thunderbolt

Part of Apple's keynote address at WWDC this morning was a demonstration of its new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro systems, which have not only done away with optical drives but have also streamlined other I/O offerings. In order to save space in its systems, Apple has combined USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections, but has also fallen to relying on its Thunderbolt connections to provide the I/O connectivity from older Mac systems.

As the MacBook line has evolved over the years, Apple has attempted to remove legacy ports from the systems, including the Ethernet port … Read more

I hesitated writing this How To. Compared with the olden days of installing and configuring video cards and giant CRT displays, the process of adding a secondary monitor to any modern computer is practically plug-and-play.

But when I sat down to write a tutorial on this that included both Mac and PC, I realized there's still a surprising amount of variables to the process, and plenty of details that I hadn't considered before.

"Is VGA video quality inherently worse than HDMI?"

"Will generic Mini DisplayPort cables work in a Mac's Thunderbolt port?"

I … Read more

Generally, Mac users have been missing out on USB 3.0, instead, they have had Thunderbolt from the beginning of the new standard. Now that's about to change, thanks to Belkin.

The company announced yesterday a new docking device called Thunderbolt Express Dock, model F4U055, which allows for adding three USB 3.0 ports to a Mac via the computer's Thunderbolt port. In addition, it also offers one port of the following connection types: FireWire 800, Gigabit Eithernet, and eSATA, as well as one audio in and one audio out. Similar to most Thunderbolt devices, the dock comes … Read more

For the first year that Intel's Thunderbolt technology has been available, relatively few devices have been released that use it. While the technology offers promise of extensive expansion, most Thunderbolt devices have been high-speed storage options. However, this trend is beginning to shift with the announcement of the new devices such as the Matrox DS1, a $249 Thunderbolt multi-I/O device that will be available in September, which can be used as a docking station among other purposes.

Following Thunderbolt's relatively slow adoption in the computer industry, in late April Intel announced an initiative to give Thunderbolt a bit more momentum. … Read more

If you've been following my reviews of Thunderbolt devices, which you should, you can't help but notice how I've been lamenting about the cable.

There are a couple of things about the Thunderbolt cable from Apple that thins my hair: none of the devices comes with one; it's expensive at $50; it has a ridiculous single-size length (video); and you can only get one from Apple.

Now things have changed a bit, but the future doesn't seem much brighter.

Kanex, the maker of the first MHL-HDMI cable for Android phones, announced today that it's … Read more

More than a year after it was first launched exclusively for Macs, the Thunderbolt standard is now officially available for PCs, too. And by "officially," I mean you can literally buy a motherboard and build a system on your own that supports Thunderbolt.

There's been a lot of talk about Thunderbolt getting to PCs since the standard was first launched. Rumor had it Intel would show off PC motherboards that supported Thunderbolt at CES 2012 (which it didn't). On Monday, however, Intel quietly launched the standard for the PC platform, and today I have in my hand the Intel Desktop Board DZ77RE-75K, the first Thunderbolt-certified motherboard that comes with a built-in Thunderbolt port. The wait is finally over.… Read more

If you wanted to use Thunderbolt devices with your Mac, previously it was necessary to purchase one of Apple's Thunderbolt cables, which at nearly $50 each may seem outrageously expensive. Until now Apple's cables have been the only option, but accessory company Elgato has recently begun selling a Thunderbolt cable of its own. However, while third-party options often have the advantage of a lower price, Elgato's cable is currently no cheaper than Apple's.

The Thunderbolt technology introduced in Apple's latest Mac models provides exceptionally fast I/O, in its current form allowing up to 10Gbps … Read more

Thunderbolt is a new I/O technology that offers a massive improvement in performance, and at data transfers of up to 10Gbps, it currently doubles the throughput of the fastest alternative technologies. The technology was developed by Intel and co-marketed by Intel and Apple; Apple swiftly adopted it in many of its Mac systems.

Unlike other technologies that connect to the PCI Express bus in PC systems, Thunderbolt extends the bus itself to peripheral devices, and therefore has allowed major potential for these devices, including external video cards, expansion chassis, display solutions, I/O port adapters, and high performance storage … Read more

What's in the next spin of the MacBook Pro? 0ne answer is obvious, others are guesswork.

The obvious? Intel's newest Ivy Bridge chip. The guesswork? A thinner MBP made possible by ripping out the optical drive, a la the MacBook Air. And here's some more wishful thinking:

Retina display: A Pro (or maybe a new Air at some point?) with a 2,560x1,600 resolution display? That's the resolution that Intel's Kirk Skaugen mentioned this week at an Intel conference in Beijing in connection with the upcoming Ivy Bridge chip. And he specifically used the … Read more