Mark Evans's List: Docking

• universal docking station packing both a Super-Multi DVD writer and a removable enclosure for a 2.5-inch hard disk (action photograph below), along with a two-port USB hub and an integrated fan.

• A lot of the laptop companies seem to have abandoned the traditional docking station.
• ewer docking stations seem to be much smaller, with fewer connection options. Is a new trend in docking-station design emerging?
• I suggest you look around at laptops meant for large businesses, which typically have been the market segment most interested in these accessories

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• While consumers haven't been buying docking stations in great numbers, businesses have embraced them as a way to quickly make and break notebook connections in the office.
• Last year, companies outfitted 63% of laptops with docks, a proportion that has increased from 35% in 2006, according to figures from analysis firm The NPD Group Inc.
• while most universal docks connect to your network, monitor and peripherals with ease, they don't charge your notebook's battery, which is their biggest drawback.
• A less important downside is that USB-based docks can't display the entire boot-up procedure, making troubleshooting an errant machine difficult.
• Sakar

  • universal docking vendor
• I put five universal docks through their paces by mimicking how businesspeople come and go.

• Kensington Notebook Expansion Dock with Video

   

  Kensington Computer Products Group's Notebook Expansion Dock with Video is the highest-priced docking station in this group, but it offers two things the others don't: It supports Macintosh notebooks, and it can connect with DisplayLink USB displays.

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• the sweet spot of ThinkPad docking and expansion, our ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock.
• best seller overall mainly because it adds significant functionality to the ThinkPad notebooks that support it.
• These include items like more USB ports, serial port, parallel port, a built in key lock, and most importantly, a DVI port to enable connecting a digital display. Using both the VGA port plus the DVI port, our Advanced Mini Dock can support two simultaneous external displays. It also ships with a second power supply so that you can leave your other power supply in your laptop bag.
• grand daddy of all expansion is called “full docking.” We call our version the ThinkPad Advanced Dock.
• full dock really exists to add an optical drive/HDD expansion bay and/or a PCI Express graphics slot.
• Only a few vendors offer a full sized dock, as many see it as an anachronism of a bygone era.
• Notebook vendors are split as to how they address docking for their smallest notebooks. There are three options, each with its own benefits and tradeoffs:
• • Add support for the same port replicators and docks that bigger cousins in the vendor’s lineup use (known as common docking).
   
  • Provide a dedicated way to expand that is optimized for the smaller sized notebook. We do on our X Series notebooks and tablets with the ThinkPad X series Media Slices.
   
  • Eschew docking completely – only support USB port replicators. Another option just emerging in the industry is wireless docking. This is how we address expansion for our ThinkPad X300. (More on wireless docking in the follow up post).

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• Industry Leaders Form Wireless Gigabit Alliance to Promote 60 GHz Wireless Technology
• Diverse Group of PC, Consumer Electronics, Handheld and Semiconductor Companies Unite to Develop High Speed Wireless Ecosystem
• May 7, 2009 – More than 15 technology companies today announced the Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance, an organization formed to establish a unified specification for 60 Gigahertz (GHz) wireless technologies.
• demand for a single technology that can support instantaneous file transfers, wireless display and docking, and streaming high definition media on a variety of devices.
• WiGig Alliance is developing a 60 GHz wireless technology that provides the optimal way to connect consumer electronics, handheld devices and personal computers.
• WiGig specification will allow devices to communicate without wires at gigabit speeds within a typical room.
• speeds more than 10 times faster than today’s wireless LANs.
• WiGig specification is expected to be available to member companies in Q4 of 2009. To register as an adopter in advance of the final specification, visit: http://wirelessgigabitalliance.org/specifications/.

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• USPTO Application #: 20080195788
  Title: Wireless docking station
  

  Abstract: A wireless docking station that allows a wireless connection between a computing device, for example a hand-held computing device, and a plurality of peripheral devices.
• The invention relates generally to peripheral component interconnect buses, and more particularly to interconnect buses over a wireless medium.

• The Market for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB, and 60 GHZ in Consumer Electronic Devices
• research suggests that the different technologies will not compete within the home, but will be used in coordination, overlapping and coexisting for full wireless network coverage.

• U.S. Consumers and Small Businesses to Spend More than $18 Billion in 2009 on PC-Related Accessories, Peripherals, Software, and Services
• U.S. consumers over the age of 18 spend an average of $0.87 on additional PC-related purchases for every $1 dollar they spent on a PC.

  • Testing out sticky note comments. How does this show up?
• Small businesses with less than 100 employees spend an average of $284 per PC on other products and services that enhance usage and productivity, while securing their computing environment.
• The largest portion of the small business budget for accessories is spent at the time of the purchase
• 26.2% of the overall budget is spent within three months of the PC purchase
• IDC also notes that for PC purchases, small business buyers acquire the majority of their desktops as replacements for existing desktops, while most notebooks are additional PC purchases.
• "The estimated size of PC-related purchases in the transactional market, excluding the PC itself, is $18.8 billion this year (2009)

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• sold more than a million of its USB graphics chips. Those have found their way into more than thirty different products from a number of manufacturers, including both wired and wireless USB adapters, projectors, USB docking stations, and a whole range of USB-connected monitors.

• Apple has been granted a patent (number 20080002350) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for an integrated monitor and docking station.
• it’s for a portable computer—and said portable computer doesn’t appear to be an iPod or anything currently available.
• in the patent a docking station is disclosed. The docking station includes a display and a housing configured to hold the display in a manner that exposes a viewing surface of the display to view.
• The housing defines a docking area configured to receive a portable computer.
• The docking area is at least partly obscured by the display when viewed from the viewing surface side of the display at an angle substantially orthogonal to the viewing surface.
• Traditionally a portable computer docking station requires a separate external monitor to be connected (e.g., by cable) to the docking station when a display other than the integrated display of the portable computer is desired to be used with the docking station, Apple notes.
• Often a significant amount of desk space is required for placement of this docking station and separate display. Attempts have been made to conserve the required amount of desk space by allowing the external display to be stacked on top of the docking station.
• there exists a need for a docking station and display combination that is configured in a more efficient form.
• invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a composition of matter, a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links.

• The inventor is Augustin Farrugia. The graphic below shows a front view of the docking station.

    

  

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• Asus Announces Multimedia Docking Station
• Asus intends for gamers to use the docking station as an intermediary between their notebook and a large-screen monitor, the higher resolution of which might tax the notebook's graphics chipset.
• Asus has announced a gadget they're calling the ROG XG – a “VGA and multimedia docking station” for notebooks.
• Asus describes as a “world's first” for a docking station,
• bundled with a 256MB graphics card to supplement your notebook's underpowered chipset, as well as a built-in express card interface, two speakers with simulated Dolby 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 sound, and a 4-port USB 2.0 hub. The thing looks cool, in a gamer kind of way; cool enough to grab honorable mention at the Red Dot design awards this year.
• Asus intends for gamers to use the docking station as an intermediary between their notebook and a large-screen monitor, the higher resolution of which might tax the notebook's graphics chipset.
• With its own graphics and audio processing power, the dock should free up the notebook's CPU to concentrate on grinding out good game performance. To appeal to the hacker-types, Asus included an “ergonomic knob” on the front of the ROG XG that allows you to safely over- or underclock the speed of the device's GPU, which is a common hobby of gamers who want to squeeze more performance out of their systems, often at the risk of a voided warranty or overheated PC.

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• StarTech USBVGADOCK USB Docking Station with VGA
• the virtual docking station, which provides  several physical ports via USB, is a relatively new idea.
• here's the real innovation – a VGA port. While every PC has a display port, of course, the real  value here is in being able to add a second display (and all that additional screen real estate) to your PC using the multi-monitor  capabilities of Windows.

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• featuring a CD/DVD burner and an internal SATA connector that allows you to expand your storage capability by throwing in another 2.5" SATA hard drive or SSD.
• A couple of USB 2.0 ports allow you to hook up at least two more devices of your choice.
• inclusion of a 4cm fan might help keep your netbook extra cool when running.

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• Kensington Wireless USB Docking Station
• Kensington Docking Station Makes Mobile Computing Almost Magical
• Jumping on Kensington's first-of-its-kind Wireless USB Docking Station is kind of like flying on a digital magic carpet.
• there are a few gotchas. Wireless USB (WUSB) is a new standard and some notebooks can't hook up with this docking station. Relatively few vendors have WUSB-ready notebooks out just yet
• Dell and Lenovo offer a few models and other companies should be out the gate by this fall.
• But so far only Kensington offers a full-fledged docking station that supports video monitors.
• video connector is DVI-only but a DVI-to-VGA adapter is included

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