Optical Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Fiber optic Thunderbolt cables coming soon

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 2nd, 2013)

Sumitomo Electric Industries has announced that it's the first company to receive certification from Intel to produce optical Thunderbolt cables. Currently all Thunderbolt cables have metal components, which limit the maximum length of those cables to around 10 feet. Optical Thunderbolt cables ...

Attention world: the MacBook Pro with Retina display does have optical audio out

by Richard Gaywood (Jun 14th, 2012)

Please stop saying it doesn't. Despite it not appearing on Apple's specs page, there is no conspiracy, and Apple hasn't dropped the feature. The MacBook Pro with Retina display has the same combination 3.5mm-analog-and-S/PDIF-digital output port all other Macs have used for several years ...

Optical cables for Thunderbolt coming in 2012

by Michael Rose (Mar 13th, 2012)

The cabling for Apple and Intel's next-generation peripheral interconnect will be getting an upgrade this year, says IDG. Thunderbolt optical cables will be shipping in 2012, according to Intel; current cabling for TB is all copper-based. The PCI-based Thunderbolt technology has always included ...

GoDAP amplifies your mobile audio and provides optical output for iPhone 4

by Mike Schramm (Jan 7th, 2011)

Most of the gadgets we're seeing here at CES 2011 this year aren't too big a surprise -- we set up meetings even before we walked into the convention center, and the surprise is in seeing the new gadgets we've only read about before. But the GoDAP was a surprise, found just by walking around the ...

Hack your Mac Pro SuperDrive for fun and profit

by Dan Lurie (Oct 7th, 2006)

It's not uncommon for computer manufacturers to swap and switch out various components for similar or near-identical parts during a production run, and Apple has been known to partake in this practice in the past. That being said, occasionally a manufacturer will use a part which has a slightly ...

My theory on why Apple isn't including Blu-ray drives in Macs

by David Chartier (Sep 24th, 2006)

Engadget HD linked a theory from Robert X. Cringely as to why Apple hasn't included Blu-ray drives in any of their Macs yet (it isn't even an option in the Mac Pro), despite being on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Mr. Cringely more or less links the lack of Blu-ray in Macs to movies and ...