MacGizmoGuy at TypePad

DIY Thunderbolt Drive Enclosure Hardware For Mac or PC

Explore some of the currently shipping Apple compatible SSD and HDD Thunderbolt external drive enclosures. There's a range of products for Do-It-Yourself PC or Mac compatible ThunderBolt SSD or hard disk external drives. There are single and multi-drive RAID external ThunderBolt and 2nd generation 20Gbps ThunderBolt 2 enclosures, storage adapters and drive docks ideal for Mac computer users. Check them out at : www.thunderbolt-hard-drive.com

For the average Mac user, USB 3 drive hardware is 'fast enough' for most of their data backup needs, and much more affordable. However, enterprise and particularly 4K HD video editors and other data intensive pro users need all the extra speed and bandwidth that 10 and 20 Gbps ThunderBolt storage provides.

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New MacBook USB-C Accessories

USB-C Backup Drives For 12 Inch Retina MacBook

Looking for a USB-C backup drive for a new MacBook? A steady stream of USB 3.1 Type-C adapters, cables, dongles and storage peripherals are reaching the market. A few USB-C flash drives, HDD and SSD enclosures and drive adapters have started to ship - with many, many more to come.

For some, a special USB-C to micro USB 3.0 cable can allow you to directly plug your Mac backup drive into your new USB Type-C MacBook. For others a USB-C to USB 3.0 Type A female dongle, cable or hub will let you plug in your drive's existing USB 2.0 / 3.0 cable in to preserve your storage investment. Explore what's available at this Mac USB 3.1 accessories blog.

Major drive companies like Seagate, Western Digital, LaCie and others have yet to jump on the USB-C storage market whole-heartedly, but there's  products in the pipeline. They're just waiting for USB 3.1 to more broadly entrench itself on the Windows PC and Macintosh computing platforms.

New MacBook USB-C Accessories

With the introduction of the new 12 inch Retina display MacBook in early 2015, Apple has thrown a curve ball at the future of connectivity on the Macintosh platform. With a new, reversible USB Type-C port, it's likely to initially frustrate then delight computer users.

For backward compatibility with the legacy Mac gadgets we already own, USB-C adapters, gadgets and dongles will be needed to connect external displays and existing USB 2.0 / 3.0 peripherals.

Although quite a few USB-C devices and cables have been released, it will likely take a year or more until Apple revises it's computer lineup completely before we'll see USB-C get much traction. Keep in mind the PC is going to undergo the USB-C transition too, but it will take time.

Eventually the full USB 3.1 SuperSpeed PLUS standard will take data speeds from USB 3.0's current 5Gbps to 10Gbps to rival 1st generation ThunderBolt peripherals. Apple is delivering USB 3.1 REVISION 1 (5Gbps) in it's introduction, but it won't be until REVISION 2 that USB chipsets will be throttled up to the full 10Gbps bandwidth speeds. As such, it's a transition that will occur in stages: The new USB connector first, higher data transfer speeds later. Stay tuned

Tax Preparation Apps For Mac

With millions of new Apple computer users joining the Macintosh computer clan there is more demand than ever before for Tax software for Mac to help with preparing State and Federal income tax forms. Unless you are only prepping a basic 1040 Fed tax form, you'll want all the assistance you can muster to prepare taxes on your Mac with ease and accuracy. The two main programs for Mac tax prep are Intuit's popular TurboTax and H&R Block At Home - once called TaxCut. Both programs become available for download or at retail before the end of the year to get an early jump start on one's tax returns.

Once you've keyed in your Federal income and expenses, ran through your deductions, both application programs can additionally assist with State taxes for those Mac users who reside in states that require them. The most important portions of your Federal filing get fed into the State portion to ease the process. One may then optionally e-File (electronically file returns) over the internet for speedier filing and convenience.

The IRS mandates that you keep your Federal tax returns for a minimum of three and possibly up to six years depending on your business type or filing and potential audit issues. Turbo Tax for Macintosh thoughtfully adds an option to save and burn your tax data - and the tax preparation program and files itself to your Mac's DVD disc burner for a complete, recoverable tax data backup. It's also wise to keep copies of your Macintosh tax program and data file on a ThunderBolt or USB backup drive as an additional safeguard.

Once you've finalized tax prep on your Mac laptop or desktop, you'll likely want a permanent copy of the return. Have a lot of paper on-hand in any Mac compatible laser printer and let it print a complete set of your returns.  You can also save your tax data as a .PDF to print anytime as needed.

 

Mac SSD Swap - A High Performance Drive Upgrade

A Macintosh iMac or Mac mini or MacBook laptop SSD is arguably the single best high-performance speed enhancing system upgrades one is likely to experience. Solid-state flash memory drives dramatically speed up your Mac laptop or desktop performance for nearly every task one does from the moment you power up. If your original hard disk is dying - or your Mac didn't ship with an SSD as standard equipment, you may not know what you're missing.

Nearly any older model of Mac desktop or laptop computer systems can be upgraded from a mechanical, spinning platter drive to a high performance solid-state flash drive such as those featured at www.mac-ssd-drives.com. Off-the-shelf 2.5" laptop SSD drives are readily available from companies such as OCZ, Crucial, Samsung, SanDisk and more.

Do note that newer and more recent MacBooks and next generation Macintosh desktops however are moving away from standard laptop and desktop disk drive sizes and towards smaller, custom SSD modules to save on space and miniaturize more components of modern computers. OWC is one of the few companies that make larger, replacement SSD's for Apple computers like the MacBook Air and latest generation Retina Display MacBook Pros.

Undoubtedly this year has definitely been awesome for Mac compatible SSD drive replacement prices. The average cost per gigabyte of solid-state disk drives significantly dropped. Additionally, SSD data read and write performance has underwent incredible leaps thanks to vastly improved flash memory and controller chips. Solid-State drive prices are now well under $1 per Gigabyte making even external USB 3.0 and ThunderBolt SSD backup drives quite affordable - and fast!

Particularly notable, improvements in SSD data Write speeds. Writes once really under-performed SSD data Read speeds. In the newest generations of SATA III SSD drives, both Read and Write speeds exceeding 500Mbps are now common in 256GB and larger drives. These kind of data transfer rates can utterly transform your Apple computing experience and breathe new life into an aging Macintosh.

Portable Print and Scan Solutions for MacBook Users

For certain corporate users in certain where documents just MUST be scanned or printed on business trips, there are solutions ideal for both OSX mobile printing and scanning needs. For some business users in particular, where documents just have to be scanned or printed on the go, there are solutions for both OSX mobile printing and scanning tasks.

Computer device makers like Hewlett Packard and Canon dominate the market for mobile laptop printers for Apple and PC OS. Both weighing less than five pounds they are acceptable to tote around with one's Apple MacBook Pro or an ultra light MacBook Air laptop computer.

With a growing number of of Apple computer system users now purchasing Mac laptops the demand for MacBookBook travel printer solutions is increasing by leaps and bounds. A progressing trend of technology is shrinking form-factors. It's leading to ever more compact and lighter weight computer system peripherals like mobile scanners and printers.

It is not difficult to find a fair number of USB interface-powered travel scanner for MacBook that address the requirement for invoice and receipt scanning and document management on the roadway. When made use of with OCR programs like Abbyy FineReader text reading software for Mac OSX, rapid scanning and conversion to PDF and editable text formats is possible. Those could be conserved to disk, sent by means of email or printed to your Apple Mac laptop printer when needed.

For the best of BOTH worlds: Hewlett-Packard recently shipped a light weight and portable Apple compatible laptop computer scanner and printer. This All-In-One combination truly delivers the most effective portable scan and print device for mobile users to date. This new portable printer meets the growing consumer wishes of an ever-more mobile generation of Apple MacBook users keen on travel computing.

USB 3.0 And The SuperSpeed Mac Peripheral Market

In addition to USB 3.0 cables, cards, and USB hubs, the external USB 3.0 external drive market for mobile and desktop computer data backup drives is highest in demand.  All storage manufacturers have completed the shift to USB 3.0 interfaces as standard on their HDD and SSD drive products. As such, a large variety of SuperSpeed data backup solutions are readily available, and that includes USB 3.0 memory card readers and remarkably fast USB 3 keychain drives as well.

Undoubtedly the debut of USB 3 interfaces on Apple Mac laptops and desktops was a crucial evolution to the future of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 peripherals for Mac. Delivering up to 10 times available speed bandwidth over aging USB 2.0, USB 3.0 promises to provide improved performance for a large variety of Apple computer peripherals and Mac add-ons. It's backward compatibility with traditional USB 2.0 and 1.1 accessories has helped make it an effortless transition to the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard. It happily coexists alongside Apple ThunderBolt ports, while offering lower-priced peripherals that don't need, or can't take advantage of ThunderBolt's dual-channel 10Gpbs bandwidth

Apple is now incorporating USB 3.0 ports on its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as well as the Mac mini and iMac desktop computers recently updated to integrate USB 3.0 speed ports. Apple has also indicated that in the coming year the cylindrical Macintosh Pro desktop tower will finally receive a significant revision that will incorporate both USB 3 and ThunderBolt II port improvements.

A truly broad selection of various other kinds of USB 3.0 personal computer accessories other than hard drives, USB 3 SSD's and keychain flash drives have yet to reach the marketplace. Nevertheless, we can look forward to an ever incresing array of products such as USB 3.0 printers and scanning devices, USB 3.0 HDTV tuners, web cameras, and SuperSpeed music and video recording equipment to reach the market in the months ahead which will be good for both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows users as USB 3.0 adoption rolls out throughout the computer technology sphere.

Apple Compatible Drawing Pads and Tablet Devices

Whether it's for Professional graphic design needs, architecture and CAD users, 3-D wireframe modeling and rendering, or for Cartooning and Illustration, there's a drawing tablet to fit your needs. A wide array of precision graphic tablets for Mac OS can feature as many as 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity, programmable buttons and USB or Bluetooth wireless drawing tablet freedom.

Depending on whether you are a Pro Graphics Design Geek or Casual Sketcher - Apple computer users with a need for alternative computer input devices for Apple seek out the expression, efficiency and creativity which a Mac OSX compatible graphics pad can provide.

For doodlers and sketchers, buffs of Anime style graphics, those who love cartooning, or casual painting and drawing creation on an Apple Macintosh, more affordable quality graphics surfaces for Macintosh OS X offer more compact drawing areas at economical prices while still delivering 512 or more levels of pressure sensitivity for the freedom of experiencing tablet drawing on a budget.

Most computer graphics pads are automatically detected when plugged in to a Macintosh's USB port. They'll be recognized as a generic pointing gadget for cursor management. Ideally you want and need to install the graphic pad drivers from the manufacturer for Mac OS to truly gain full control of the supplemental buttons andcustomized functions such as Right and Left click, Option or Control click support.

Graphic pads and drawing tablets for Macintosh OSX Mavericks, Lion and Leopard such as those presented at www.drawingtabletsformac.com usually also ship with Windows driver discs and software programs for cross-platform computer users. Some may be bundled with low-end, consumer versions of pressure sensitive drawing programs. These can oftenbe updated to full versions if you choose. These tablets will function upon connection with many of the existing illustration, drawing and photo editing apps you may already own.

USB 3.0 For Mac Backups - The Wait Is Over

No matter if you use a Mac or PC personal computer, performing a backup of personal computer data in a half of the time is achievable with USB 3.0 drives. Termed 'SuperSpeed', the brand new USB3 Universal Serial Bus standard is finally becoming established and delivering up to 5Gigabits per second data transfer rates. This new super-fast connection is potentially ten times speedier than our current USB 2.0 capabilities.

With the release of new laptop and desktop computers deploying Intel's Ivy-Bridge silicon chipset, USB 3.0 support is being built into new motherboards using this reference design. Most of the big computer makers are all deploying and beginning to ship USB3 systems on both the Macintosh and Windows PC platforms. The same updates are occurring for computer accessory makers as well.

Ordinary mechanical platter hard disk drive technology is capable of data backup rates somewhat quicker than they're allowed to on a USB 2.0 interface. As such USB 3.0 will make conventional external disk drive mechanisms perform much faster for backup tasks. And thanks to backwards compatibility for older USB devices, these SuperSpeed storage drives will still be usable on aging computers lacking a USB 3.0 port.

Perhaps the real speed benefit of USB3 storage and it's bandwidth is most obvious when used with USB 3.0 SSD disk drives now appearing on the market. Liberated from physical latency and sluggish access times, these solid-state flash memory disks can redefine how fast and effortless computer backups can be. Regardless if in a handheld 2.5 notebook drive form-factor - or a conventional 'thumb-drive' - these USB 3.0 Solid-State external drives will make backing up tons of information a time-saving godsend.

The Mac Computer Universe - Unstoppable!

Whew! Some days I am just overwhelmed keeping up with the Macintosh scene. And I'm not even talking about the whole handheld Apple gadget realm which really isn't my technology forte' anyways. I try to stay focused on Mac gizmos and drown in that delicious soup of never ending changes.

Lately ThunderBolt peripherals loom large on the horizon. Especially as the new iMac now joins the MacBook Pro as ThunderBolt enabled. Still no shipping TBolt accessories or backup drives - so I have a bit of breathing room.

 

 

After the thunder-bolt truly hits - next will come SuperSpeed USB 3.0 for Mac  - which ultimately I think will become far more popular, affordable and delightfully backward compatible with everybody's legacy USB peripherals anyways.

Both, technologies ahead of the unstoppable steam-roller that is Apple computer. My life is staying two steps ahead of it, any way I can. I'm exhausted, but hey - I'm unstoppable too!