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 illuminatus it is that truly controls USB) has decreed that the next generation of the USB 3.0 standard will include support for a shocking 100 watts of power. That’s enough to keep ten drives running, or an LCD, or even an entire laptop. And believe it or not, it uses the same cables and ports we’ve already got. → Read More
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
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 reverse the rotation of the Earth and then Steve Jobs simply introduces a new high-speed interface. But let’s dance anyway. → Read More
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 isn’t really explained.
Perhaps most interesting is the combination Light Peak and USB port on the side there. Is it Light Peak? Is it USB? Is it Thunderbolt? Let’s apply our critical thinking skills! → Read More
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 much more expensive Xeon-packing Mac Pro. Intel’s latest chips are just that good. But this refresh isn’t just about the processor. Oh no, it’s a whole lot more than that. → Read More
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 heard that next week will be the week for the new app, as well as some Thunderbolt video accessories, like the LaCie drive and the media gear from elsewhere at NAB. We’ll find out soon. [via MacRumors] → Read More
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
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
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 said a word yet about what Thunderbolt means for them.
During a call with Apple this morning, I specifically asked about when we might see Thunderbolt-enabled adapters for iPhone/iPad. Apple would only say that they had nothing to share at this time. That’s usually code for “it’s coming, but just not yet.” And that makes sense. Why pour all this money into a new technology if you’re not going to use it in places where it makes the most sense? But it’s also not that simple. → Read More
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: there’s finally a way to hook up two external monitors to the machine, giving you a total of three screens, Apple confirmed to me earlier today. Ever since I started using dual monitors a few years ago, I quickly realized only one thing would be better: three monitors. But the iMac could not do it — only the Mac Pro could. Again, not anymore. → Read More
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
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
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
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
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, a8-device hotspot and the solid feel that comes along with nearly every HTC phone. Too bad the VZW premium pricing sort of chills the lightning-hot phone as the 4G package runs $30 a month and the hotspot function an additional $20 spot. So yeah, that’s $50 a month Verizon will get from buyers that wanna take full advantage of the next-gen phone. Ouch. Click through for our hands-on video demo. → Read More
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 point-and-shoots to sport little lightning bolts. It’s a great match for cameras, I think, since it does double duty as a display and data pipe. → Read More
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
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
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 expect OEMs to ship with Thunderbolt until 2012.
It’s not exactly an exclusive, but it’s close. That’s a pretty big coup for Apple — assuming Thunderbolt catches on faster than USB 3.0, and has no problems and plenty of applications. It’s actually a lot to assume, and although Apple is definitely a winner here, there are also some risks involved. → Read More
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