mac.iLounge

Unlike Thunderbolt, which is still being adopted at a trickle-like rate, USB 3.0 has seen quick and wide adoption from Mac hard drive makers. The latest to update its Mac drives with support for the speedier transfer standard is Seagate, with its Backup Plus Portable ($110-$130) and Backup Plus Desktop ($130-$180). They pack all the features you’d expect from Mac-specific backup drives, plus a few extras exclusive to Seagate.

In addition to out of the box support for Time Machine, the Backup Plus line includes Seagate Dashboard software for backing up media from your social networks as well. It can be setup to automatically download your pictures and videos from Facebook, Flickr, and other sites. If you decide Thunderbolt is the way to go, adapters are available for both models that let you use the even faster standard. The portable drives are available in 500GB or 1TB capacities, while you can get 2TB or 3TB of storage in the desktop models.