Apple Selling A $50 Thunderbolt Cable, But Just A Number Of Uses So Far [Apple Starts Selling Thunderbolt Cable For Those Early Adapters, Only People With New Macs Need To Apply]

Posted on TFTS by Kevin Schram on Tuesday, 28. June 2011 under: Computers & Computing

There are just a handful of Thunderbolt accessories out there, and what is out there is pretty expensive. So? If you’re still ready to use that new Thunderbolt port on the back of your Mac, then Apple is ready to help you out with an overpriced cable. The company has begun selling on their website an “Apple Thunderbolt” cable for the predictable price of $49.

There isn’t a lot of Thunderbolt computer accessories out there as mentioned, though there are a few expensive Thunderbolt hard drives out there. But, Apple’s website does provide a few possible ways to use your new Thunderbolt cable.

According to the Apple website, you can connect two Macs with the Thunderbolt cable and transfer files between them in Target Disk Mode. Obviously, both Macs have to have the Thunderbolt port. In a similar vein, you can use a Thunderbolt-equipped iMac as a second display for a Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro.

It’s also interesting that it’s being called “Apple Thunderbolt” on the webpage. Thunderbolt is based on the Light Peak technology that Intel developed, and all indications were that Light Peak would be open to all manufacturers and a rival to USB 3.0. Then, Apple trademarked the term “Thunderbolt” and used their Mini DisplayPort connector on it. Since Apple is going as far as to put their name on it, it looks like this will be another proprietary connector like Firewire. We’ll have to wait and see if other PC manufacturers adapt Thunderbolt, or not. Remember that we saw Sony come out with a prototype PC that used a USB connector as the port for a Light Peak cable. PC manufacturers could go that direction to avoid paying Apple for the right to use the Mini DisplayPort format (which Apple owns and licenses).

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