[ekafara]

So I saw this today after a friend of mine posted it on Facebook...
http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/

I thought technology was going towards the cloud and not with more wires. What does everyone think?

Edit: wow I made some bad spelling mistakes. Sorry everyone : )

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[anon(51467)]

It is a curious thing. The cloud is great if you have an always on connection. But really, this is a peripheral connector. So maybe your digital camera can dump its photos to your Mac asap. Not bad. It looks good, we'll see ubiquitous it becomes, if at all.

The cloud is nice but I don't think you can push your data to the cloud as fast as that port can work. And for that matter, do you really want everything in the cloud?

And on a side note. Why do they call it a cloud storage? Why not simply what it is: network storage. In all truth I don't like the term, clouds come and go, I don't want my data to do that!

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[Noodle93]

And on a side note. Why do they call it a cloud storage? Why not simply what it is: network storage. In all truth I don't like the term, clouds come and go, I don't want my data to do that!

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Extending on cloud metaphors, clouds have this habit of dropping water. But really, you don't want to be storing everything in the cloud. This assumes a constant-on connection, really, and in countries like mine (Australia), while we have 'decent' 3g connections in the city, it is heavily shaped (low speeds) and costs a fortune. There are good applications for it though.

But on Thunderbolt: I have a Macbook Pro (still less than 6 months old) and after editing hundreds of images as well as processing an hour long live performance, I've realised why all the 'creative ones' tend to use Mac's - adding to Macbook's performance, the Windows FAT16/32 system has a limit of the largest filesize of 4GB, which is often a huge problem. It's not surprising that this feature has popped up on Apple products. With that in mind, current file transfer speeds are actually really slow over USB. Even inserting the memory card and using built-in SD card is 'slow'. I know my Canon dSLR will chew up 4GB's in 10 minutes (camera requires FAT32, sigh), so imagine those huge HD cameras or the 3D cameras shooting a feature length movie.

Personally, I saw it, thought it was quite awesome but then I've realised it's probably a professional, rather than consumer, feature. Even with 32GB USB drives, the cost of a Thunderbolt will outweigh the benefits. But maybe I'll be wrong (not a first) and Thunderbolt pen drives will be popular?

[ekafara]

Yeah. I posted this early in the morning here and didn't think it all through it will be good for a lot I'm sure. I don't totally like the idea od "the cloud" yet anyways. But I also don't have any Apple products so I won't see this technology until someone else comes out with it. I'm sure Apple has quite the patent on it.

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[MrObvious]

It's just the next step up from USB or Firewire. That's all.

[ekafara]

Yeah. I think it will be quite useful. We will always be connected with wires. This will make just that much faster to do things.

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[anon(51467)]

But on Thunderbolt: I have a Macbook Pro (still less than 6 months old) and after editing hundreds of images as well as processing an hour long live performance, I've realised why all the 'creative ones' tend to use Mac's - adding to Macbook's performance, the Windows FAT16/32 system has a limit of the largest filesize of 4GB, which is often a huge problem. It's not surprising that this feature has popped up on Apple products.

Why are you using FAT16/32? You should be on XP, Vista or Win7 and NTFS, which does not have that limit.

Funny things with Mac is they did not become stable until they switched to BSD-based OS and even more powerful now with the Intel processors. I will admit, Apple is pretty forward thinking, and smart with adopting better file systems and such, but for me, the GUI is not a good paradigm and I make my money using AutoCAD and ESRI products, still the realm of Windows only.

If you graphics application on Windows can only use FAT, then it needs and upgrade. I (MCSE) have always told people or set them up on NTFS for all Windows products possible since Win NT 3! The NTFS is so much better than the FAT.

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[chris2k5]

Cloud computing isn't mainstream yet. To have good cloud computing you need a constant connection via 3G or 4G. The thing is, coverage isn't strong enough to the point where it will be reliable ALWAYS and 4G is a battery killer.

[Bazza1]

Yeah - let's all have dumb terminals that require a dodgy connection to an external mainframe to access software and our files! Then we can all use phone receiver modems adapted to to iPhones and use a dot matrix printer! Whoo-hoo, I love 1970s retro computing...

What part of "Personal Computer" have these companies forgot?