Thunderbolt
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Thunderbolt Display shortage could point to impending refresh
Here's some potentially good news for those who've been hoping for a redesign of Apple's Thunderbolt Display - but not for folks who're trying to get their mitts on the current model. Apple Insider reports that retails including Amazon, J&R and MacMall are all out of stock of the 27-inch display, and such shortages typically herald the impending introduction of a new model. The most likely scenario has Apple launching a new Thunderbolt Display utilizing the same design and technology as the newest 27-inch iMac. Such a display would feature front glass laminated to the LCD panel itself for a similar reduction in glare and a much thinner profile. It would make sense for a refreshed Thunderbolt Display to feature a MagSafe 2 power connector and to omit the current model's Firewire ports, so as to be up-to-date with the current MacBook Pro lineup. However, there would certainly be those who'd miss the latter feature, if removed. How would you redesign the current Thunderbolt Display? Let's hear your ideas in the comments.
Apple reduces Thunderbolt cable price, introduces new shorter option
Apple may not have a presence at CES, but that's not stopping the company from introducing a new goodie in its online store. 9to5Mac reports that the Apple Thunderbolt Cable, which was previously only available in a length of 2 meters, is now available in a new 0.5-meter variation. The new cable is priced at US$29.99, and on top of that, the familiar 2-meter version of the cable has received a $10 price cut, from $49.99 to $39.99. Both cables are currently in stock in Apple's online store. More speed for everyone!
Corning's USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt cables smaller, lighter, longer
Corning, the same company that brought you the Gorilla Glass used on most smartphones, announced new optical Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 cables yesterday at CES. The cables make use of Corning's ClearCurve VSDN optical fiber technology to extend data transmission range while being smaller and lighter. [Ed. Note: The demo at CES was impressive, as the optical cables were able to bend in ways we've never seen from optical cables.] The new cables won't increase USB or Thunderbolt data speeds -- it takes new controller hardware on devices to do that -- but it's possible to run data over farther distances than ever before. The USB 3.0 cables will be available in lengths up to 30 meters (about 100 feet), while Thunderbolt Optical Cables will come in lengths up to 100 meters (330 feet). Thunderbolt fans will find that their version of Corning's cable provides full bi-directional 10 Gbps data rates, while the USB 3.0 cable can handle rates up to 5 Gbps. The cables will be available in the first quarter, but pricing has not been announced. [via Engadget]
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 will match Thunderbolt performance in 2014
With the addition of USB 3.0 to Apple's line of Macs, the Thunderbolt interface -- which hasn't really taken off -- may be relegated to the dustbin of history soon. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced at CES today that by 2014, USB 3.0 data-transfer speeds will be doubled from today's 5 gigabits per second to 10 Gbps. The faster SuperSpeed USB 3.0 will require new controller hardware on the computers, so don't expect your 2012 or 2013 vintage Mac to be able to take advantage of the swift interface. The group is designing USB 3.0 to use the same connectors, so you will be able to plug existing devices into the higher-speed ports. The revised SuperSpeed USB 3.0 may require new cables as well, as existing SuperSpeed USB cables aren't certified to operate at the 10 Gbps rate. The group also reported that they'll be upgrading the ability for USB to carry electrical current, meaning that mobile devices of the near future may charge faster. The future isn't completely bleak for Thunderbolt, although the standard is being used only on Macs. Intel is working on faster versions of the standard, and the recent arrival of optical Thunderbolt cables means that storage devices can be located up to 100 feet away.
LaCie announces the 5big Thunderbolt series: up to 20TB capacity starting at $1,199
If LaCie's 2big Thunderbolt isn't quite large enough to handle your storage needs, a solution is on the way. At CES, the outfit has revealed the robust 5big Thunderbolt series that can handle five hot-swappable drives (as the moniker suggests) while offering up to 20TB capacity with advertised speeds capable of notching 785MB/sec (we witnessed 750MB/sec with our own peepers) -- when appropriately configured. Wielding a handful of said drives affords the device custom RAID configurations allowing RAID 0 on three units while the remaining two reside in RAID 1. Dual Thunderbolt ports make daisy chaining an option -- if your wallet can handle it, of course. If you're concerned about the heat output, the 5big sports a heat-dissipating enclosure alongside a Noctua cooling fan and exhausts to keep things at a manageable temperature. Both 10TB and 20TB configurations will be available with a beginning price tag of $1,199 from LaCie and other retailers at a yet-to-be-announced date. Small businesses may want to take a gander at the 5big NAS Pro which also sorts five bays with up to 200MB/sec speeds, a dual-core 2.13GHz Intel Atom processor, 4GB RAM and a single Wuala interface for both local and cloud storage. For now, the full PR rests past the break and a closer look awaits in the galleries.
Corning announces optical cables for Thunderbolt, coming this quarter
Thunderbolt enthusiasts have only been able to rely on the use of copper core cables -- which offer significant limitations on distance -- for their data transfer needs, but hope is close at hand. This afternoon, Corning announced that it's launching optical cables with Thunderbolt connectivity. The new cables are just as durable as copper and are up to ten times longer (they come in lengths of 10, 20 and 30 meters, while copper only goes up to three). Just like copper, the optical cables offer high-speed data transfers up to 10Gbps, though they lack the ability to provide power to your devices. If Thunderbolt isn't your thing, don't fret: Corning plans to offer a set with USB3 connectivity as well. We haven't been given any pricing yet, but both sets of cables should be available sometime in Q1. Update: Corning emailed us to let us know that the Thunderbolt cables will actually come in six lengths: 12ft, 18ft, 10m, 30m, 50m and 100m (the latter being the longest available in the market, the company tells us). The USB3 cables will be offered in lengths of 5.5m, 10m, 15m and 30m.
Fiber optic Thunderbolt cables coming soon
Sumitomo Electric Industries has announced that it's the first company to receive certification from Intel to produce optical Thunderbolt cables. Currently all Thunderbolt cables have metal components, which limit the maximum length of those cables to around 10 feet. Optical Thunderbolt cables will allow lengths of up to 100 feet, which will be helpful in professional post-production studios, especially as noisy hard drives or other accessories can be kept away from sensitive audio recording equipment. Sumitomo Electric says the new cables will provide the full 10 Gbps of the metal cables, and can become tangled or pinched up to 180 degrees without seeing any kind of signal degradation. The optical cables will be as thin as the current metal Thunderbolt cables, but their connection heads will be slightly longer at 38mm versus the metal cable's 28mm connection. One other difference is that optical cables are not capable of powering devices, like external hard drives. Any bus-powered devices will need a separate power supply to run when connected via an optical Thunderbolt cable. The new optical Thunderbolt cables will be compatible with all Macs and devices shipped with Thunderbolt ports to date. Sumitomo Electric Industries has not announced any pricing yet.
mLogic's mLink Thunderbolt PCIe Mac expansion chassis now shipping for $399
After a lengthy delay, mLogic's mLink PCIe Thunderbolt expansion chassis is now up for grabs. The device branches to any Mac computer equipped with the high-speed port, allowing you to install a half-length PCIe board -- opening up a world of RAID storage, high speed networking and video capture to otherwise slotless Minis or Macbooks. The company says it's now in stock and shipping for $399, and added that it made good use of the lag time for more extensive thermal and EMI testing. A special Red Rocket model is supposed to follow along at $699 for RED cinema camera RAW video conversion duties, but if plain old 2K or HD video is good enough, hit the source to get it.
LaCie d2 upgrade melds Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 in one external desktop drive
We have Thunderbolt drives, and we have USB 3.0 drives. They've usually had to remain separate on full-size drives, however, which could make a refresh of LaCie's d2 something of a milestone -- it's purportedly the first desktop external drive with both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces (as well as the matching cables) in the same box. The upgrade should give Mac and Windows users alike the full 180MB/s average transfer rate without having to sweat over port choices. The new dual-interface d2s are available today, but be prepared to pay for absolute flexibility: the aluminum, fanless drives start at a hefty $300 for a 3TB version and scale up to $400 for a 4TB model, roughly $100 or more beyond some of their single-interface brethren.
Origin Stories: Sonnet Technologies
Sonnet Technologies has been around for 26 years, and was founded by a former Apple engineer. I've long been a fan of their products, first with a PPC daughtercard upgrade for my 8500 years ago. In this Origin Stories I talk to Greg LaPorte about the history of Sonnet. As a bonus, check out the additional videos around some great Sonnet products. Here's a video of some of Sonnet's advanced Thunderbolt products: And here's a video of some more great stuff, including a USB 3.0 media reader and a Tempo SSD card for performance junkies:
mLogic's mLink Thunderbolt chassis shipping this month, Red Rocket board version to follow
If you're still wondering how to make use of that Thunderbolt port on your computer, here's a new option. mLogic, a fairly new company that shares the same founder as G-Technology (now under HGST), is now taking orders for the $399 mLink Thunderbolt expansion chassis and will start shipping it this month. What this little box offers is the ability to connect almost any half-length PCIe card to Thunderbolt-enabled computers, so the possibility is endless -- be it for RAID storage, high-speed networking or 2K video acquisition. We noticed that the mLink was meant to launch this time last year, but CEO Roger Mabon explained to us that this massive delay was due to the unexpectedly lengthy Thunderbolt qualification process, on top of the company's further extensive thermal and EMI testing on the product, so it's confident that it now has a rock solid product. In addition to this model, mLogic is also working on a variant dubbed mLink R, which is tailored for Red's Rocket video transcode accelerator. It's currently listed for a much higher $699, but having seen the much larger Rocket chassis offered by other companies, we're certain that the better-off production crews will be happy to pay the premium in exchange for portability. Stay tuned for news on its availability. %Gallery-170772%
13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display reportedly seen with 2,560 x 1,600 LCD, dual Thunderbolt ports
We hope you didn't want Apple's little event next week to be a complete surprise. After promises of extra details for a prior leak, a WeiPhone forum goer has returned with photos of what's supposed to be the active screen and ports of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display that might be on stage come October 23rd. If this is what we get alongside the similarly unofficial miniature iPad, we'll take it. The possible leak shows a 2,560 x 1,600 LCD (four times higher in resolution than the existing MacBook Pro) and, importantly, no sacrifices in expansion versus the 15-inch Retina model -- there's still the dual Thunderbolt ports and HDMI video that shipped with this system's bigger brother. Vital details like the performance and price are left out, so there's a few cards left off Apple's table, but the images hint at what could be a tempting balance between the 15-inch MacBook Pro's grunt and the MacBook Air's grace.
Western Digital bumps My Book Thunderbolt Duo to 8TB, consoles regular My Book buyers with 4TB
Many of us may have liked the prospect of Western Digital's My Book Thunderbolt Duo, but there's no doubt some of us who discovered that even 6TB just wouldn't cut it. If that digital pack rat mentality describes you, the solution is here: the company has taken advantage of larger 4TB hard disks to stuff a total 8TB of storage into the Duo's enclosure. The extra capacity hikes the price to $850, although the company notes that it's including the often expensive Thunderbolt cable to avoid any surprise trips to the store. Those without the ports or budget for the Duo can still reap some of the benefits through an updated, 4TB version of the regular My Book that hums along on USB 3.0 at a more reasonable $250 price. Either of the new drives should be lurking in stores if you're hurting for space as we write this.
LaCie's Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt: fast portable storage that can take a beating
LaCie's no stranger to kicking out portable HDDs that are a-okay with getting kicked around, and the Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series is no exception. As the extended title implies, this one is equipped to transfer files via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, and it'll play nice with Mac and Windows platforms. The LaCie Rugged SSD offers up transfer rates as high as 380MB/sec -- a feat we came darn close to hitting ourselves in testing -- and the HDD variants claim up to 110MB/sec. The bantam drive is entirely bus-powered, and it's engineered to shake off drops of up to four feet. Interesting? Both models should be shipping shortly, with the 1TB HDD edition going for $249.99 and the 120GB SSDer for $199.99.
Intel's Core i3 NUC mini-system bares it all for IDF (hands-on video)
What's red or black, 4 x 4 inches and exposes itself shamelessly on the show floor at IDF 2012? If you answered Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC), you'd be right. The diminutive PC was on display at Intel's Developer Forum along with its motherboard and cooling assembly. It comes in two flavors, a consumer-geared model with a single HDMI connector and Thunderbolt (in red) and a more business-centric version with two HDMI outputs and Ethernet (in black). Both mini-systems feature a third generation (Ivy Bridge) Core i3 CPU, QS77 chipset, two dual-channel DDR3 SoDIMM slots, mSATA and mini-PCIe interfaces (for SSD and WiFi cards), five USB 2.0 ports (two back, one front, two internal) and a socket for an external 19V DC power supply. The company hopes to get the attention of OEMs and DIY-ers alike when it makes this small, light and simple computer design available in October for about $400. Check out the gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.
Blackmagic launches Cinema Camera MFT with Micro Four Thirds mount, sans autofocus, for $3K
Blackmagic Design has thrown its Cinema Camera MFT into the Micro Four Thirds arena, but it will only work with lenses that have manual iris and focus capability. The shooter is otherwise identical to the original Cinema Camera, with a 2.5k, sub-MFT sensor; CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes and DNxHD capture formats; built-in SSD; capacitive touchscreen; and an included copy of DaVinci Resolve color correction software. That means cineasts already on board that format will have another mount for their glass, and MFT's mirrorless aspect will also permit other lens formats, like PL or Nikon, to be added with third party adapters. So, if the relatively low price, claimed 13 stop dynamic range, higher-than-HD resolution and new mount is enough to push your "start" button, check the PR for the entire skinny.
Refresh Roundup: week of August 27th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
WD announces new My Passport for Mac and My Book VelociRaptor Duo drives
WD (part of Western Digital Corporation) today announced a pair of new storage products for Mac. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo (starting at USD$899.99) is billed as the fastest My Book external hard drive system ever released by WD, while the latest in the My Passport (starting at $99.99) portable line adds both capacity and a USB 3.0 interface to the venerable portable drives. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo (above) is indeed a monster, matching two 1 TB 10,000 RPM WD VelociRaptor hard disk drives with twin Thunderbolt ports. As noted in a recent press event, the drive offers SSD-like data transfer speeds of up to 400 MB/s, and multiple My Book VelociRaptor Duo drives can be daisy-chained without impacting data transfer speeds. The drive can be configured at RAID 0 to maximize speed and capacity, or as RAID 1 to provide instant mirroring of content. Some of the RAID 0 speeds one can expect include transferring a 22 GB full-length HD movie in less than 65 seconds or over 2000 5 MB photos in less than 33 seconds. The drive is user-serviceable, with a top door that reveals two easy-install trays. The much more portable and affordable My Passport portable hard disk drives (below) have added USB 3.0 for use with MacBook Pro and MacBook Air devices that feature the interface. WD has also added a 2 TB version ($199.99) of the My Passport drive to the line, providing significant capacity and speed in a portable hard disk.
Western Digital MyBook VelociRaptor Duo: Thunderbolt, 2TB capacity, and a whopping $900 price tag
If you fancy Western Digital's MyBook Thunderbolt Duo, the outfit has just announced a new external storage offering that also sports the aforementioned connection. The MyBook VelociRaptor Duo packs two 1TB 10,000 RPM WD drives that carry the same prehistoric moniker -- as the name suggests (in both cases). These dual heavy-hitters create a 2TB repository for HD video, 3D rendering and the like while boasting SSD-like speeds of up to 400MB/sec and both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. Of course, if one of these drives isn't taxing enough on your savings account, you can daisy chain a few for a more robust storage setup. Time Machine compatibility? You betcha. The unit works with Apple's backup system immediately and is user serviceable should the need arise. For those ready splurge on a couple of VelociRaptors of their very own, the Duo is on sale now. If you're not quite ready to commit your funds, consult the full PR below for the nitty gritty.
HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Incredible 2 go back to the future with leaked Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs
Looks like some HTC oldies are in store for Android OS goodies -- unofficially. Though Verizon's yet to publicly confirm availability, it does appear Droid Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt owners (like this sorry bastard) are in store for a very real Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Two deodexed ROMs based on purported stock 4.0.4 builds have recently hit the forums treating eager and, in the case of that latter LTE handset, beleaguered users to a host of performance tweaks, as well as that Sense 3.6 skin. It should go without saying that you'll need to be rooted to flash either leak and, as always, the usual warnings apply: backup first and proceed at your own risk. That said, consider this your ticket past the Big Red tape.
