Promise Technology brings yet another firmware upgrade to their amazing cloud storage solution. Hello MacOS Sierra, meet Apollo.

Can you remember a more exhilarating feeling than opening presents on Christmas morning as a youth? Looking back, Christmas morning was one of my favorite days of the year. Now, I get this same feeling on WWDC and on Apple Launch day each year. I feel the excitement about the latest IOS, latest iDevices and MacOS. This year was no different with the announcement of Apple Watch 2, iPhone 7 plus (I have mine in Jet Black), IOS 10 and MacOS Sierra. Alongside this announcement, Promise Technology also updated their Apollo Cloud device. With a namesake predating modern times, the Apollo simulates a modern day Delphi, storing up to 4 Tb of space and now syncing with macOS Sierra and having Time Machine capabilities.

Of the Olympians, Apollo has always held honor in my heart, as the father to the god of Medicine, Asclepius. In addition to this fact, he served as the god of Knowledge, Oracles, Truth/Knowledge, music and medicine to name a few. It is no wonder that Promise Technology chose to name their cloud device after Apollo. Promise Technologies has released yet another free firmware upgrade, which supports the most recent version of Time Machine. The Time Machine feature is not new, with the prior firmware release 08/16/16. If you are not familiar with Time Machine, you are probably not in the Apple community, as this has been a backup software application since OS X Leopard. Historically, you needed a Time Capsule, an OS server or external/internal hard drive to backup your system. Apollo takes the place of these devices and provides a home/office personal cloud, to safely store and share data across all of your devices.

Many of us have a variety of tech devices, which often contain independent data. Whether you are using an iPad, iPhone, or Macbook, data management can often become a chore. There are multiple methods to store/share data, to get data from one device to another, or to keep centralized data to use on all devices. I have been using Apollo since 06/2016 and have been using the Time Machine feature for the past 2 months. To gather additional information about the Apollo, I invite you to read my initial review of the Apollo device, here on MacSources. You may have tried Dropbox, Shutterfly, iCloud, external hard drives and other online cloud storage. You may also have utilized airdrop, USB drives, etc. However, none of these options proves to be that versatile alone. Promise Technology has been involved in Enterprise storage solutions for the past 28 years. The Apollo is their first commercial device and with this latest upgrade, they continue the “promise” to make their device even better.

Why should you care about this device? The 4TB Apollo device can be utilized by up to 10 people/users and there is absolutely NO monthly fee. I repeat, no monthly fee. Forget iCloud with the backup feature of 0.99c per month. My Apollo can be accessed through my iPhone, iPad, PC Desktop and my Macbook Pro. I have sent invites to my parents, my sister, and my wife. As a family, we can share photos like never before. Each of us has our own private data storage and can also choose what to share. This feature alone has made the Apollo a huge benefit in my life. With the latest “Free” firmware upgrade, the Apollo is enhancing Time Machine support for OS Sierra by making it 2.5x faster than the previous version. You can now move files similarly to Finder on Mac OS or File Explorer on PC. Here you can drag/drop files and move them like you would on your computer. Lastly, and perhaps most amazingly, you can now connect USB storage to the device and directly upload your files to the Apollo. October is an amazing month, being the month of my birth. Promise technology provided us all with a birthday present. Check out their site at promise.com.

I am simply amazed at the Apollo device and each firmware upgrade seems to help me to love the device even further. With 2 upgrades (08/16/16 and 10/4/16) Promise Technologies has provided you with a new device. The hardware may be the same, but it is similar to the Xbox One S or the slim models of other gaming machines. If you missed it above, this update is completely free. You pay for the Apollo once and you benefit from the continued efforts of the company. With a customer service and PR department as good as their product, I foresee many amazing things for Promise Technology.

Features:

Small Device with 4TB storage
Buy once and experience no recurring fees.
Invite up to 9 other members to share the Apollo with you.
Available to any device with the Apollo App.
Each member of the group has their own private space and the ability to share any/all data of their choosing.
All of the data are off the web, on your own personal cloud.
High encryption
USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity
NEW: Time Machine Support for Mac OS Sierra
NEW: Drag/Drop Feature
NEW: USB storage connection to upload files and folders with a single click