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LaCie reveals new Mac-friendly USB 3.0 external drives
Lacie's just announced its next generation USB 3.0 drives meant to take advantage of the new Ivy Bridge internals of the latest MacBooks. The fresh Rugged Triple, Porsche Design P'9223 and P'9233, and RuggedKey models all use USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UAS) for maximum data transfer speeds to and from machines running Lion or Mountain Lion. If you're looking to pick one of these slick storage devices, they'll be available in Apple stores and on LaCie's website this summer.
Lacie USB 3.0 RuggedKey now shipping: $40 for 16GB, $70 for 32GB
Encountered much violence lately? Then consider yourself a target for Lacie's new ruggedized USB 3.0 stick, which is now available at the company's online store. Yes, it's as fat as it looks in the SanDisk Extreme comparison photo after the break, but most of that girth comes from the rubbery orange cushion designed to protect your data from water, extreme temperatures and 100-meter drops. Exactly how much of that protection you'd retain even after removing the orange part isn't yet clear, but we can vouch for the fact that an 850MB video file made it across from the RuggedKey to a Retina MacBook Pro at almost exactly the claimed maximum transfer rate of 150MB/s. The write speed wasn't so stunning compared to the SanDisk -- only around 40MB/s when data travelled the other way, or a quarter of the speed of a 64GB Extreme stick -- but then, at $40 for 16GB and $70 for 32GB, the Lacie also comes in a lot cheaper.
