CES 2012: AR Drone 2.0, OCZ External Thunderbolt SSD

[MacRumors]

A few more interesting items are starting to leak out ahead of CES 2012.

AR Drone 2.0




Engadget publishes a press release for Parrot's new AR Drone 2.0 which sports a 720P HD Camera. The original AR Drone was shown off at CES 2010. It's an iPhone-controlled quadricoptor that uses a number of sensors, including a downward facing camera, to help stabilize its flight. You control the flying machine with the use of your iPhone.

The 2.0 upgrade now offers a 1280x720 resolution camera that can be used to record videos as well as new flight control modes to allow for easier handling. Per Gizmodo:

Perhaps best of all, it's now even easier to pilot. Before you had to rely on the camera to know which way the AR.Drone was facing, and then send commands from the drone's perspective. That option is still available for advanced users, but the AR.Drone 2 now senses where you are, so tilting your phone/tablet away from you will send the drone away, and tilting it to your right will make the drone go that way, too. It's incredibly intuitive.

The 2.0 version of the AR Drone will be $299 and available in the 2nd Quarter of 2012. This video shows the original AR Drone in action:

OCZ Thunderbolt SSD




PCPer spotted this new external SSD coming from OCZ. The company had previously offered a similar external USB 3.0 SSD, but this new model brings Thunderbolt support.

According to OCZ, the Thunderbolt-equipped SSD should have transfer rates as high as 750MB/s and "improved latency and highly accurate time synchronization" for professional audio/video work. No timeframe on release, but more details may arrive at next week.

Article Link: CES 2012: AR Drone 2.0, OCZ External Thunderbolt SSD

[blow45]

that ssd will sure cost an arm and a leg, very cool flying thingy though!

edit: btw, it might a good idea to elaborate just a bit on what a quadricopter is because it's in no way apparent...

[Canaan]

Hopefully the SSD isn't overly expensive. Also can't wait until Seagate offers an attachment for their GoFlex Drives.

[MacBookPro13"]

Arn, do you ever get off the computer bro!?

[Krazy Bill]

Originally Posted by Canaan

Hopefully the SSD isn't overly expensive.

Get ready to sell off one of your kids as an indentured servant for 7 years.

Seriously. External TB drives will cost much more than internal SSD's do now. (which most find out of their price reach).

[blow45]

the thing I can't wait about is a 3tb hd with an ssd, a hybrid drive that is, to breath some new life into my imac in terms of speed. SSD's are still very expensive... I was hoping their price would drop a bit, and it is dropping, but extremely slowly for most of us.

[ri0ku]

oh man if the thunderbolt ssd's are bootable I'm gonna be soooo happy. I bought an iMac but couldn't afford the internal ssd. So a few months down the line when money is saved an external drive would be great if its bootable since it will read faster than the 7200rpm hdd.

[KylePowers]

Originally Posted by ri0ku

oh man if the thunderbolt ssd's are bootable I'm gonna be soooo happy. I bought an iMac but couldn't afford the internal ssd. So a few months down the line when money is saved an external drive would be great if its bootable since it will read faster than the 7200rpm hdd.

Same!

[Munkypoo7]

Of all the possible SSD manufacturers / redistributors, why did it have to be OCZ?

Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, Intel, Patriot, Kingston... pretty much any other company would have been a better option. All the aforementioned companies [as well as others, those are just off the top of my head] have great customer support and products that seem to last longer than anything OCZ puts out. Not to mention OCZ's Customer support isn't really worth a spit in comparison to Corsair, Mushkin etc.

Nice idea, but I'll gladly wait for a better company to implement a Thunderbolt SSD.

[iVoid]

Unless it has another thunderbolt port on the other side (hard to tell from the pics), then massive FAIL.

Really need to have the dual ports to allow for daisy chaining and/or a MDP display at the end.

[ri0ku]

Originally Posted by iVoid

Unless it has another thunderbolt port on the other side (hard to tell from the pics), then massive FAIL.

Really need to have the dual ports to allow for daisy chaining and/or a MDP display at the end.

its the cables that have the 2 endings. The devices don't need 2 thunderbolt ports to do this. At least I think thats right ? :S

[Duncan-UK]

Originally Posted by iVoid

Unless it has another thunderbolt port on the other side (hard to tell from the pics), then massive FAIL.

Really need to have the dual ports to allow for daisy chaining and/or a MDP display at the end.

Massive (or should that be epic) FAIL to anyone who uses the expression "massive FAIL"...

[MacBookPro13"]

Don't rate my post's down please!

[pubwvj]

This is really cool but I would like more range (1,000') and resolution (10Mpixel) to make it really useful.

[admanimal]

Originally Posted by ri0ku

its the cables that have the 2 endings. The devices don't need 2 thunderbolt ports to do this. At least I think thats right ? :S

You are mistaken. The devices need to have 2 ports, just like with Firewire.

Originally Posted by ri0ku

oh man if the thunderbolt ssd's are bootable I'm gonna be soooo happy.

Thunderbolt drives in general are bootable, so there's no reason to think this one won't be.

[spencers]

And the OCZ will die abruptly 2 weeks after purchase.

[ri0ku]

Originally Posted by admanimal

You are mistaken. The devices need to have 2 ports, just like with Firewire.



Thunderbolt drives in general are bootable, so there's no reason to think this one won't be.

Ah right thanks for the info. Thats fantastic that they are bootable. Guess I will be using one for the OS drive when there available, and use the internal 1tb in the iMac for data.

Very happy about that.

[laxman101]

Finally something else in the thunderbolt arena. Hopefully we will see some more accessories at CES.

[nagromme]

"Additionally, with the "travelling" feature, the pilot can film HD video sequences like a professional! Simply select the direction of travel (forward, back, sideways) and the duration, and the AR.Drone 2.0 does the rest."

That actually sounds really awesome for home filmmakers/video makers. A cheap way to get a smooth “crane shot” from an impossible angle. Then dub in the audio later when you edit it together with other footage.

I really hope AR.Drone 2.0 transmits a smooth frame-rate; the jerkiness of the image was my main complaint that made me hold off on buying 1.0.

I’m thinking that’s probably been addressed: there’s no sense in recording HD video if the framerate isn’t smooth, and if it’s a wireless data bottleneck, HD would actually make things worse. And I doubt the thing has on board storage sufficient to gather HD footage for later retrieval, so it must be transmitting to the iPhone for recording.

The “third person” flight controls sound great too. I await reviews with an open wallet!

[MacBookPro13"]

Originally Posted by MacBookPro13"

Don't rate my post's down please!

Haha you fell for it

[iMikeT]

Glad to see a company take advantage of Thunderbolt and release an external SSD but what I'm really looking forward to is a bare Thunderbolt equipped external enclosure that can be configured in anyway the user wants with HDDs and/or SSDs.

[bungiefan89]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

PCPer spotted this new external SSD coming from OCZ. The company had previously offered a similar external USB 3.0 SSD, but this new model brings Thunderbolt support.

According to OCZ, the Thunderbolt-equipped SSD should have transfer rates as high as 750MB/s and "improved latency and highly accurate time synchronization" for professional audio/video work. No timeframe on release, but more details may arrive at next week.

Oh PLEASE be reasonably priced!

[OrangeSVTguy]

Oh I can't wait to get the 2.0 Drone. Love my 1.0 Drone

[MrThomas8110]

Sleek looking drive. If it releases with a tb model i'd buy it, but it would have to cost no more than $400. I thinks that's reasonable especially since USB 3.0 1 tb drive are about $120.

[LFMNX]

Originally Posted by iVoid

Unless it has another thunderbolt port on the other side (hard to tell from the pics), then massive FAIL.

Really need to have the dual ports to allow for daisy chaining and/or a MDP display at the end.

I suppose you could always put it at the end of your thunderbolt chain and therefore not require two ports.