Mobile Magazine » usb 3.0

Matrox Announces New Thunderbolt Docking Station for Macbooks and Ultrabooks

Andrew Grush — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:45:37 +0000

Up until now,there seems to be a shortage of great accessories for the Thunderbolt standard. With the new speedy cable already reaching over a year in age, its great to finally see someone releasing an accessory that takes true advantage of the technology. Matrox has now announced a new DS1 Thunderbolt docking station that brings plenty of ports to Macbook and Ultrabook users, using just one single Thunderbolt cable. This box will run for just $249 and even adds Ethernet and DVI output right into the hub. This means you can add a larger DVI display, a full keyboard and plenty more. In addition you get two new USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port. Right now, USB 3.0 doesn’t exist on any Mac out there, so this is a great way to get USB 3.0 features in your existing Mac.

While $249 isn’t cheap, it can certainly add some extended features to your Macbook that will make it seem and function more like a traditional desktop. To be honest though, if its just more Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 support you are after, it might be wise to wait for upcoming releases from Apple, perhaps even at the WWDC.

Matrox DS1 Brings Unprecedented Convenience and Connectivity to MacBook and Ultrabook users

Taipei (PRWEB) June 03, 2012

Matrox today introduced Matrox® DS1™, a Thunderbolt Docking Station that brings all the productivity benefits of a desktop computer to MacBook® and Ultrabook™ users. From a single Thunderbolt connection, users can add multiple peripherals including a large DVI or HDMI® display, a full-size keyboard, and a mouse. A gigabit Ethernet port provides connectivity to a wired corporate network, enabling data transfers 18 times faster than Wi-Fi™. One SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, a microphone input, and a speaker/headphone output are also provided. With its solid aluminum construction, yet sleek design, Matrox DS1 is ideal for office, dorm, or home use.

“Today’s MacBooks and Ultrabooks are powerful enough for most corporate users but their limited connectivity makes them inconvenient, and their small screens and keyboards make them uncomfortable to use in the office all day,” said Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing at Matrox. “The new Matrox DS1 docking station easily enables the creation of an ergonomic workspace and brings much-needed expandability for printers, scanners, storage, smartphones, optical drives, cameras, flash drives, and other peripherals.”

“Thunderbolt delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility, and simplicity to personal computing,” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s director of Thunderbolt Marketing. “Products like the Matrox DS1 docking station help highlight what Thunderbolt makes possible.”

Matrox DS1 will be showcased at Computex Taipei 2012 in the Intel booth, M0410 – located in the NanGang Exhibition Hall.

Price and availability
Priced at $249 US (€219, £169) not including local taxes and delivery, Matrox DS1 will be available through a worldwide network of authorized dealers beginning in September.

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About Matrox
Matrox is a world leader in graphics, imaging, and video technology providing an extensive array of real-world relevant OEM and end-user solutions to businesses and individuals across a diverse range of professional markets including media and entertainment, finance, digital signage, medical imaging, manufacturing, factory automation, security, government, and enterprise computing.

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Asus Lamborghini external hard drive runs “with the bulls in style”

Michael Kwan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:08:44 +0000

Great. Another portable hard drive. They’re all pretty much the same thing, right? Yes, they’re the same if you think that a Corolla and a Gallardo are the same thing. And that’s why you might want to take a gander at the new Asus Lamborghini external hard drive.

The portable storage solution follows the branding scheme of other Asus Lamborghini products. You don’t really get the keys to a supercar when you buy this drive, but it certainly has more personality than the conventional grey box of an external drive.

In terms of specs, the shiny package (which is available in your choice of black or white; no cherry red or vibrant yellow options just yet) features a 750GB 2.5-inch drive (either 5400rpm or 7200rpm) that you can access either through USB 2.0 or the speedier USB 3.0. The FlexSave tech makes for easy data backups too.

Not everyone is going to want such a gawdy external hard drive, but it’ll go well with your Asus Lamborghini notebook when you pull up to the local Starbucks in your Jetta. The 750GB model sells for $139 or you can go smaller with the $119 version with 500GB. Both of those are just USB 2.0, though, as the USB 3.0 iterations aren’t quite ready yet. I wonder if Acer will fire back with a Ferrari drive that’s “more than you can afford pal.”

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Kingston brings USB 3.0 product roadmap to CES

Andrew Anderson — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:26:40 +0000

Positioning themselves for the growth of USB 3.0, Flash drive leader Kingston announced today a comprehensive suite of USB 3.0 Flash drive solutions.

After launching their first USB 3.0 Flash drive in September 2010, the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 (DTU30), followed up by the HyperX MAX 3.0 External USB 3.0 Drive (64-, 128- and 256GB capacities) in November, Kingston is focusing their attention on the technology in the coming year. The DTU30 uses a SATA bridge chip to attain high data transfer rates and comes in 16-, 32- and 64GB capacities. Kingston will leverage this same technology for future generations including the upcoming DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 (also in 16-, 32- and 64GB capacities).

Andrew Ewing, Flash drive Business Manager at Kingston says, “as USB 3.0 technology grows and more platforms and computers support the USB 3.0 standard, we recognize the need to develop different solutions to address various target markets and help drive adoption.”

Kingston is wise to stay on the forefront of USB 3.0 technology and news. More PCs are to ship with USB 3.0 capability later this year as the technology has obvious perks in terms of transfer speed. The HyperX MAX 3.0 External Drive can transfer 10GB of data in about 72 seconds, compared to almost six minutes using USB 2.0.

The DTU30 ranges from US$79 to $254 while the HyperX MAX 3.0 rings in between $254 and $900.

Kingston Digital Announces USB 3.0 Product Roadmap for 2011

USB 3.0 Flash Drives Aimed at Enthusiasts, Prosumers and Consumers
Family to Include High Performance and Smaller, Lower Cost Solutions to Meet All Consumer Needs
2011 International CES
LAS VEGAS & FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, is boosting support for USB 3.0 in 2011 by revealing its roadmap at International CES 2011. Kingston® will develop a comprehensive suite of USB 3.0 Flash drive solutions to meet the needs of users of all levels as the technology becomes more widely accepted.

“As USB 3.0 technology grows and more platforms and computers support the USB 3.0 standard, we recognize the need to develop different solutions to address various target markets and help drive adoption.”
“We have already seen the successful adoption of our DataTraveler® Ultimate 3.0 and HyperX® MAX 3.0 External drive amongst early adopters demanding faster data transfer rates in portable form factors,” said Andrew Ewing, Flash drive business manager, Kingston. “As USB 3.0 technology grows and more platforms and computers support the USB 3.0 standard, we recognize the need to develop different solutions to address various target markets and help drive adoption.”

For enthusiasts and power users, Kingston will release its fastest USB 3.0 drive to date. The DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 will serve as the flagship model and be part of the HyperXperience™ line, a family of high-performance Kingston Flash products that will include SSDs, USBs and cards, to complement HyperX enthusiast memory modules.

In September 2010, Kingston released the DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 (DTU30), its first USB 3.0 Flash drive using a SATA bridge chip to attain high data transfer rates. As single-chip controllers become available, Kingston will release a second generation of the DTU30, available in 16-, 32- and 64GB capacities. Single-chip controllers allow for better USB 3.0 compatibility and speed. Users will benefit from increased performance and lower costs in the next generation DTU30.

As more PCs ship with USB 3.0 capability later this year, particularly in late Q2/early Q3, Kingston will also launch an entry-level Flash drive to go with these systems. It will be aimed squarely at consumers with a lower capacity and price point to help drive mainstream adoption.

For more information visit www.kingston.com.

About Kingston Digital, Inc.

Kingston Digital, Inc. (“KDI”) is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please visit www.kingston.com or call 800-337-8410.

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103MB/sec claimed with PQI TurboHDD USB 3.0 portable hard drive

Michael Kwan — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:06:04 +0000

USB 4.0 anyone? Not just yet, but it seems that Computex is glowing with USB 3.0 gear. And the PQI USB 3.0 HDD H566 is one of them; a portable hard drive with the new standard boosted with TurboHDD USB technology, claiming a 103MB/sec read speed and 92MB/sec write speed.

Platter drives still aren’t quite up to par with USB 3.0 external solid state drives — the Kingston Hyper X external SSD for example pushes a theoretical 200MB/sec — but still a heft improvement over USB 2.0. PQI says their TurboHDD USB technology is going to give us a 53% performance boost when comparing their USB 3.0 drive to competitors. Sure PQI, drop us down a unit and we’ll let you know how that pans out. Until then, we can look forward to an H566 in your flavors of 320GB, 500GB, or 640GB bundled with “UR-Foretress” and UR-Smart software.

PQI

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Belkin’s USB 3.0 products 3x faster than USB 2.0, 10x more expensive

Fabrizio Pilato — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:53:50 +0000

If your the guy who has to have the latest, fastest, and most up to date technologies, then Belkin’s SuperSpeed USB 3.0 peripherals may be for you. The price is steep, at $40 for a USB 3.0 cable measuring only 4 feet, but you can expect transfer speeds “three times faster than USB 2.0,” if you have any USB 3.0 devices to begin with.

The specs for USB 3.0 are to achieve transfer rates of five gigabits per second, or 10 times faster than USB 2.0 (theoretically). In Belkin’s tests they observed speeds of up to 180 megabits per second, or three times faster. Still great, but is it worth the price?

Devices launched today are the; SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCIe Add-In Card (F4U023) – $79.99. A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard (F4U024) – $79.99, this connects up to 127 USB devices (through cascading additional hubs. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Premium A-B Cable, and Micro-B Cable 4 ft. (F3U158-04) – $39.99; 8 ft. (F3U158-08) – $49.99.

They are backwards compatible to USB 2.0, availability is set for April 2010 in the US and May 2010 in Canada.

Belkin USB 3.0 products Photo Gallery

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USB 3.0 Ports Added to HP Envy Laptops

Michael Kwan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:11:09 +0000

This has been a long time coming, since we have all been using the USB 2.0 standard for a very long while now. It’s about time that we get a suitable bump in speed to go along with our higher quality video and larger file sizes. And so, USB 3.0 is finally making its way into the laptop world for real.

Hewlett-Packard, which you may know better simply as HP, has just announced that it will have configurations of its HP Envy 15 notebook PC equipped with USB 3.0 technology. HP is thus one of the first PC makers to make the leap to USB 3.0.

As you know, USB 3.0 is substantially faster than USB 2.0, both for single large files and large numbers of small files. To go along with this speed, you’ll want to have suitable performance in the rest of the build as well.

HP is coming through on this front as well, since the USB 3.0-equipped HP Envy 15 will also have the new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830 graphics and a quad-core i7 processor. If you prefer something different, USB 3.0 will also be offered in the Elitebook line from HP too.

Source: CNET

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This PQI USB Flash Drive Pushes Data at 5Gbps

Michael Kwan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:10:16 +0000

I’ve got some good news and some bad news for all the heavy file pushers in the audience. According to the official specs, USB 2.0 was intended to push data as fast as 240Mbps, but they were able to move this to 480Mbps with a little tweaking.

Well, the good news is that this barrier has been absolutely crushed by the newly announced PQI Cool Drive U366 flash drive. The bad news is that it makes use of the USB 3.0 standard, so you won’t be able to achieve that kind of speed on your computer for now.

For a glimmer of hope, PQI does mention that the Cool Drive U366 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports, but you won’t get anywhere near the claimed 5Gbps maximum speed with that kind of connection.

The PQI Cool Drive U366 will be made available in your choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB capacities. There is no mention of a release date or pricing scheme just yet, but you can expect things to be pricey when they are new and shiny.

Source: CrunchGear

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