Apple To Reveal New Mac Pro Revamp This Month

Apple To Reveal New Mac Pro Revamp This Month

Apple is expected to reveal a revamp of Mac Pro. The company’s desktop offering was last updated in June 2012 with new processors and greater RAM. Many essentials such as Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 and Serial ATA were not included. An entirely revamped Mac Pro offering is expected to be revealed later this month. Apparently the source has not divulged whether this Mac Pro revamp will be a tower, mini-tower or something else, but did mention that the announcement cloud “slip” in to May or June, around the time when Apple organizes its Worldwide Developers Conference. The source says that April announcement seems possible as of now.

Apple did say last year that a new Mac Pro model will arrive in 2013. When reached for comment, a company spokesperson said that Apple doesn not comment on rumors. For now the expected announcement of new Mac Pros is just a rumor. An European reseller said earlier this year that they had heard from Apple regarding the Mac Pro revamp being announced in a couple of months. For now, all of this is just a rumor and we can’t be sure of anything unless Apple officially confirms it.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 5th Gen iPad Rumored To Begin Production In July, Might See Release Later In The Year, Apple Rumored To Sign Deal With Warner And Universal Next Week For iRadio,

Intel announces next-gen Thunderbolt: 20Gbps throughput and 4K support

At NAB 2013, Intel just announced the next-generation of Thunderbolt, codenamed “Falcon Ridge,” which is Apple’s latest protocol for file transfer, as well as transmitting video. Intel says that the next-generation Thunderbolt protocol will be able to push 20Gbps and will support 4K video when it’s planned to launch in 2014.

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Intel says Falcon Ridge will include backwards compatibility with current-generation Thunderbolt devices, although anything using the current standard will be kept at those same speeds of 10Gbps. This means that Falcon Ridge is twice as fast as the current-generation of Thunderbolt, which is quite impressive and something that haven’t seen yet.

Intel demonstrated the new technology using top-of-the-line components that are available today and were able to achieve speeds of 1.2Gbps, which is a far cry from what the Falcon Ridge is capable of, but the most obvious bottleneck is the stage at which hardware components are at right now. If you were to use current-generation Thunderbolt, you’d have to get a solid state drive just to take advantage of the faster speeds.

Thunderbolt is over two years old now, and it’s becoming a mainstream feature in Apple’s products, but taking advantage of the file transfer protocol is costly, with Thunderbolt external hard drives costing much more than USB 3.0 or eSATA drives. It’s certainly an investment if you’re looking for faster transfer speeds, but it’s really worth it in the end.

[via Engadget]


Intel announces next-gen Thunderbolt: 20Gbps throughput and 4K support is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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LaCie Delivers Largest Thunderbolt Solution Range

LaCie Delivers Largest Thunderbolt Solution RangeHey, if you happen to be in Las Vegas at the moment, perhaps you might want to swing over to the NAB Show that is happening right now, where LaCie has taken the opportunity as well as venue to announce that they will be offering the largest range of Thunderbolt solutions certified for use with a Thunderbolt equipped Mac or PC, in the world. LaCie prides themselves in being the preeminent provider of Thunderbolt peripherals, and right now is the only manufacturer in the market that has five products in its Thunderbolt Series which will play nice with Mac OS X and Windows 7 and 8 computers.

The Thunderbolt certification program from Intel is actually a thorough process which will ensure that an optimal end user experience with both Mac and PC is delivered, which is why LaCie adheres to their normally high standards, making sure that its collection of Thunderbolt products will be able to deliver universal compatibility and reliable performances of up to 800MB/s even with the most challenging media applications. I guess when you think ThunderBolt, think LaCie!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Alienware X51 Gets Ubuntu OS As An Option, HP Project Moonshot Launched, Runs On Intel Atom Processor,

Intel announces next-gen Thunderbolt with 20 Gbps throughput, 4K support

Here at NAB, Intel just introduced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, which promises a data rate of 20 Gbps in both directions (on each of the two channels) as opposed to 10 Gbps for the previous version. Of course, the company stepped back for a moment first, boasting that Thunderbolt currently has about 200 licensees, and more compatible devices — along with new, thinner cables — should be coming out in the following months. Building up to the big reveal, Intel also shared some info about its new Thunderbolt host controller, (code-named Redwood Ridge), which will be built into some of Intel’s upcoming fourth-gen Core processors.

But let’s talk about the real news: the next-gen Thunderbolt tech (code-named Falcon Ridge) enables 4K video file transfer and display simultaneously in addition to running at 20 Gbps. It will be backward-compatible with previous-gen Thunderbolt cables and connectors, and production is set to ramp up in 2014. An on-stage demo with fresh-off-the-press silicon showed the new Thunderbolt running 1,200 MBps, which is certainly a step up from what’s currently on the market.

Update: We’ve added a video of the Thunderbolt demo from Intel’s stage. Hop on past the break to check it out.

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G-Technology shows off a Thunderbolt-powered dock with dual hard drive bays

G-Technology shows off a Thunderbolt-powered dock with dual hard drive bays

We have a feeling 4K is going to be a major theme at this year’s NAB, which also means we’ll be seeing a good deal of hardware that can actually handle such high-res content. Mostly, we’re talking pro cameras and the like, but at least one company will be showing off some professional-grade hard drives — after all, you’re gonna need a solid storage solution to process those supersize files, right? G-Technology just introduced the “Evolution” family of products, the centerpiece of which is the G-Dock ev, a mini-tower with two hard drive modules and dual Thunderbolt connections. What you put in those hard drive slots is up to you: the company is offering both a 9.5mm 7,200RPM drive (rated for 136 MB/s transfers) and a beefier 15mm cartridge promising 250 MB/s. Once you choose your drives, you can arrange them in a RAID 1 configuration if redundancy is important, or RAID 0 for maximum speed.

What’s more, each of the drives has a USB 3.0 socket on board, so if you needed to you could hand it to someone else in your office and let them grab whatever data they needed off the HDD. In any case, the dock will come standard with two 1TB, 9.5mm drives — look for it next month, priced at $750 for the bundle. If you later need some additional cartridges, the 9.3mm G-Drive ev will cost either $150 or $200, depending on whether you want 500 gigs or a full terabyte. The bigger 15mm G-Drive ev Plus will go for $350 (it’ll be sold with 1TB only). Lastly, G-Technology also announced the G-Drive Pro with a Thunderbolt port and claimed transfer speeds of 480 MB/s. That’ll ship this summer for either $700 or $850, depending on whether you want 2TB or 4GB of storage. All that’s in the PR after the break, along with an endorsement from Vincent Laforet himself. Must be good, right?

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Refresh Roundup: week of April 1st, 2013

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Sonnet Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock: Poetry in Practicality

So you bought a new Mac or Ultrabook in the last couple of years, but you’ve yet to plug anything into its Thunderbolt port. A company called Sonnet shows you what that little hole can do for you. Its Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock is essentially half of a computer, adding a plethora of ports and hardware through just a single cable.

sonnet echo 15 thunderbolt dock

The Echo 15 has four USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, an Ethernet port, two sets of audio in and out ports, two eSata ports and two more Thunderbolt ports. Additionally, it comes with either a DVD drive or – wait for it Mac owners – a Blu-ray drive. Finally, it also has a drive bay that can fit a 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDD or SSD. You can supply your own or pay a premium to have Sonnet include a 2TB HDD with the Echo 15.

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As you can see, it’s a good way of expanding your computer and with many Mac owners, even adding functionality in the form of the Blu-ray optical drive. Sonnet is already taking pre-orders for the Echo 15, with prices ranging from $400 to $550 (USD).

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

 

Sonnet Echo 15 Thunderbolt dock piles on 15 ports, optical drive, disk bay for $400

Sonnet Echo 15 thunderbolt dock brings all the ports, drives

There are Thunderbolt docks, real and ethereal, and then there’s this beast from Sonnet: the Echo 15. As implied by the name, it’s lavished with 15 ports front and back, including four USB 3.0, two eSATA, two audio in and out, an extra Thunderbolt, GigE and FireWire800 ports. If you’re thinking that’ll finally let you hook up a Blu-ray or hard disk to your laptop, back up a second — Sonnet’s dock has those items built in as well, giving you SATA III-level disk throughput and freeing up your ports for more interesting peripherals. You’ll be able to grab one this summer with a built-in DVD for $399, or configure it to the max with a Blu-ray drive and 2TB HDD for $549 — assuming it avoids any untoward delays.

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Via: 9to5 Mac

Source: Sonnet

HTC Thunderbolt Ice Cream Sandwich Performance Issues

HTC Thunderbolt Ice Cream Sandwich Performance IssuesSay, are you a HTC Thunderbolt owner who has recently updated your LTE-enabled smartphone to the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system after waiting for what seems like an eternity? If you have answered in the affirmative, then we would like to get some feedback on how your experience with Ice Cream Sandwich on the Thunderbolt has been.

so far, we have received an email concerning a less than satisfactory experience after Ice Cream Sandwich has been installed, where load times for every app are a whole lot slower, as though the Thunderbolt itself had its “Turbo” button turned off (old school gamers would know what I’m referring to). In fact, what used to be done in a jiffy such as opening the email app, text messages, or even loading a simple game would shave off a couple of seconds (or more) of your time than usual.

Perhaps there is an issue with the Ice Cream Sandwich update that could have resulted in restricting the Thunderbolt’s CPU run overtime, or could the dreaded factor of the CPU itself lacking the necessary firepower to handle Ice Cream Sandwich? The horror of it all! Perhaps someone can help a brother out here.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Skype For BlackBerry 10 Will Be A Port Of Android App When Released, Apple Patent Suggests Image Identification Security Measure On iOS, Mac,

Android 4.0 officially rolls out to HTC Thunderbolt

HTC Thunderbolt

Hades hath frozen over, folks: after nearly two years on the market, Verizon’s very first LTE-capable smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt, has made the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4) with Sense 3.6 in tow. The update, which was first discovered a few days ago, is finally rolling out in phases beginning today. Of course, this also means that many owners may not experience the joys of ICS for yet a few days (or weeks) to come, but it’s at least now officially rocking handsets across the nation. Just in time for many of those users to look into renewing their contracts. Better late than never, we suppose.

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Source: Verizon Wireless