First Look: Inside Apple's fast new Thunderbolt port on MacBook Pros

Apple has introduced the first implementation of Intel's new Thunderbolt technology for high speed communications, aimed at providing a very fast new data connection for mobile professionals.

Intel confirmed in a press release that Thunderbolt, "formerly codenamed 'Light Peak,'" is an "Intel-developed technology" that is "coming to market through a technical collaboration with Apple, and is available first on Apple's new line of MacBook Pro laptop computers."

The new specification accommodates faster, simpler connections between devices, acting as a next generation FireWire but with speeds of up to 10Gbps, which Intel points out is fast enough to transfer a full length, HD movie in less than 30 seconds or to backup an MP3 collection large enough to play nonstop for a year in just ten minutes.

That's 12 times faster than FireWire 800, and 20 times faster than USB 2.0. It's even twice as fast as Intel's USB 3.0 specification, which Apple hasn't adopted yet. Unlike just an upgrade to USB, however, Thunderbolt delivers the ability to daisy-chain multiple devices without using a hub.

New MacBook Pros support six devices, such as one display and five separate peripherals, turning the professional notebooks into flexible, high powered workstations for video editors and other professionals just as Apple gets ready to release its new edition of Final Cut Pro.

Already a standard interconnect

And rather than being an entirely new specification and port type, Thunderbolt's speed is based on Intel's PCI Express, a high speed serial interface typically exposed in desktop PCs as motherboard expansion slots (such as the Mac Pro, which features three x16 slots), but also appearing as Mini PCI Express cards (which is how Apple provides AirPort WiFi card support in the Mac Pro, iMac and its notebooks).

Apple's Thunderbolt pairs the PCI Express standard for a high speed interconnect with the existing Mini DisplayPort, using the same physical connection, adding a very high speed path for data without adding yet another port.

DisplayPort itself continues to support existing DisplayPort monitors as well as DVI/HDMI and VGA video output. But when connected to new Thunderbolt devices, it can support very high speed data transfers to devices such as RAID arrays.

Juneaid Shaikh: Google Chrome 10: Even faster

Juneaid Shaikh: Google Chrome 10: Even faster: "Google has now made version 10 of their web browser available. This is a beta version which can be tested by those that ..."

Google Chrome 10: Even faster

Google has now made version 10 of their web browser available. This is a beta version which can be tested by those that wish on the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms. It brings with it some notable improvements. 

One of the improvements concerns an option implemented in Google Chrome’s competitors. In terms of JavaScript execution speed, Google has made a few improvements, speeding up the performance of their V8 engine. 

At the end of 2010, Google announced a new compilation infrastructure for V8, with Crankshaft being presented. This compiler quickly generates code without a lot of optimisation which slows down the process. While it is running, the code in use is identified. This can then be recompiled in a more optimised fashion to replace the code initially generated. If the optimisation is slower than the code generated by the compiler base will be used in its place. 

With Crankshaft, Google puts forward that Chrome executes applications containing intensive JavaScript calculations even faster than in the past. Improvements made against their V8 benchmark test indicate that Google Chrome is ahead of competing browsers. This statement is perhaps not confirmed by other benchmark tests like SunSpider for example, with this benchmark indicating IE9 RC is faster. It can be said that these indications are always the source of concern.

Google Chrome 10 beta introduces GPU acceleration for video. This is a preliminary implementation that is available with compatible hardware. This hardware acceleration should allow you to free up CPU resources when decoding and playing HD videos. 

In terms of security, we can note that out of date extensions, i.e. those that have not been updated, are disabled by default. In terms of data synchronisation, saved passwords can be synchronised with a large number of devices thanks to Google Chrome. It is even possible to encrypt this synchronisation with a password.

As for the user interface, there are some new options present. The Options (personal configurations) are no longer displayed in a separate window but instead in a tab which you navigate in the same way as a web page. A search box is made available to make it easier to find certain options and most of the configuration pages now have their own URL. If a user doesn’t know where to search for a particular option, it will, for example be easier to find it through the use of a dedicated URL.

The Glamour Stiletto Run

The Stiletto Run is women only competition organised by The Glamour Magazine where women sprint for a distance of 100 metres wearing high heeled shoes which should be at least 9 cm high!!