Alongside Qi2 wireless charging stands, Apple accessory maker Satechi this week unveiled new hubs and charger options for Apple's Mac lineup.
The upgraded Stand & Hub for Mac mini and Mac Studio fits under one of Apple's slim desktop machines, and it includes an NVMe SSD enclosure that supports NVMe and M.2 SATA SSDs. There are USB-C 3.1 and USB-A 3.1 ports for file transfers, with support for speeds up to 10Gb/s.
An SSD added into the hub can be used for Time Machine backups, plus there are also two additional USB-A 3.0 ports, micro/SD card readers, and an audio jack for headphones.
Satechi's Thunderbolt 4 Slim Hub Pro has three Thunderbolt 4 downstream ports that support data transfers at up to 40GB/s, plus it can deliver up to 15W of power to connected peripherals. It supports up to two 4K displays or one 8K display, and it offers 32Gb/s native PCIe support for external GPUs and Thunderbolt-based SSDs.
The 145W USB-C 4-Port GaN Travel Charger has two USB-C 3.1 ports that can provide up to 140W and two USB-C 3.0 ports that can provide up to 45W. The 145W max power is split between devices when more than one device is plugged in, with the charger providing smart power distribution that automatically adjusts wattage for optimal charging.
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.
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The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past.
The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC.
It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent.
A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3.
Mac users can download the macOS Sequoia update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15.
With...
Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect.
The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design.
It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information.
Relocated Charging Port
While the Magic Mouse switched from...
Ok now... this is a very compelling for those who don't want to pay the Apple premium for upgraded storage. You can get 4TB of excellent speed for 1/5th of Apple's price now.
Why is the stand & hub not Thunderbolt? What's the first thing you want to add to your new mac mini or studio? Well, a studio display, but the *second* thing is fast storage at less than apple's abusive prices, and wouldn't it be nice if it wasn't dangling out of the back in an untidy mess. Like, why would you have an nvme enclosure and cap it at 10GB/s?
In looking at reviews for the previous mini hub, it seemed like people had problems with the hub just not turning on. Anyone here dealt with that? I’m interested in buying one, but want it to work correctly most of the time.
I have the current hub on my Studio M2 and both the SSD and attached USB keys drop off the bus on a regular basis. Pretty annoying, especially since I was using the SSD for media storage during editing. If I knew the issues had been fixed on this version I’d get one to replace it.
Ok now... this is a very compelling for those who don't want to pay the Apple premium for upgraded storage. You can get 4TB of excellent speed for 1/5th of Apple's price now.
That would be better, but would probably double the price - there are stackable thunderbolt options available, eg: (I don't have one, so not a personal recommendation):
https://www.owc.com/solutions/ministack-stx
Thing is, although TB can be much faster in some situations, not every use-case will actually take advantage of that.
Like, why would you have an nvme enclosure and cap it at 10GB/s?
(That would be 10Gb/s - small 'b' or 1.25 GB/s)
Because many people are happy with a cheap, relatively slow (by modern standards) SSD for backup, media library or document storage, and even if you ignore the speed, NVMe is taking over from SATA and offering more bytes-per-buck.
Anyway, most general workloads don't get close to the "peak sustained transfer speed" - and if you're looking to stream raw high-def video or are constantly copying multi-gigabyte datasets then this is not the product for you (and you probably should have got a M2 Pro or a Mac Studio with more TB ports). Even the slowest SSD is night and day c.f. the good old spinning rust hard drives that people are upgrading from.
I think the main "gotcha" with this is not the 10 Gb/s cap on the drive itself, but that everything connected to this hub is sharing the same 5-10Gbps USB 3 stream so if the drive is in constant use and you hang high-bandwidth USB peripherals off it you'll probably see a performance drop. If that's a problem for you then you need an all-thunderbolt solution. Many people won't notice.
That's the problem that Thunderbolt/USB 4 faces - USB 3.1 is "good enough" for the majority of users, so there isn't the critical mass of sales needed to bring down Thunderbolt prices.
The support of NVMe is awesome, but why don't we get extra USB-C ports?! Yes, I know there is one, but we use one to connect it, so there is no gain. Three USB-A ports? I honestly can't recall the last device I bought that uses that and as this is "new", I am very surprised. And I agree with others, for a new product the lack of Thunderbolt is also surprising.
People suggesting "it's a slow 10Gps" (see above, but their website actually states: "Our Stand and Hub for Mac Mini/Studio with NVMe Enclosure also supports M.2 SATA drives across sizes 2242/2260/2280. With transfer speeds of up to 6Gbps, this setup facilitates storage expansion, system upgrades, file backups, data retrieval, and seamless data transfers. It's a plug-and-play solution requiring no additional drivers."
This has just been released and I am already looking forward to the next version so it can get with the current times.
