Newer Technology, Inc. today announced the miniStack Max, the latest version of its award-winning quad-interface powered hub storage solution. Offering Plug and Play ease of use with Macs or PCs thanks to five interfaces—USB 3.0, USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and eSATA—the miniStack Max is the only four-in-one storage, data access, connectivity solution on the market. In addition to adding an optical drive and an integrated SD card reader to its time-proven design, the latest miniStack is now available with an expanded storage capacity of up to 4TB. The new miniStack storage line and other unique Newer Technology products will be shown in Other World Computing’s booth #5231, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada. Article Continues…
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Newer Technology Announces miniStack Max As Industry’s First Four-in-One Storage, Access, And Connectivity Solution
OWC Turnkey Program for 2011 iMacs Announced.
You know that feeling of accomplishment when you’ve overcome a huge obstacle and you can’t wait to tell the entire world about it? Well, we’ve got it; we’ve overcome the whole “fan/drive sensor” problem found when installing a non-factory drive in the 2011 iMacs. That means we can now officially announce the OWC Turnkey Program for the 2011 iMacs.
We’re also going to one-up the 2010 program by including upgrade options for both the 21.5″ and the 27″ 2011 iMac models.
That drive sensor thing was a big hurdle. Apple uses a custom firmware that sends temperature info in a non-standard fashion. Unfortunately, unless the drive has this special firmware, the fans spin at full speed. We wanted a solution that would be a long-term solution that wasn’t dependent on a software patch or hack. Though those sorts of fixes can be temporarily effective, we didn’t want to rely on them for two reasons:
- they put overhead on the bus which can reduce performance
- a software solution can can fail or be rendered non-functional by a wide variety of actions (software updates, system reinstalls, etc.) which could risk the hard drive and the data contained on it.
So, we went another route and developed a hardware solution that interfaces accurately and properly with what can be viewed as a frustratingly unique temperature data monitoring method by Apple. While our solution adds a little bit to the cost of upgrading the iMac’s hard drives, we feel that cost is more than offset by the advantages it has over software solutions. Article Continues…
Give Me My Eject Key Back!
A couple of months ago, I visited the OWC offices and took advantage of OWC Jamie’s workbench skills and had him perform some “OWC Love” on my 2011 MacBook Pro by removing the optical drive and replacing it with an OWC Data Doubler + 750GB HDD – to compliment the 480GB SSD I already have inside as my start-up disk.
This is my first system with an SSD and while I love the blazing fast boot time and application loading speed it offers, I wanted some additional storage for editing my home movies and housing my music library. After the additional drive was installed, I formatted it into two partitions so I could have a dedicated Carbon Copy Cloner backup of my iPhoto library from the SDD on the HDD as well. Preserving my family photos is my #1 priority and since my MacBook Pro is not always connected to my home network, I can’t always be sure that it is backing up to my external drives like my iMac, so this extra internal drive gives me some piece of mind.
With the optical drive removed, I started thinking about how the Eject key was now totally useless, and I thought that maybe there might be some way to re-purpose it to do something useful. Article Continues…
MacBook Pro 2011 Models and SATA 3.0 (6.0Gb/s) – Update – 5/27/2011
Since we first looked at a potential fix for problems with SATA 3.0 operation in the main bay of the 2011 MacBook Pros on April 15, we’ve learned much more.
It’s not so sweet at this point, but I will at least try to keep it as short as possible.
Before going any further, I do want to be clear that, while I believe the issues noted should be and will be resolved, Apple makes no advertisement—in specification or otherwise—that creates any obligation for them to fix the issues noted. Again, I do believe they will… I also believe it is in everyone’s best interest that they do fix it, with respect to the incredible performance that our SSDs unleash in these fantastic MacBook Pro 2011 models. If we’re lucky, it will be a fix handled via some software update; it would seem more likely to require a hardware adjustment, but we’ll see. FWIW, our shielding kit does make a difference for some, but not all, as there is just significant enough variability in the issue which means it ultimately needs to be resolved by Apple themselves.
Ok… To the details… Article Continues…
OWC SuperSlim Turns Any 9.5mm SATA Slot Loading Internal Optical Drive Into An External Enclosure For Plug And Play CD, DVD, and/or Blu-ray Disc Burning/Playing
Other World Computing today announced the OWC SuperSlim, a USB 2.0 bus powered optical drive enclosure for turning any 9.5mm SATA slot loading internal optical drive, even those with mounting tabs, into an external Plug and Play CD, DVD, and/or Blu-ray disc burning /playing solution for Macs and PCs.
The OWC SuperSlim, is ultra thin, weighs only 4.2 ounces, and is bus powered (no AC adapter is needed), for easy transport in any gear bag.
Ideal Solution For Macs That Have An OWC Data Doubler Installed Article Continues…
OWC Turnkey Upgrade Program For 2010 Apple iMac 27″ Now Offers 3.0TB Hard Drive Option For 50% More Storage Capacity Than Factory Option
Other World Computing announced today its OWC Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the Mid 2010 Apple iMac 27″ now offers iMac owners the option to upgrade the hard drive to a 3.0TB model…a 50% storage capacity increase over the 2.0TB factory option. This new storage capacity option joins existing upgrade program choices: adding up to three OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSDs for up to a total of 1.44TB capacity – up to 5.5X higher than the factory SSD option – ; adding the first offered eSATA port option for an iMac, and/or adding up to 16GB RAM with savings up to 81% versus factory options. The turnkey professional installation service program offers multiple configuration options starting at $169 with a 48 business hours or less installation turnaround and includes complete shipping options along with OWC’s renowned warranty coverage.
OWC Makes Upgrading iMac An Easy Four Step Process: Article Continues…
Other World Computing Expands Data Doubler Line With Custom Fit Model For Adding Second Internal Drive to Mac mini and iMac Computers
Other World Computing today announced it has expanded its OWC Data Doubler™ optical bay drive mounting solution line with a custom fit model for Mac mini 2009 and iMac 2009-2010 models. The OWC Data Doubler enables Apple Macintosh users to replace their infrequently used optical drive with a second hard drive or SSD for up to an additional 750GB of internal drive capacity, internal RAID, or other user customized internal data storage configurations.
The $79.99 MSRP OWC Data Doubler for 2009 Mac mini (user installable) and iMac 2009-2010 models (professional installation recommended) comes complete with all required hardware and is immediately available for the following Macintosh models:
- Mac mini “Early 2009” and “Mid 2009” model
- iMac 20″ “Mid 2009” models
- iMac 21.5″ & 27″ “Late 2009” and “Mid 2010” models Article Continues…
OWC Turnkey Upgrade Program For 2010 Apple iMac 27″ Now Offers Ability To Add Up To Three Solid State Drives Or Additional Combinations Of HD, SSD, & eSATA
Now the self-contained iMac can truly have it all and provide unrivaled capability without comparison in the ‘all in one’ desktop computer space.
Other World Computing announced today its OWC Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the Mid 2010 Apple iMac 27″ now offers the ability to have OWC professionally install up to three award-winning OWC Mercury Extreme Pro Solid State Drives for up to a total of 1.44TB SSD highest performance capacity while retaining use of the internal optical drive, adding a larger capacity 2TB hard drive, and/or adding the first offered eSATA port option for an iMac.
The turnkey professional installation service program offers multiple configuration options starting at $169 with a 48 business hours or less installation turnaround and includes complete shipping options along with OWC’s renowned warranty coverage. Article Continues…
