Four months have passed since Intel introduced Thunderbolt high-speed interconnect technology, and today, Apple finally released the first Thunderbolt Cable ($49) to take advantage of it. We knew Thunderbolt devices were going to start popping up in stores soon, and the fact that this cable’s now hitting the shelves is a sign of what’s to come.
The six-foot (two-meter), male-to-male cord is the first real accessory of any kind to support the 10Gbit/s transfer medium. So just what do you get for plopping down nearly fifty bucks on a cable?
Well, you can hook up Thunderbolt accessories such as Promise’s Pegasus RAID Storage systems—they start at $999.
In addition, the cable can be used for Target Disk Mode between two Thunderbolt-equipped Macs, and to turn an iMac into a display for laptops including the new MacBook Pro and the yet-to-be-announced-but-surely-coming-soon MacBook Air. Expect the number of Thunderbolt accessories to start ramping up from here, and for the price premiums to be significant… until the folks at Monoprice start working their magic, that is.
