One of the most important technical advances so far this year, in my opinion, is the release of Thunderbolt from Apple and Intel. Why? Because bandwidth is the bottleneck for many creative software and devices on computers. Monitors, storage, capture and output devices - all benefit from the speed of Thunderbolt.Furthermore, having a single port that allows so many types of devices to connect simultaneously in a daisy chain offers tremendous space savings for laptops and portable devices.
Unfortunately, while a Thunderbolt port can be found on current MacBook Pro's, you can't find it on anything else at the present. That will change over the next few months as various solutions from AJA, Blackmagic, LaCie, Promise, and others release new products.
What I can't find confirmation of yet is an adapter to convert USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt - something useful for the crop of USB 3.0 devices that have already hit the shelves - or soon will - from companies not yet supporting Thunderbolt.
I also wonder if Thunderbolt can be networked through a switch or hub to allow for shared storage. Probably not based on its complexity, but it remains a question I hope to have definitively answered.
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