Thunderbolt

Village Instruments has said on a Facebook post today that it plans to design and sell a Thunderbolt-based external graphics card enclosure for use with Thunderbolt-equipped Macs. Anandtech first reported the announcement, which came as a result of a positive response to a poll Village Instruments originally posted on Facebook last week.

A Thunderbolt-based graphics card enclosure, which Village Instruments is calling the ViDock Thunderbolt, would ostensibly give Mac users the ability to upgrade the graphics capability of any Mac laptop or desktop with a Thunderbolt port. Presumably it might also work with Apple's new Thunderbolt Cinema Display.

Using … Read more

The brains behind the port you'd find on one computer would be similar to the same port on another machine, right? That's not the case when it comes to the Thunderbolt ports on the latest MacBook Airs, which joined Apple's Thunderbolt-equipped club earlier this month.

A report on AnandTech notes that the Thunderbolt controller found on the MacBook Air is a smaller version than the ones found on other Thunderbolt-equipped Macs so far. With other machines, Apple's been using a controller code-named Light Ridge that sports four, bidirectional Thunderbolt channels and two DisplayPort outputs. However the … Read more

(Read our new head-to-head buyer's guide for an updated comparison between the 2012 13-inch MacBook Pro and Air.)

Just a few short months ago (in March, to be exact), we wrote about an odd glut in Apple's otherwise streamlined lineup of products: instead of one or even two 13-inch laptops to choose from, Apple was offering three. The white MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro each had a slightly different value equation in terms of design, features, and price.

That glut's been lessened a little now that the white MacBook has been discontinued. The MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are the only two MacBook product lines left, and they represent two different solutions to same problem. The unibody aluminum Pro used to be considered thin, but it's--relatively--thick at 1 inch, and weighs over 4 pounds. The Pro offers better specs, while the Air, which has just been recently updated, leans toward light weight and quick booting as its advantages.

There's more to consider, though: the 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro and new 13-inch MacBook Air have become more similar than they've ever been before, for several reasons: performance, battery life, and a Thunderbolt port.

Two 13-inch MacBooks: which do you choose?… Read more

The new 2011 version of Apple's MacBook Air laptop takes a major step forward, both in hardware and concept. With the demise of the long-serving $999 white plastic MacBook, the Air now becomes the default mainstream entry point for potential Apple laptop buyers. The parallel is clearer in the 11-inch version, which starts at the same $999, but unless you need the bigger hard drive or optical drive of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the new 13-inch Air should be your first stop for that screen size, which is why we've given it a rare Editors' Choice nod.

Apple's new Air models hold last year's prices, the 13-inch model starts at $1,299, while dramatically upgrading the processing power: the new second-generation Core i5 processor in the base 11-inch and 13-inch Air is a jump of two Intel generations, going directly from the older Core 2 Duo CPUs past the first generation of Core i5/i7 chips and directly to the 2011 second-generation Core i-series.

Thunderbolt has been added to the both Airs as well, replacing the Mini DisplayPort (the new combo port acts as a Mini DisplayPort output as well). At the moment, it's more of a novelty than anything else, with few accessories available, but Apple's upcoming Thunderbolt Display, intended for use with laptops, seems intriguing. … Read more

Last October, Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air debuted. The tiny, slim ultraportable was the smallest laptop Apple had ever made. Its combination of size and power earned it a four-star review, with caveats: it had a last-generation Core 2 Duo processor, lacked a backlit keyboard, and omitted an SD card slot. We're glad to find the newly released, back-to-school-timed 2011 MacBook Air update fixes two of our three complaints, while keeping a $999 starting price.

Both 11- and 13-inch MacBook Airs have been updated with new, faster second-gen Core i5 processors. The new Air also, finally, has a backlit … Read more

Apple unveiled its new Thunderbolt-enabled, 27-inch display today, aptly named Apple Thunderbolt Display. As CNET's resident monitor dude and having reviewed the Cinema Display, released last year, I was curious as to just what differences we can expect between the two monitors, beyond the inclusion of Thunderbolt, of course.

What's the same? First, there are a few things that have carried over from the Cinema Display to its Thunderbolt counterpart. The display's basic chassis design seems to have been kept pretty much intact, with the same smooth aluminum finish, 20-degree back tilt, and wide "duck foot&… Read more

With today's Mac and display updates in the can, Apple is just one machine away from having Thunderbolt across the line. That's the new speedy port that brings high-speed input/output to storage devices, displays, and other data hungry peripherals, topping what's available through USB 3.0 or Firewire 800 in theoretical transfer speed (see CNET's FAQ).

So far the number of gadgets that can make use of the nascent technology are few. In fact, it took months after Thunderbolt's introduction in Apple's MacBook Pro line earlier this year for the first purchasable Thunderbolt cable … Read more

Apple today released new versions of its Mac computers as well as the system software that powers them.

At first blush, today's changes would seem to be business as usual for the technology giant, which has built massive success off cyclical updates to its products. But behind the scenes the changes represent a carefully crafted strategy in how the company presents its products to customers, as well as getting its machines more tightly connected to its various digital storefronts. Read on to find out what's new.

New operating system First things first, there's Lion, the latest version of Apple's Mac OS. The new software is the seventh major revision of Mac OS X, and an upgrade to Apple's Snow Leopard OS which came out in late 2009.

Apple is advertising Lion as having more than 250 new features, with some of the biggest ones being touches brought over from iOS, the system software that powers Apple's iPhone, iPod and iPad. That includes things like an icon-based application launcher, and multitouch gestures that make the OS feel more like an iPhone or iPad when interacting with onscreen content using a multitouch trackpad.

There are also full-screen applications--something Microsoft's Windows has had for years, but Apple's taken a slightly different approach with--making use of the multitouch trackpad to let users switch back and forth between full-screen apps, almost like pages of a magazine. Apple plans to bring identical behavior to iPad apps with a software update in the fall. … Read more

Roku adds motion-sensing gaming to its streaming media box, Sonos offers a lower cost, wireless Hi-Fi speaker system called the Play 3, and Apple unleashes Mac OS X Lion, updates MacBook Air and Mac Mini, and releases a Thunderbolt Display.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Apple unveilsMac OS X Lion, new MacBook Airs, new Mac minis and the Thunderbolt Display

Roku 2 gets motion-sensing video gaming

Lower-cost, Sonos Play 3 networked, wireless speakers

New T-Mobile "unlimited" smartphone plans

Google adds malware warning to search