First, a warning: do not try this at home. Now, ever noticed how your sexy MacBook Air only has one USB port? Well, one guy found that it actually supports up to three USB ports - but you have to crack open your MacBook Air and mess with the hardware to do it, hence the warning. If you really must know, you can check out how they did it by reading the full article after the "read more" link below.

For the techies out there who deal with a lot of data and switch back and forth between hard drives, this little gadget would go well with your equipment. The USB 2.0 SATA HDD Stage Rack is a dock for your HDD that does away with enclosures altogether.

The device is compatible with both PCs and Macs and is available for EUR 33 (US$ 47). The device is compatible with 2.5-inch HDDs and 3.5-inch HDDs and operates on a simple plug and play system, which is already a customary function in this day and age.

It would have been cool if they also added a portable multimedia player function like the early model from Onkyo or like Headplay's. Still, it's pretty useful nevertheless.

It seems Other World Computing's ModBook, an Apple MacBook converted into a slate style tablet PC, is getting closer and closer to shipping. According to the jkOnTheRun blog, shipping dates have been emailed to those who ordered ModBooks. The ModBooks will reportedly start shipping in "very limited quantities" in early June, and all orders are expected to ship by the end of July.

Some of the components initially listed for the ModBooks are also being upgraded at no extra cost. This includes upping the pressure sensitivity levels of the active digitizer from 256 to 512 levels, a perfect upgrade for artists. Consumers can now also get a 7200 rpm drive in the ModBook, choose to put a second drive in place of the optical drive, and get 3GB of memory.

If you're interested in getting your own ModBook, you better start saving up. The "fast" ModBook model with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo and 80GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive will set you back US$ 2,279. The "faster" model with the 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo and 120GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive carries with it a whopping US$ 2,579 price tag. Orders can be placed here.

 

It seems that an Xserve prototype found its way to through Apple's tight net and landed on the lap of an unsuspecting AppleInsider reader. And what does he find out? Lo and behold: It's a SATA RAID prototype!

Well, particularly striking is the six fiber-channel interface right behind the Xserve chassis which confirms the six indicator lights available in front of the chassis. Unfortunately, the unit is only half complete, as it is missing one other RAID controller for seven additional devices and six more fiber-channels.

The mysterious machine, dubbed as "Q57," is only known to hold as 512 MB of RAM and 1 Terabyte of storage space either over four storage drives or 1 TB multiplied by four, plus 2 Gigabit fiber channel. The prototype firmware is recognized, but somehow not activated for configuration. SATA will provide for better RAID performance and cooler temperatures but Apple may forgo the release of a SATA RAID option and head right to a Serial Attached SCSI-based prototype.

The Xserve, having served Virginia Tech in their supercomputer initiative, might get the right overhaul over their fiber channel weakness. And it's right about time it did.

You may read more on the details of the leaked prototype by clicking the Read link below.

You gotta love rumors confirmed. Mac OS Rumors started combing the grapevine and all their sources clean of whatever juice they could squeeze out, until they were able to confirm that the "MacBook Thin" (a) exists, and (b) has specs that (c) would probably make the "Thin" "the fastest, most feature-rich ultraportable laptop on the market". Probably because it's a Pro in a smaller package.

Here are the specs that Mac OS Rumors were, so far, able to confirm from American and Southeast Asian sources. Start drooling.

• "Macbook Thin" -- spec-wise, primarily a variant of the Pro family but will probably be branded as separate from the standard *or* Pro MacBook families. Shipping name is unconfirmed.
• 12-inch widescreen display, 1280x800 resolution.
• 2.16 or 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors
• 1GB of DDR2-667 memory standard. Max. capacity 3GB.
• Standard "Pro" ports: USB2, Firewire 400 & 800, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital/Analog Audio minijack I/O ports.
• ExpressCard expansion slot (believed to be /34 type)
• Similar storage to "Pro": 2.5in SATA HDDs at 120GB & up, 'Combo' or 'Super' optical drive.
• ATi Radeon Mobility X1600 or nVIDIA GeForce GO 7600 graphics systems with 256MB of VRAM.
• Mini-DVI display connector with full second display capabilities
• Of course, Built-in iSight, stereo microphone, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
• Battery life is expected to be "best in class" at about 6.5 hours real-world, some reports have suggested up to 8 hours is possible.

Final speculation has the "Thin", or whatever they're going to call it, shipping within ten weeks, announced in six. What keeps this speculation iffy is the fact that the upcoming MacWorld Expo is so packed with other high-profile items - such as iTV and the iPhone - that were the "Thin" announced there, it could easily get lost in the shuffle. Not that it won't be noticed by a lot of people who'd love to get a MacBook in smaller dimensions.

ZFS is a free, open-source file system developed by Sun Microsystems for its Solaris operating system. The freeware is noted for its high capacity, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, novel on-disk structure, lightweight filesystems, and easy storage pool management. 

Or you can go by Sun's one liner description of their product, "ZFS, The Last Word In Filesystems."

The Apple tree, where rumors about Apple sprout and wither, is still buzzing over the news that the Mac OS X system, is looking to adopt ZFS. It's one of those things that Apple People would love to crunch their teeth on. Yes, it's still unconfirmed but that didn't stop StorageMojo from conjuring a scenario where MacLeopards are born with ZFS running within its electronic gene. In this fantasy world, StorageMojo enumerated the benefits of ZFS on the MacLeopard.

No More Corrupted Data
ZFS will eliminate data corruption due to power failures, flaky RAM, poor grounding, failing hard drives, driver glitches, and phantom writes. With ZFS, all blocks are checksummed and the checksum is stored in a parent block. ZFS always knows if the block is correct and/or corrupt making the entire data store self-validating.

No More RAID Cards or Controllers
ZFS implements very fast RAID that fixes the performance knock-off against software RAID making all writes the fastest kind. Simply add drives to your system and you have a fast RAID system minus the cables and enclosures required by SCSI and SATA drives.

No More Volumes
Each time a disk is added to the Mac, another disk icon appears on the desktop. ZFS eliminates concept of volume. Whether you're adding a disk or several disks to the system, it automatically joins the storage pool for greater capacity and less management.

Easy Backups
ZFS has a feature called snapshot copy. It creates a copy of all data at whatever any point in time. A backup is made by copying the snapshot to a disk, tape or NAS box. Snapshots can be created on every write just in case.

ZFS on a MacLeopard would be a great thing! If we only had a MacGenie to grant our wish!

Granite Digital has shipped its SATA Dual Drive Internal Mounting kits for the Power Mac G5. The kits provide Power Mac G5 users a compact, affordable storage solution that is "simple, quick and easy" to install. Using the simple to install bracket and cables provided in the kit adding two drives takes only a few minutes.

The SATA Double Drive Bracket (included in the kit) can accomodate two standard 3.5-inch SATA (ATA 5 or ATA 6) drives with data transfer rates of up to 300MB/s.

Its unique aluminum bracket design works with older PCI-based and newer PCIe-based G5s using different SATA host adapters. The bracket is $50, while the kit retails for $100 and includes a SATA PCI or PCI-e two-channel host adapter, two internal SATA data cables, SATA power cable, and an aluminum mounting bracket (with screws).

Additional drives are $99.95(160GB), $159.95 (250GB), $399.95 (500GB), and $599.95 (750GB). The SATA Dual-Drive Mount kit for the Power Mac G5 kit is available at the Apple Store comes with a one year warranty.