superspeed
FastMac U-Socket delayed due to safety redesign, now going for $20
And here you were thinking this thing had vanished into the never-ending Lairs of Vaporwareville. Lucky for you, the gents and gals over at FastMac have been hard at work caving to the also never-ending list of demands from the UL and various other safety agencies. That means that the utterly brilliant U-Socket is indeed still on track for mass production, but it’ll be slightly redesigned and stacked with a few bonus features by the time it hits the market.
Corsair’s 128GB Flash Voyager GTR thumb drive takes USB 2.0 to new heights
Who needs USB 3.0 adapters when you’ve got Corsair , right? In a feat of engineering that can only be described as earth-shattering (or supercalifragilistic, if you prefer), said outfit has somehow created a USB 2.0 flash drive that not only beats the competition in head-to-head speed tests, but obliterates it. The 128GB Flash Voyager GTR utilizes a fancy quad-channel architecture in order to deliver read speeds up to 34MB/sec and write speeds up to 28MB/sec, which is around six times faster than some mysterious competitor that the company pit its drive against.
Sharkoon’s USB 3.0 SATA HDD dock doubles up, now handles two drives
We tell ya, these HDD docks … they sure know how to keep pace with the latest and greatest of technological innovations. Shortly after Sharkoon busted out a USB 3.0-enabled version , along comes this fellow: a dual-drive version of the same device
Brando’s USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter gives any old HDD those SuperSpeed powers
Oh, Brando — how we do love thee. Be it random accessories we don’t need at all or legitimate peripherals that make our lives all that much easier, you’re always there — steadfastly waiting for us to fall in love over and over again. Mushiness aside, the outfit’s new USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter is indeed one of those remarkably useful devices, enabling any old SATA hard drive to be accessed externally at USB 3.0 speeds
Buffalo outs USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter, we see a trend coming
After our adventure in figuring out the particular ExpressCard version of the StarTech USB 3.0 adapter , here’s Buffalo joining the fray and, naturally, there’s zero indication about whether this is an ExpressCard 1.0 or 2.0 device. The difference is that with the latter you can get all the way up to 5Gbps theoretical throughput, which is just above the USB 3.0 max rating of 4.8Gbps (typically advertised as 5Gbps), whereas the former hardware will get you only up to 2.5Gbps. Considering there’s a pair of USB SuperSpeed ports on there, you’ll want to make doubly sure you’re getting what you think you are
USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter promises more than it can deliver
Been fretting over the upcoming slew of USB 3.0 devices and your relatively new laptop’s inability to exploit their full speed? Well this isn’t going to help you much, but it’s a great example of why you should shop with a careful eye and preferably from reputable stores. British e-tailer StarTech.com (no, we haven’t heard of them before either) is now offering an ExpressCard-based USB 3.0 adapter for ?39 (about $64), which seems a bargain considering the promised 5Gbps transfer speeds and general bragging rights associated with having SuperSpeed
