Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Inductive charging and "wireless docking" UWB
- Thread starter robanga
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I doubt either will make it.
Inductive charging is pretty inefficient, and Apple is really big into selling efficient machines.
Wireless Docking? Doubt it, but then again, I don't really know about any wireless docking stations. Can you post a few to us to look at?
Probably the best thing I've head from any docking solution is something going through the MagSafe port and devices plugging into the brick (Something that was being thought of with the case redesign last year when the new Unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros came out (Hint was brick)... It was just an idea someone came up with last year, and I really liked it, but that doesn't mean anything. Good idea by me though. I'd love to have a feature like that since I have two chargers. One for home that remains hidden under my desk, and another for travel.
The fact is... Apple is slow to put things in that have been in other laptops for years, but will put a never heard of port in to make them unique. (HDMI, eSATA)
Inductive charging is pretty inefficient, and Apple is really big into selling efficient machines.
Wireless Docking? Doubt it, but then again, I don't really know about any wireless docking stations. Can you post a few to us to look at?
Probably the best thing I've head from any docking solution is something going through the MagSafe port and devices plugging into the brick (Something that was being thought of with the case redesign last year when the new Unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros came out (Hint was brick)... It was just an idea someone came up with last year, and I really liked it, but that doesn't mean anything. Good idea by me though. I'd love to have a feature like that since I have two chargers. One for home that remains hidden under my desk, and another for travel.
The fact is... Apple is slow to put things in that have been in other laptops for years, but will put a never heard of port in to make them unique. (HDMI, eSATA)
This irritates me. At least give me the standard while you are trying to artificially change what that standard is...then again how can you force a change if you give people a choice. I would gladly trade the FW port for another USB or something I would use.
You can almost be guaranteed that if it is being widely adopted by everyone else Steve will try to be different or only adopt it when he sees how much money he is losing by not doing so.
As an engineer*, I actually hope not. I see only downsides to both. WTF is the problem with a few wires, people? Anything that can be done wirelessly can be done faster, cheaper, lower power and more stably through wires. Especially for a docking station: the idea is that you're connecting it to things that are not mobile (large monitor) - so there is no problem making a single connection
Apple should:
1. stop dicking about with FW and make it standard. SJ was *so* adamant with making this a standard, and like a 2 year old with a toy he's suddenly lost interest and can't decide if he wants it or not. In the meantime it's become a de-facto standard on the Mac periperhal side.
2. Include combined USB/eSata interface. eSata is fast (I measure 100Mbps speeds on my 1.6GHz Thinkpad to an old WD MyBook) and works well.
3. Include a simple docking "strip" that has:
Some Power, FW, USB, Displayport, DVI, VGA, Ethernet and eSata through one connector.
*as an RF systems designer, working from DC-77GHz (analog and digital) I wouldn't even want UWB docking or charging.