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Magma ExpressBox 3T gives you 3 external PCIe slots over Thunderbolt
Laptops aren't exactly renowned for their expandability, especially those beautiful slivers of aluminum from Apple. (Simply upgrading the RAM on your Air requires you break out the soldering iron.) Magma has a solution, the ExpressBox 3T. This silver case houses its own 220w power supply and a trio of PCIe 2.0 slots. Two of those slots are of the x8 variety (though one can hold an x16 card) while the third is scaled back to x4. And they all talk to your notebook via that wonderful little port known as Thunderbolt. It even comes with a carrying case which, we suppose, makes this hunk of metal "portable," but we certainly wouldn't want to lug it around very often. Sadly there's no info just yet about price or release date, but we do have a gallery of images below and the complete PR after the break. %Gallery-132908%
DIY iPad music breakout gives pro-grade stage presence, mixes circuitry with art (video)
If you're thinking this iPad audio breakout dock looks remarkably good considering its DIY origins, then you should know it wasn't put together by any old screwball with a soldering iron. Nope, this was made by Qubais "Reed" Ghazala, a very particular old screwball who's been blurring the lines between circuitry, music and art since the Summer of Love (that's 1967 on a normal calendar). His latest invention is all about getting pro-grade sound connections into and out of an iPad 2 -- much like an Alesis dock or Akai SynthStation, but with that special "I made this" charm and minimal price tag. Key ingredients include a Macally aluminium iPad stand and a 30-pin PodBreakout board. Hit the video after the break to get further instructions and hear Ghazala's "bottomless well of chance music" -- both come at your own risk.
Magma ExpressBox mates PCI Express with ExpressCard
Desktop users longing to take advantage of ExpressCards on their machines have long since been quieted, but for laptopers looking to somehow stuff a PCI Express card into that diminutive slot, your prayer has been answered. Magma's ExpressBox / Express Box Pro allows users to operate a PCIe card up to 6.604- / 12.283-inches in length by handling up to 250MB/sec, providing dedicated power and cooling solutions, and playing nice with Windows XP, Vista, and OS X. The breakout box sports a fliptop lid for quickly changing out PCIe cards, and after installing the appropriate drivers, users will have full functionality of a PCI Express card right on their portable machine. Notably, these iterations only support cards that require 55-watts of power or less, and the company notes that gamers wishing to cram power-sucking GPUs into these boxes need to wait for the next revision before giving it a whirl. Even still, you better need the PCIe portability mighty bad to rely on one of these, as the ExpressBox and ExpressBox Pro will run you a stiff $729 or $749, respectively.[Via Macworld]
