The new Belkin Switch-to-Mac Cable provides a simple way to transfer files, settings, preferences, and more from your old Windows PC to a new Mac computer. Unlike existing products where you have to drag and drop specific files you want to transfer, the Switch-to-Mac Cable-with its easy-to-use Migration Assistant-automatically moves your music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences, making the transition from Windows PC to the superior Mac as seamless as possible.
• A 2008 Needham report shows that Apple’ sMacintosh unit sales have almost tripled in the past three years.
• Needham forecasts that in the next 10 years, Mac unit sales will grow dramatically to almost 40 million units by 2017.
The new Belkin Switch-to-Mac Cable (US$49.99) is available now in the US and will be available in February 2009 in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia
Belkin’s Switch-to-Mac Cable features:
• Transfers at USB 2.0 speeds
• Migration Assistant moves files and settings from default PC folders and applications to default Mac folders and applications, then gives summary of transferred content
• Compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 TIger and 10.5 Leopard
More info here.
Source: Belkin International, Inc.
UH…hasn’t this been around for a while??? I used something similar in 2004 when I made the switch from Windows to Mac…No big news here….
Yeah, Move2Mac (Detto Technologies) has been around for quite a while. It’s a special USB cable and software. They look about the same, except that Belkin has better graphics!
http://www.detto.com/mac-file-transfer.html
Or you could just take your pc into the apple store with you when you purchase your mac, they transfer all of your files for free, and you save $50 bucks. But hey, if PC users were smart at making a decision, they wouldn’t have bought one in the first place since boot camp came out would they?
@ duhhhhhhh
and then again, they may have an XP box that they bought before Apple went Intel. Not everyone gets a new computer every year or two.
Nor does everyone have an Apple Store conveniently located nearby.
Forgive them, they knew not what they were doing. But some are getting smarter.
— written on a PowerBook G4
@gka and Duhhhhhhhhhhh
what’s an Apple store?
mike in Mexico
@ HotinPlaya
Touche!
$50 for a USB cable with a rectangular tab in the middle, plus some software? I guess Belkin is looking to the future, when all new Macs will no longer be able to use FireWire Target Disk Mode.
@ken1w
Or at most PCs that still don’t have FireWire.
(“MDN Magic Word” was “fire.” How fitting, eh?
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I did a FW vs USB 2.0 test after installing a TB drive in my Aluminum iMac, and USB 2.0 took about an hour longer than FW did to move the same amount of data, using the same HD in the same enclosure and using the same computer.
Transferring my 700 GB of data at USB 2.0’s snail-pace rate means that it’s now faster to disassemble 2 computers, place the hard drives in a common machine, do the dirty work then reassemble them both.
Yay for USB 2.0.
I think I will drag and drop. Save the fifty for alcohol to celebrate the move to mac.
Although I like Firewire a lot and prefer it to USB 2.0, it is possible that part of your speed issue may be due to Apple’s implementation of USB. I recall HDD testing a few years back that showed comparable Firewire 400/USB 2.0 speeds on a PC and similar FW400 performance on a Mac for the same HDD. But the HDD performance on the Mac when connected to USB 2.0 was considerably slower.
Perhaps Apple has fixed this issue. But that is my recollection from past performance reviews.
@MacintoshSoftwareList.com
amen to that!
Though I’ll just use parallels or fusion for the whoppin 2 windows apps I use. If only they’d go mac.. I’d never go back!
@KingMel
I’ve done a test myself on windows with FW400 and USB2.0 though this was a good 4 years ago… I have a small portable drive with both connections so I did a copy paste test with them both. the FW400 did go a good rate faster than USB2.0 did but only buy a few minutes for a 1 GB file if I recall correctly. I try to use FW800 as much as possible now so from that to USB2.0 is like watching grass grow.
“Apple’ sMacintosh”—when the ‘ho ain’t workin.
This cable was made available when most PCs didn’t have FireWire. I still don’t think Apple will kill FireWire, its a much more reliable protocol than USB2.0 and faster in performance.
Is this really any different from a standard USB netowrk cable?
The Belkin cable is not detected by Parallels 7 transfer assistant. Requires Parallel’s own cable. Unable to use Belkin to migrate the entire windows system to the new mac. Not interested in doing it a file at a time. Returning to the store tomorrow.