December 12th, 2012

Mac Users Rejoice: An Actual Shipping Thunderbolt Docking Station Goes On Sale Tomorrow

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After a lengthy delay, there will finally be a Thunderbolt expansion dock ready for actual purchase tomorrow, according to MacRumors. The Matrox DS1, first unveiled back in June and then updated in September, will be a real shipping device beginning tomorrow, with a $249 price tag. → Read More

August 10th, 2011

New USB Spec Calls For Up To 100W Of Power, Thinks “Thunderbolt” Is A Cute Name

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I’m sure many of our readers have come across a situation where they’d have liked USB to carry a bit more power to their devices. Your phone or iPod, charging ever-so-slowly, or perhaps an external drive that only works on “powered” USB ports — or must be plugged into a wall socket. A wall socket, in this day and age! I ask you!

Fortunately, the SuperSpeed USB group (or whatever shadowy… → Read More

July 29th, 2011

Warning: The Latest MacBook Air Packs A Less Powerful Version Of Thunderbolt

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Apparently not all Thunderbolt ports are created equally. Anadtech discovered that the Thunderbolt chip within the latest MacBook Air is not the same found in the current MacBook Pro. The Air’s version packs less power and throughput resulting in less abilities. Hope you weren’t planning on hooking up two of those new fancy Thunderbolt Displays. → Read More

July 12th, 2011

A Mid-Summer Trip To The Apple Rumor Mill

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It’s almost that time of year again, friends. New movies are terrible, kids are sucking down popsicles and my office is like a moist toaster oven. It’s nearly back to school time!

That means in our little trivial world that it’s time for new gadgets and the Internet rumor mill is lining up quite a big showing from Apple. Of course it’s always this way. The rumors state Apple will do no less than… → Read More

June 28th, 2011

The Apple Store Will Now Fulfill Your High-Speed Thunderbolt Needs

Intel introduced Thunderbolt connectivity alongside the refreshed Thunderbolt MacBook Pros a few months back. Since then, several compatible peripherals have became available and now the Apple Store is selling a few, too. This includes two different Promise RAID units (R4 & R6) and the official $50 Apple Thunderbolt interconnect. The cable ships separately from the external storage units but… → Read More

June 27th, 2011

Sony Officializes Its New Z Series Laptops, With Quasi-Light Peak-USB Port

Last month saw the introduction of a new Sandy Bridge-enabled S series from Sony, and now we see their more powerful, full-on Z series get a boost. The new Zs have a standard (not low-voltage) Core i7, 256GB SSD, and a 13.1″ screen at 1600×900 (interesting resolution!). They tip the scale at just over 2.6 pounds and are 16.65mm thick, with a “full-flat” body, though the significance of that term… → Read More

June 20th, 2011

Latest Apple Rumor Puts Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt Mac Pro, Mac Mini Launching Late July Or Early August

Don’t tell the kids this, but it’s almost back to school time and Apple is reportedly gearing up for a major push this August. Apperently several large hardware refreshes are on tap with both the Mac Pro and Mac mini set to get new innards.

It’s about time, too. The iMac got in on the Intel Sandy Bridge party just last month with the top of the line model now packing more computing might than a… → Read More

June 14th, 2011

Thunderbolt Gear And Final Cut Pro X To Arrive Next Week?

Back at NAB in April, Apple took over the Final Cut Pro Supermeet to announce the brand new version of their powerful video editor. Powerful new functionality was demoed, as well as some (to me) disturbing concessions to iMovie, but the $299 price impressed. June was the target for release, and if you’ll check your calendar, you’ll find that is this month. MacOtakara claims to have… → Read More

May 18th, 2011

Why Is Apple Trademarking "Thunderbolt" Instead Of Intel?

A strange development on the Thunderbolt front. Intel’s new high-speed interface certainly made its big debut on Apple’s new MacBook Pros, but why would Apple be trademarking it if it’s Intel’s technology? → Read More

May 17th, 2011

Sony Bringing Thunderbolt To Notebooks With USB-Style Connector?

When Thunderbolt made its big debut back in February, we weren’t too surprised to find it take the shape of a DisplayPort connector. As Apple has been a big partner with Intel on the new interface and has always been a big promoter of DisplayPort, it made sense. But it was no guarantee that the rest of the industry would follow suit. And it seems Sony might be the first to change things up. → Read More

May 4th, 2011

Will A Thunderbolt Hit The iPhone/iPad Before A Full Ascension Into The Cloud?

This morning’s upgrades to Apple’s iMac line of computers brought a range of nice features. But most were just spec bumps. The big new addition is Thunderbolt. Following the initial roll-out to the MacBook Pros, the new super high-speed ports are clearly destined to be a key component across Apple’s product lines. But what about Apple’s two key newer products: the iPhone and iPad? Apple hasn’t… → Read More

May 3rd, 2011

With Big Graphics, HD Cameras, And Triple Monitor Support, iMacs Are More Pro-Like

For the past six years or so, my main desktop machine has been a string of iMacs. As an all-in-one machine, they’re both great to look at and simple to set up and use. But the power user side of me was always left a bit wanting. And it sounds like the iMac upgrades Apple has just unveiled this morning may fix that.

First of all, they’ve solved perhaps my single biggest complaint about the iMac… → Read More

April 28th, 2011

Successor To Thunderbolt May Hit In 2015, Says Intel

The latest interface on the block, Thunderbolt, is barely on the market and there’s already talk of its replacement. It’s a good four years down the road, of course (companies like Intel have to think ahead), but there are already prototypes and Intel is already talking it up. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a cool code name yet, but they’ll fix that soon. → Read More

April 14th, 2011

Intel Calls USB 3.0 & Thunderbolt ‘Complementary,’ Will Support USB 3.0 in 2012

Intel now says it will support both its Thunderbolt interface, which first appeared on the recent MacBook Pro revision, and USB 3.0 sometime in 2012. Presumably if it supports USB 3.0 then it will support all previous versions of USB. → Read More

April 12th, 2011

Media Hardware Gets Thunderbolt At NAB

Although Thunderbolt isn’t found on PCs yet, it’s already made its Apple debut, and that’s enough for some. And now accessory makers are getting into the game as well, following up on the initial gear from LaCie and Pegasus. → Read More

April 5th, 2011

Apple Granted Patent For USB/Thunderbolt-Compatible 30-Pin Connector

Apple has just won a patent, which I totally saw coming a mile away, that seemingly allows for their semi-ubiquitous 30-pin connector to support “DisplayPort (dual lane),” which sounds a lot like the Thunderbolt standard so recently added to the Apple stable. → Read More

March 15th, 2011

The HTC Thunderbolt To Hit Verizon On March 17th For $249

Finally. The HTC Thunderbolt hit the scene back at CES but HTC and Verizon has been uncharacteristically mum about it sense. No more. The $249 Thunderbolt superphone is set to debut on big red this coming Thursday, March 17th. This will be the network’s first 4G LTE device, but if that doesn’t win over buyers, the rest will: a 32GB microSDHC card, the gorgeous 4.3-inch WVGA screen… → Read More

March 10th, 2011

Canon Throws Its Weight Behind Intel's Thunderbolt

There are no products to announce or anything, but Canon has decided it’s going to saddle up with Thunderbolt, Intel’s new high-speed interface. It’s doubtful that it will be integrated into cameras being released this year, since like most companies it wasn’t included in pre-release development, but you can expect the next generation of DSLRs and maybe even… → Read More

March 2nd, 2011

AMD Belittles Thunderbolt, Says It's Unnecessary

AMD certainly would benefit from minimizing Thunderbolt. If Thunderbolt were to catch on, AMD would likely have to purchase components from chief rival, Intel. AMD says that they support USB 3.0 and that Thunderbolt’s speed would be superfluous. → Read More

February 24th, 2011

Rumor: Nikon D4 To Support Thunderbolt?

We just got word that the Nikon D4 will be the first DSLR to support Thunderbolt. The rumor became known a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t until the other part of the rumor (the new Macbooks) came out that the Nikon rumor appeared more valid. → Read More

February 24th, 2011

Apple Has Significant "Head Start" With Thunderbolt, But Not Exclusive

Intel’s new Thunderbolt interface, which made its debut this morning in an upgrade to Apple’s MacBook Pro line, may be effectively an Apple exclusive for quite some time, according to Intel. At their press release, held shortly after Apple’s update when live, Intel noted that the developer kit for the interface would be provided to other computer manufacturers this spring, and that they didn’t… → Read More

February 24th, 2011

Thunderbolt Plus RAID Equals The New Pegasus Drive Towers

Thunderbolt is out, and the Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals are coming fast. LaCie has their Little Big Drive coming this summer, but if you need more than 500GB of space, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. Pegasus has you covered with their new R6 and R4 direct-attached storage units. Need to have 8TB of storage streaming at 800MB per second? Probably not! But this sucker can do it anyway. → Read More

February 24th, 2011

LaCie Is The First With A Thunderbolt-Equipped External Drive

Following the Thunderbolt-centered Intel and Apple announcements, we fully expect that the accessory makers will be coming in droves to support the new protocol. LaCie was among the early adopters of USB 3.0 when that was new, and so it’s no surprise that they’re in the front line with supporting Thunderbolt. Their first entry is this Little Big Disk, featuring the new connector and SSDs on the… → Read More

February 24th, 2011

What Is Thunderbolt And Will It Change Your Life?

Though you’re probably hearing about it for the first time now, Intel’s been working on a new interconnection technology for the last few years. “Light Peak”, as it was called up until it was rebranded “Thunderbolt” today, promises a new world of screaming-fast data transfers. The claims are spectacular: 10 gigabit per second transfers (both upload and download!), dual protocol support, and… → Read More

February 24th, 2011

Apple Updates The MacBook Pro Line With Sandy Bridge Intel CPUs, AMD GPUs, FaceTime HD, and Thunderbolt

Happy Birthday, Steve! Just like the rumors stated, Apple refreshed the entire line of MacBook Pros today, which just so happened to be Steve Jobs’ birthday. These new models aren’t exactly revolutionary with the same basic unibody casing, layout, and batteries. The updates are evolutionary in nature, just steps towards the next generation of MacBook Pros. Gone are Nvidia graphics as… → Read More

February 23rd, 2011

More Signs Point To Light Peak Debuting On Upcoming MacBook Pros, To Be Called Thunderbolt

Apple rumors are flying left and right, but the latest might just be the wildest of them all. This rumor states the upcoming MacBook Pro models will feature Intel’s Light Peak high speed data connectivity port under the Apple label as Thunderbolt High Speed I/O. Nevermind that Apple rarely (I can’t name one) debuts an unproven industry technology, this port is said to share a connector with the… → Read More

February 22nd, 2011

Intel To Debut Light Peak Alongside Apple's New MacBook Pros?

Intel has released a statement saying it will be discussing “a new technology that is about to appear on the market” on Thursday, the day expected by some to bring updates to Apple’s MacBook Pro line. Coincidence? I think not. It’s almost certainly the roll-out for Intel’s big new interface, Light Peak, which was supposed to hit in 2010 but was delayed. → Read More

January 25th, 2011

HTC Thunderbolt Accessories Rolling Into Best Buy Feb 19th — Thunderbolt to launch shortly thereafter?

Verizon’s still being pretty hush-hush about when they’ll be launching the HTC Thunderbolt, outside of the totally non-specific “sometime in the first half of the year” window they gave us at CES. While it’s by no means concrete, the above listing for some Thunderbolt accessories pulled from Best Buy’s inventory system (as obtained by DroidLife) might narrow… → Read More

December 31st, 2010

Supposed HTC Thunderbolt Specs Leaked: 1.2 Ghz Dual-Core CPU, 5 Megapixel Front Camera, And More!

At this point, Verizon’s upcoming 4G-friendly Android phone, the HTC Thunderbolt, is about as secret as my undying love for oxygen. While its gone by different names over time (from the Incredible HD, to “Mecha”, to the current Thunderbolt moniker), we’ve seen leak, after leak, after leak with this thing. One thing, however, has managed to remain elusive: the spec sheet. In… → Read More

December 27th, 2010

HTC's Mystery Verizon 4G Phone To Be Called "Thunderbolt"?

While they’ve tried to be pretty hush-hush about the specifics, HTC and Verizon have made it pretty dang clear that they plan to launch a 4G phone at CES — and unless the rumor mill is way, way off, it’ll be the handset thus far known by its rumored codenames: the Incredible HD, or “Mecha”. Neither of those names really captures the 4G spirit, though. Incredible HD… → Read More