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Apple Creating iMac-like Docking Station

That seems absolutely retarded. Sometimes I wonder if Apple submits dumb patents to throw the rumormongers off.
 
Can someone get this guy a straight edge?

Honestly... a free-hand drawing?

-Clive[/QUOTE]


that's same guy for the wiggled icons for sure!
 
Just at a first glance it looks dumb. I don't want my laptop hanging off the side of my monitor, sorry.

I would be extremely happy if Apple just provided a simple dock that allowed one connection to pass keyboard, monitor, sound, ethernet, etc.

It has always irked me that Apple labeled the MacBookPro / PowerBook as a professional laptop but never provided a professional dock option. IBM, DELL, SONY, all have dock options but not Apple.
 
The is a Rube Goldberg solution in search of a problem and not at all practical.
 
Masquerade said:
Can someone get this guy a straight edge?

Honestly... a free-hand drawing?

-Clive
Click to expand...


that's same guy for the wiggled icons for sure![/QUOTE]

Pay attention to detail. The laptop is NOT YET fully inserted. Look at the icon on the screen. It has a picture of the laptop and an arrow meaning insert.
 
Cooknn said:
From Gizmodo this morning: Apple Docking Patent Works Perfectly with Ultra Slim MacBook.
thumb463x_imac-dock.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't know if Apple will ever make it, but this mock-up would finally be a laptop I might buy. I would have all the functionality (large screen, real keyboard...) of my iMac, with a small laptop to take on the go. No sync required.

Some people don't need a super fast processor. I believe iMacs already use a lot of laptop components.
 
RBR2 said:
The is a Rube Goldberg solution in search of a problem and not at all practical.
Click to expand...

As someone who uses my MBP in lid-closed mode with a ACD... this solution actually makes a lot of sense. It DOES take up a lot of desk space to use my computer this way, and I would seriously think of getting a display like that for it. Its actually quite an elegant solution.
 
If this was released I would get rid of my 20" iMac and Macbook replace it with a Macbook Pro and one of those thing. That is an awesome concept, getting the best of both worlds. :cool:
 
I have been planning to look very closely at the subnotebook coming out soon (hopefully) and if impressed, buy it but also get a desktop as I need the larger screen.

This solution, if true, will be perfect. When I first read this rumour I did backflips. I hope it is true, and you can get it as a combo....my life will change!!:p
 
I was in doubt whether to buy an iMac or a new laptop. I like the iMac for the bigger screen, hard drive space, and better design (than the MacBook Pro). Now, if this became reality, that would be great.

The subnotebook would be great for on the go. I rarely use my optical drive, so it could be in the iMac. It's nice and small as a replacement for my aging PowerBook 12". And at home, I'll just throw the PowerBook into the shell and boom, there's my large display, and some extra disk space. Also think about this: Time Machine could backup the subnotebook to the internal drive in the iMac, getting rid of the uglyness of having an external disk.

It would be great by the way, if the iMac would indeed have its own graphics accelerator.
 
FunkyELF said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

apple_duodock_1.jpg
Click to expand...

yeah, but it was immensely functional. And for its time, pretty innovative. You've gotta remember the primitive stage many laptops were at, back then. Also, apple also sold a "mini dock" that lacked the extra hard drive, ethernet connex, etc., but was only maybe 2" x 1 1/2" x 12", you kept it at your deskp with peripherals plugged into it and just coupled the duo to it, instead of having to connect/reconnect half a dozen wires.
 
Yes, yes, yes! Finally! I've been waiting so long for Apple to create some kind of laptop dock. Unfortunately, I'm assuming the dock is only going to work with the new sub-notebook.
 
CrazyWingman said:
...what if Apple were to add just enough extra hardware to make it effectively an AppleTV? Then you've got a completely usable TV, with content loaded on it, ready for viewing while you use your portable for something else...
Click to expand...

a good idea. other mfgrs' computers have tuners built in, for ex: why not apple? And don't we already pay $79 or some sort of similar ransom just for the cables necessary to connect our iPods/iPhones/laptops to our tvs?

and here's another, from mtrctyjoe: "Wouldn't it be great... if you could connect the tablet to the iMac docking station via WiFi from anywhere?" Isn't that ease of syncing what some new Leopard feature supposedly facilitates? I sense software/hardware convergence here, that could put to rest our fears about not having all our files with us in our laptops at all times.

"zioxide" says "There's a difference between a $100 port replicator/dock and a $1000 dock with integrated monitor." I'm remembering the "big" duo dock being a $349 item, and that was 10 years ago--the equivalent of what, a $600-700 device in today's dollars? Can somebody search out the correct price back then?
 
jemo07 said:
It could be just a doc for the iPhone? :eek:I came up with this when I realized the drawing looked very similar to the wiggle icon for iPhone wiggle patent now in 1.1.3 :apple: Any takers? :confused::D

JM:apple:
Click to expand...

That's something I would be really interested in, but the dock would need to be in a laptop form factor.

Picture a 13" MacBook or 12" PowerBook size, with a harddrive, keyboard, a large multitouch trackpad, battery, USB/FW ports, an optical drive, etc.

I suppose what would make the most sense is to have it boot off the docks drive, using the iPhone's CPU/RAM, but loading a more full featured version of OSX. If it was, say, $399 (the price as the iPhone) I think it would be really successful as a companion machine to both desktop users as well as iPhone users... Good idea, though.
 
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