Thunderbolt external drives may be fast, but they're not typically sturdy, something OWC aims to change with its new super-durable Envoy Pro SX. On the inside, there's a big chunk of high-speed SSD storage; on the outside, there's a ruggedized case which OWC promises is dust, drop, and water-proofed to IP67.
CES 2021 officially kicks off today, and Other World Computing - otherwise known as OWC - has started things off by revealing an entire slate of new accessories. The company revealed four new accessories in all today: the USB-C Travel Dock E, the U2 shuttle that can house up to four NVMe M.2 SSDs, the OWC Thunderbolt Dock, and the Envoy Pro FX external SSD. All of the products OWC announced today will either be available this month or within the first quarter of 2021.
Hardware company OWC has announced a new computing accessory simply called the OWC Thunderbolt Hub. This model, as its name indicates, is a USB hub made for PCs that feature Thunderbolt 4 connectivity and users who need additional ports. With the new hub, users can transform their PC's single Thunderbolt 4 port into one that supports both USB-C and USB-A connectors; it also offers a new architecture that, according to OWC, 'reinvents the daisy chain' in a very convenient way.
In late 2019, the Mac Pro was delivered by Apple without wheels. It's not that the computer needed wheels in the first place. The 2019 Mac Pro can sit on its bottom just fine. Apple released a package that one could purchase for the Mac Pro to add wheels to the computer: a product called "Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit" still costs $699 USD from Apple today. The company OWC just revealed an alternative package.
This week was light on the hardware reveals at Apple's WWDC 2020, due in a big way to our global pandemic and the fact that the conference was entirely virtual. Granted, there was a rather enticing developer desktop testing kit revealed by Apple to make way for the future of Apple-made silicon in future Macs, but what about consumer products? Since Apple's hardware reveals this week were light, there's a clear winner for most interesting new hardware for Apple product users. That is the OWC Envoy Express, the first-ever Thunderbolt 3 Certified Bus-powered Portable Storage Enclosure.
Today OWC revealed its latest external SSD, the Envoy Pro EX. The Envoy Pro EX works with both PCs and Macs and promises pretty ridiculous transfer speeds for an external drive, with OWC saying they can go as high as 980MB/s. It's available in a number of sizes as well, though depending on what you're after, the price you pay has the potential to get expensive quickly.
Apple seems to have conceded that professional users buying a new iMac Pro might be more demanding about upgrades than their consumer counterparts. Since the iMac was saw its most dramatic unibody adoption in 2009, embedding all of the components behind the display, its potential for user-upgrades has decreased. The new iMac Pro, however, takes a more forgiving approach along with its premium price tag.
Like it or not, we’re still in the thick of a USB-C hate-storm. Most recently, a notable iOS developer slammed the most current iteration of the MacBook Pro in part for eliminating all but a few of the same kind of port. It’s a bold move by Apple and others, but one that hasn’t been widely lauded. But, for a few hundred bucks, you can fix all of your connectivity woes. Sort of.
For the past several months I've been using a piece of OWC technology called the OWC Drive Dock. This gadget surprised me, genuinely - and has proven to change my life in a significant way. Because of this drive dock, I was able to clear out a significant portion of my junk closet. This OWC Drive Dock device is certifiably radical for an old data hoarder like myself.
Among the things the latest MacBook Pros have been criticized for, aside from the debatable battery life, is Apple’s abandonment of traditional ports and connectors in favor of going all out with Type C Thunderbolt 3, which are, in shape and compatibility, USB-C holes. Sure, there are dozens of hubs and extensions out there to remedy that, but those just mean yo have another thing to carry and potentially get lost. OWC, famous for their Mac upgrades and accessories, might have come up with a prettier solution: the OWC DEC. It is practically a storage and port expansion dock that looks like it’s actually part of the MacBook Pro itself.
Hard drive and accessories maker OWC has announced an updated version of its Drive Dock, a docking station that allows users to connect up to two bare drives to their Mac or Windows PC. The new model takes advantage of USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectivity, allowing read speeds up to 434 MB/s and write speeds up to 406 MB/s.
OWC has unveiled a new and small form factor storage drive that is highly portable and crams a lot of storage space inside. The device is the Envoy Pro mini and inside its normal thumb drive form factor is a tiny SSD that has 480GB of storage space. This new version doubles the previous highest capacity in the Envoy mini line of 240GB.