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If your computer has a Thunderbolt drive, odds are it’s been pretty neglected. Some external storage options are good, but no one choice is a no-brainer. Until now, that is. LaCie’s vivid orange drive is the best way to back up files, superfast. More »

LaCie’s no stranger to kicking out portable HDDs that are a-okay with getting kicked around, and the Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series is no exception. As the extended title implies, this one is equipped to transfer files via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, and it’ll play nice with Mac and Windows platforms. The LaCie Rugged SSD offers up transfer rates as high as 380MB/sec — a feat we came darn close to hitting ourselves in testing — and the HDD variants claim up to 110MB/sec. The bantam drive is entirely bus-powered, and it’s engineered to shake off drops of up to four feet. Interesting? Both models should be shipping shortly, with the 1TB HDD edition going for $249.99 and the 120GB SSDer for $199.99.

Continue reading LaCie’s Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt: fast portable storage that can take a beating

Filed under: Storage

LaCie’s Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt: fast portable storage that can take a beating originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week during Intel’s Developers Forum, Lucid showed off a lovely Thunderbolt External Graphics solution that’ll have you Ultrabook owners flipping over the possibilities. Here with this non-finalized piece of hardware, you’ll be plugging in graphics power from Lucid with very little effort, bringing visual power from Lucid’s external hardware that was never before possible in such a tiny package as your current-generation Ultrabook. What Lucid showed off here is your ability – in the near future – to turn your Ultrabook into a real hardcore gaming machine.

When showed to Laptop Mag, it would found that a combination of a prototype Thunderbolt graphics card from Lucid produced amicable results. With a combination of Intel’s integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip on a standard Ivy Bridge motherboard, they showed 3DMark06 benchmark bringing up 28 frames-per-second – that’s without this new solution. With the Lucid external graphic card plugged in through the test system’s Thunderbolt port, great things happened.

With the Thunderbolt-connected Lucid-made system, here a AMD Radeon 6700 chip, 3DMark06 brought up a much more fabulous 89 fps. This system works extremely simply, with a plug in to the system resulting in a moment of black screen then the system appearing under Windows Device Manager under Display adapters. If you’re in the mood to disconnect the system again, you’ll simply be force-quit out of whatever application your in and the original Windows desktop will be up and ready to continue to rock without it.

This external video card solution makes it so the future of laptop-based gaming (or desktop-based gaming, for that matter) will bring upgrades with as simple as a cord plug. No more screwdriver action for you if you don’t want! Prices and release dates have not yet been revealed – stay tuned for more Lucid action!

[via Laptop Mag]

Lucid Thunderbolt External GPU demoed for undeniable Ultrabook gaming boost is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s new iMac is reportedly waiting in the wings, but there are signs the company could also update its Thunderbolt Display alongside the all-in-one desktop. Stock shortages amongh UK retailers seemingly indicate that the standalone monitor may, like its iMac brethren, be due a refresh, though it’s unclear how comprehensive an update that might be. One possibility, of course, is a Retina Display upgrade.

Apple announced the Thunderbolt Display more than a year ago, back in July 2011, and since then the desktop monitor has gone technically unchanged. The company did push out a new SKU in July this year, though the only change was the inclusion of a new power adapter so that the Thunderbolt Display’s pass-through power cable could be used with the redesigned MagSafe 2 connection.

While supplies direct from Apple’s own webstore remain prompt, several UK retailers are showing no online stock availability. Amazon UK, for instance, says the Thunderbolt Display is backordered until September 20 (though independent Marketplace sellers still have stock); fellow UK retailers Dixons, PC World, Currys, John Lewis and Comet are also out of stock.

Currently, the Thunderbolt Display runs at 2560 x 1440 resolution and measures in at 27-inches, as per the larger iMac. Opinions on whether the all-in-one will get a Retina boost have been mixed, with some expecting a significant step up in resolution, while others say Apple will skip such a – likely expensive – change for this generation.

Those same factors count for the Thunderbolt Display, though there are still areas in which Apple could tweak the monitor. On the back, for instance, is a hub of ports which includes gigabit ethernet, a pass-through Thunderbolt, three USB 2.0, and a FireWire 800; Apple might opt to update that to USB 3.0, as with the ports on the 2012 MacBook Pro, and add another Thunderbolt pass-through.

The first-gen Thunderbolt Display arrived without fanfare as a simple press release, so it’s possible that a new version might make a similarly low-key debut. Amazon’s September 20 supply estimate could be an indication of when the new model is due, a week after Apple’s iPhone 5 launch.

Stock shortage tips Sept 20 Apple Thunderbolt Display refresh is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of August 27th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

Refresh Roundup: week of August 27th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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