News tagged ‘Thunderbolt’

MacRumors reports that Apple is shipping its new 27-inch Thunderbolt Display to its retail stores and resellers this week. Early online customer orders are expected to begin shipping on September 15. Apple unveiled this 27-inch LED display in July. The display is the first display that can boast about of the new Thunderbolt I/O technology. The display requires a Mac with a Thunderbolt I/O port. Such Thunderbolt compatibility allows the displays to act as a docking station using a single Thunderbolt cable.

“The Apple Thunderbolt Display is the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said when the display was first unveiled. "With just one cable, users can dock with their new display and connect to high performance peripherals, network connections and audio devices.”

The Thunderbolt Display features a built-in FaceTime HD camera, 2.1 speaker system, three USB ports, one Firewire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a second Thunderbolt port to enable daisy chaining, a 16:9 edge-to-edge glass design with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle.

Apple is reportedly still exploring idea of integration of USB 3.0 into its future computers.  The USB 3.0 is up to 10 times faster than USB 2.

A lot of people have been disappointed over Apple's lack of interest in the USB 3.0 standard, but thanks to a little bird, VR-Zone has heard that the company is still looking at USB 3.0 as a potential feature to add on future products. As to when and how this might happen is not something we know, but from our understanding it'll happen before Intel integrates USB 3.0 support into its chipsets.

USB 3.0 was not built in the current line of Apple’s computers, due to lack of Intel support in their motherboards. Though, Intel will be provide support for both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt in its 2012 platform known as 'Ivy Bridge', Apple may implement USB 3.0 before Intel’s adoption. But Apple is unlikely to update its iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro until the first half of 2012.

The new MacBook may come with a return of the backlit keyboard. The backlit keyboard was omitted from the October 2010 redesign of the laptops line, as rumored, due to design issues and battery life constrains. The new MacBook Airs will feature the design of 2010 MacBook Airs. A backlit keyboard may be helpful in low-light conditions, and it’s currently implemented in all versions of Apple’s MacBook Pro line. Appleinsider’s sources, who are familiar with the matter, claim that the new laptops will be launched any time this month.

With the release of new models later this month, Apple is set to reinstate a feature to its MacBook Airs that went missing when the company overhauled the ultra-thin notebooks into more cost-affordable products late last year, AppleInsider has learned.

According to people familiar with the matter, backlit keyboards will join the string of hardware enhancements planned for the new 11.6- and 13.3-inch notebooks, which are also expected to adopt high-speed Thunderbolt ports, an upgrade to Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, and possibly high-speed 400MBps flash memory.

MIC Gadget has posted an article that tells us about some details of the upcoming Mac Pro update that may come out in August. MIC Gadget also posted a screenshot of the App Store that shows a Mac Pro with Promise Thunderbolt RAID system. The current generation of the Mac Pro doesn’t support Thunderbolt technology. Of course, that image could be just an error of the graphics department, but if it doesn’t, we should expect Mac Pro with Thunderbolt that is slowly being rolled out onto every Mac.  The MacBook Pro, iMac already received Thunderbolt input/output ports, and recent rumors claim that the MacBook Air refresh will similarly get Thunderbolt capability. The image also shows that the Mac Pro design won’t be changed. MIC Gadget also believes that the Mac Pro will feature an 8 core CPU that will be ‘exclusive’ to Apple for a few months before other PC manufacturers can have access to it in Q4 of this year.

Our sources indicate Apple is making headway with access to this technology, and they are investing heavily into the Mac Pro. Sandy Bridge will be integrated with the new Mac Pro CPU as well, but issues remain with the heat being produced by such powerful CPUs.

MacBooks have been running out of supply at resellers such as Amazon, J&R, and MacConnection. European distributors have also run out of MacBook supply and are not expecting future shipments. Apple’s MacBook Air supply is also decreasing, giving birth to rumours that their update may coincide with the release of Mac OS X Lion.

Apple’s white MacBooks are quite expensive and their hardware is outdated. So they may receive newer processors and Thunderbolt technologies, or Apple could simply reduce price. Some analysts suggest that the second variant is more preferable for Apple. Cutting price Apple will make MacBooks more valuable for students. So, the new MacBook could be priced closer to Apple’s entry-level Mac Mini.

Arstechnica and iFixIt claim that Apple’s new Tunderbolt cable is actually a "smart" cable that contains circuitry and firmware. iFixIt have already torn down the cable, having found inside two Gennum GN2033 chips in the connector that works as a transceiver to enable “reliable data transfer at cutting-edge speeds over low cost, thin-gauge copper cables.” There were also found additional support chips and resistors, so the total number of chips inside the Thunderbolt connector is 12, of course not including multiply smaller electronic components.

Quite interesting that the current Thunderbolt ports found in iMac and MacBook Pro are planned to be compatible with future Thunderbolt cables, bringing a significant speed improvement. But the current generation of such ports works on the traditional wiring.

Read the rest of this entry »

MICGadget reports that they received new information about Mac mini, Mac Pro and Time Capsule. Mac mini is expected to receive Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge processors and end up using Intel’s graphics that will be replaced by NVIDIA GPU.  The new Mac Pro will reportedly come in a "rack-mountable" design to replace the discontinued Xserve. As for the new Mac Pro, MICGadget reports that it will have a "unique CPU" developed for the Mac and not seen in the PC.

Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt are coming to the new Mac Pro, and at the same time, an unique CPU will be developed for Mac. This unique CPU is not seen in PC.

The Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme will receive new design with improved heat dissipation. The new Time Capsule will have a lower TDP and low power consumption hard drive. As for the new AirPort Extrime, it will have improved signal strength with six antennas built in.

CNET reports that Apple is going to launched revamped Mac Pro and Mac mini in late July or early August. Details, as usual, are unclear, though, according to the previous 9to5Mac reports, the devices may get a smaller, rackmountable design that can hold multiple solid-state-drives

My sources tell me ALL NEW Next-Gen Mac Pros and Mac Minis will launch either end of July first week of August.

The Mac mini models that are now short on supply, will reportedly receive the Thunderbolt technology and Sandy Bridge processor, the same as implemented in  the MacBook Pro and iMac families launched earlier this year. Both devices will have preinstalled Lion software.

August more likely, Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt on both. NO details for specs or configurations given. DO NOT BUY! WAIT for the new Macs!

DigiTimes sources revealed this week that HTC may challenge Apple's position of the top U.S. smartphone maker.

Here's the deal: HTC has smartphones available on all four U.S. carriers, while Apple partners only with AT&T and Verizon. The HTC Thunderbolt is reported as the second most popular smartphone on Verizon's network, while Apple's iPhone is the first one. The best-selling Android smartphone on AT&T is also of HTC (The Inspire 4G).

Read the rest of this entry »

Japanese blog Macotakara  in its latest story claims that an A5-powered MacBook Air with Thunderbolt I/O is being tested in Apple’s labs. The machine could be manufactured by Quanta Computer, the story has it. The article quotes a source who allegedly saw an early prototype:

According to this source who saw live A5 MacBook Air actually, this test machine performed better than expected. Though it’s not clear which Mac OS X or iOS is pre-installed on this A5 MacBook Air, iOS seems to have difficulty to use features of Thunderbolt without Finder. And even if Mac OS X is installed, developer should spend time to support A5 on Universal Binary Applications. As considering these situation, this A5 MacBook Air seems to be made just for experiment.

This news comes weeks after another rumor claiming that Apple is planning on transitioning from Intel to ARM-based processors on their laptops in the not too distant future. Another major issue is that while ARM processors are more power efficient, they presently offer significantly lower performance than their Intel counterparts.

The new 2011 iMacs — the ones with Thunderbolt, Sandy Bridge processors and better graphics — don’t allow you to use any other hard drive but Apple’s custom ones, which are running a custom firmware to provide temperature monitoring through a new 7-pin SATA connector.

For the main 3.5″ SATA hard drive bay in the new 2011 machines, Apple has altered the SATA power connector itself from a standard 4-pin power configuration to a 7-pin configuration. Hard drive temperature control is regulated by a combination of this cable and Apple proprietary firmware on the hard drive itself. From our testing, we’ve found that removing this drive from the system, or even from that bay itself, causes the machine’s hard drive fans to spin at maximum speed and replacing the drive with any non-Apple original drive will result in the iMac failing the Apple Hardware Test (AHT).

Read the rest of this entry »

Only couple days ago Apple released new iMacs with Sandy Bridge possessors and Thunderbolt technology. iFixit’s team, of course, immediately started tearing down a 21.5-inch model.  They  found that this model iMac opens in the same way as previous generations by pulling off the magnetically-held glass and removing the screws holding the LCD in place.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, on May 3 Apple has unveiled its new iMac desktops, which are up to 70% faster that its previous generation. Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing was traditionally excited to present new devices:

"Our customers love the iMac’s aluminum enclosure, gorgeous display and all-in-one design. With next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, Thunderbolt technology and a FaceTime HD camera, we've made the world’s best desktop even better."

Anyway, let's briefly look at the specs of new iMacs:

Read the rest of this entry »

According to AppleInsider, Apple may introduce next-generation iMacs with the newest Intel processors as soon as on Tuesday, May 3.

People familiar with the matter told the devices will sport the first-gen Intel Core i processors, new high-speed Thunderbolt port and second-generation Core i chips.

Read the rest of this entry »

Current Mac Pros’ design deputed in the form of the Power Mac G5 in mid-2003, almost eight years ago. Since then, the Mac Pro has received processor, RAM and storage updates, but the exterior design is basically the same. So, it’s not surprisingly that Apple is now toying with the re-designed version of the Mac Pro. A Mac Pro prototype is now in testing that features a narrower (just about 5 inches wide) and shorter (about 19 inches) design. One of the reasons that Apple might be making this particular Mac Pro prototype smaller is because it is able to fit on to a standard server rack. This makes sense in that a rack-mountable Mac Pro could easily replace the gaping hole in the product line left by the discontinued Xserve. The rumor says that the new Mac Pro features stacked drives with two drives per sled for a higher storage density than is currently available. The sleds can be configured either with SSDs or conventional hard drives. New Mac Pros would also have a Thunderbolt port and perhaps even BluRay options for the Final Cut Professionals.