Mac Accessories from Third Party Suppliers

Mac Accessories enhance and improve the overall experience of using your Mac computer. Several accessories are available from Apple, but they don't cover all of the functions that you might need as a Mac user, such as printing, scanning and even specialist external storage solutions, for example.

Image courtesy of Western Digital

The good news is that accessories are available from other manufacturers, who also design them to work, out of the box, with your Mac computer. In most cases they will be plug-and-play, and as such automatically detected by your Mac.

One of the most exciting developments on the Mac is the addition of the new, and extremely fast, Intel Thunderbolt technology. Although just released, more and more accessories are appearing in the market place.

We will be collecting together information on these accessories, adding reviews and links to tutorials, where appropriate.

So how do you get the info you need? Well, simply click on a category below that is of interest to you, to be taken to the top of that category.

• External Storage Devices
• Networking Devices
• Printers & Scanners
• Thunderbolt Mac Accessories
• Video Accessories

External Storage Devices

This section will look at Mac accessories that act as external storage solutions for your Mac. This can include simple USB memory sticks, attractive desktop solutions, right upto complex RAID storage systems used by professional Mac users.

G-Technology External Storage Solutions for the Mac

We will start this section by looking at a favourite of ours, storage solutions from a company called G-Technology, which was a originally founded by a consultant named Roger S. Mabon who made the following mission statement about the company.

G-Techs mission is to provide the creative community with quality products that incorporate superior industrial design, functionlity, usability and performance at affordable prices.
- Roger S. Mabon

G-Technology is now part of the Hitachi group of companies, but their products are still well thought out with attractive and sturdy designs. What I like about their devices is there versatility, the number of connection options is impressive, including USB, both FireWire 400 and 800, as well as eSATA, although they are not on every drive.

Let's start by taking a look, below, at two of their current models, the first is the 500GB G-DRIVE Slim Mobile USB Drive, and the second is the 3TB G-DRIVE high performance desktop drive.

500GB G-DRIVE Slim Mobile USB Drive

G-DRIVE Slim Connected to MacBook Air Image courtesy of G-Technology

The G-DRIVE Slim Mobile USB drive is the slimmest hard disk available from G-Tech. It is extremely compact, and can be carried in your pocket. Although small it can still offer 500GB of storage space for your photos, videos, and documents.

The G-DRIVE Slim comes with a standard USB 2.0 interface, which can power the drive from your Mac. No need for an external power supply or cables which is a must these days for a serious portable device!

G-Technology Mobile Slim Hard Drive Image courtesy of G-Technology

As you can see from the picture above, the drive is well designed having the same black and aluminium design which complement any Mac.

The beauty of the G-DRIVE Slim is not just skin deep. It is designed from the outset to be compatible with your Mac. For starters it is formatted HFS+ which is compatible with Time Machine straight out of the box. Plug it in, select it from Time Machine and away you go, your data is safe.

500GB G-DRIVE with upto 3TB Storage

Pocket devices like the G-DRIVE Slim mobile are great for handling data on the move, but 500GB is not going to store your huge photo or video libraries. Instead, you need something like the G-DRIVE desktop storage solution.

The G-DRIVE is another one of those Mac accessories that is designed to complement your Mac computer. The picture below shows the G-DRIVE alongide the iMac.

G-Tech G-DRIVE 3TB Hard Disk Image courtesy of G-Technology

The G-DRIVE is now available with a capacity of upto 3TB, which is ideal for professional storage solutions. An integral heatsink ensures that the hard disk is cooled silently without the need for fans.

G-Technology Image courtesy of G-Technology

But the most impressive feature of the G-DRIVE is the abundance of interfaces. The rear has connectors for USB, eSATA, and two FireWire 800 ports. G-Technology includes all of the cables that you might need, including a cable for connecting to a FireWire 400 port on an earlier Mac.

Western Digital My Passport Studio

G-Technolgy are not the only company who are designing Mac accessories that fit in with the look and quality of the Mac. Western Digital have produced their My Passport Studio, another compact, portable hard disk which is pictured below.

Western Digital My Passport Studio Image courtesy of Western Digital

The Western Digital My Passport Studio is available in three sizes, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB. All of them have both USB 2.0 and dual FireWire 800 ports allowing for your Mac accessories to be daisy chained together.

Networking

This section will look at Mac accessories that are related to networking. This can include anything from network cables, to routers and wireless router/modems etc.

Cisco Linksys X2000 Wireless-N Router with ADSL2+ Modem

Cisco have been providing enterprise level networking solutions since 1984, and have a worldwide reputation. In 2003 Cisco took over Linksys, the home network company, and have gradually been stamping their mark on the brand ever since.

Cisco Linksys X2000 Router/DSL Modem Image courtesy of Cisco Linksys

The picture above is of the Cisco Linksys X2000 Wireless-N Router with ADSL2+ Modem. This router provides three Ethernet ports, a DSL Internet port, and has a fast Wireless N Router.

You can connect the X2000 to your Mac using either the WiFi or the Ethernet interfaces. Configuration is easy using the web interface via the Safari web browser, or your own particular favourite.

Printers & Scanners

Mac Accessories obviously includes both Printers and Scanners that are compatible with your Mac, this section will take a look at the best, with a bias towards the now popular multi-function printers that perform both printing and scanning.

Hewlett Packard Printers

Hewlett Packard printers are amongst the best in the world, and are more than happy working alongside your Mac. There software and drivers are actively developed for use with the Mac OS X operating system, making them easy to set-up and configure producing first class print results.

HP Photosmart 5515 Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer Image courtesy of HP

The picture above shows the Hewlett Packard 5515 Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer. I bought this printer for use in my home which has a wireless network, with two iMac computers and my MacBook Pro.

Set-up was completed in minutes and we now have full page, double-sided printing. To make things even better the included ePrint technology means that I can print directly from my iPhone.

Thunderbolt Mac Accessories

This section will aim to pull together in one place as many Mac accessories as possible that use the new Intel Thunderbolt interface. Because of the power of this new interface you can connect both storage and display devices, and daisy chain them if necessary.

Lacie Little Big Disk

The Lacie Little Big Disk was one of the first devices on the market supporting the new Intel Thunderbolt technology. The drive is shown below.

LaCie Little Big Disk with Thunderbolt Image courtesy of LaCie

Lacie produce three versions of the Little Big disk, including 1TB and 2TB versions with standard hard disks, and a version with a 240GB solid state drive.

The Intel Thunderbolt technology offers the potential of two 10GB/s I/O channels. This will take attachable storage to the next level.

Promise Pegasus R4 RAID with Thunderbolt

Promise have been involved in developing RAID technology for many years and the Pegasus takes this experience to a new level by combining RAID storage with the new Intel Thunderbolt interface.

Promise Pegasus R4 with Thunderbolt Image courtesy of Promise

This is another one of those Mac accessories that is aimed at the professional Mac user, or someone who just just loves having the latest state-of-the-art technology.

The Pegasus R4 provides you with four 1TB hard disks, each one hot swappable for added flexibility. All hard disks can be configured in various RAID configurations including RAID 0, 1, 5, 50, 6, 60 and 10.

The Pegasus R4 is a very quiet drive making it ideal for desktop use alongside any Mac computer. This combination of RAID with the Thunderbolt interface makes this drive phenominally fast for the storage of video or photos.

Video Accessories

This section will look at video based Mac accessories including anything from digital camcorders to video capture accessories. There are no limits to the formats used, can be VHS, DVD, CD and HDMI as long as it works with a Mac.

Roxio VHS to DVD

I suppose in many ways my family are like many others. We have children who as babies were filmed and filmed, again and again, using our faithful camcorders. As a result we have stacks of tapes!

But now we don't know what to do with the tapes! Don't panic! If you have a Mac then help is at hand. The Roxio VHS to DVD kit allows you to transfer video from a VHS recorder, through a USB adapter into your Mac, save it as a file and burn it to DVD.

But it can also interface with your Camcorder, subject to you having the right adapter and cables of course. All you do is play the tape back on your Camcorder and it gets captured on your Mac and saved digitally.

Roxio VHS-to-DVD Adapter Image courtesy of Roxio

To say that I was sceptical is an understatement, but I was very impressed. The software worked well, we had no problems, the quality was good and you can pick from a number of file formats. The only drawback is you need alot of time!