRIM (on Macs or any other OS) and can you do an ATA Secure Erase (or an NVMe Format)?

KidGloves said:

I have the 4 bay TerraMaster D4-300 USB 3.1. It works fine in single disk mode but the thing that worries me is the drive seems to chatter away non-stop, all day, every day. I have no idea what it's doing. I use a 2018 Mac Mini but the constant reading and writing for no apparent reason is worrying. Activity Monitor reports backupd, kernel_task, launched, mds_stores and photolibraryd as the main processes but I really haven't a clue why this is constantly accessing. The Mac Pro I had before didn't do this.

Any suggestions very welcome.