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USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt? The tech debate rages online

By Chris Pirillo

May 18, 2011 / 5:09 PM EDT / CBS News

(CBS/What's Trending) - Will USB 3.0 beat out Thunderbolt (previously known as "LightPeak"), or will Apple finally step forward as the dominant contender between these two technologies?

Several years ago, the debate was between whether FireWire or USB 2.0 would dominate the world of interface standards. FireWire (Lynx, i.LINK, IEEE 1394) was faster than the USB standard by a wide margin. This didn't stop the world from leaning in the direction of the more widely available USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard.

The battle is alive once more between the latest edition of USB (3.0) and Apple's new Thunderbolt standard. Just like before, Apple's interface offers higher data transfer speeds, but USB has its traditional popularity on its side.

Chris Pirillo is a geek, internet entrepreneur, hardware addict, software junkie, book author, technology enthusiast, early adopter, idea evangelist, bootstrapper and thicker quicker picker upper. He's also a weekly columnist for What's Trending. To read more about him, click here.