Apple Creating iMac-like Docking Station

[MacHiavelli]

This looks interesting:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...omments/15936/

[BiikeMike]

you beat me by two minutes!

They also have a cool keyboard patent

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/a...-macbook-dock/

[Techguy172]

That is certainly a Different way of doing things. It must have a DVI Connector in there or something to allow the laptop to connect to the screen.

[Mydel]

Yeah that look pretty interesting. But screen should have also possibility to work with other devices

[Raid]

The concept reminds me of the good 'ol Duo's, but the sketch is a little rough... I'm not sure if there's a big enough market for this, but I could see how some might find it useful.

[tkidBOSTON]

Let's chalk this one up next to the Folio. Is anyone going to really shell out a ton of money for a "companion product" like that?

[koobcamuk]

Originally Posted by Techguy172

It must have a DVI Connector in there or something to allow the laptop to connect to the screen.

seems like the laptop is the screen.

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by koobcamuk

seems like the laptop is the screen.

Look at the Gizmodo mockup. It would have to have smaller screen on the notebook with the bigger LCD being in the base.

Otherwise we are going to get 13" lcd docking stations or 20" notebooks.

[white pilgrim]

There has been some speculation around the internet that the patent could be tied to the rumored Apple ultra-portable. While the timing of the publication is interesting, the application itself remains generic in nature, and appears to be applicable to any notebook computer.

If it works with a slot, I can't imagine how my 17" mbp will ever get in.

[FunkyELF]

Originally Posted by Techguy172

That is certainly a Different way of doing things. It must have a DVI Connector in there or something to allow the laptop to connect to the screen.

Why can't you just use your iMac as an external display for your ultra-portable?
...oh yeah, it doesn't have a DVI connection!
The lack of a DVI connection is what stopped me from buying an iMac.
That thing would make a perfectly good display in 4 years when the computer is obsolete. But no, apple wants you to throw it away. Not very green is it?

I could imagine some mac zealots replacing one iMac with a new one every two years....what a waste.

Why no DVI input on an iMac? Are they afraid that they would sell less of their flat panel monitors? Are they afraid that someone would use an iMac as a display for their Dell laptop?

I'm just picturing someone with a Mac Mini with a display, an iMac, and this new ultra portable with the docking station. 3 displays (not counting the laptop's built in display) when you should only need 1 with a KVM.

They're saying this will take up less desk space?...it will use up more desk space!

The iMac desperately needs DVI / VGA input.
Chances are that this docking station won't even have DVI or VGA input and will only work with apple portables when they're inside the thing.

[tarhunni]

Well this is what i think that they will do:

I think we can all safely assume that the new ultra-portable will have intergrated graphics and a relatively small storage well then i think that the dock will inc. a

Large display at least 20"
a bigger harddrive
a good graphics card (configurable)
an optical drive
isight and keyboard and mouse
and the the range of ports

also havent we all heard about these rediculosly small processors intel's releasing, then the new ultra-portability can have a really gd processor, but compromise on graphics until u slot it in the mac-shell where it then uses the graphics card in there. Also i think we should all stop worry about overheating since this is apple were talking about and they have pro industrial designers who will work something out.

If the above is true, i would snap one up straight away!!!!!

[137489]

Originally Posted by tarhunni

Well this is what i think that they will do:

I think we can all safely assume that the new ultra-portable will have intergrated graphics and a relatively small storage well then i think that the dock will inc. a

Large display at least 20"
a bigger harddrive
a good graphics card (configurable)
an optical drive
isight and keyboard and mouse
and the the range of ports

also havent we all heard about these rediculosly small processors intel's releasing, then the new ultra-portability can have a really gd processor, but compromise on graphics until u slot it in the mac-shell where it then uses the graphics card in there. Also i think we should all stop worry about overheating since this is apple were talking about and they have pro industrial designers who will work something out.

If the above is true, i would snap one up straight away!!!!!

I LIKE YOUR SCENERIO!!!! And as for the overheat issue - make the back panel have entirely slotted and put in a few fans on front and side. The best tower case I had for a PC had the following:

1. 2 fans on the front that blew inward (had a removable washable dust filter).
2. One Fan on top that blew outward (since heat rises).
3. One Fan on the side that blew inward.
4. Two fans on the back that blew outward.

Talk about air circulation...... I am sure Apple can do it!!!!

[Nenita]

Originally Posted by FunkyELF

Why can't you just use your iMac as an external display for your ultra-portable?
...oh yeah, it doesn't have a DVI connection!
The lack of a DVI connection is what stopped me from buying an iMac.
That thing would make a perfectly good display in 4 years when the computer is obsolete. But no, apple wants you to throw it away. Not very green is it?

I could imagine some mac zealots replacing one iMac with a new one every two years....what a waste.

Why no DVI input on an iMac? Are they afraid that they would sell less of their flat panel monitors? Are they afraid that someone would use an iMac as a display for their Dell laptop?

I'm just picturing someone with a Mac Mini with a display, an iMac, and this new ultra portable with the docking station. 3 displays (not counting the laptop's built in display) when you should only need 1 with a KVM.

They're saying this will take up less desk space?...it will use up more desk space!

The iMac desperately needs DVI / VGA input.
Chances are that this docking station won't even have DVI or VGA input and will only work with apple portables when they're inside the thing.

you just don't get it. at all. 1st of all the imac has a longer life spand than a regular wintel machine I know people that still are using a G3 blue bondy iMac for basic internet, online banking, casual gaming, IM and basic word processing. so you may be the one that isn't green; have you taught about donating your computer when it no longer serves your needs? and if for you apple displays are to expensive then buy some one else's its a free market.

make sure you read the patent and at least glance over previous post this thing isnt a tablet, it has a display and ports and many other things that will complement the UP ... if it comes to market.

[FunkyELF]

Originally Posted by Nenita

you just don't get it. at all. 1st of all the imac has a longer life spand than a regular wintel machine I know people that still are using a G3 blue bondy iMac for basic internet, online banking, casual gaming, IM and basic word processing. so you may be the one that isn't green;

1 year ago I put together a new computer, before that my newest computer was one I put together in 2001.
I got 6 years out of the thing and I still use it today. It runs Linux with Compiz-Fusion just fine. Only reason I got a newer one was because my AMD Thunderbird 1.3GHz wasn't fast enough (for me anyway) to encode video and I wanted to run MythTV, and it didn't have the right instruction set to run the latest proprietary adobe video editing software.

Here's the point....when I built my new computer, I didn't need to buy a new monitor. The one I was using before that was perfectly good.

Do you understand?

I understand that you can use a computer for more than 4 years if you use a real operating system like OSX or Linux....in fact I have done it. Like I said, 6 years and going strong.

Do you understand that displays should be able to last longer?

Do you understand that while computers "can" last that long, some people working with RAW digital photos or animation or other power hungry apps actually replace their computers every 2 years while their display works perfectly fine.

[CWallace]

But going into the iMac you understand you can't upgrade the CPU or GPU (period) nor the HDD/Optical drive (without serious effort).

So if you really feel the need to leverage your investment in monitors and other internal peripherals, you can save money (at the expense of performance) and get a Mac Mini or you can spend more money (and get more performance) with the Mac Pro.

If the iMac was the only Macintosh desktop on offer, I'd understand the angst.

But it isn't. It just happens to be the best value for many folks, even with the drawbacks. And one of those drawbacks is lack of internal upgrading (outside of RAM).

[MattInOz]

Originally Posted by FunkyELF

Why can't you just use your iMac as an external display for your ultra-portable?
...oh yeah, it doesn't have a DVI connection!
The lack of a DVI connection is what stopped me from buying an iMac.
That thing would make a perfectly good display in 4 years when the computer is obsolete. But no, apple wants you to throw it away. Not very green is it?

I could imagine some mac zealots replacing one iMac with a new one every two years....what a waste.

Why no DVI input on an iMac? Are they afraid that they would sell less of their flat panel monitors? Are they afraid that someone would use an iMac as a display for their Dell laptop?

I'm just picturing someone with a Mac Mini with a display, an iMac, and this new ultra portable with the docking station. 3 displays (not counting the laptop's built in display) when you should only need 1 with a KVM.

They're saying this will take up less desk space?...it will use up more desk space!

The iMac desperately needs DVI / VGA input.
Chances are that this docking station won't even have DVI or VGA input and will only work with apple portables when they're inside the thing.

Umm,...
You see have spent years working on this little think they call Quartz, what quartz does is reduce the band width needed between the CPU and GPU. Leopard started to add multi threading to the Quartz so it can run on multiple GPUs and a mix of CPUs , it's all openGL anyway.

Ok was it's fully mutli-threading then you can guess the next step is to move the GPU to another device with a lower bandwidth connection.

So this dock could use something like UMB to make a connection to a GPU in the dock to drive the screen. In a few years time you might be able to treat your current iMac as a dock, a second screen slave to your laptop, use the hard drive as your time machine.

I think the patent hints at interesting things to come.

[Matek]

That seems weird, I don't really see any point in it.

If the dock is a whole computer with an ability to dock a laptop, it's kinda weird because you can only use one of them at the same time. It's like having a desktop computer and then unplugging all peripherals and replugging them into your laptop - why would you do that on a regular basis? In my experience, dock users usually have powerful laptops and use them as primary systems and docks just provide them with easily available extensions.

On the other hand, if it's just a monitor, it's awkward because you can only use that single Apple display, they don't give you any choices.

I'd prefer they just release a regular dock - not having one is currently a major downside of their laptop range.

[Howard Brazee]

What I want is to have a desktop and a laptop that synchronize automatically, and trustworthy enough that one is a backup of the other.

With two computers, my laptop will be small and portable, without a large screen - but when I'm home I want a full-sized monitor, keyboard, mouse - and Time Machine drive.

I dislike the fact that my wife's 24" iMac can't be used just as a monitor for her laptop.

[Intarweb]

I wouldn't want a doc. I'd rather have a cable. If something happens to the connectors inside the dock, that's a big fix. Where as if something happens to the cable, it's an easy, and most likely cheap, replace.

[MacRumors]

A patent application submitted in 2006 and published for the first time today has revealed that Apple is working on a docking station for portable computers, the exterior of which closely resembles Apple's iMac line of desktop computers.

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.

Apple argues that its docking station concept is superior in that it requires less desk space due to its vertical orientation. It is also simpler, as the display is integrated and wireless network technologies will be employed for communication between the dock and the portable.

There has been some speculation around the internet that the patent could be tied to the rumored Apple ultra-portable. While the timing of the publication is interesting, the application itself remains generic in nature, and appears to be applicable to any notebook computer.

Raw Data: Patent Application #20080002350

Article Link

[JFreak]

I've waited for something like this for ages!

[CWallace]

I wonder if the dock will have an integrated LCD and the whole laptop just tucks in behind it, or if it will be an open area that a Mac tablet (with multi-touch?) would slide into, as kontheur mocked up:

[longofest]

The dock includes a display

[Shacklebolt]

Let's hope that Apple works out the kinks... and makes it a little bit classier than the... uh...

[sushi]

Maybe this idea (patent) is the modern day version of the Duo Dock.