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While Intel gave us the technical rundown on its next iteration of Thunderbolt two months earlier, it's now announced that it will officially be known as the not-particularly-original Thunderbolt 2. Promising 20 Gbps throughput and support for 4K video, Intel is now vowing to bring the port to market sometime this year. For a reminder, we've added the company's NAB demo after the break.
Filed under: Peripherals, Intel
Source: Intel Thunderbolt Blog
Remember the Belkin Thunderbolt Express dock that we first laid our peepers on back at CES 2012? Well, the device that looks to lend a hand to your desktop setup is now available. After upgrading the unit back in the summer of 2012, pre-orders went live in February with a ship date expected shortly thereafter. No word on the cause of the delay, but the $299 dock still offers dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining up to five gadgets, FireWire 800, Ethernet, and both 3.5mm audio input and output. If the wait hasn't swayed your interest, grab one immediately via the source link below, and in stores before the end of May.
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: Belkin
Here at NAB, Intel just introduced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, which promises a data rate of 20 Gbps in both directions (on each of the two channels) as opposed to 10 Gbps for the previous version. Of course, the company stepped back for a moment first, boasting that Thunderbolt currently has about 200 licensees, and more compatible devices -- along with new, thinner cables -- should be coming out in the following months. Building up to the big reveal, Intel also shared some info about its new Thunderbolt host controller, (code-named Redwood Ridge), which will be built into some of Intel's upcoming fourth-gen Core processors.
But let's talk about the real news: the next-gen Thunderbolt tech (code-named Falcon Ridge) enables 4K video file transfer and display simultaneously in addition to running at 20 Gbps. It will be backward-compatible with previous-gen Thunderbolt cables and connectors, and production is set to ramp up in 2014. An on-stage demo with fresh-off-the-press silicon showed the new Thunderbolt running 1,200 MBps, which is certainly a step up from what's currently on the market.
Update: We've added a video of the Thunderbolt demo from Intel's stage. Hop on past the break to check it out.
Filed under: Intel
We have a feeling 4K is going to be a major theme at this year's NAB, which also means we'll be seeing a good deal of hardware that can actually handle such high-res content. Mostly, we're talking pro cameras and the like, but at least one company will be showing off some professional-grade hard drives -- after all, you're gonna need a solid storage solution to process those supersize files, right? G-Technology just introduced the "Evolution" family of products, the centerpiece of which is the G-Dock ev, a mini-tower with two hard drive modules and dual Thunderbolt connections. What you put in those hard drive slots is up to you: the company is offering both a 9.5mm 7,200RPM drive (rated for 136 MB/s transfers) and a beefier 15mm cartridge promising 250 MB/s. Once you choose your drives, you can arrange them in a RAID 1 configuration if redundancy is important, or RAID 0 for maximum speed.
What's more, each of the drives has a USB 3.0 socket on board, so if you needed to you could hand it to someone else in your office and let them grab whatever data they needed off the HDD. In any case, the dock will come standard with two 1TB, 9.5mm drives -- look for it next month, priced at $750 for the bundle. If you later need some additional cartridges, the 9.3mm G-Drive ev will cost either $150 or $200, depending on whether you want 500 gigs or a full terabyte. The bigger 15mm G-Drive ev Plus will go for $350 (it'll be sold with 1TB only). Lastly, G-Technology also announced the G-Drive Pro with a Thunderbolt port and claimed transfer speeds of 480 MB/s. That'll ship this summer for either $700 or $850, depending on whether you want 2TB or 4GB of storage. All that's in the PR after the break, along with an endorsement from Vincent Laforet himself. Must be good, right?
Filed under: Storage
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile
So you bought a new Mac or Ultrabook in the last couple of years, but you’ve yet to plug anything into its Thunderbolt port. A company called Sonnet shows you what that little hole can do for you. Its Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock is essentially half of a computer, adding a plethora of ports and hardware through just a single cable.
The Echo 15 has four USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, an Ethernet port, two sets of audio in and out ports, two eSata ports and two more Thunderbolt ports. Additionally, it comes with either a DVD drive or – wait for it Mac owners – a Blu-ray drive. Finally, it also has a drive bay that can fit a 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDD or SSD. You can supply your own or pay a premium to have Sonnet include a 2TB HDD with the Echo 15.
As you can see, it’s a good way of expanding your computer and with many Mac owners, even adding functionality in the form of the Blu-ray optical drive. Sonnet is already taking pre-orders for the Echo 15, with prices ranging from $400 to $550 (USD).
[via 9 to 5 Mac]
There are Thunderbolt docks, real and ethereal, and then there's this beast from Sonnet: the Echo 15. As implied by the name, it's lavished with 15 ports front and back, including four USB 3.0, two eSATA, two audio in and out, an extra Thunderbolt, GigE and FireWire800 ports. If you're thinking that'll finally let you hook up a Blu-ray or hard disk to your laptop, back up a second -- Sonnet's dock has those items built in as well, giving you SATA III-level disk throughput and freeing up your ports for more interesting peripherals. You'll be able to grab one this summer with a built-in DVD for $399, or configure it to the max with a Blu-ray drive and 2TB HDD for $549 -- assuming it avoids any untoward delays.
Filed under: Peripherals
Via: 9to5 Mac
Source: Sonnet
Hades hath frozen over, folks: after nearly two years on the market, Verizon's very first LTE-capable smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt, has made the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4) with Sense 3.6 in tow. The update, which was first discovered a few days ago, is finally rolling out in phases beginning today. Of course, this also means that many owners may not experience the joys of ICS for yet a few days (or weeks) to come, but it's at least now officially rocking handsets across the nation. Just in time for many of those users to look into renewing their contracts. Better late than never, we suppose.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, HTC, Verizon
Source: Verizon Wireless
Sweet relief from Gingerbread is finally here for HTC Thunderbolt owners who haven't jumped ship or upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich without Verizon's blessing. Big Red's finally approved Android 4.0.4 laced with Sense 3.6 for the device and is serving it up for download. In addition to souping up the hardware with increased stability and the features you've come to expect with ICS, the upgrade removes the Verizon, BlockBuster, Rhapsody, and Mobile IM apps from the smartphone. Ready to welcome your lightning rod for bad luck phone to 2011? Mosey over to your handset's system update section to check for the fresh build.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, Verizon
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Verizon (1, PDF), (2, PDF)