LaCie Launches Rugged Thunderbolt & USB3 Drive

Finally we are starting to see Thunderbolt drives hit the market and give us some options.  I few months ago I picket up a Seagate drive which I reviewed but there have been few other travel sized options.  All my previous travel drives have been LaCie Rugged drives and today LaCie are launching new Rugged drives with Thunderbolt & USB3.  To my knowledge this is the first drive to feature BOTH of the new fast interfaces and than makes it perfect of people with a Thunderbolt enabled laptop but lack Thunderbolt on their office machine like me.  In other words …

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Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt / USB3 Drive Review

On a recent trip to Europe I underestimated the amount of drive space I would need to take with me.  I was forced to go to the nearest computer store and purchase another drive.  If I was going to have to do this I wanted to make sure that I picked up something that would at least be useful in the long term.  I use a Macbook Air when I travel and I hadn’t yet purchased any Thunderbolt drives to go with it.  At the time of writing (June 2012) Thunderbolt drives are still few and far between and those

Drobo Unveils Their Thunderbolt Products – 5D & 5D Mini

Today Drobo has unveiled two new products that feature both dual Thunderbolt ports and USB3 making them equally enticing for both Mac and PC users.  Thunderbolt storage arrays have been a bit thin on the ground since its launch but everyone has had their eye on Drobo waiting to see what they were working on.  It wasn’t a case of if but when and that when is today.

Drobo have unveiled two new models, the 5D and the 5D mini.  At first glance the 5D will look familiar, sharing a design with the previous eSata version of the Drobo, apart from an extra SSD slot in the base.  The 5D mini is an all new design though and I think this is going to grab all the headlines.  It’s only 7″ x 7″ x 2″ but it will take 4 x 2.5″ drives (HDD or SSD) and also features a 5th slot in the base for a further low profile SSD.  Designed for portability, the 5D mini has a rubberized ‘rugged’ exterior and also has an option carry case.  This is big storage on the go.

Both 5D and 5D mini ship with custom 1m thunderbolt cables (thank god!) and we will hear more about shipping dates in July.

As I sit here writing this I’m away on a long photo trip myself.  For this trip I totally underestimated how much storage space I would need and that meant that yesterday I ended up in the local computer store buying an ’emergency’ 1TB drive.  Wish I’d had one of these Minis with me really.  I like the fact that they have designed this for the pro on the go, it makes sense as few photographers or videographers create in the own back yard.

Thankfully both products have dual Thunderbolt ports.  There have been FAR too many Thunderbolt enabled products launched with just one port.  All of them saying it will have to be at ‘the end of the chain’ which totally defeats half the purpose.  Drobo have done it right though, so you can still plug in two separate drive into one port on the computer.  This is important because most pros will want to split another backup up and travel with it in a second location.  I don’t like to travel with all my eggs in my laptop bag even if that is a redundant solution within itself.  Putting a further copy in your checked baggage is a good idea.

Pricing

Drobo 5D will start under $850

Drobo 5D Mini will start under $650

These prices will of course NOT include drives so don’t forget to factor that into your calculations.  Both will take either HDD or SSD.

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Sonnet Echo Expresscard Thunderbolt Adapter Review

I’m sure by now that you are aware of the Thunderbolt standard and how it has a theoretical throughput that is much faster than Firewire 800, USB 2 or 3 and eSATA.  Like many people I excitedly bought one of the newer Macbooks last year when they first featured Thunderbolt ports but sadly Thunderbolt accessories have been relatively thin on the ground.  Some blame high licensing fees imposed by Apple and Intel whilst some blame technical difficulties and incompatibilities with the implementation of the technology.  I’ve had my Macbook Air for nearly a year now and until the Sonnet Echo

Thunderbolt CF/SD Card Reader Solution On It’s Way

The new Thunderbolt standard, developed jointly by Apple and Intel, is an exciting prospect for media creation professionals of all sorts.  It allows a phenomenal data transfer rate that looks sure to change the way we think about computer peripherals.  As of September 2011 Apple has now added Thunderbolt ports to all it’s computers except the Mac Pro which is sure to follow shortly.  Like many other photographers though I have been eagerly awaiting some useful peripherals.  People “in the know” have suggested that Apple is currently charging a huge amount of money to license the technology though, meaning that