thunderbolt

Top five portable drives: Mobile storage redefined

When you think of a portable storage device, you think of something that can be plugged into a computer's port to provide extra storage space. Well, that's true for the most part, but some can offer more, such as really fast speeds, a lot of storage, a convenient backup solution, or a built-in mobile media server that works even when not plugged in.

Here are the best portable drives currently on the market and they collectively offer all the goodies mentioned above, as well as something I personally find important: sexiness. They are sorted in the order in … Read more

How to power four simultaneous screens with the Retina MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro with Retina display has many noteworthy features, from a unique 2,880x1,800-pixel screen to new Nvidia graphics to large SSD storage options. But, the most surprising may be the multiple video outputs -- something not seen on a MacBook before now.

The last several generations of MacBook have had either a mini-DisplayPort or combo Thunderbolt/DisplayPort jack. HDMI has been on our most-wished-for lists for years, so Apple finally adding HDMI (which is found on pretty every other current laptop) is a big move, especially when combined with a second Thunderbolt port.

The initial review of the Retina Pro … Read more

Apple posts FAQ on new Thunderbolt adapter

Apple has made available a small FAQ on its new Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, which outlines some uses and limitations of the adapter, and also hints at potential troubleshooting for both it and other Thunderbolt devices.

In the FAQ, Apple makes particular note about the daisy-chaining of Thunderbolt devices; each chain can support up to eight devices (including the host computer). While in most cases users will have peripheral devices such as hard drives or I/O controllers attached to their systems, it is also possible to connect multiple computers in the same daisy chain (one use of this is for … Read more

Drobo hooks up Thunderbolt with USB 3.0, data cable

The time when you could only use Thunderbolt storage devices with Thunderbolt-enabled computers is about to be over.

Drobo announced today two new Thunderbolt storage drives, its first that, on top of the traditional two Thunderbolt ports, also come with a USB 3.0 port. In fact, these are among the first Thunderbolt storage devices from any vendor that also support USB connectivity. This means you can use the drives with your existing computer, be it a Windows PC or a Mac, and keep them for use with future systems that support the Thunderbolt standard.… Read more

Apple releases fixed Thunderbolt update

On June 11 Apple announced a couple of Thunderbolt adapters to provide Ethernet and FireWire connectivity to Thunderbolt-based systems, and issued a driver update for OS X to provide software support for these adapters; however, for a number of users the update resulted in the inability to boot. Apple has reissued a fixed version of this update, which should install properly without any issues.

The driver update is a small plug-in for a required system kernel extension to give it support for the new adapters, but when installed prevented the system from loading the driver properly, which caused some systems … Read more

Thunderbolt storage roundup: It's a PC world after all

Editors' note: This roundup was originally posted on March 23, 2012, and updated April 16 and June 15. It will be updated on a regular basis as more devices are reviewed.

Those days of the "I am a PC" and "I am a Mac" guys have long gone, mostly because the two have married into one, so to speak. The truth is Mac and PC are now one -- they are both personal computers anyway -- sharing the same Intel chipsets and processors. In fact, you can install Windows on an Intel-based Mac, and, if you … Read more

Where Thunderbolt is smart -- right now

The broad mainstream future of Thunderbolt is in question, but there's no doubt it's already useful for people with heavy computing demands.

With hundreds of gigabytes of high-resolution digital photographs and a smaller but still bulky collection of video, I'm one of them.

To supply fast external storage for my Dell laptop, for a few years now I've relied on eSATA -- an external version of the SATA standard used to connect hard drives inside computer chassis. It's functional but prickly: the external drive must be powered on before the computer, sleep and wake can … Read more

Thunderbolt vs. USB, HDMI, PCIe Cable: How does it compare?

Intel believes Thunderbolt will remake mobile computing by endowing laptops with a high-speed, versatile port.

To match Intel's mainstream ambitions for Thunderbolt, though, Intel will have to prove to hardware designers and to consumers that it's got compelling advantages over the alternatives. Today, those are chiefly USB (Universal Serial Bus) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface. Tomorrow, another challenger could arrive in the form of PCI Express Cable, and it's got a strong ally in PC giant Hewlett-Packard.

Getting new input-output technologies to catch on is particularly hard because I/O standards only succeed with support from both … Read more

Can Intel's Thunderbolt go mainstream with help from Apple and Acer?

To some, Thunderbolt is just a port on the side of a MacBook, a mere check-box on a feature list.

But to Intel, the high-speed communication technology is an ambitious attempt to do something that only happens every decade or so in the computing industry: rewrite the rules of how people plug stuff into their computers.

Thunderbolt arrived in 2011 with the potential to bring the flexibility of a tower computer to something as compact as an ultrabook. And it's got a bright future in premium and professional products, as events this week show.

First, Apple's new Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro … Read more