This week’s roundup features several accessories—ranging from adapters to cables to external hard drives—designed for the new MacBook and its strange new port.
The $269 CalypsoCase for MacBook is billed as a sleeve for the latest Apple computer, and sports lots of class to match—it comes in four different colors: Zurich Night, Paris Glory (pictured!), Sydney Morning, and Atlanta Mist. We’re waiting for our favorite color, Des Moines Thunderstorm, to hit the market.* (*We totally made that up.)
The $79 Maple Mouse Pad has a “buttery smooth surface” made of tanned leather, a maple wood tray for a pen or pencil, and a cork base to keep it from slipping all over your desk. It’s also available in Walnut.
The LiftPro electric desk has surpassed its crowdfunding goal with two weeks to go—and why not? It’s pretty cool. It’s engineered with preset keys, like on your car radio: Find your standing and sitting height, press “M” to have the desk memorize both, then use the present keys to automatically adjust to whichever working condition you choose. It has a built-in mousepad and display docks for your iOS devices built right into the desktop.
Before USB-C, Thunderbolt was the next big innovation in ports for Apple. It’s still pretty useful! The $250 Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock has “two Thunderbolt 2 ports, one to connect to your computer, and one to back up your files with the high-speed Thunderbolt hard drive.” Plus, you can transfer data at 20GB per second.
This company has unveiled a whole lineup of USB-C adapters, but only one—the $30 Gigabit ethernet adapter—is currently available for purchase. It might just be the most important, because Wi-Fi access still isn’t everywhere you need it. Just plug it in, Kanex says, and you’re ready to get your Internet, even if Wi-Fi isn’t available.
Even older Macs with old-school USB ports could sometimes use more of them. The $49 Magic Hub is designed to attach to the back of your iMac and add three additional USB ports to what’s available—you can charge your devices even if the computer is turned off.
The new Porsche Design Mobile Drive is designed specifically for the new MacBook—an external hard drive that comes ready with USB-C connections. It comes in a slim 500GB version, or in 1- or 2-TB versions. It’s early yet: No word on pricing or availability.
This company is joining the rush to market with its own USB-C adapter—it plugs into the MacBook port, then accommodates connections from USB 2.0 and 3.0 devices. (The makers claim it has the same data transfer speeds as Apple’s own adapters.) No word on pricing or availability.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.