Now this is a rather interesting turn of events – Apple’s Thunderbolt interface technology that was announced in February last year is said to be heading towards Ultrabooks from Acer, Asus and Lenovo. Yes sir, the Thunderbolt interface lives up to its name in terms of speed, where it paves the way for a potential 20Gbit/s transfer rate under the right conditions.
Digitimes’ sources report that Apple intends to take the opposite direction, by offering USB 3.0 connectivity into their future versions of the MacBook Air, and of course, who are we to rule out the possibility of USB 3.0 also making its way to other Apple devices like the iMac or MacBook Pro as well?
OCZ has jumped on the Thunderbolt bandwagon with its latest external SSD, the OCZ Lightfoot, a compact drive offering up to 1TB of high-speed storage. Previewed ahead of CES this week, the Lightfoot is the successor to OCZ’s Enyo USB 3.0 SSD, boosting transfer rates to up to 750 MB/s according to the company.
Capacities are expected to range in size from 128GB, through 256GB and 512GB, topping out at a full terabyte for those with high speed expectations and bulging wallets. According to OCZ, Thunderbolt’s low latency and accurate time synchronization make for a drive that can be used for pro-level A/V editing, working with source files saved directly on the external storage.
From our time with the LaCie Little Big Disk SSD we know that’s a realistic prospect, but the Lightfoot has the benefit of being more pocket-sized and suited for mobile users. No word on how much it will cost when it launches, but OCZ expects it to go on sale later this year.
Until now Apple is the only company to have laptops and desktops featuring Intel’s Thunderbolt technology. But come 2012 and you’ll see many PC manufacturers offering laptops and desktops with the Thunderbolt technology.
Recently Intel notified its partners that it’ll fully release its Thunderbolt technology in April of 2012. So come April and you’ll see Windows based desktops and laptops featuring Thunderbolt technology.
It has also come to light that several first-tier PC manufacturers have already started the preparation!
Another reason why so far companies resisted from incorporating Intel Thunderbolt technology is price. A Thunderbolt chip cost about $20, making it a costly affair to indulge in.
But with the cost of Thunderbolt chip expected to drop in Q2 2012, the technology could become a standard in future.
In short from April we’ll see many high-end computers featuring Thunderbolt technology.
Remember the LaCie Little Big Disk external hard drive with Thunderbolt technology? Well, LaCie today announced its availability. As reported earlier, the drive is designed for demanding applications and provide super fast speed of 10Gb/s.
Featuring a pair of 2.5″ drives in a Mac OS RAID configuration, the Little Big Disk delivers read speeds more than 480MB/s in SSD and up to 190MB/s in HDD. You can also daisy chain several Little Big Disks to maximize the interface’s capabilities and reach transfer rates around 800MB/s.
The company has also officially introduced its updated Apple Thunderbolt Display, now complete with a pair of Thunderbolt connections allowing for daisy-chaining of multiple displays from a single socket.
The Apple Thunderbolt display features a 27 inch LED backlit screen with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, and it also features IPS technology which gives the Thunderbolt display a viewing angle of 178 degrees.Priced at $999, the new display is 27-inches and offers audio, gigabit ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports.
There’s also a built-in FaceTime HD camera and Mic, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 2.0 ports and MagSafe charging for your laptop, but the big difference is that single speedy DisplayPort hookup. It can daisy chain up to six high speed devices and all those connectors mean when it’s time to take your laptop on the go there’s a minimum of cables mooring it to your desk.
The new Apple Thunderbolt Display will be on sale within the next 60 days.
Apple has updated its MacBook Air ultraportable, bringing the notebook range up to date with Intel’s 2011 Sandy Bridge processors, as well as the high-speed Thunderbolt connectivity already seen on the MacBook Pro and iMac. Running OS X Lion, the new 11.6- and 13.3-inch Airs keep the slick unibody styling of their predecessors but throws in a backlit keyboard.
Two standard configurations of 11.6-inch MacBook Air are on offer, firstly at $999 with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 64 GB SSD drive, and then the $1,199 performance version with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD drive. The display runs at 1366 x 768. Options include a 1.8GHz Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and larger SSDs.
Similarly, there are two standard configs of the 13.3-inch MacBook Air, beginning with the $1,299 with a 1.7GHz Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD drive, and then the $1,599 top-end version with the same processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive. Its display runs at 1440 x 900, while options include a 1.8GHz Core i7 CPU.
Graphics are from Intel’s HD Graphics 3000. Otherwise connectivity is the same as before, which means WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth as standard, along with a pair of USB 2.0 ports and a headphone port. There’s a built-in microphone and a webcam. Battery life for the 11.6-inch Air is up to 5 hours, while the 13.3-inch Air increases that to 7 hours.
A few weeks ago, an Italian store introduced four models in its price list a “mysterious” Sony VAIO Z21 , with Core i5/i7 and storage 128 or 256 GB SSD. The clues are unearthed on the Net today, direct confirmation from the Japanese, who officially presented the new family of ultra-thin notebooks Sony VAIO Z, which was renewed in the hardware configuration but also in design, more modern and more slim.
As you can see the first images available, the VAIO Z highlights black color design very nice, refined and elegant that is well suited to professional environments, as an essential accessory for the manager in his career. The new Sony VAIO Z integrates an Intel Core i7-2620m at 2.7GHz with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of space for storing data on an SSD.
The 13.1-inch LCD screen, too thin, can have a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels and will be managed by the Intel GMA integrated graphics HD 3000. Connectivity instead rely on a form 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and 3G modem, while the range of interfaces includes a USB 3.0 port, one HDMI, fingerprint reader and 1.3 megapixel camera. The battery, which at the moment we do not know the capacity, able to provide a range of 7 hours of continuous work (the optional second battery will reach 14 hours total).
The weight of 1.18Kg and with operating system Windows 7 Professional from 64bit SP1, Sony VAIO Z features a carbon fiber chassis with a maximum thickness of 16.65 mm and integration of Quick Boot, which will reduce by 50% the time of ignition the notebook. The ultra-thin Sony is also accompanied by a special docking station, Power Media Dock (which you can see in the pictures), capable of hosting a GPU Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB of dedicated memory.
The docking station also integrates an optical drive (DVD burner or Blu-Ray lettoe), Gigabit Ethernet, multiple USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, D-Sub and HDMI. Sony has scheduled the launch of the new Sony VAIO Z for the month of July at a price not yet announced.
Verizon Wireless is going to release the HTC Thunderbolt LTE 4G smartphone, on 17 March for $249.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. The Thunderbolt is the carrier’s first LTE 4G smartphone, supporting the LTE network for download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G coverage area.
The HTC Thunderbolt runs Android 2.2 OS with HTC Sense UI. It features a 4.3-inch large touchscreen, a 8 Megapixel camera with 720p video recording capability, a 1.3 Megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, WiFi connectivity. It includes built-in mobile hotspot capability for sharing 4G connection with up to 8 WiFi devices. The LTE 4G phone is boosted by a 1GHz SnapDragon processor and comes with 8GB onboard memory. It has a built-in kickstand for easy media viewing.
Laptops | admin | 
January 22, 2012 3:55 pm | 
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