Thunderbolt devices of CES 2012: Lenovo, Acer, Belkin, Seagate and more
Attendees of CES 2012 have witnessed an absolute explosion of Thunderbolt devices and peripherals. Good news for Apple and Intel who've seen negligible adoption of the high-speed interconnect ever since it first appeared on the MacBook Pro some eleven months ago. Suddenly we have two additional laptop vendors and more than a half dozen new Thunderbolt hard disk drives, docks, and adapters announced and ready to hit shelves in the months ahead.
CES 2012
ioSafe puts Thunderbolt drive to lightning test (hands-on and video)
External storage company ioSafe likes to put on a show at CES. Last year, it demonstrated its ultratough Rugged Portable hard drives by unleashing journalists with shotguns and assault rifles on them. This year, it decided to test its Thunderbolt-compatible prototype's shockproofing instead — by bringing in Tesla coil enthusiast Austin Richards, also known as Dr. MegaVolt.
After shocking the drive multiple times with Richards' million-volt coil, ioSafe plugged it in. A snap-on metal cover...
CES 2012
Western Digital previews My Book Thunderbolt Duo external drives
We just left a Western Digital preview event where the company provided an early glimpse at its yet-to-be-officially-announced My Book Thunderbolt Duo pair of external hard drives. Two models will be available initially, offering either 4 or 6 terabytes of storage capacity. As the "Duo" in the product name implies, each device carries two 3.5-inch disks, meaning that the 4TB model contains 2 x 2TB drives; the larger 6TB version holds 2 x 3TB HDDs.
In case you were wondering just how fast...
OCZ Lightfoot Thunderbolt external SSD (hands-on)
We've just found OCZ's Lightfoot external SSD at Intel's CES 2012 booth and brought some photos back for you. The drive is much smaller than your typical external hard drive, but, most importantly, it's got a Thunderbolt port. While that I/O is known for its proliferation on Apple laptops and desktops, this drive will also work with PCs as they get the high-speed port (the ThinkPad Edge S430 is the first and hopefully not the last).
The Lightfoot itself is light and has a rather attractive...
MSI GUS II external GPU enclosure with Thunderbolt (hands-on)
If you're an Apple user, you may have looked longingly at the VAIO Z and its external power media dock that connects via Light Peak. Today MSI may have made your dreams come true — it's just demoed its GUS II external GPU enclosure that connects over Thunderbolt. The device can take any AMD or Nvidia graphics card so long as it doesn't need more than 150W of power and, of course, it needs to fit within the casing. We were told that it will support 10 Gbps of throughput per channel.
Before...
CES 2012
G-Technology G-Raid storage array with Thunderbolt I/O hands-on
There's not a whole lot of Thunderbolt connectivity at CES 2012 so far, but there are plenty of drives using Intel's speedy cable, and if you need 8TB of storage, Hitachi's G-Technology brand has one new possibility. The newest G-Raid, announced in September, will bring that capacity in a two-drive, daisy-chainable array for $1,199, and below you can see what it looks like up close and personal and get a glimpse at the raw speed possible with four drives in total. It's heavy. Also, spot the...
Apple
Seagate unveils Thunderbolt adapters for GoFlex external hard drives
Many of the current Thunderbolt-enabled hard drives on the market right now are what we'd call overkill for your average person. To make things a bit simpler, Seagate has just announced Thunderbolt adapters for its line of GoFlex external storage options. The adapters work with any of the company's desktop or portable drives, granting users the freedom of choosing the capacity right for them. The portable drive adapter will see release sometime in the first quarter for $99, while the larger...
Elgato announces portable Thunderbolt SSD for February
Intel's Thunderbolt I/O is starting to show up on PCs and peripherals at CES, and now there's another external hard drive using the interface. Announced today, the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD runs on power from the Thunderbolt port, and will be available in 120GB and 240GB versions. That's smaller than the OCZ Lightfoot SSD, but the Elgato drive has both pricing information and a release date — it'll be out in February for €399.95 (around $508) and €649.95 (around $825) depending on the...
CES 2012
Belkin's Thunderbolt Express Dock finally goes on sale in September for $299
Belkin's blowing the dust off its Thunderbolt Express Dock at CES and giving us a September 2012 release date for the US. You might recall that we first saw this dock — aka, the port replicator every MacBook Air owner has been waiting for — at IDF in September. Once again, we're looking at three USB 2.0 jacks, one Firewire 800, one HDMI, one Gigabit Ethernet, one 3.5-mm audio jack, and a pair of Thunderbolt ports: one for carrying 10Gbps bi-directional data to your Thunderbolt-equipped...
OCZ shows off Lightfoot, a Thunderbolt external SSD
Thunderbolt has been marooned on Macs for months, but now it's coming to at least one PC and it looks like the high-speed I/O is coming to more peripherals as well. OCZ showed off a Thunderbolt external SATA SSD, called the Lightfoot, at CES today. According to PC Perspective the drive will come in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities, and features a bare design: it only has that one Thunderbolt port. There's no availability or pricing info available, but we'll let you know when we hear...
CES 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad T430u ultrabook and ThinkPad Edge S430 hands-on
Lenovo just hasn't been able to stop announcing laptops here at CES 2012, but amongst them all, the ThinkPad T430u ultrabook and ThinkPad Edge S430 have stuck out. Both laptops won't be available until the spring when Intel's Ivy Bridge processors are available, but Lenovo did bring two early prototypes to the show.
The T430u is really liked a slimmed down X1. It's got a very classic ThinkPad look, with the same comfortable chiclet keyboard that's on the X1. The early samples Lenovo was...
LaCie goes Thunderbolt at CES 2012 with 2big RAID array and eSATA hub
LaCie is expanding its Thunderbolt-capable offerings here at CES 2012 with its new 2big Thunderbolt series of drives and eSATA Hub Thunderbolt series. The 2big Thunderbolt series looks just like the existing Firewire- and USB-equipped models, and supports RAID arrays, hot-swappable disks, and daisy-chain configurations of multiple 2bigs. It maxes out at an 8TB capacity, all-the-while featuring transfer rates of up to 311 megabytes per second.
The eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series enables dual...
CES 2012
Acer announces Aspire S5, 'world's thinnest ultrabook' with Thunderbolt port
Ahead of its press conference at CES, Acer has just announced the new Aspire S5 ultrabook, which the company says is the world's thinnest — it's only 15mm at its thickest point. It's a black, magnesium-alloy and brushed-metal 13.3-inch laptop, weighing 1.35kg (2.97 pounds) and featuring Acer's Instant On technology that brings the computer back from sleep in 1.5 seconds. It also uses Acer Always Connect, which lets users manage data on their computers even when the machine is asleep — the...
CES 2012
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S430 is the first Windows laptop with Intel's Thunderbolt; Edge E430 and E530 also announced
Lenovo figured you might just not be content with the new ThinkPad ultrabook or the dual processor / dual operating system ThinkPad Hybrid X1, so how about a smattering of ThinkPad Edge laptops? First up is the ThinkPad Edge S430, which is one of the first Windows laptops we've heard of to have Intel's forthcoming third generation Core processors (or Ivy Bridge) and Intel's Thunderbolt I/O technology. Lenovo's not sharing many other details on the spec front (we expect because Intel hasn't...
