Sure, the hot new iPad Pro is big, beautiful, and plenty capable, but it’s also apparently future-proof.
Apple snuck in a USB 3.0-capable Lightning port into the bottom of your favorite massive tablet without telling anyone.
It’s Halloween season, but prices of these two Monsters are anything but scary. With cavernous storage and solid state storage, these are two devices you can take with you free of the worry of a dying motor or a scratched disc. And at more than half off, they’re going for a price that can’t be beat.
I’ve been using a USB 3 external hard drive to backup my Macbook Pro for a while now, and have been pleased with its reliability and fast data transfer speed. I also love that it powers itself via the USB port, letting me live a little more power cord free.
When I received the LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt SSD drive for review, I thought, “well, it’s pretty, but how much better can it be?” It’s just as small, powers itself via Thunderbolt (or USB) and has plenty of space on it, just like my current drive.
Then I ran a few tests and pulled up a drive speed test app on my Mac. I was blown away by the speed difference. This is one blazing fast hard drive. And, yeah, it still looks great.
I love the look of OWC’s Envoy Pro EX. It’s a tiny external USB 3 drive which makes even a pocket HDD look bulky, and it packs a 240GB or a 480GB SSD, making it as fast as you’ll ever need.
But there’s one small problem: even the little one is $315, and the 480-gigger is almost $600. Ouch.
Like blades on a disposable razor, there can never be enough ports on a USB hub. At least, that seems to be the thinking behind Satechi’s 7-port USB 3.0 monster, a wedge-shaped desktop hub made for Mac users.
Even though Apple’s new Lightning connector is super easy to use and quicker than the old 30-pin connectors, it could be better. Right now, the Lightning port on iOS devices doesn’t transfer data at USB 3.0 speeds, even though it’s thought to be able to support it.
A recent listing on Apple’s jobs site might be clueing us in that Apple wants to boost transfer speeds on iOS devices by adding USB 3.0 support.
There’s a problem I often run into with my mobile devices, and that’s not enough storage space. I insist on purchasing devices with just 16GB of memory, and then I have to find ways to manage that storage the best I can. Some devices will take microSD cards that will allow you to bump their storage as and when you need it, but others — like Apple’s iOS devices — don’t come with that luxury.
Vantec’s new NexStar WiFi hard drive dock lets you bump your smartphone, tablet, and even PC storage over Wi-Fi. You can use it to store your audio and video collections on your home network, then use Vantec’s dedicated apps to access them wirelessly when you need to.
LaCie, the fantastic data storage company that was recently acquired by Seagate, has updated its d2 external hard drive with USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. It comes in a sleek, minimal, fan-free, aluminum shell that looks great next to any Mac.
With speeds of up to 180MB/s, the only real downside to this drive is that it’s not solid state. LaCie is selling both 3TB and 4TB models.
Wondering what Apple will call its new dock connector? No, it won’t be the “9-pin connector” — this is Apple we’re talking about, the company behind the Thunderbolt port. Instead, it’s expected to be labeled “Lightning,” and the kooky names don’t stop there. The Cupertino company is also expected to unveil a new set of earphones at its iPhone 5 event today, which will reportedly be called “Earpod,” along with a new iPod touch accessory called the “Loop.”
A new report suggests that Apple is gearing up to launch its latest lineup of iMacs very soon. It’s unclear whether they’ll get that much-anticipated Retina display, but if that’s not going to be a decider for you, it looks like you’ll have a new all-in-one in the coming weeks.
