CES 2012: AR Drone 2.0, OCZ External Thunderbolt SSD

[Richdmoore]

Having one thunderbolt port on my iMac, I will automatically pass on anything that cannot be daisy chained, as I need the terminating device to be a display port to HDMI adapter.

[28monkeys]

Yeah, use that drone to spy on your neighbor.

[twoodcc]

that drone and the SSD seem very nice. nothing i just have to have, but very nice either way. especially that drone. i guess next year will be 1080P video?

[Xenc]

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Originally Posted by 28monkeys

Yeah, use that drone to spy on your neighbor.

Your neighbour would need to be deaf and blind for that it be effective.

[OrangeSVTguy]

Originally Posted by twoodcc

that drone and the SSD seem very nice. nothing i just have to have, but very nice either way. especially that drone. i guess next year will be 1080P video?

Just slap a GoPro HD on there. I've been thinking about getting one just for my drone lol.

Since it creates it's own wifi signal, wonder if they make it operate on the 5ghz? Also wireless N would be cool too for 1080p streaming. What's also nice is a built-in option for recording without heading towards 3rd party app.

[KPOM]

It's good to see more Thunderbolt devices start to be announced. Also, Acer announced a new Ultrabook that will ship sometime in Q2 with a Thunderbolt port. Once Windows PCs start shipping with the port, more devices will become available.

[Akack]

Ocz SSD, afraid of the intro price

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by KPOM

It's good to see more Thunderbolt devices start to be announced.

Start ? This is the same stuff that was being announced and shipped in 2011 : high priced, high performance, not-quite-consumer stuff.

Where are the consumer Thunderbolt devices ?

[justperry]

Originally Posted by MacBookPro13"

Haha you fell for it

Haha you asked for it.

The thunderbolt equipped ext ssd is probably going to be $$$$

Why not have just an empty Thunderbolt enclosure, now that I would buy.

[Mkostera16]

Nice. Looking forward to this

[Lesser Evets]

Thunderbolt peripherals will be affordable in 2014.

Until then: tough.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by Lesser Evets

Thunderbolt peripherals will be affordable in 2014, that is, currently announced and shipped peripherals that will be sold on the 2nd hand market.

Fixed.

That could be a major problem for Thunderbolt adoption though. Is Apple again steering users towards a niche technology rather than the industry standard ?

[Ubuntu]

Now all we need is a company to release a flying drone with a Thunderbolt SSD built in.

[KPOM]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Start ? This is the same stuff that was being announced and shipped in 2011 : high priced, high performance, not-quite-consumer stuff.

Where are the consumer Thunderbolt devices ?

The OCZ Thunderbolt SSD is one such device.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by KPOM

The OCZ Thunderbolt SSD is one such device.

It is ? Check again :

Originally Posted by MacRumors

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.

Oops. At the price this thing will be and with the capacity it will have, it won't be a consumer product. An internal SSD drive maybe, an external SSD drive for consumers ? What are you storing on there that requires 750 MB/s transfer ? Music/video to playback on your Mac ? Yeah, call me when we achieve those bitrates...

Thunderbolt is looking more and more like a professional/prosumer technology, made for niche applications. The consumer devices just aren't trickling through.

[John Frum]

Originally Posted by Krazy Bill

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

Your time must not be worth very much.

We've been replacing internal HDs in our older Core 2 Duo Macs with SSDs, giving them new life at a fraction of the cost of a new one. If you've got a newer Mac with a hard drive, bet you one of our 2006 models with SSD outperforms it overall.

[Shivetya]

on a side note, is there more than ten minutes flight time on these drones now?

[LAS.mac]

The drone is nice, however I would not spend 300 bucks o that thing. FAir price should be around 70 US, maybe 100 is it can fly at least 20-30 minutes.

[medi.freak]

here is a video of the new drone:

AR Drone 2.0

[smali]

CES 2012 conclusion:

Thunderbolt will remain useless for 99% of all users for another year.

[KPOM]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

It is ? Check again :

Oops. At the price this thing will be and with the capacity it will have, it won't be a consumer product. An internal SSD drive maybe, an external SSD drive for consumers ? What are you storing on there that requires 750 MB/s transfer ? Music/video to playback on your Mac ? Yeah, call me when we achieve those bitrates...

Thunderbolt is looking more and more like a professional/prosumer technology, made for niche applications. The consumer devices just aren't trickling through.

Don't expect to see Thunderbolt 16GB flash drives. USB 2.0 is fine for that, and USB 3.0 generally doubles throughput for compatible devices. Expect the Ivy Bridge Macs to support USB 3.0, just as Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks will support Thunderbolt (as Acer has already announced today).

However, at $2/GB, these OCZ drives can provide a good external storage option. Someone with a MacBook Air or Ultrabook with a 128GB internal SSD could purchase one of these for $256 and get additional storage at the same speed. It's a lot less kludgy than the setup I have (TB to Sonnet Echo to eSATA Expresscard), plus it is bus-powered.

It won't take long (probably later this year) for someone to come out with a similar enclosure with a standard hard drive. They are likely just waiting for Windows support.

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if Ultrabook manufacturers start introducing Thunderbolt displays and "docking stations" using the port. That's probably the most important consumer application. The Apple Thunderbolt Display shows the way. Provided Intel doesn't screw something up (e.g. that proprietary secondary connector that made it through the rumor mill a few months ago), TB is the perfect interface for a docking station, and it would enable people to use a dock with different computers from different manufacturers.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by KPOM

Don't expect to see Thunderbolt [consumer devices]

Fixed your long rant. Could have easily been just that. Frankly, why are you still a "believer" at this point, close to a year later ? Should be obvious by now where this is all headed.

Heck, that Belkin port extender should be a huge clue...

[ILikeTurtles]

The dude in that video was seriously HOT! Wow. Me needs a cold shower.

[Michaelgtrusa]

Very nice.

[KPOM]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Fixed your long rant. Could have easily been just that. Frankly, why are you still a "believer" at this point, close to a year later ? Should be obvious by now where this is all headed.

No, you butchered it. TB is overkill for things like flash drives and mice, and you are just being your typical Apple curmudgeon self with your rants.

TB is perfect for things like docks and big displays with docks. Those are consumer devices. I expect the rumored Apple TV would also use TB instead of HDMI. Just because Belkin thinks it can get $300 for its dock doesn't mean others will be as delusional.