Let’s face it, you love your Mac and “feeding” it with upgrades, accessories, updates, and tweaks to keep it running at optimum performance levels is one of your passions. And, as you can imagine, that’s pretty much Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) around these parts. But by maxing your Mac, you might be neglecting to take care of yourself. Our wonderful customer Robert M. from New Hyde Park, NY, shared a great recipe from his mom that can nourish you faster than perhaps how your Mac runs after one of our upgrades. And if you’re a guy, ya’ just gotta love the idea and the ingredient measurements!

Scrambled Eggs in a Mug

Ingredients:

• 1 qty “two serving cup” of Egg Beaters (or the Stop and Shop version)
• 1 or more handfuls of shredded cheese
• 1 teaspoon or so of bacon bits
• 1 cooking spray, preferably butter flavored (optional)

Preparation:

1. Spray interior of a 16 oz coffee mug with the cooking spray. (Robert prefers 16 oz Dixie PerfecTouch travel cups)
2. Shake and pour “two serving cup” of Egg Beaters into mug.
3. Drop shredded cheese to taste into mug.
4. Drop bacon bits into mug. A teaspoon or just a bit more is enough otherwise it tastes a tad salty.
5. Mix all ingredients together.

Cooking:

1. Place in microwave for about a minute.
2. Stir and then place back in microwave and cook until done which is defined as when the eggs are no longer runny.

Like all good informational sources, Robert recommends “keeping an eye on the eggs as you nuke them because they’ll fluff and possibly overflow the mug during the ‘nuking process!” He assures us that they will settle after cooking though.

Hats off to you Robert for keeping the Mac faithful fueled. About the only thing better than Robert’s recipe is an idea from a movie I still want to go into business on someday…

Creating a new homepage look can either be met with cheers or yawns depending on how personally invested you are in the site. We get pretty excited here about many products and often can’t help ourselves from “getting our geek on” and wanting to tell you about all the cool stuff we carry…whether it be our own OWC branded products, the products from NewerTech for which we are an exclusive distributor, or a great deal on one of the many other leading brand names in our over 2,500 item on-line catalog.

Realizing that might be a bit much and overwhelm you like a kid in a candy store, we redesigned macsales.com homepage to have a kinder, gentler look. Adding to this fresh approach is a caricature of OWC Larry himself calling your attention to products he gives a hearty thumbs up to.

So we hope this redesign (and our ongoing efforts to come) is met with cheers from you and improves your site experience with us. As always, keep your feedback coming and thank you for your trust in us as your source for your Mac, PC, iPod, and iPhone technology needs.

During the course of a normal day here, I see/hear/read a lot of customer correspondence. The majority of it is very complimentary which is very gratifying and really pumps up the team morale here. Sometimes one comes by though that is a bit unique in nature/subject and I dive into those with much curiosity. Such was the case yesterday when I saw an exchange between a customer and none other than OWC Larry…the CEO here for you newbies. Now before you say, “well sure, probably a long time customer who has spent gazillions with OWC!”, what sealed the deal for me was that this customer was two years new to us.

It turns out Scott A. from Saint Paul, MN, was looking for a bigger Cinema Display for a legacy MacBook Pro. He had stopped by an Apple store and was told to contact us. While we didn’t have anything that Scott could purchase, OWC Larry researched it enough to refer Scott directly to another source as his best option and provided a link to the exact listings.

And while Scott summed up his appreciation for this action as:

“You guys are a great source of expert, practical,  helpful information about Mac products…you must be if the Genius Bar at the Apple Store recommends you.”

the entire interaction got me thinking that truly is one of the OWC Differences…we aren’t about selling products as really anyone can create a storefront and do that. We do, from every corner in our LEED Platinum designed building, truly exist to serve you. Is that a “Genius” approach to running a successful business? I dare say it’s surely better, and more soul fulfilling, than putting the bottom line on a pedestal. And I think the man in the poster looking over my shoulder in my office would agree.

Often these lists are pretty boring or cover a very narrow niche of sites. So, when I came across this “50 Kick @$$ Websites You Need To Know About” created by MaximumPC, I was pretty dubious I would find anything too captivating.

Wrong.

Being frugal and a deal hunter, the entry about Craiglook.com caught be by surprise. The lead in “Craiglist Gets Unstuck from 1995″ and a visual of what the results look like will now have me using that portal for all my buying and selling needs. For me, Craigslist is a blast…I’ve bought and sold such a variety of items that it truly is a one stop marketplace. So anything that improves that experience is a Top Site in my book.

As I only had a brief moment to check out the entire list, the other selection that caught my eye was What The Font. Now while the MaximumPC lead in was “Because Not Everyone Uses Helvetica”, any site that has something to do with fonts always catches my eye. The reason for that is because I have deemed OWC Chris here a “fontaholic” for his hobby/interest/whatever in collecting fonts. To me, that’s a pretty cerebral pursuit and really an appreciation of visual nuances that many of us just overlook on the superhighway of daily tasks.

So if those two sites are new to you or you’re interested in what you might find equally captivating, check out the list. And if all of this hasn’t been too thrilling then I suppose this might suffice for some real geek interest.

About a year ago, OWC CEO Larry O’Connor revisited a recurring topic in his Tips n’ Deals Newsletter and OWC Chris covered that in a post on how the Rules of Upgrading rarely change.

Both of them explored five different ways you can upgrade your Mac to extend its useful life. Since some time has transpired, some new machines were released by Apple, and Snow Leopard has now become a reality, it’s time we take a fresh look at some “old” rules of upgrading:

#1 – Upgrade Your Memory
I think we’ve lost count of how many times we’ve talked about how upgrading your memory gives you the best performance boost for the investment. Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 is a 64-bit (along with its applications) which allows each application to address more than 4GB of RAM at a time. OSX’s memory management now is a lot more flexible in keeping its cached instructions, lessening the need for a hard drive hit.

The bottom line is simple: Your OS and Applications can certainly run on the minimum memory, but having more memory installed makes for a whole lot more enjoyable and productive experience, all for a low investment. With upgrades ranging from $44.97 for a 2GB module for a MacBook, through 16GB of RAM for an iMac, up to a full 32GB of memory priced at $27.25 per GB to max out your Mac Pro, a memory upgrade is dollar-for-dollar the best investment you can make for your Mac.

You can find memory (and other upgrades) for nearly every Mac produced over the past two decades with our easy online upgrade guide. In addition to the instructions you’ll find in just about any Apple computer manual, we’ve got easy-to-follow free installation videos that further illustrate how easy it is for you to get that memory into your Mac. And if you need further help, it is just a click a way in our online tech center.

#2 – Upgrade Your Storage.
The big news for 2009 was the rapid pace of developments in storage capacity, speed, and overall performance. Now we’re talking up to 2.0TB for 3.5″ drives, up to 1.0TB for 2.5″ drives, and SSDs have truly emerged as a legitimate consideration. Since we promised SSD benchmarks in our last coverage of this upgrade, we’re going to focus on them here. I did a comparison of how SSDs measured up to hard drives and SSDs were the speed, reliability, and quiet running champs. Just how much faster are SSDs? Check it out: more…

It’s a fact the files we work with on a day-to-day basis are getting larger. As digital cameras grow more advanced, so do the sizes of the pictures they take. Music is now available in near-pristine, lossless formats and movies are now are in high-definition video with multichannel soundtracks. Then, there are the various applications themselves, many of which can take up multiple gigabytes. All this data takes up space and before you know it, your hard drive is maxed out.

When you find yourself in this predicament , you have three options: clean out some accumulated files, get an external storage solution to move files to and provide more storage capacity, or use our free instructional videos to put a higher capacity drive into your machine.

Cleaning out older files isn’t really a viable option. Eventually, your drive will continue to fill and you’re back to square one.

Transferring older and/or duplicate files to an external drive is often the easiest route to take and we make that option simple with Plug and Play solutions for Macs and PCs. Unfortunately, if you’re highly mobile and using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, carrying around that extra drive and the connection cables (even with a bus-powered pocket-sized drive like the Mercury On-The-Go Pro) adds a few more things to pack and keep your eyes on.

Which brings us to upgrading your Mac’s internal drive. While the thought of “opening the hood” on your machine sounds daunting, it’s actually very straightforward with our instructional videos that walk you through the process.

After upgrading your internal drive, transferring your data over from your “old” drive to a new, faster, larger one is just as easy when using Migration Assistant in conjunction with a fresh install of OS X. To show you how to get it done, OWC Chris has created step-by-step instructions in our Tips & Reviews archives.

And when you’ve got everything up and running with all the data you had from the previous drive, we even make it easy to retask that “old” drive, by either putting it into an external enclosure or using it with one of our Voyager hard drive docks. If you choose the enclosure route, we may even have an installation video to show you how to do that too!

It doesn’t get any easier than OWC for the tips, tools, and products you need to get more from your technology investment.

If you remember the old Kojack TV show…the phrase “who loves ya” baby came to mind thinking about some features on and upgrades for the new iMacs released today.

A feature long requested for iMacs – the ability to use your desktop computer as a secondary display for your laptop – is finally a reality!

From the iMac Features section on the Apple website:

Mini DisplayPort.
The Mini DisplayPort lets you connect an external display, including the Apple LED Cinema Display, to your iMac. On the 27-inch iMac, the same port offers input, too. So you can connect any external source that has DisplayPort output — including a MacBook or MacBook Pro — and use your iMac as a display.

This means if you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro for mobile computing, you don’t need to invest in/provide the room for a secondary display…just connect to your iMac when you get back to the desktop.

Now that you know what really got our motors revving here on these new “smoking machines” as OWC Jamie called them, I can tell you how to really make them scream with these OWC upgrades.

MEMORY

According to Apple’s Tech Specs page, all the new iMac models come with 4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM and can support up to 16GB via four memory slots.

If you want to bump that to 8GB (4 x 2GB) via Apple, that will set you back $200.00. The OWC 4GB Upgrade Kit (2 x 2GB) can be added to the factory stock 4GB for a total of 8GB…but at a substantial lower cost of $87.99.

We’ve got more options too…the OWC 8GB Upgrade Kit (2 x 4GB) adds 8GB to the factory stock 4GB for 12GB total memory for $475.99.

That same 8GB (2 x 4GB) upgrade for the 27 inch models from the factory is $600…

While the factory doesn’t offer the ultimate memory configuration of 16GB for the 21 inch iMac models, we do (who loves ‘ya baby?) and at savings over what’s offered for the 27 inch models. You can put two of the OWC 8GB Upgrade Kits into any of the iMacs for 16GB total at a cost of $952 versus $1,400 for the same 16GB offered by the factory for the 27 inch models only.

And like all our memory upgrades, we give you up to $45 cash back for your iMac’s factory memory modules!

STORAGE

The base 21.5 inch model comes with a 500GB hard drive while the other 21.5 and both 27 inch models come with a 1TB hard drive. The only option offered by the factory is a 2TB for $250.00. Taking a quick look at our current iMac upgrade page, one can find a 1.5TB drive for $129.99 and a 2TB for $239.99.

With all the options and savings we offer for the new iMacs, I’m thinking we should do a commercial with as equally a memorable ending as these Chicago area favorites.

While I share OWC Larry’s disappointment in the mini not getting a built in memory expansion boost, there still is a silver lining here. I’ll be taking a closer look at the new Mac models and showing you where you can upgrade and/or get more for your technology budget with comparable high performance upgrades/accessories from OWC.

I’ll start off with the $599.00 2.26GHz mini because I’m a value hound. It comes stock with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive. OWC offers the following money saving upgrades to get the max from your mini:

4GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit (2 x 2GB) is $87.99 versus Apple at $100.00.

You can store more for less too! A 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive starts at $65.99 versus Apple at $100 while a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive starts at $92.99 versus Apple at $200. Man, other than the faster processor, you could match the memory and HD specs of the $799.00 2.53GHz model and save $46.02.

One more thing caught my eye on the Configure your Mac mini page…the Mini DisplayPort Adapters. And once again, OWC has the options you need.

Our Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter is priced at $19.99 versus Apple’s at $29.99 while our MiniDisplay Port to VGA Adapter is $24.99 versus Apple at $29.00.

And if you’re digging the new dual 500GB hard drive Mac mini Server model, but are looking for more options to the factory external storage and SuperDrive offerings, we got ‘em!

While the External MacBook Air SuperDrive is USB bus powered, it is $99 and burns rather slowly: up to 8X DVD, 4X DVD Dual Layer, and 24X CD-R.

It’s almost not fair to compare that to the  OWC “Value Line” USB2.0/1.1 SuperDrive with up to 22X DVD, 12X DVD Dual Layer, and 40X CD-R burn speeds at just $64.99

And last but not least…that SmartStor 4 x 1TB FW800/FW400/USB external storage solution for $799 doesn’t seem like quite the smart buy when you could have the 4TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 for $699 and get a “Quad Interface” of FW800/FW400/USB and eSATA!

So there you have it…a pretty thorough examination of how you can max your mini with OWC. Revisit the blog to see my takes on the iMac and white MacBook models and how you can get the most from them too.

We often think of OWC as a giant resource…a collective of individual skills, knowledge, talents, and passion…that all come together to offer assistance to Mac users around the world. Whether it be our free lifetime US-based technical support, Live Chat even on the weekends, our free Installation Videos, and more, we’re pleased to help you get the most from your Mac and your technology budget.

We’re pleased to lend a helping hand because we’ve been there as customers too…looking for help and not getting it in a timely or courteous manner. And like all good deeds – or even Karma – what goes around comes around.

Case in point…check out how creating a world of help gets started:

I had problems with my Lexmark X4850 All in One printer/scanner after installing 10.6 and had to wait for Lexmark to issue a new driver. After that, with some fiddling around, I got to print wireless, least before that, only on the wire.

That was not it however!

The first time I tried to scan (and never could do this wireless for some reason, even though Lexmark said I should be able to) I was unable to and the program crashed. I tried and tried, and finally found out I had to use a “workaround” using the TWAIN method.   This is how:

Lexmark drivers bundled with Mac OS X 10.6 do not come with the usual All-in-One Center application that allows the user to scan using TWAIN backend. To scan using the bundled drivers, users can utilize the Image Capture application bundled with Mac OS X 10.6. Users may access this application by going to the Application folder and launching Image Capture or by going to System Preferences the Print & Fax, selecting the Print Queue and opening it and clicking on the Scanner button on the upper right corner. TWAIN scanning support will be provided in future releases of 10.6.

It works, but you have to remember it after using the usual method for a long time. I tell you this in case others have the same problem and ask you.  You helped me often, now it is my turn.

Regards,

Rick S., Winter Park, Florida
OWC customer for about 5-8 years, Mac user for about 18 years

Equally cool to his tip was some additional insight from Rick on how deep the OWC commitment to serving goes. It seems OWC Larry was personally helping Rick upgrade a MiniTower G3 years ago and must have given Rick his home phone number. Larry’s wife answered the phone, informed Rick that Larry wasn’t home, and then proceed to help Rick to the point of being complimented as being “quite knowledgeable too”.

We encourage you to turn things around too and send us your helpful tips so that we can share them!

While NASA’s LCROSS mission perhaps fizzled to the naked eye, I did catch some highlights in OWC Larry’s recent Hot Deals Blast that might lift your spirits. And if you aren’t a subscriber to the Blast, you can do so for free by visiting the OWC Resource Center. “What’s a Hot Deals Blast?” you might be asking…well the official description from our site is:

Some deals are of such limited quantity or just simply too hot to wait for our next Tips n’ Deals emailing. The OWC Hot Deals Blast goes out 5-7 times a month and subscribers are sure to have the first shot at new specials we put online. This is the list to be on to make sure you’ve got the first shot at new deals, clearance specials, etc!

That said, two product mentions jumped out at me as being very useful. The first is how you can maintain your Mac like a Genius and perform Recovery like a Pro.

Prosoft Drive Genius should be a standard part of every Mac user’s software library. For $59.99 (vs. $99 retail) or as low as $25 with a qualifying storage solution, it’s a great deal + an application that can pay for itself. This is the same utility that the Apple Store Genuis Bar uses for the ‘Yearly Tune Up’ service that is part of the ProCare service they offer. Instead of paying them to do it, you can keep your Mac running great and right from the comfort of your own home. Already fully updated for Apple OS 10.6 ‘Snow Leopard’ – this utility suite includes:

Drive Slim – locates duplicate, identical files and allows these space wasting dupes to be deleted and can put aliases in their place so no problem finding the single file that remains.

DeFrag – Over time, as you write new files, update existing files, delete files – files and file groupings on your hard drive become fragmented. As a result of fragmentation, your hard drive has to move the read/write heads to multiple locations when reading and/or writing and that slows things down. By optimizing your drive with the Defrag utility, best data access performance is then restored.

Repair – fixes minor corruption/file system issues; Shred – DoD compliant erasure of data from unused portion of drive/after file deletion, etc.; Clone – make a bootable clone of your entire drive on another, for backup or when upgrading to a new drive; Integrity check – make sure all systems are ‘go/green’ – identify those that are not; And more!

Prosoft Data Rescue is the utility that can save you big time should a major problem occur. Also available for $59 (vs. $99 retail), this utility is tops for recovering data. From accidental file deletions to catastrophic drive directory corruption and even with a drive that is failing -this is the utility up to the task of bringing back your critical files. Somethings even a backup isn’t going help you with – and before paying the high price for someone else to recover your priceless data, more often than not – as long as the drive is still seen (even if it won’t mount), Data Rescue will save the day.

Keep your Mac tip-top + be prepared – Both Drive Genius + Data Rescue together for $109.99 (vs. $198 Retail)

The second item that caught my eye was how you can power your mobile Mac with genuine Apple MagSafe Power Adapters. We’ve got ‘em used or refurbished, fully tested, and backed by a 90 day OWC Warranty starting at $42.75 in the following models:

Apple Genuine 85 Watt Magsafe AC Power Adapter for all Apple MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ Models

Apple Genuine 60 Watt Magsafe AC Power Adapter for all Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro 13″ Models

Apple Genuine 45 Watt Magsafe AC Power Adapter for all Apple MacBook Air Models

If you can use a spare adapter, or need a replacement for one gone bad – this saves you over $30 vs. the cost of a new adapter. NOTE: it is important to purchase the adapter model that is correct for the laptop model you have/plan to use it with. Using a lower wattage adapter than correct for your machine will impact charging time while a higher wattage than specified can reduce the lifetime of the battery.

One thing to remember on all of the above prices…those are the everyday prices. There are additional savings to be had if you are a Hot Deals Blast subscriber…so join today!

In case you were too caught up in our Facebook images covering our wind turbine arrival, you might have missed the plethora of media attention that our newest OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro^™ model received yesterday. What’s the big news? How does the first FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered 2.5” portable drive offering 1TB of storage capacity on the market grab ya?

The high-performance, pocket-sized portable storage solution for Mac or PC users features FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and/or USB 2.0 connectivity for data transfer speeds up to 100MB/s with its 1TB of storage capacity, now offers 100% more data storage capacity than the highest capacity offered in the Mercury On-The-Go Pro line at the start of September.

It’s small enough to fit into your shirt pocket yet can hold up to 1,000,000 JPEG photos, 500 DVD movies, 76 hours of digital video, or 350,000 MP3 songs in its stylish, impact resistant (teaser alert…VERY cool video coming on this soon…) acrylic case. Because it’s bus-powered, it can be used without an AC adapter which makes it perfect for road warriors, students on the go, and even the outdoors types that want to watch that latest blockbuster movie while communing with nature.

With a variety of FireWire and USB 2.0 interface models to choose from, the Plug and Play ready Mercury On-The-Go Pro can be used with Macs and PCs for data backups, transporting large files between computers, additional storage capacity, and even demanding uses like A/V editing and live music recording. The drive can also be used with storage capable digital cameras and camcorders with FireWire and/or USB data ports for fast, on-location backups of images and video.

OWC Larry was like a proud new papa when we realized that the OTG was going to be the first FireWire/USB 2.5″ 1TB external drive announced. “This was quite a month of innovations. The first week of September came the first 750GB FireWire/USB bus powered portable on the market. Mid-month we debuted solid state drive based models that are the most affordable SSD based portables on the market. Then to finish off the month with the new 1TB On-The-Go models really goes to show we put a big emphasis on even the smallest of our drives.”

The new Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB line is available in three interface models:

• “Triple Interface” with FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 connectivity, $359.99
  

• “Combo Interface” with FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connectivity, $329.99
  

• USB 2.0 only connectivity, $299.99

All three models are available for pre-ordering with an expected shipping date of October 19. They are compatible with Apple OS 8.6 to 9.2.2, Apple OS X (all versions) including the latest 10.6 “Snow Leopard”; and Windows 98SE or later operating systems and come ready for Plug and Play ease of use with all supported interface connecting cables, carrying case, $200 retail value disk utility software bundle, and an industry leading three year complete solution warranty which also features 48 hour warranty service.

Do remember those old but memorable Doublemint chewing gum ads on TV?  The ads had a jingle with the famous phrase “Double your pleasure…Double your fun…” which lends itself perfectly to today’s examination of the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay RAID Solutions.

Two drives for doubling your performance storage capacity up to 4TB and two interface models to double your purchase options!

Today’s spotlight rests on the “Quad Interface” model. Its custom Oxford 936DS chipset provides interface flexibility along with sustained data rates of well beyond 200MB/s. That kind of performance makes the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay an excellent choice for a wide range of data storage needs like backup (Time Machine ready), graphics, music, and even live High-Definition Video capture! Speaking of video capabilities, these professional grade solutions are fully A/V Certified, EMC Retrospect Backup Certified, and Pro Tools Compatible.

With two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one USB port, and one eSATA port (hence the “Quad” moniker) and all interface connection cables included, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Raid Solutions are ready for Plug & Play use with Macs and PCs available today as well as in the future.

Performance can also mean knowing exactly what you’re getting and what the expected performance should be. Unlike the competition, OWC provides detailed information of the exact hard disk drive models you’ll find inside our solutions (no mystery meat here) as well as performance throughput test data to see just what you can expect from these fastest in class solutions.

And if their sleek, compact aircraft grade Aluminum housings aren’t more captivating than those TV twins, check out the attractive price drops we’ve given the Quad models:

640GB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer – $199.99
1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer was $219.99, now $217.99
1.5TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $279.99, now $274.99
2.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer – $294.99
2.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $307.99, now $299.99
2.0TB Enterprise 7200RPM 64MB Data Buf – $399.99
3.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $407.99, now $379.99
4.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $619.99, now $549.99

See the full line up:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/PerformanceRAID/

As is standard with all OWC storage solutions, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Solutions include a $200 retail value disk utility bundle consisting of Prosoft DataBackup III, NovaStor NovaBackup, Intech HD Speedtools, and Carbon Copy Cloner. And, if you want to add to your utility library, you can save up to 74% off the retail price of Prosoft Drive Genius with the purchase of qualifying OWC storage products. Plus, don’t forget about the industry leading three year warranty and 48 Hour Warranty Service.

Want to DIY? Get one of our OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID SATA HD Enclosure Kits with user configurable RAID modes now starting from $107.99

There are so many great things going for the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Solutions that it almost makes me want to sing about it. But that might pit me against a much better Chicago area commercial legend.

We talk so much about speed, performance, and OWC in this blog that I just had to give some love to one of the exclusive brands we carry….Newer Technology, Inc. Also referred to as NewerTech, this long time Mac industry manufacturer (trivia buffs: who introduced the first memory upgrades for the Mac?)  is known today for unique consumer friendly/average user solutions that focus on product design and functionality. Case in point is today’s introduction of the NewerTech FireWire 800-400 Adapter.

What this handy little accessory solves is the quandary many of you face after buying one of the newest Mac Pro, MacBook Pro 17″, Mac mini, or iMac models….“great, with FireWire 800 only support, how do I use my existing FireWire 400 devices?” Additionally, this adapter eliminates the hassle of determining which cable type and length to buy.

With this adapter, you can now Plug and Play connect your scanner, printer, memory card reader, external drive, digital camera, iPod and other FireWire 400 devices to the latest Macs quickly and economically. Just plug the adapter into your computer’s FireWire 800 port via the 9-pin male FireWire 800 connector end. Then, just connect any standard 6-pin male FireWire 400 cable to the 6-pin female FireWire 400 connector end.

Now if all that pin and numbering stuff sounds too techie, remember how I mentioned above that NewerTech really takes into consideration the average user experience? Well, there’s even Flash based sequence on the product page that shows just how easy this adapter is to use!

Creating (and showing how to use) an accessory that maximizes your past and present technology investment? Man, nothing “average” about that and in my book, a pretty high performance commitment to thoroughness…and to NewerTech’s slogan of “Newer Is Better Than New”.

It’s been quite a past two weeks around these parts for one of the stars in the OWC storage solution product line up…the Mercury On The Go Pro bus powered portable storage solution. Last Thursday, just before the long holiday weekend, we announced the first 750GB FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered portable storage solution on the market.

Then yesterday, we boldly launched our first Solid State Drive (SSD) based Mercury OTG (we’re big fans of acronyms…in case you ever wondered why we call ourselves by OWC too…) models as the lowest priced SSD equipped FireWire/USB bus powered portable drives on the market.

All that innovation got me thinking that perhaps this created quite a dilemma for some of you on which solution to actual buy. To SSD or HDD? Well, the answer to that question comes down to a few intangibles of personal needs, budget, and if you suffer from continuous “gotta have the latestitis“.

Capacity

This isn’t even a contest…kinda like matching a Porsche versus a Beetle. Both share bloodlines back to a common parent company, but there’s some serious horsepower under the hood of one. Same thing here…The HDD equipped Mercury On The Go Pro ranges from 80GB to an industry highest 750GB. The new SSD based Mercury OTGs range from 64GB to 256GB. To put that in perspective, you can store up to approximately 262,500 songs on the 750GB HDD model while up to only 89,600 songs will fit on the biggest SSD model. Winner: HDD

Price

Again, a bit of a mismatch when comparing the latest technology to one that’s been on the market for 53 years. Of course, market forces and innovations would have brought the “old school” HDD down in price by now. For a similar capacity comparison, the Mercury OTG “Triple Interface” 250GB HDD model runs $119.99 for the 5400RPM model and $139.99 for the 7200RPM model. The Triple Interface 256GB SSD Mercury OTG will set you back $729.99. Breaking that down to cost per gigabyte, 256GB runs you $2.85 a gig while the max for the HDD 250GB models is a paltry $0.539 per gig. Winner: HDD

At this point you might be wondering why you’d even consider an SSD model. Here’s where they really shine:

Performance

The SSD based Mercury On The Go Pros are simply the fastest FireWire/USB bus powered portable drives you can fit into your shirt pocket. They deliver up to 2.5X faster boot time and up to 120X faster seek time over conventional drives for near instantaneous data access. While a full suite of performance benchmark charts are coming soon, I can clearly call the Winner here as SSD.

Reliability

You do know that SSDs have no moving parts, right? That feat alone delivers all sorts of great benefits: completely silent 0dB sound measurements by our audio staff expert; up to 4.5X higher shock resistance (we’ll be showing this soon in an informative, yet entertaining video); and up to 28% greater temperature operating range than conventional drives. All that adds up to offering you unmatched reliability in the most severe of operating environments. If you work from a “mobile office”, need a drive for live music recording, or just live life in the fast lane, the SSD based Mercury OTG models are ready to take the abuse. And they’re built to last too – with up to 3X longer use hours than conventional drives. Winner (by a landslide): SSD

So, two rounds to SSD and two rounds to HDD. Is there any clear winner? Sure…YOU. As corny as that might sound, you now have the luxury of choosing the best of attributes in an award-winning product to meet your particular needs and preferences.

Fewer things get us as excited around here at OWC HQ than introducing a first to market product. Equally exciting is when this introduction continues a tradition of excellence.

Case in point is our announcement today of the new OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 750GB model as the first 750GB FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered portable storage solution on the market.

With 750GB of storage capacity, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro now offers 50% more data storage capacity than existing models in the line and can hold up to 750,000 JPEG photos, 375 DVD movies, 57 hours of digital video, or 262,500 MP3 songs.

Don’t let the big capacity fool you…with its diminutive 3.5″ x 5.5″ x 1″ footprint, the OTG (as we lovingly call it here) is small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. And I can vouch for that as I was once pressed into duty as a model to illustrate this portable’s svelteness.

So, the  Mercury On-The-Go Pro has “big and littles” …like a true hot rod for your high performance data storage/backup travels. Speaking of hitting the road, the OTG  is ideal for for presentations, multimedia, law enforcement, surveyors, and other “mobile office” uses as it is bus powered which means no AC power adapter is needed.

But that’s only part of the story here…it’s the proven, eight year performance history of this line that shares equal billing with this new model. With FireWire 800 ports capable of delivering data transfer rates up to 100MB/s, that’s the kind of performance you can count on for real-time A/V editing, as well as making quick, convenient backups of images and video with storage capable digital cameras and camcorders that have FireWire and/or USB  ports.

And you know you’re on to something good when the leading Mac industry media source brings challenger after challenger to see if they can dethrone the reigning portable storage performance champ.

When you feel the need for speed and want the largest capacity FireWire portable drive on the market, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro is truly Top Gun.

Seems like lately I’m playing a fun game of “he said” with OWC Chris S. In this installment, I once again have to commend Chris for his well phrased examination on all the features and benefits offered by the Mercury Elite-AL Pro “Triple Interface” single bay storage solution.

However, that was back in late July and the “now” news is about lower prices on the “Dual Interface” version of this professional grade storage solution. Featuring FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces and capacity from 80GB to 2.0TB starting at just $74.99, you just can’t find a better combination of value, performance, and award winning “buy with confidence” reputation in Mac or PC desktop storage.

Here’s a quick “tale of the tape”:

• Oxford 934SSA based performance bridge solution

• Two 1394A pin 6 pin FireWire 400 ports, One USB 2.0 port

• FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connecting cables included

• Up to 32MB drive cache

• Fully bootable and ideal for applications, A/V, photos, music, etc.

• Certified for Audio/Video and Time Machine

• Compact, shock resistant Aluminum design

• $200 retail value utility bundle: Prosoft DataBackup III (OS X), NovaStor NovaBackup (Windows), Carbon Copy Cloner (OS X), and Intech Speedtools (8.6-10.5.x)

• Fully Mac & PC compatible

• Industry leading 3 year Solution Warranty

So, now that I’ve got your attention, let’s get to the main course…bring on the models!

80GB 7200RPM with 8MB Data Buffer $74.99
160GB 7200RPM with 8MB Data Buffer $ 89.99
250GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer $ 95.99
320GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer $ 97.99
500GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer $107.99
750GB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer $134.99
1.0TB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer $137.99
1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer $149.99
1.0TB Enterprise 7200RPM 32MB Buffer  $189.99
1.5TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer $194.99
2.0TB GreenPower w/32MB Data Buffer $299.99 (A $30 drop!)

All of the above models can be found at: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/

And if you’re a DIY’er, we even offer 0GB “Add Your Own Drive” Kits from $49.99 so you can build a solution with your own supplied hard drive! And of course, we offer the resources you need to make that install easy like free installation videos in our Tech Support area.

While OWC Chris S. did a very nice and thorough examination of all the benefits to the FireWire 400/USB 2.0 “Combo Interface” Mercury On-The-Go Pro just last week, I wanted to make you aware of the biggest savings ride offered in this product.

While perhaps not as exciting from a speed thrills standpoint, the USB 2.0 only interface On-The-Go Pro models offer all the same great base benefits but at the lowest prices in the line.

Think of it this way…when you want to go somewhere, and don’t have a lot of green, you can still get to your destination by bus…and in this case, via USB 2.0 that’s found on nearly every legacy to modern computer.

So go ahead, climb aboard the bus…and enjoy the savings from us!

80GB 5400RPM w/ 2MB Buffer    -  $62.99
160GB 5400RPM w/ 8MB Buffer  -  $72.99
250GB 5400RPM w/ 8MB Buffer  -  $82.99
320GB 5400RPM w/ 8MB Buffer  -  $89.99
500GB 5400RPM w/ 8MB Buffer  -  $114.99

250GB 7200RPM w/ 16MB Buffer -  $92.99
320GB 7200RPM w/ 16MB Buffer -  $102.99
500GB 7200RPM w/ 16MB Buffer -  $159.99 (a $30 price drop)

And geez…even the 0GB “Add Your Own Drive” Kit is priced from $25.99. About the only way to travel with your data more economically would be by special Express!

With the recent unveiling of our new site look, you may have noticed the site “wrapper” space theme. If you have been an OWC customer or follower for any amount of time, you likely will have heard or read about our affinity for Star Trek and all things space related as well as the impetus for our company name.

As such, it was only logical to create a background with that theme. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that and in no means am I as quick with the Trekkie nods as OWC Chris S. was in our movie recap.

So, if you would like to boldly give your Mac’s desktop a look that is from an Other World and join us in stargazing, you can use the very same OWC Blue Star Field background.