Third parties at Macworld: Garmin, Kensington, LaCie (photos)

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
A number of third-party vendors stand out from the pack at Macworld San Francisco and are bringing new technologies with them, including USB display adapters and 1.3-inch hard drives.



Garmin



Garmin is at Macworld with Project Bobcat, a new sync utility that brings a long wished-for sync ability between GPS mapping units and the Mac.



Instead of just transferring raw files in bulk to a Garmin unit's memory card, Bobcat syncs maps as well as markers and routes. Users can even find points of interest ahead of time on the Mac and save them to the navigator for a future trip, Garmin says.



The project, which is currently a free beta, also transfers route info back to the Mac and lets the computer serve as a backup.



Kensington



Kensington's offering at the show is perhaps the most unique outside of Apple: a video-capable USB docking station.



The sd200v Notebook Docking Station with Video uses a previously Windows-only technology from DisplayLink that sends up to a 1440x1050 picture to a DVI or VGA monitor with a USB cable -- even alongside traffic from its five-port USB hub and its audio input/output jacks.



While likely coincidental, the device comes just as Apple has released the MacBook Air, which lacks the multiple USB ports and audio input of Kensington's dock.























LaCie



As with Kensington, LaCie's uniqueness revolves around shared technology.



Its Little Disk and USB Key Max use a new 1.3-inch hard disk drive just released by Samsung. While larger than 1-inch micro drives and flash memory, they also hold much more without taking up as much space as a 1.8-inch disk, topping out at 40GB in the new products.



This allows the USB Key Max to be as small as a credit card while the Little Disk is about as large as a handheld lighter, according to the company.







































Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    awalawal Posts: 66member
    what a tremendous moustachio!
  • Reply 2 of 7
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    "Golden Disk"? The octopus hub? I thought the brick was neat but now they're delving into the bizarre and tacky. The HAL-look of the button or whatever on the front of the drives aren't helping, even if it is blue.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    My Little Big Disk is there
  • Reply 4 of 7
    the guy looks like Luigi
  • Reply 5 of 7
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    The photos are a lot easier to look at this time around, thanks.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    It's about time Garmin!



    This was my last application I use that required Windows. A little over 4 years since I bought my first Mac, transition complete.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Come on LaCie, isn't it about time you managed to integrate a PSU in to one of your 'pro' drives?! We use eight of Lacie Big, Bigger and Biggest drives in a theatre environment where we often need to move them around, and having yet another PSU and pissy little connector to deal with is a pain...especially when different generation/size drives have different PSUs



    but then i guess if your drives were actually Pro, then they wouldn't die as often....





    ...as least G-Tech test their drives with AJA and Black Magic Cards. We gave up on capturing video from DVCam over FW400 to a Lacie over FW800 a long time ago...G-Tech seems to work fine though.
Sign In or Register to comment.