(Credit:
OWC)
Having a second monitor doesn't just make your office space look more serious, it also helps you boost your productivity. Unfortunately, most computers don't come with a video card that can handle more than one display at a time. This is when you need to resort to one of the USB ports for the second display.
Other World Computing announced on Tuesday its USB 2.0 display adapter that helps you easily add additional monitors to your computer. The adapter is basically a bus-powered USB external video card. All you need to do is plug it into an available USB 2.0 port and then plug a monitor (not included) to it, just like you would to the regular built-in display output of the computer.
The adapter comes with software drivers for both Windows and Mac computers. You can add up to six additional monitors to a Windows machine and up to four to a Mac. Once done, you can use all these displays, plus the main one simultaneously.
The OWC USB 2.0 display adapter supports all HDMI-, DVI-, and VGA-equipped displays, be them LCDs, plasmas, projectors, or legacy CRTs. It can display full 32-bit color at the max resolution of 1,600x1,200. It's unclear but you probably won't be able to play 3D games with it.
The device comes with all you need out of the box, including: USB to DVI adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, DVI to HDMI swivel adapter, a 4-foot USB 2.0 cable, and a software CD.
It also comes with a one-year warranty and a reasonable price tag of $99. Unfortunately, it doesn't ship with any LCDs. If you want something like that, look for the Mimo 740, which is a lot more expensive and only works with Windows.
(Credit:
NewerTech)
If you do a lot of work that involves transferring data from one hard drive to another, you'll probably love the NewerTech Voyager hard drive dock.
This the first quad-interface hard drive docking station that supports FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, and eSATA. The device can turn any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA hard drive, up to 2.0TB, into a fully bootable and hot-swappable external drive solution.
NewerTech Voyager is compatible with both Macs and PC and features plug-and-plug installation with no software or driver needed. All you need to do is plug in a new hard drive, and format it if need be. You can of course--and I believe this is the main use of the device--put in an old hard drive to access data from it.
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Exactly five months after the introduction of the quad-interface, external 4x Blu-ray burner, Other World Computing on Tuesday announced its latest upgrade to the Mercury Pro Blu-ray, which will now burn Blu-ray Discs at up to 8x.
The new Mercury Pro BDR-203 Blu-ray burner can burn 2GB per minute.
(Credit: OWC)This speed translates into about 2GB per minutes, meaning you can finish a double-sided disc (50GB) in about 25 minutes. Other than Blu-ray Discs, the new drive also writes DVDs (all formats) at up to 16x and CDs at up to 40x. Of course, like all burners, it can play back any of the formats it can record.
The new external drive also supports all four computer connections: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA. So far, OWC is the only vendor that offers this quad interface in its external Blu-ray burners. Most other external burners lack the eSATA port.
The Mercury Pro Blu-ray burner comes with two 25GB BD-R discs, and a full retail version of Roxio Toast 10 Titanium for Mac. It also works with Windows, but you'll need to get a separate recording-software suite for it.
According to OWC, the drive has been tested to make sure it's compatible with a wide range of software applications, including iTunes, Apple Disc Burner, Apple iDVD 5, Apple DVD Studio Pro, EMC Retrospect Express, NTI DragonBurn, Roxio Toast, Roxio Easy Media Creator, and Nero Burning ROM.
The drive is available now for $480.
(Credit:
OWC)
If you're a hard-core Apple fanboy but want the functionality of a tablet computer, there's a solution: get your MacBook transformed into a ModBook.
The solution got more easily accessible on Friday as Other World Computer announced its Modservice in partnership with Axiotron.
Originally available only in Canada, the service converts an existing Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook into an Axiotron ModBook. So far, this is believed to be the world's first and only Mac-based tablet computer that lets users draw and write directly on the screen.
Preordering is available immediately from OWC, with prices starting at $1,299.99. That includes a protective shipping box and FedEx air shipping to and from OWC.
You can also buy a new ModBook starting at $2,199 directly from OWC. As an Axiotron authorized system manufacturer, OWC is certified to convert existing MacBooks into full-featured ModBooks.
Together with the Modservice, OWC is also offering a full three-year warranty option that extends the Modservice conversion one-year warranty term. Priced at a hefty $349, the extended warranty covers the original MacBook components, any customer selected upgrades installed by OWC at the time of modification, and the tablet components.
(Credit:
OWC)
Sony released a new internal Blu-ray recorder, the BWU-300S, a while ago. But if your computer doesn't have an empty bay to take it, you'll appreciate what Other World Computing announced Wednesday: an all new external Blu-ray recorder, called Mercury Pro, that features all four interfaces, including FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA.
The new OWC Mercury Pro drive supports 4x Blu-ray write speed (or 150MB per second). At this speed it can finish a single-layer Blu-ray disc (25GB) in 30 minutes or a double-layer disc (50GB) in an hour. While this is only half the write speed of the Sony internal drive, the new OWC Mercury Pro is still twice the speed of its predecessor and for now rated the fastest external Blu-ray recorder.
The drive is compatible with both PCs and Macs, and OWC says it's been tested with third-party recording/playing software, including Apple iTunes, EMC Retrospect Express, NTI DragonBurn, Roxio Toast, Roxio Easy Media Creator, and Nero Burning ROM.
The new OWC Mercury Pro supports reading and recording virtually all optical media, including Blu-ray, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W, and CD-R/W. It also reads HD DVDs, which the Sony BWU-300S can't. This is rather significant as there are still a lot of HD DVD movies on the market, though the format war ended at the beginning of the year.
The new OWC Mercury Pro Blu-ray drive comes in two models: the SW-5583 and the SW-5583T, which cost $499.99 and $579.99, respectively. They are identical and come with all connections' cables plus starter media, with one exception. The SW-5583T also comes with a full retail version of Roxio Toast 9 Titanium for Mac OS X.
Just a day after Apple showed off its new MacBooks, Other World Computing (OWC) announced on Wednesday its 4GB DDR3 memory upgrade kit for the computers.
(Credit:
OWC)
The kit includes two matching 2GB modules of PC3-8500 DDR3 memory designed specifically for Apple's new MacBook 13-inch and MacBook Pro 15-inch models. It costs $140 but you'll get a discount for trading in your current Apple standard memory modules.
The company's trade-in program offers $7.50 cash back per GB of old memory, which is a savings, but not such a good deal considering the new kit costs about $35 per GB. Nonetheless, the memory kit comes with a lifetime warranty and a money-back warranty policy.
Other than the upgrade kit, OWC also offers system memory for all previous Core 2 Duo MacBook and MacBook Pro models, including the still offered MacBook "White" 2.1GHz, in a 4GB DDR2 Memory Upgrade Kit, priced at $69.99.
The eSATA Mercury is equipped with a Hitachi internal hard drive that spins at 7200rpm.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)I asked for it a few blogs ago and now I've got it: the first pocket-size external hard drive that features an eSATA connection, the eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go. eSATA is the external interface for SATA, currently the most popular interface for internal hard drives.
A while ago, OWC introduced the world's largest small external had drive and has now become the first vendor to put eSATA on a compact external hard drive. The eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go also supports USB 2.0 and features a 320GB internal hard drive from Hitachi that spins at 7200rpm (as opposed to the 5400rpms in most external hard drives of this physical size). It is also the largest in capacity among high-speed, compact external hard drives.
The new OWC comes with an eSATA and a USB 2.0 connection.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)The drive is bus-powered when used with the USB 2.0 connection and requires the included adapter for the eSATA connection. This is because by nature, the eSATA connection doesn't (yet) support drawing juice from the computer to feed the external drive.
The eSATA OWC Mercury costs $250. You can get a USB 2.0-only version for less, or the triple FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB2.0 version if you're willing to pay little more money.
As if being the first and only vendor that offers the largest pocket-size external hard drive, wasn't enough, OWC announced today the first 320GB external had drive that runs at 7,200rpm, the Mercury On-The-Go 320GB 7,200rpm. This is actually not the first high-speed compact external hard drive (and definitely not one with the most creative name, either), but it is the first that offers 320GB of storage space. The first 7,200rpm portable hard drive is the G-Tech G-Drive, the rest of compact external drives spin at only 5,400rpm.
The new OWC Mercury is not only large but spins very fast, too.
(Credit: OWC)The new Mercury On-The-Go drive has the exact same design as the 500GB 5,400rpm model that came out just a few months ago. However, apart from the version that features USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 connections, it also comes with a version that features just USB 2.0 and another that features USB 2.0 and eSATA. All of these connections, except for the eSATA, are bus-powered. With all these different variations, the Mecury On-The-Go is also the only drive that offers the most choices regarding to connection and also the first that implements eSATA in a compact portable hard drive.
The new drive uses Hitachi's latest 7K320 hard drive, which is currently the largest 2.5-inch internal hard drive that runs at 7,200rpm.
The Mercury On-The-Go 320GB 7200rpm is preformatted for MAC but can be reformatted to work with Windows. It comes with Prosoft DataRescue III (OS X), and NovaStor NovaBackup (Windows) as software back solution. The drive is compatible with a wide range of Mac (8.5 or newer) and Windows (Windows 98 or newer) operating systems.
You can get the new high-speed Mercury On-The-Go now with the prices ranging from $240 (USB 2.0 only version) to $280 (USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 versions), which is a great deal considering the fact the G-Drive costs about the same but offers only 200GB of storage.
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