USB 3.0 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mercury On-The-Go-Pro enclosure keeps your old internal drives useful

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 27th, 2013)

People often think there are only two options for old Mac laptops: sell them or throw them away. But there's a third option that can keep parts of your old MacBooks useful for a long time -- a hard drive enclosure. An enclosure allows you to turn any internal hard drive into an external ...

Corning's USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt cables smaller, lighter, longer

by Steven Sande (Jan 8th, 2013)

Corning, the same company that brought you the Gorilla Glass used on most smartphones, announced new optical Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 cables yesterday at CES. The cables make use of Corning's ClearCurve VSDN optical fiber technology to extend data transmission range while being smaller and ...

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 will match Thunderbolt performance in 2014

by Steven Sande (Jan 7th, 2013)

With the addition of USB 3.0 to Apple's line of Macs, the Thunderbolt interface -- which hasn't really taken off -- may be relegated to the dustbin of history soon. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced at CES today that by 2014, USB 3.0 data-transfer speeds will be doubled from today's 5 ...

Kanex 4-port USB 3.0 Hub first look

by Erica Sadun (Jan 3rd, 2013)

We recently got a chance to take a peek at a new Kanex USB 3.0 hub, which promises to be a feature-filled accessory. Retailing for $59, this 4-port powered hub offers adapters to switch from US power to most standard international types, which in this case appear to be Type C, Type G and what ...

G-Technology G-Drive Mobile: Review and giveaway

by Steven Sande (Dec 3rd, 2012)

It's been a while since TUAW reviewed a hard drive. Recently, G-Technology sent one of their 1 TB G-Drive Mobile USB 3.0/2.0/FW drives (US$179.95) to run through the paces. That relatively low price is a result of not having a Thunderbolt interface, and since all of the new Macs are coming ...

WD announces new My Passport for Mac and My Book VelociRaptor Duo drives

by Steven Sande (Aug 30th, 2012)

WD (part of Western Digital Corporation) today announced a pair of new storage products for Mac. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo (starting at USD$899.99) is billed as the fastest My Book external hard drive system ever released by WD, while the latest in the My Passport (starting at $99.99) ...

Comparing Thunderbolt to HDMI, USB and PCIe Cable

by Steven Sande (Jun 14th, 2012)

Monday's announcement that the new 9 and MacBook Pros come equipped with USB 3.0 ports was welcome news to Mac users, but an indication of a broader question in the minds of those same users -- which input/output port technology is the best? CNET's Steven Shankland took a look at four I/O ...

MacBook Pro, iMac with new Ivy Bridge processors show up on benchmarks

by Steven Sande (May 14th, 2012)

As Chris Rawson noted in today's rumor roundup, there are some fascinating indications that new Macs may be on the way to an Apple Store near you. Geekbench is a cross-platform processor benchmarking tool that is used to provide numbers on the relative capabilities of computers with various ...

ioSafe Rugged Portable external hard drive takes a bullet for your data

by Michael Grothaus (Nov 29th, 2011)

Last October I told you about the ioSafe SoloPRO fireproof external hard drive. It's one of the best options for protecting your data from physical harm. However, since the drive weighs 18 pounds, it's not ideal for those who need portability. That's where the ioSafe Rugged Portable comes in. ...

Review: ioSafe SoloPRO fireproof external hard drive

by Michael Grothaus (Oct 15th, 2011)

If there's one thing I always tell people who work with valuable, irreplaceable data it's "back up your files!" Thankfully most of us do back up our data. We usually use an external hard drive. Or sometimes, we only rely on cloud-based storage, like Dropbox or Apple's soon to be defunct iDisk. ...

HP chooses USB 3.0 over Thunderbolt

by Michael Grothaus (May 17th, 2011)

PC World is reporting that the world's largest computer manufacturer has chosen USB 3.0 over Intel's Thunderbolt port in its new desktop PCs. HP's worldwide desktop marketing manager told PC World that "We did look at [Thunderbolt]. We're still looking into it. Haven't found a value proposition ...

Intel announces USB 3.0 in "Ivy Bridge" and will support Thunderbolt

by David Winograd (Apr 14th, 2011)

"Intel is going to support USB 3.0 in the 2012 client platform. We're going to support Thunderbolt capability. We believe that they're complementary." CNET reported this remark from Kirk Sakaugen, a VP of the Intel Architecture group, in a presentation streamed from the Intel Developer ...

Apple granted patent for DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 dock connector

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 5th, 2011)

Apple has been granted a patent for a new type of dock connector, discovered by PatentlyApple. The new dock connector is a "hybrid DisplayPort/USB 3.0 high speed connector." According to the patent-tracking site, "This new and extremely slim connector will work on all iOS devices like the iPod ...

Apple about to add Light Peak to Macs?

by Michael Grothaus (Feb 19th, 2011)

According to CNET sources, Apple is set to introduce a new "high-speed connection technology" very soon. The most obvious new connection type this could be is Light Peak, a sort of jack-of-all-trades connection technology. Light Peak allows one interface to be used to connect pretty much any device ...

Why native USB 3.0 for Mac won't happen

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 9th, 2011)

Mac Life has put together an interesting article on why we probably won't see USB 3.0 natively on the Mac. It's worth a read, but the long and short of it is this: Light Peak -- the ultra fast 10 Gbps, one size fits all (USB, Ethernet, FireWire, SATA and PCI Express) optical cable replacement that's ...