March 1st, 2010

The Apogee Astro Drive Series A101 from Chaintech is apparently the world's smallest USB 3.0 drive

USB 3.0 is finally getting some traction in the market place as more products are announced from more manufacturers. Chaintech just intro’d its first USB 3.0 drive and slapped the notorious “world’s smallest” label on it, which is probably true although a bit disingenuous as there’s only about three USB 3.0 flash drives available right now. → Read More

February 24th, 2010

Japan gets slew of new USB 3.0 external HDDs

Computer equipment maker Buffalo is pretty bullish about USB 3.0. The company today announced a total of five new USB 3.0 HDDs for the Japanese market, namely two “compact models” [JP] (81×130×16mm) and three bigger (45×175×156mm) devices [JP]. The HD-PEU3-BK (pictured above), the compact type, will be available in a version that holds 500 GB (price: $200) and another one with 640GB ($250). → Read More

February 23rd, 2010

Belkin launches pricey USB 3.0 products

In an age when standard USB 2.0 cables can be purchased for next to nothing, the $40 price tag on Belkin’s 4-foot USB 3.0 cable ought to be enough to keep most of us out of the early adopter demographic for a while. → Read More

February 15th, 2010

World's first 4-port USB 3.0 hub is here

USB 3.0 is poised to become mainstream soon, and more and more compatible devices have been cropping up in the last few months. Today computer equipment maker Buffalo in Japan has announced [JP] what it claims to be the world’s first 4-port USB 3.0. This comes five weeks after VIA (based out of Taiwan) has unveiled the first USB 3.0 hub controller in the industry. → Read More

February 9th, 2010

USB 3.0-compatible PCI Express interface card

USB 3.0 is just around the corner, with us having reported about more and more compatible devices in the last few months. And today, Tokyo-based Greenhouse, usually a reliable maker of crap gadgets, announced [JP] a USB 3.0-compatible PCI Express interface card. → Read More

February 5th, 2010

eSATA is faster than USB 3.0 — at least right now

Most hardware manufacturers are finally rolling out USB 3.0 devices. We’ve seen motherboards, hubs, hard drives, and notebooks all rocking the new and improved USB standard. It’s clearly the future of USB with backwards compatibility, dramatically faster speeds and full-duplex data transfers. That’s great, but it’s still not faster than eSATA right now. → Read More

February 3rd, 2010

Apple may or may not be testing USB 3.0 controllers

USB 3.0 is the future and, well, Apple likes to be on the edge of technology so it only makes sense that the company would be at least looking into implementing the new interface sometime real soon. After all HP is already shipping USB 3.0 in its Envy 15 series and that can’t sit right with Apple fanboys. But all we know right now comes from a Digitimes report that basically states that Genesys… → Read More

February 1st, 2010

Review: Western Digital My Book 3.0

We looked at the 500GB USB 3.0 Seagate BlackArmor PS110 a few days back and now the Western Digital My Book 3.0 drive is on the bench. There are some important differences and similarities between the two USB 3.0 options. First, while the PS110 is a portable solution and the My Book 3.0 is a desktop external, both drives spin at 7200 RPM. They also both come with USB 3.0 ports, with the PS110… → Read More

January 25th, 2010

Review: Seagate's USB 3.0 BlackArmor PS110 portable hard drive kit

The future is here, everyone. Let’s check out the just-announced Seagate BlackArmor PS110 Performance kit. It’s Seagate’s first USB 3.0 product and it’s noice — where noice is slang for nice, and for the sole fact that it’s the first USB 3.0 drive I’ve tested. I’m a little excited. → Read More

January 14th, 2010

USB 3.0 now shipping in HP Envy 15 notebooks

The HP Envy 15 is ushering in USB 3.0 by becoming the first notebook from a mainstream brand to offer the new interface. USB 3.0 will come standard on models configured with a Core i7 CPU and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 GPU. The HP EliteBook will be getting the same treatment within the coming weeks. Exciting, I know. → Read More

January 5th, 2010

The BlackArmor PS 110 gets Seagate in the USB 3.0 game

Hope you’re ready for CES’s flood of USB 3.0 drives and accessories. Seagate is the latest manufacturer to announce its initial offering at the trade show. The BlackArmor PS 110 Performance Kit includes not only a 500GB portable hard drive, but also a ExpressCard USB 3.0 adapter because, you know, no one really has a USB 3.0 yet. → Read More

January 5th, 2010

The WD MyBook line gets the USB 3.0 treatment

If you’re going to buy that new USB 3.0 hub, you might as well have something to plug into it. Why not the new WD MyBook 3.0? I mean, it’s damn fast, not that expensive, and looks sick. → Read More

January 5th, 2010

The first USB 3.0 hub controller is here

USB 3.0 is just around the corner, with us having reported about more and more compatible devices in the last few months. And now Taiwan-based PC accessory maker VIA has readied the so-called VIA VL810 SuperSpeed Hub Controller, the world’s first USB 3.0 hub controller. It supports data transfer speeds of up to 5Gb/s and features one upstream and four downstream ports. → Read More

December 29th, 2009

The PQI Cool Drive U366 USB 3.0 flash drive can transfer files at 5Gbps

Get ready for the USB 3.0 flash drive enslaught. PQI has launched its first salvo and it looks mighty strong. The Cool Drive U366 comes equipped with a 64GB capacity and speeds up to 5Gbps/sec. That’s ten times faster than USB 2.0, kiddies. Previously the only way to get that type of speed on a portable drive is to opt for an eSATA flash drive — if you can find one — and even then, most aren’t… → Read More

December 28th, 2009

Never buy an enclosure again: SATA to USB 3.0 adapter turns any HDD into an external

Now here is something I may just order right now. This straightforward adapter from Unitek will turn any hard drive with standard SATA and power connections into an external drive with no frills and no gimmicks. Plug in the one side, plug in the other, and boom, it’s there on your desktop. → Read More

December 17th, 2009

The LaCie 2Big USB 3.0 RAID drive is stupid fast, coming soon

If you have any doubt that USB 3.0 is a big step forward in data transfer, check out the new LaCie 2Big RAID drive. This puppy can see throughput speeds of 275 MB/s. Let me say it for you, daaaamn. Now all you need is a USB 3.0 motherboard or PCI-E card. Good thing both are now available. → Read More

November 26th, 2009

Buffalo announces world's first 12x Blu-ray burner (and it's USB 3.0, too)

USB 3.0 is just around the corner (kind of), and the first computer hardware manufacturers are getting ready to deliver products supporting the new standard (even though there were some backlashes along the way). Last month, Asus announced the world’s first USB 3.0 + SATA 6.0 PCI-E card. In May, NEC said they’re going to release the first USB 3.0 host controller. → Read More

October 30th, 2009

Asus' U3S6: First USB 3.0 + SATA 6.0 PCI-E card

Not that USB 3.0 will be useful anytime soon—how long did it take manufacturers to finally get behind USB 2.0?—but Asus’ U3S6 should be, provided it’s not cancelled, the world’s first USB 3.0 + SATA 6.0 PCI-E card. Better news: it’s only $30. → Read More

July 31st, 2009

World's first USB 3.0-capable motherboard gets nixed

Asus dropped word last week that they would be coming out with the world’s first USB 3.0-capable mobo, and I was itching to make it the basis for my next PC. But then Asus had to go and spoil my dreams by cancelling the P6X58… and why was that again?

Not for any particularly interesting reasons.

God, thanks for clearing that up, Asus! → Read More

May 20th, 2009

NEC develops world's first USB 3.0 host controller

We all will get faster USB devices very soon. NEC Electronics just announced the µPD720200 chip, which is the world’s first USB 3.0 host controller. → Read More

August 13th, 2008

USB 3.0 to make its debut next week?

People have been accusing Intel of holding back the specs on USB 3.0 controllers, possibly so they themselves will have more time to design for it. But today they let fly a press release saying the specs were now available and would be released for free, as planned. The release includes some kind words from AMD, despite that company’s vocal criticism of Intel earlier. As Intel’s Fall… → Read More

July 30th, 2008

FireWire catching up to USB with 3.2 GB/s spec

The IEEE has approved a new standard for IEEE 1394, introducing support for faster data transfers, marking a significant improvement for the serial bus interface. The new IEEE 1394-2008 specification will introduce support for S1600 (1.6 GB/s) and S3200 (3.2 GB/s). It will be fully backward compatible with previous ports, S400 and S800. Many older FireWire and i.Link devices are still running on… → Read More