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LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 wields dual 500GB SSDs, Intel's latest port tech
When Intel officially ushered in Thunderbolt 2 back in June, it promised that we'd see devices sporting those blazing-fast speeds soon. It seems LaCie was one outfit poised to embrace the tech as the storage company has just announced the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2. The successor to the original model, version 2.0 touts transfer speeds of 1,375 MB/s, thanks to Intel's port, and a new all-black paint scheme on its aluminum shell. Inside, two 500GB PCIe Gen 2 SSDs in RAID 0 can wrangle 4K and 3D video edits -- power that should properly arm the creative lot for hefty fieldwork. That interior space has also been designed to properly handle heat distribution so that the virtually silent, thermoregulated fan need only kick on every now and then. There's no word on pricing just yet, but the storage gadget is set to arrive later this quarter. We were able to see the new Little Big Disk in action in order to catch a glimpse of its speeds. During our time with the unit, we observed write speeds of 1,200 MB/s and read marks at 1,300 MB/s -- transferring a 300GB file in about four minutes. Thankfully, the drives that were set up ahead of our arrival, and had been sorting files for some time, remained at nearly room temp. With two of the Thunderbolt 2 drives set up in RAID 0, we witnessed 2,000 MB/s write speeds and 2,600 MB/s read numbers. Although the front plate of the new unit is glossy, the entire enclosure is still metal and the black paint job looks quite nice beside a new Mac Pro.
Promise Technology intros first Thunderbolt 2 storage solutions
Whether you just picked up one of the new MacBook Pros with Retina display or you're waiting for the debut of the Mac Pro later this year, there's good news for those who want to take advantage of the ultra-fast Thunderbolt 2 ports built into the new hardware. Promise Technology has introduced two Thunderbolt 2 storage solutions that boast input/output speeds of up to 20 Gbps. The Pegasus2 Series comes in four-, six- and eight-bay versions housing up to 32 TB of raw capacity. The RAID enclosure supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60. Promise also introduced the SANLink2 Thunderbolt Fibre Channel bridge, perfect for connecting portable and desktop systems up to high-speed Fibre Channel SAN. The SANLink2 box delivers dual 8 Gbps fibre channel ports, and the two 20 Gbps Thunderbolt 2 ports support DisplayPort and Device Daisy-Chaining. Both products will be available through the online Apple Store and Promise VARs and distributors. The Pegasus2 devices should be available next month, while the SANLink2 bridge will be arriving in December.
Apple unveils Haswell-based MacBook Pros with Retina display, starting at $1,299 (update: non-Retina 15-inch is gone)
If you've been waiting for the MacBook Pro with Retina display to get a big processor upgrade, today's your lucky day. Apple has just refreshed its high-end portable line with Intel's Haswell chips, delivering Iris graphics and battery life improvements much like those from the recent MacBook Air update. The 13-inch model manages nine hours of battery life, and the 15-inch unit can last for eight hours on a charge. Both computers carry faster PCI Express solid-state drives, Thunderbolt 2 ports and 802.11ac WiFi, while a higher-end 15-inch variant ships with dedicated GeForce GT 750M video. Either new Mac costs less than its predecessor, too. The 13-inch system starts at $1,299 for a model with a dual-core 2.4GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD; its 15-inch counterpart starts at $1,999 with a quad-core 2GHz Core i7, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Both laptops are available today. Update: Apple has quietly axed the non-Retina 15-inch model; you can still buy its 13-inch sibling (unchanged since its early 2013 update) at a lower $999 price.
ASUS first to arrive with motherboard packing Intel's 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2
The ink is still fresh on Intel's formal blessing of Thunderbolt 2, and as promised, there's already a product on the market from perennial early bird ASUS. The Z87-Deluxe/Quad ATX is the first motherboard to pack the tech, which combines four of the original 10Gbps Thunderbolt channels into two bi-directional 20Gbps ports. That's four times the speed of USB 3.0 if you're keeping score at home, allowing two 4K displays to be driven at once, or faster-than-SATA-6 SSD speeds, for instance. Otherwise, it's as well-equipped as you'd expect from a bleeding edge mainboard, with 4th-gen Intel (Haswell) CPU support, 10 SATA-6 ports, 8 USB 3.0 ports, and 3 PCIe 3.0/2.0 x 16 slots. There's no pricing or availability yet, though Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards tend to be expensive. Still, if you wear the "early adopter" name-tag with pride, hit the PR after the break.
Apple offers a sneak peek at new Mac Pro during WWDC 2013
The Mac Pro is getting a long-overdue update, and it looks like it is going to be worth the wait. The Mac Pro, available "later this year," is downright small compared to the current tower, but the specs are amazing. The Mac Pro will have Dual Workstation CPU FirePro processors, up to two times faster than the current Mac Pro. There is built-in support for up to three 4K displays, HDMI out, GB Ethernet and internal storage with 1.25 GBps reads and 1 GBps writes. The new Mac Pro features Thunderbolt 2, and it's backwards-compatible with the current-generation Thunderbolt accessories. The announcement also got some applause when Apple said the new Mac Pro will be assembled in the US. No pricing yet, but the new Mac Pro is sure to generate a lot of excitement.
Daily Update for June 5, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Intel formalizes Thunderbolt 2, promises products this year
While Intel gave us the technical rundown on its next iteration of Thunderbolt two months earlier, it's now announced that it will officially be known as the not-particularly-original Thunderbolt 2. Promising 20 Gbps throughput and support for 4K video, Intel is now vowing to bring the port to market sometime this year. For a reminder, we've added the company's NAB demo after the break.
