LaCie Introduces ‘World’s Fastest Desktop Drive’ With Thunderbolt 3

Following the launch of the new MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, LaCie has introduced its new lineup of Thunderbolt 3 storage solutions: the Bolt3 desktop drive and the enterprise-class 6big and 12big RAIDs.

LaCie’s new Bolt3 desktop drive with Thunderbolt 3
LaCie’s Bolt3 combines dual Thunderbolt 3 ports with a pair of the latest M.2 PCIe SSDs, striped together into a 2TB volume, to create the “world’s fastest desktop drive,” with speeds up to 2800MB/s for 4K-6K video editing.

That kind of speed slashes time off nearly every task in your post-production workflow. Ingest RAW footage from RED® or Blackmagic® cinema cameras in a fraction of the time. Transcode 4/5/6K footage much faster using Adobe® Premiere® Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Then transfer a terabyte of footage from the Bolt3 to RAID storage—such as the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3—in minutes instead of hours.

Thunderbolt 3 permits daisy chaining and provides twice the video bandwidth of any other cable, meaning you can daisy chain one USB-C or up to five Thunderbolt 3 devices, or connect dual 4K displays, through a single USB-C cable.

The Bolt3 is designed with an aluminum enclosure featuring a magnetic cable door and display stand to place it upright on a desktop. Included in the box is a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C cable, power supply, cleaning cloth, and quick install guide.

LaCie’s 6big features up to 60TB of storage and Thunderbolt 3 speeds up to 1400MB/s, while the 12big is available with up to 120TB of storage and delivers speeds up to 2600MB/s — up to 2400MB/s in RAID 5.

Both enterprise-class RAID storage solutions feature support for hardware RAID 5/6 and have 7200RPM Seagate enterprise-class hard drives with 256MB cache. Thunderbolt 3 lets users daisy chain dual 4K displays or a single 5K display to the 6big and 12big.

LaCie’s new 6big RAID storage solution — the 12big is twice as tall
The LaCie Bolt3 will come in a 2TB SSD capacity for $1999.00. The LaCie 6big will come in 24TB, 36TB, 48TB, and 60TB capacities starting at $3199.00. The LaCie 12big will come in 48TB, 72TB, 96TB, and 120TB capacities starting at $6399.00.

The trio of storage solutions will be available at LaCie resellers this quarter.

Tags: LaCie, Thunderbolt 3
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MacBook Pro Touch Bar’s T1 Chip Runs ‘Variant’ of watchOS, Also Secures Touch ID and FaceTime Camera

In a series of tweets sent out last night, and now in an interview with The Verge, developer Steven Troughton-Smith has detailed the inner workings of the MacBook Pro’s new retina Touch Bar, describing its T1 chip as “a variant of the system-on-a-chip used in the Apple Watch.” This means that the Touch Bar is essentially running watchOS on the T1 chip, which macOS then communicates with through an interconnected USB bridge that “relays multitouch events back to macOS.”

The developer described this software setup as advantageous for the MacBook Pro’s security, since the T1 chip also acts as a layer of protection and “gates access” to the laptop’s FaceTime camera and Touch ID sensor. In the series of Tweets he sent out last night, Troughton-Smith also theorized that watchOS could power the Touch Bar alone without relying on macOS to be running on the MacBook Pro, which Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi has now confirmed.

“From everything I can piece together, the T1 chip in the new MacBook Pro is a variant of the system-on-a-chip used in the Apple Watch,” explains Troughton-Smith, in an interview with The Verge. “Running watchOS on the T1 lets the Mac benefit from Apple’s deep work on iOS embedded security, as the T1 gates access to the Touch ID sensor and, from the looks of it, the front-facing camera in the new MacBook Pro too.”

Despite the use of watchOS in the Touch Bar, the T1 chip “has no fixed storage” and boots from a 25MB ramdisk, so it’s not the full version found on the Apple Watch that could run the complete watchOS UI with apps. As Troughton-Smith described it, “the ‘watchOS’ the T1 runs is presumably only ‘watchOS’ by dint of the CPU it’s designed for. T1 must be very similar to S1.”

The developer also confirmed that the T1 chip and Touch ID sensor are paired together at the factory, so if either begins acting up, “you can’t replace one without the other.” What this means for the future of the MacBook Pro line could be a device that more closely bridges the gap between macOS and iOS, according to Troughton-Smith.

“Perhaps someday it could run a higher class processor, like Apple’s A-series chips, and allow macOS to ‘run’ iOS apps and Extensions, like iMessage apps, or manage notifications, system tasks, networking, during sleep, without having to power up the x86 CPU.”

Yesterday, Phil Schiller commented on the idea of Apple manufacturing a MacBook with a touchscreen, but he remained adamant that such a direct merger between macOS and iOS software wouldn’t be “particularly useful.” Likewise, Apple’s newly published guidelines for developers describe the Touch Bar as “an input device,” and “not a secondary display.”

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
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The 2016 Big Android BBQ, in photos

The biggest — and tastiest — get together of Android enthusiasts and developers in one place.

This year’s Big Android BBQ was a smaller, more intimate affair than in previous years, with lots of fun, friends, and technology. Our own Russell Holly brought more VR than you can shake a controller at, from PlayStation VR to Samsung Gear VR to Microsoft HoloLens to HTC Vive. While things may not have been as crazy as previous years, it was good to be among friends and developers again. And considering this year was the last one, I’m very, very happy that I went.

Yes, at the closing keynote, Aaron Kasten announced that this would be the last Big Android BBQ hosted by IDEAA, citing increased difficulty in finding sponsors and fewer people willing to travel this far when there are local events with the same goal.

That there are more developer events out there, and especially more events with low cost and high interaction, is a win for developers across the country (and abroad, as more developer conferences are also springing up in Europe and Asia). But the Big Android BBQ catered to another kind of participant that most of the events it inspired does not: enthusiasts who aren’t developers. Like me.

I’m not a programmer. I’m not a developer. I’m just a girl who loves Android, loves writing about Android, and wants to talk about Android without spending half an hour explaining what it is first.

I couldn’t go to Google I/O, but at the Big Android BBQ, I could sit in on panels that sounded interesting and talk to developers, hardware manufacturers (Nextbit, Asus, Sony, and HTC were all here last year. Only Sony’s Open Device Program was here this year.) and other enthusiasts.

The social aspect of the BBQ was honestly better than any of the tech that I ever experienced in my three years there. Fighting over how big a screen is too big for a phone (confound it, Thomas, put down the ZenFone 3 Ultra), debating what in the Pixel is worth us paying almost a thousand dollars, and chatting about the present and future of the Android ecosystem, was all great fun.

Shy as I may be in ‘everyday life’, I can talk for hours two places: the Big Android BBQ and a Disney park.

We can have inside jokes at any conference. We can make traditions anywhere, like Aaron’s top hat and TJ’s ridiculous amount of pins and leaderboard points. And we’ll see each other at other events… hopefully. If not, we’ll always have Google+, and a few years of great BBQ and even greater camaraderie among enthusiasts, bloggers, and developers that we’ll forever try to emulate at events to come.

Raise a glass of Texan beer, and pour one down your gullet for the Big Android BBQ. And if any Android fans want to come down for some Texan hospitality and some Android debates, might I suggest a Big Android Schlitterbahn? Let’s debate the necessity of waterproofing as we tube down the Comal.

Digital Offer: Get a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited for only $29!

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Connecting to the internet with a VPN means your data is encrypted — unlike many other VPN services, there is no limit on data usage, and you won’t experience any throttling. The internet isn’t getting any safer, so why wait? This lifetime subscription deal for only $29 won’t be available forever.

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Google Assistant reviews and what they mean for Google Home

Assistant needs to grow fast for Google Home to be great.

Google has made it quite clear that Assistant is the future. It’s in every aspect of your phone, ready to jump into a conversation at a moment’s notice, and soon will occupy a physical space in your house thanks to Google Home. This is the evolution of so many different things Google has tried over the years, and the initial response to Assistant has been mostly positive. It’s clear there’s room to grow, especially when it comes to something you can have a conversation with, but the building blocks are solid.

The big question is what the current form of Assistant will be like for Google Home, and what kind of rapid change and growth is going to be needed for Assistant to be helpful as more than just a mobile chat companion.

Smarter than your smart home

The first step for Google Home is the most obvious. It needs to be able to talk to the things in your house, and it needs to do so well. We’ve seen examples of using Google Home to launch video apps and play files on a Chromecast, but right now those features don’t work well in Assistant. Saying “OK Google” right now about something on Netflix isn’t all that functional, even if you’re just looking for specific episodes of a show or cast members within an episode. This is all information Assistant should have access to, and should happen well before users are asking to play a video on the television.

It’s going to feel like magic to a lot of people.

Google apps being able to talk to Google products is table stakes, though. Google Home needs to be able to talk to connected home equipment in a way that feels natural. Right now we have IFTTT triggers that are just about as organic as what you get through Amazon Echo. As long as you line the words up just right, it’ll get the job done. Google Home needs to take a step further and really integrate with your connected house. You need to be able to ask what the inside temperature is, and when the answer gets you saying, “That’s a little cold,” have your Nest thermostat respond by turning the heat up a couple of degrees. The individual pieces exist for this already, but it’s up to Google to make sure the interaction feels natural.

It’s unclear any of this will be available when Google Home launches, which could be a problem. Google Home needs to take Assistant and make it immediately aware of what is connected to the network at home and know what can be controlled and what can be integrated with as you set it up for the first time. If that happens, it’s going to feel like magic to a lot of people.

A compelling morning companion

Anyone who uses Amazon Echo in more than one room knows the benefits of using Alexa as a morning companion. Setting a timer for your breakfast as it cooks, hearing a quick recap of news, and checking in on traffic patterns are all daily things that can be made much more useful by Google Home. Alexa isn’t aware of the route you take to work, the news sources you regularly check, or the shows you stream to your Chromecast. You have to program all of that yourself, and even when you do the results are a little mechanical. Google Home should excel in this area, creating personalized morning briefs based on your activity and making sure the route you take to work is clear for you should be something it does with ease.

What will be even more interesting is what happens when Google Home is able to take things one step further. To hear on the Home speaker or your phone as a reminder that Game of Thrones is going to come on in 20 minutes, or to remind you as you walk into the grocery store that you have things on your grocery list that need to be picked up. There’s a lot of cross chatter between phone and Home that could be automated well through Assistant, and while it may not be something Google can do out of the box it’s something Assistant will be able to personalize over time.

Whole family support

The biggest challenge Google has right now, the thing that is a bigger problem on Home than it is on Echo because of how integrated Assistant is supposed to become, is support for multiple accounts. I want my son to be able to ask for the next episode of Aphmau’s MyStreet and not have weird Minecraft videos show up in my YouTube recommended feed. I should be able to ask for a list of restaurants in the area and have Assistant highlight favorites based on where I’ve been before, and not have that list contaminated by my spouse ordering pizza when I’m not around. If my oldest daughter asks Google Home what is on the schedule for today, it shouldn’t respond with my list of meetings.

Google Home becomes a lot less useful when it lets anyone who walks into my house contaminate my Search, Maps, and Youtube results.

There’s no doubt this is incredibly complicated, and probably will be a problem at launch, but it’s something Google can and hopefully will solve before too long. This is a company that has struggled with the idea of multiple accounts on things like Android TV in the past, and adding a Family Plan with shared content isn’t a solution for it on Google Home. I need to know my daughter can ask for something to be streamed to Chromecast under the content restriction guidelines I set for her, and not the content restriction guidelines I set for myself. If this is really going to be something Google expect the whole family to use, it needs to include multiple user voice training and multiple account login management.

The alternative is what we have with Amazon Echo right now. I have a to-do list full of things like “scratch your butt” and “pick up 500 jars of pickles” because my kids can add things to my account with no authorization from me. I have a streaming radio preset that includes two versions of songs from Frozen and every Perry Gripp song ever because my kids like to listen to silly things while I’m cooking in the kitchen. Google Home becomes a lot less useful when it lets anyone who walks into my house contaminate my Search, Maps, and YouTube results. And you can bet I’ll respond by messing with every Google Home I see when visiting other people’s houses.

Surviving the early days

Google is a company built by making things and improving them as they get more data from users. That’s not a bad thing, and in fact has lead to some impressive revolutions in how we look at email and automation. That having been said, Google Home is supposed to be the first step in a future where we talk to our computers in the comfort of our own living rooms and don’t look insane doing so.

It’s not going to be perfect right away, but some assurances from Google that this is not just Assistant in a box would be nice. As great as Assistant is right now, it’s not a home assistant yet and it’s not quite ready to compete with Amazon Echo in several respects. There’s little stopping Google from making sure that’s no longer true by the time Home launches, and that’s going to be the experience that really matters.

Uber drivers in the UK entitled to minimum wage, tribunal rules

Uber drivers have won an employment tribunal case in the UK, making them entitled to holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the National Minimum Wage. The ride-hailing company has long argued that its chauffeurs are self-employed contractors, not employees; the tribunal disagreed, however, setting a major precedent for the company and its relationship with workers. GMB, the union for professional drivers in the UK, initiated the two “test cases” in July. It’s described the decision as a “monumental victory” that will impact “over 30,000 drivers” in England and Wales.

“Uber drivers and thousands of others caught in the bogus self-employment trap will now enjoy the same rights as employees,” Maria Ludkin, GMB’s legal director said. “This outcome will be good for passengers too. Properly rewarded drivers are the same side of the coin as drivers who are properly licensed and driving well maintained and insured vehicles.”

Uber disagrees with the decision. The company, which now operates in almost every major city, believes it’s a technology company that merely connects passengers with self-employed drivers. It’s the man in the middle, as far as it’s concerned, and shouldn’t be treated as a traditional taxi operator. Many disagree with this argument, however, seeing it as an excuse to keep its costs down and avoid offering basic employee rights.

In its written ruling, the tribunal said: “The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common ‘platform’ is to our minds faintly ridiculous. In each case, the ‘business’ consists of a man with a car seeking to make a living by driving it. Ms Bertram (note: Uber’s UK general manager) spoke of Uber assisting the drivers to “grow” their businesses, but no driver is in a position to do anything of the kind, unless growing his business simply means spending more hours at the wheel.”

Annie Powell, a lawyer for Leigh Day who worked with GMB on the case, said: “This is a ground-breaking decision. It will impact not just on the thousands of Uber drivers working in this country, but on all workers in the so-called gig economy whose employers wrongly classify them as self-employed and deny them the rights to which they are entitled.”

Uber says it will appeal the tribunal’s “preliminary” decision. “Tens of thousands of people in London drive with Uber precisely because they want to be self-employed and their own boss. The overwhelming majority of drivers who use the Uber app want to keep the freedom and flexibility of being able to drive when and where they want. While the decision of this preliminary hearing only affects two people we will be appealing it.”

Source: Leigh Day, GMB