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Apple reveals 27-inch Thunderbolt Display with HD Facetime
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Displays, PC / Laptop,
Along with OS X Lion, the new MacBook Air, and the new Mac Mini, Apple also unveiled their new Thunderbolt Display (replacing the Cinema Display line) today. The 27-inch beast obviously has a Thunderbolt port, but also brings other things to the table, like FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet port, and a built-in FaceTime HD camera and mic with integrated 2.1 speaker system. It's a 2560 x 1440 16:9 IPS display, and can be used as a docking station for your Apple notebook. You can also daisy-chain up to 6 other high-speed Thunderbolt devices to it as well, and if you have an older Mac, you should know that these are also backwards-compatible with Mini DisplayPort connectors. The new Thunderbolt Display sells for $999, and should be available sometime in the next 60 days.
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| Thunderbolt Display
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Apple updates MacBook Pro with Sandy Bridge processors, HD cameras, and Thunderbolt
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop,
It's rare that an entire line of MacBook Pros is updated all at once, but sometimes new technology warrants this occasion. Apple, as expected, announced updates to the MacBook Pro 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch. They all get Intel second-gen Sandy Bridge Core processors and all the technology associated with them, including dual- and quad-core versions. In addition to new internals, each MacBook Pro will be equipped with a FaceTime HD webcam and a lightning-fast connection technology called Thunderbolt. The 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros will also have a new graphic partner in AMD, ditching Nvidia after several years.
The MacBook Pros keep their shape and form for the most part, since most of the changes occur within. Their metal frames are still an inch thick, carved from a slab of aluminum, the same as their predecessors. A FaceTime HD webcam replaces the standard one on all the MacBook Pros, and when used in tandem with the native FaceTime app, users can video chat in 720p. They didn't get the flash SSD that allowed the MacBook Airs to resume and boot up instantly, but the hard drive capacities have ramped up to 500GB, with a 750GB option, depending on the system. And there will be SSD options (512GB) available, albeit for an obscene price.
The newest and most out-of-the-ordinary addition is the mini-Display port that now doubles as a superspeed I/O port. Thunderbolt, formerly known as Intel's Light Peak technology, is a new connection technology that supports transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps (that's twice as fast as USB 3.0) between the laptop and a Thunderbolt peripheral. Problem is, peripherals that can take advantage of this new technology haven't surfaced yet. But with a huge backer in Apple, these peripherals will surely be available soon. The Thunderbolt port, according to Apple, can deliver PCI Express to external peripherals and can support FireWire and USB devices. Since it's also a mini-Display port, the same port can output to external displays.
Read More | MacBook Pro product page
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