Today, Apple made a game-changing move with the introduction of Thuderbolt in its new MacBook Pro laptop computers. Developed by Intel and formerly known as Light Peak, the pipeline is more than 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and twice as fast as USB 3.0. Already, Avid and Apogee have released statements about it on their websites:

“Thunderbolt technology is connectivity without compromise and will enable the full promise of Symphony I/O, Apogee’s professional digital audio recording platform.”
– Betty Bennett, CEO, Apogee

“We are very excited by the capabilities of Thunderbolt technology. To have two 10Gbps, bi-directional, multi-protocol channels in a single cable is a great step forward for high performance audio and video solutions.”
– Max Gutnik, Sr. Director, Product Management, Avid Technology

For now there are no audio products that offer Thunderbolt IO, but watch for it to start becoming available in digital IO devices very soon.

In an effort to bring awareness to the loudness wars, March 25th is Dynamic Range Day in the UK and it’s being supported by some major manufacturers and engineers.

You can win an SSL X-Desk, Bowers & Wilkins CM-1 speakers or a mastering session at Fluid Mastering

They’re looking for support in the following ways:

Post your nominations for great, dynamic music in the comments section of their site
Add a Dynamic Range Day banner to your site or blog
Follow @DynamicRangeDay on Twitter – start talking and using the #DRD11 hashtag!
Put a post on your site or blog telling people about the day – include a link to this page
Sign up to the Production Advice Newsletter on their site