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OWC CEO blogs about closed Macs, slowing evolution of Mac hardware
Other World Computing has been creating products for Apple users since 1988, so the company has been a witness to the remarkable turnaround by Apple since that time. In a post on the OWC blog yesterday, CEO Larry O'Connor took Apple to task for the slow pace of Mac hardware evolution and product intros, as well as the closed design philosophy that Apple has been displaying with most of the Mac lineup. O'Connor states that it's been more than 14 months since the current MacBook Pros were introduced, a year since the Mac mini design was updated and that, although we know about the Mac Pro, we still don't have an idea of the pricing of the top-end model. He notes that Apple was the first major computer manufacturer to support USB and moved quickly to adopt USB 2.0, but delayed the addition of USB 3.0 -- possibly in an attempt to stir up support an interest in Thunderbolt. O'Connor says, "I'm certainly not suggesting Apple doesn't lead and innovate, but it also can be selective and not to the user's benefit on the when and how." O'Connor's major beef, though, is that the new Macs lock users into what they get from the factory and have much more limited serviceability during their lifetime. Part of this complaint is obviously self-serving; most of OWC's revenues are derived from sales of aftermarket memory and storage upgrades. But he's got a point, since it's no longer possible for most of the Mac lineup to be upgraded, giving many users no option but to purchase a new Mac every few years instead of squeezing some additional life out of the old box with some RAM and a new SSD. Speaking of SSDs, O'Connor also expresses concern that Apple might ditch all traditional internal hard disk drives, creating "a serious burden for people that need to haul around a lot of data." The blog post is an interesting read from someone who has watched the Mac lineup go from near-extinction in the late '90s to being the only vibrant part of the personal computer market. We'll see for sure if Apple closes the door to user expandability of Macs even further if new products are announced at next Tuesday's event.
OWC Mercury Aura Bundles let you replace your MacBook Air's SSD, use it as external storage
Got a Macbook Air from 2010 or 2011 and want to upgrade the storage without dropping its pre-existing SSD module all together? Well, you're in luck, thanks to OWC's new Mecury Aura Bundles. After upgrading your Air with one of the company's Mercury Aura Pro Express SSDs, the included Mercury Aura Envoy lets you re-purpose the factory SSD as a bus-powered, USB 3.0-compatible external drive. Better yet, the Envoy is made of aluminum, matches the Air's tapered design and weighs just 1.5 ounces. Owners of the 2010 Air can opt for a 180, 240 or 480GB 3Gb/s drive, while those with the 2011 model can bump up to 6Gb/s bus speeds with the same storage allotments and a 120GB option. Pricing for the bundle starts at $200 for the 120GB variant, maxing out at a hefty $780 and $800 if you want to move up to the spacious 480GB offerings. Thankfully, like the SSDs, the Mercury Aura Envoy is available as a stand-alone enclosure, and it'll cost you just under $50 bucks. Hit up the press release after the break for the full details if this dual-drive setup piques your interest
MacBook Pro with Retina display running three external monitors
OWC posted up a photo that is every Mac user's dream. The photo shows a MacBook Pro with Retina Display powering not one, not two, but three external displays in addition to the notebook's own monitor. OWC lists the attached computers which includes the Retina display on the MBP set at its "best for Retina" setting; two 2560 x 1440 iMacs connected via the Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt/DisplayPort; and a 1920 x 1200 LG monitor connected via HDMI. OWC says the performance was smooth and claims "moving images and media didn't create any lag." They also say they "were able to play video on all four displays simultaneously." As noted by MacRumors, Apple's support site confirms that the Retina MacBook Pro is capable of supporting one monitor on the HDMI port and two on Thunderbolt, but it's impressive to see such a setup in action. [Via MacRumors]
OWC's Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD is Mac bootable, strictly neutral
If you've ever tried to jam a regular SSD into your Mac, then you'll know that many off-the-shelf drives feel like they're tailored and tested for, ahem, someone else. Not so with OWC's Mercury Accelsior, which claims to be the only Mac bootable and Mac supported PCIe SSD on the market. Regardless of which platform you use it with, however, the dual-SandForce card promises some neat tricks with its 24nm Toshiba Toggle NAND. Sequential read and write speeds are around 50 percent higher than what you'd get from a regular SATA III drive, with the cheapest 120GB model ($360) offering 758MB/s reads and 743MB/s writes. Random performance is notched up too, with around 100K IOPS in both directions. The 960GB version costs a coldly precise $2,096, but still -- a potential side order for when the Mac Pro line finally gets another refresh?
Other World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012
If there's one company at Macworld | iWorld 2012 that epitomizes the leading edge of Apple accessories, it's Other World Computing (OWC). At this year's event, the company is showcasing a number of new or soon-to-be-released products for Mac and iPad. In the Mac realm, OWC is about to release two new versions of the venerable miniStack external drives for the Mac mini. The miniStack Max and miniStack have the same footprint as the post-2010 Mac minis, and features FW 400/800, USB 2.0/3.0 and eSATA (optional) ports, as well as an optical drive (Max only) and USB hub. When it comes to enterprise storage, OWC has announced and was demonstrating their new Jupiter mini-SAS storage solutions. Jupiter features input/output speeds three times faster than fibre channel and twice as fast as Thunderbolt, all with an infrastructure cost much less than you'd pay for fibre channel storage. Companies deploying iPads will like the new GripStand Station, which charges and secures up to eight iPads at a time. There's more to come in this short video from the show floor:
OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express SATA 3.0 SSDs doubles your (MacBook) Airspeed velocity
It's MacWorld, which means those providers of Apple gear are busting out wares for aftermarket insertion into your objects of desire. Other World Computing's latest offering is a slender solid-state drive ready to be crow-barred into last year's MacBook Airs. The bombastically named OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is a SATA Rev. 3.0 drive with a promised 6Gb/s data speed at sizes of up to a staggering 480GB. Since the stock drives are limited to the 3Gb/s SATA Rev. 2.0 (but the controllers run 3.0), you should find a significant performance bump when swapping in the new unit. The toggle-synchronous NAND drives come in a variety of sizes, starting at 120GB ($260), but it's the brand new and quite beastly 480GB model that has us excited. Sure, $1,150 is a lot to ask for less than half a terrabyte of storage, but you'll get a three-year warranty for all that cash. We may never give you our money, nor our funny pages, but you can have the press release that's after the break.
Two OWC products win TUAW Best of 2011 voting for Best Mac Peripheral or Accessory
We have another winner! Or should I say we have two winners? Other World Computing, familiar to Mac users worldwide as OWC, has two products that won the coveted title of Best Mac Peripheral or Accessory of the Year in TUAW's Best of 2011 voting. Tied with precisely 24.2 percent of the votes each were the OWC Data Doubler drive brackets and the speedy OWC Mercury 6G Solid State Drives. The Data Doubler drive brackets provide a way to replace an optical drive in a MacBook, Mac mini, or iMac with another hard drive or a solid state drive. OWC is anticipating Apple's trend towards removing optical drives from its computers by making it possible to increase onboard drive capacity or add a speedy solid state drive to an existing machine. Speaking of speedy SSDs, OWC's Mercury 6G solid state drives were the other winner. These quiet, cool, and rugged drives start as low as $119 in price and provide performance that no hard disk drive can match. Our thanks to the TUAW readers who nominated their favorite Mac peripherals and accessories, and then voted in the competition. Congratulations to OWC on being the winner twice-over of this category in the TUAW Best of 2011.
OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68
Say hello to Other World Computing's latest 2.5-inch SSD, the 30GB variant of its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G series (3Gb/s, of course). This SandForce-driven SSD may not have loads of storage, but priced at a wallet-friendly 68 bucks, it's certainly tempting if your optical drive's been gathering dust. Whether you're running an ungodly amount of Firefox tabs on a Mac or Windows machine, you'll be covered with "sustained data rates of over 275MB/s," keeping your tasks speedy. Ready to ditch the beach balls and hourglasses? It's available now from OWC and you'll find more info in the PR past the break.
OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD lineup updated with smaller 60GB option for $130
Looking for a peppy SSD to turbo charge your workflow and don't need a whole lot of storage capacity? Back in June, Other World Computing introduced its speedy SandForce-endowed Mercury Electra 6G SSDs with a base model priced at $230 $200 for 120GB. Now the company's added a cheaper option to keep things fast and your wallet happy. Those wanting a taste of its 556MB/s read and 523MB/s write speeds can now opt for a 60GB variation, priced at just $130. Sure, it may not be ideal for saving your entire Queen back catalog, but it could be a nifty route for faster boot-up and load times, right? It's available now from OWC. Zip past the break for the full PR.
OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSDs boast big speeds, price to match
Other World Computing may specialize in upgrading aging Macs, but you don't have to own one to jam one of its new Mercury Electra 6G SSDs in your computer. The high-end SandForce Driven line of NAND drives range in size from 120GB to a far more impressive 480GB and, with the aide of 6Gb/sec SATA 3.0, can sustain write speeds of 523MB/sec and read speeds of 556MB/sec. Of course, this sort performance doesn't come cheap -- the smallest of the trio will set you back $230, while the massive 480GB model weighs in at a wallet-sapping $930. You can pick them up now from OWC if you've got a serious need for speed, and plenty of disposable income. Check out the PR after the break.
OWC offers 480 GB SSD for 2010 MacBook Air
If you want to give your 2010 MacBook Air a competitive edge with the largest solid state drive available for your notebook, then check out the Mercury Aura Pro Express line from Other World Computing (OWC). The third-party SSD is available in 180, 240, 360 and 480 GB capacities and fits both the 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch Air models that debuted in late 2010. Big and fast, OWC claims the Aura Express SSD delivers a maximum transfer rate of 275 MB/s and offers a 68% boost in performance over factory drives. Performance comes with a cost -- the entry-level 180 GB solid state drive will set you back US$480 while the top of the line 480 GB SSD costs a whopping $1579. This latter price tag surpasses that of some MacBook Air models, which start at $999 for the entry-level 11-inch model and climb up to $1599 for the premium 13-inch model. [Via Macworld]
Elgato and OWC hawk upgraded Mac Mini HTPC bundles: Blu-ray burner, 12TB, TV tuner
Simmer down, son -- neither Elgato nor Other World Computing are actually shoving 12TB of hard drive space within a 2010 Mac Mini, but if you order one of their new bundles, you'll definitely end up with as much. OWC is now selling pre-pimped Mac Mini machines, complete with bolstered storage options, an internal Blu-ray burner, Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid tuner (or HD DVR), more RAM than usual and an Apple Remote. The company plans to offer both the 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo systems, and it swears up and down that the machine will arrive preconfigured and ready to rock your home theater. The addition of a Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 4-bay storage solution enables you to keep even a vast library of digital content nearby, but there's no telling how much the outfit will charge for such a luxury. Hit the source link if you're scrounging for details, but don't expect pricing or an order button just yet. Update: So, it seems that OWC isn't actually selling new Mac Minis itself, but will upgrade your own if you send it in. We'd like to take this opportunity to now recommend that OWC actually sell upgraded Mac Minis itself.
OWC aims SandForce-based Mercury Aura Pro SSD at 2008 / 2009 MacBook Air
Own a first generation MacBook Air? If you're perfectly fine with hanging onto it for awhile, Other World Computing is now offering a tempting upgrade in the storage department. The newly announced Mercury Aura Pro is promised to deliver up to 275MB/sec, which equates to right around 3x faster than the factory SSD on 2008 - 2009 MacBook Air models. It's said to be the first SandForce-based SSD available for those machines, with 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB models available. The foursome is available today for $199.99, $299.99, $579.99 and $TBA. Curious, but true.
OWC will cut a hole in your new 27-inch iMac, put an eSATA port behind it
Say what you like about Apple, as a company it's not exactly on the forefront when it comes to offering standard connectors for peripherals. Case in point: the latest iMac revisions lack eSATA, something of a bother for companies that make external storage devices. Companies like OWC. So, that particular organization is introducing a service to add that to 27-inch iMacs, cutting a small hole into the bottom-right of the display and sticking an eSATA port behind it. It's a nice idea, the results look flush enough, and 48-hour turn-around time is great -- but $169 is hardly small change. You can, however, take that time to get a 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD stuffed in there as well for a mere $1,649 more.
OWC debuts uber-capacious 480GB 2.5-inch Mercury Extreme Pro SSD
Mmm, now we're talking. For years now, 2.5-inch SSDs have largely been too tiny (in terms of storage space) and too pricey to take seriously -- at least, for everyone except those willing to pay substantially more to ride the cutting edge. But Other World Computing just threw a monkey wrench into the norm, dishing out an incredibly roomy 480GB Mercury Extreme Pro solid state drive meant to supplant your aging laptop HDD. It's one of four in the range (60GB, 120GB and 240GB models are also available), all of which are pegged to deliver up to 285MB/sec sustained data rates with "no speed degradation." All four sizes are up for pre-order now for both PC and Mac platforms, with prices set at $219.99 (60GB), $379.99 (120GB), $699.99 (240GB) and $1,579.99 (480GB). What, you expected 480 gigabytes of sweet, succulent flash memory to come cheap? Puh-lease.
NewerTech releases the iFolio luxury iPad case
With just a few days to go before we can actually get our hands on an iPad, Newer Technology Inc., better known to us as NewerTech, has introduced quite a fancy custom handcrafted Brazilian leather protective carrying case for the iPad. It's made in the US and comes in either black or red at an introductory price of US $99.99 (down from the MSRP of $129.99), for shipment on April 5th. It seems to be built like a battleship and is backed with a lifetime warranty. It comes with a double stitched leather handle and a shoulder strap that extends from 24" to 48". The left side, sports a 7" X 10" hard backed document sleeve and two taffeta lined pockets so you won't mar whatever you decide to put in them. The right side features 4 elastic, non-marring leather restraining straps which give you enough room to hold an iPad that's already in a silicone case. Belt and suspenders might be overkill, but can you really be too safe? Probably not, since there's also a hard shell sewn in, surrounded by soft padding and a heavy duty nylon zipper to keep it closed. The only online seller of the case so far seems to be our friends at Other World Computing. I can see one of these in my future.
I have seen the future, and it's SSD
On the Macworld show floor, I didn't really see one specific product that blew me away. What I did see, however, is the next big concept that's going to not only blow all of us away, but it will change the way we relate to our computers. It's the SSD (solid state drive) and it's almost ready for prime time. As we've mentioned before, an SSD is a high performance storage device that has no moving parts. These drives can contain DRAM or EEPROM memory, a CPU, a memory board and a battery card (more details here). Having no moving parts, they can move data much quicker than an HDD (hard disk drive) which uses quickly spinning platters with magnetic surfaces. I got to play with what's being sold as the quickest SSD on the market, courtesy of Other World Computing. Their new Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD drives start at US $229 for 50 GB and top out at 200 GB for $779.95. You can see our own Steve Sande in a video interview showing the boot time of this SSD vs. a stock 5400 rpm Apple drive. Watch for it at about 2:20 into the video. OWC set up a test of two Macbook Pros; I saw this demo myself and my jaw dropped as the SSD equipped laptop booted up and started running applications in 32 seconds. The HDD equipped Macbook Pro took at least three times as long to accomplish the same thing. The computing experience is one of perception. How fast or slow your computer seems is based on more than the CPU speed alone. It's a composite of I/O speed, CPU speed and dozens of other factors. If you have a screamingly fast CPU with a poky drive, you have a poky computer as the chain is only as good as its weakest link. I've found, on my i7 iMac, that no matter what I do, I usually can't use up all the CPU speed, so the slowness may be due to the HDD not being able to keep up. The current and future classes of SSDs are going to change all that. I can imagine sitting down, booting up and before I can lift my coffee cup, the computer has come up and is running startup programs. This will take some getting used to, since it will change my and everyone's work flow somewhat. Instead of all the little interruptions you get from waiting for something to happen, the response will be nearly instantaneous. This will tend to keep me more focused since I'm a procrastinator by nature, and get distracted quickly, like whenever I see a spinning beach ball. If a computer works as quickly as I feel it should work, I will be more engaged.
OWC takes quad-interface Mercury Pro external BD burner to 12x
Pioneer's BDR-205 may not be hitting shelves in retail form until early next year, but those who desperately need a Blu-ray burner that outpaces the optical media currently available still have an option. OWC has today updated its long-standing Mercury Pro external BD drive -- which boasts FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA connection options -- with Pioneer's latest, giving it the ability to toast BD-Rs at up to 12x. Of course, you'll need lady luck on your side to actually find any media that'll support said rate, but hey, there's always the future. It's available today for $349.99, or $449.99 if you want Roxio Toast Titanium PRO bundled in.
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot
One of these days, SSDs will hit a price point that doesn't require a second mortgage to buy one. Until then, we can just gawk at things like OWC's latest, which is a portable version of Crucial's still relatively new line of affordable SSDs, built around the familiar Indilinx controller and Samsung NAND flash. Coming in sizes from 64GB ($280) to 256GB ($730), the new Pro devices can transfer data and get their power from either a Firewire or USB port. Alas, that means you'll be limited to 100MBps read rates -- as opposed to the 250MBps you could get from an eSATA connection -- but that's a small sacrifice to make if you care about losing the moving parts in your portable storage. [Via Electronista]
OWC rolls out USB 2.0 display adapter for Macs and PCs
It's hardly the first product of its kind, but we're guessing there's still plenty of folks out there ready to jump on OWC's new USB 2.0 display adapter, which will let you add up to six monitors to your Mac or PC. As with similar products, however, you will be slightly limited in terms of resolution, with the adapter topping out at 1600x1200 for standard monitors and 1680x1050 for widescreen displays, although you will get full 32-bit color and, of course, your choice of mirrored or extended display settings. What's more, in addition to the main USB to DVI adapter, you'll also get a DVI to VGA and a DVI to HDMI swivel adapter right in the package, plus a regular USB cable -- all for $99.
