DS1 Thunderbolt Docking Station
Company: Matrox
Price: £195/$249
After what seems like an interminable delay since the introduction of the high-speed Thunderbolt interface to the Macintosh two years ago, consumer-level Thunderbolt devices are finally appearing on the market. Unlike more conventional devices such as hard drives, the Matrox DS1 docking station aims to capitalise on the massive bandwidth available in the interface to provide a single cable docking connection for your portable Mac.
Drobo 5D
Price: $849 US
Company: Drobo
With Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 technology making their way into the market, many new products were recently announced supporting those technologies. Drobo made the announcement of two new products this summer that incorporate both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt: the Drobo mini and the Drobo 5D. In this review, I will cover the latter.
Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapters – First Look – Nemo Memo
Internet prices: $100 and $190 (approximately)
It’s not easy to test these innovative new Thunderbolt adapters from Seagate. I needed a compatible GoFlex portable hard drive with its removable USM cable module, and a GoFlex Desk hard drive with removable base, both of which I have. I needed an Apple Thunderbolt cable, which I didn’t have. I needed a Thunderbolt-equipped Macintosh, which I also don’t have.
Seagate provided our evaluation GoFlex Thunderbolt adapters. Then they sent a $50 Apple Thunderbolt cable. So far so good. A local retail establishment generously provided the latest 15 inch MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt port. One of my Mac tutorial clients agreed to let me use his new 13 inch MacBook Air. I was ready to proceed.
Part 3 (Read Part 1 here, or Part 2 here)
Back in September, I decided to see if USB 3 was worth my time and money. I installed a USB 3 PCI card (CalDigit SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card - $79.00 USD) in my Mac Pro and set out to take a look at drives that offered USB 3 as an interface option.
As you can see in this chart, USB 3 is advertised as being much faster than USB 2 or Firewire 800, but much slower than Thunderbolt.
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Jason Hiner of CBS Interactive and the Editor in Chief of the TechRepublic joins Tim and David! Topics include Intel’s move from USB 3 to LightPeak (Thunderbolt), Wireless USB, Tablets, the MyMac Podcast Network, and the future of how we will get our content.
Links:
Forget Intel’s Thunderbolt, Wireless USB is the revolution
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David drinks way too much caffeine and runs away with the show. Happy to be lazy, Tim sits back and simply directs traffic. Topics include: XOOM, GameLoft and Tim inserting foot in mouth, Lion Server, and Thunderbolt!
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