firewire

Five things still missing from Apple MacBooks

Unless you've been living under a rock (or in Redmond), you've no doubt seen the flood of product news coming from Apple's WWDC 2009 conference--from the new iPhone 3G S to an entire line of revamped MacBook laptops.

While we're down with the new SD card slots and lower prices (see reviews for three of the new MacBooks here), there are still a few items on our MacBook wish list:

Matte screen options Despite the fact that nearly every serious laptop user we know prefers matte, non-glossy screens, only Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro offers a … Read more

Hands on: Apple MacBook (13-inch, white)

Apple's lowest-end laptop occupies a special place in the Mac spectrum. As of WWDC 2009, it's the last MacBook standing in the lineup--all the other Apple notebooks are now MacBook Pros. The MacBook (we can call it "the" MacBook, now) also is the last to retain the polycarbonate white plastic glossy casing that once defined a whole line of machines.

While the MacBook's more pedestrian appearance may not catch the eye as much as the unibody aluminum MacBook Pros, don't be fooled by its throwback looks--inside, Apple's done a good job of … Read more

Iomega eGo refresh gets triple-interface design

Last month we reported on Iomega's new line of eGo external hard drives. Today, the company sweetens the deal with an even more versatile device: a portable hard drive with FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0 ports for the ultimate in cross-compatibility.

Iomega dropped by CNET's offices last week to hand over a test drive, and although we haven't put it through our labs benchmark tests yet, the eGo track record is good enough to assume that this device will earn good marks. The drives are delivered in HFS+ for out-of-the-box Mac compatibility, but you … Read more

Clickfree portable drive cinches up data backup

Forget about annoying drag-and-drop data backups and scheduled timers--the Clickfree Portable Backup Drive makes it so easy that it might convince you to start dual-saving your files. All the software you need is actually preloaded onto the drive and starts up automatically when you plug it in. From there, you can select exactly what kinds of files you want the Clickfree to find, organize, and back up, or you can simply make a carbon copy of your desktop master drive.

The drive is available in several capacities up to 500GB and works with both Mac and Windows. We have to … Read more

LaCie flaunts colorful new flatware

These tangle-free LaCie Flat Cables must work because they managed to slip by our sticky fingers at the time of their release back in early December '08. LaCie makes these multicolored neon cords in a variety of interfaces, including:

USB A to B USB A to Mini B USB A male to A female FireWire 400 to FireWire 400 FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 FireWire 800 to FireWire 800 eSATA to eSATA

A French design firm enlisted by LaCie came up with the flat strip shape that neatly folds into a coil to prevent tangles. The Flat Cables also come with 24 labels so you'll never wonder what plug goes with a particular device again.

As always, though, design innovation and pretty colors (see: Apple) come at a premium: would you pay 10 dollars each for these cables? Sound off in the comments section!

More pictures after the jump.… Read more

USB 3.0 will crush eSATA, FireWire

Intel demonstrated a working version of USB 3.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Here's why it will make eSATA and FireWire obsolete.

When USB 3.0 is expected to hit the market in early 2010, it will have been 10 years since the now ubiquitous USB 2.0 was introduced (April 2000). The current USB 2.0 specification runs at a theoretical maximum speed of 480Mbps, and can supply power (for those looking for the hard details, you can find the USB 2.0 specification here (zip file).

According to the USB Implementers … Read more

G-technology jumps on the SSD bandwagon, releases two external drives

We're noticing more and more solid-state drives enter the mainstream market; the Intel X-25M drive's blazing fast transfer speed and completely unaffordable price tag felt bittersweet, but the prices aren't quite as bad for lesser quality drives like the Patriot Warp V.2. SSDs are popping up more often in the world of Netbooks, but we rarely see standalone external SSD.

Luckily, G-Technology made good use of this year's Macworld Expo by introducing a new family of external solid-state hard drives. Both the G-Drive mini SSD and the RAID 0/1 G-RAID mini SSD use 2.… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 848: Delayed gratification

We're getting Windows 7 at the end of 2009! Although Microsoft won't make that official. We're getting USB 3.0! Though not until 2010. Songbird is almost out in a full version. But it's still just a release candidate. Microsoft is going open source! OK, they said they're interested in looking at Webkit. Prostitutes can advertise on Craigslist! But they have to give a phone number and credit card...

Man, nothing's quite what it seems today.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 848

Ballmer rules out new bid for Yahoo http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10085104-75.html … Read more

WD adds FireWire 800 to Mac external hard drive

Back in June, I reviewed Western Digital's My Passport Studio and complained that it doesn't offer a FireWire 800 connection. Other than that, the drive was one of the best compact external hard drives on the market.

On Thursday, WD announced that it added this connection and capped the storage size in the latest revision of the drive to 500GB (from 320GB).

With this addition, the new My Passport Studio drive is now larger and has all three of the most popular interfaces for pocket-size external hard drives, including USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. All of these connections are bus-powered, meaning you won't need to use a separate power cable.

Despite the addition of ports and the increase in storage size, the new drive still has the same passport-size compact form factor as the one released in June and weighs almost half a pound. … Read more