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Kickstarter Project Aims To Make MacBook Air Dock
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so would most people
but you guys just have no idea of the costs to manufacture a product in small quantities
I recommend everybody to check the comments on the Kickstarter page of this product. It has very clear details about why there isn't Thunderbolt yet. It is not because the licensing is $1000, that is a misinterpretation by someone in this thread. The $1000 price was about the average price of a Thunderbolt product. I think they only looked at what the Promise RAID box costs.
This dock seems a bit better engineered, it looks more sturdy and it looks like it has a higher quality to it. That is a big must if you look at the very high price tag of $200. They could be a bit more expensive than the Hengedock because it does more than simply patching the ports on the notebook, it has an internal usb nic, usb hub, etc. which are more costly. For the $200 price tag I'd rather have it in aluminium (think Just Mobile Cooling Bar). This makes the product look cooler but it mostly makes it much more durable. If you dock and undock quite a lot this becomes a must.
Whatever they do I hope they get the Thunderbolt license and make a Thunderbolt dock. I also hope they make docks for the other notebooks from Apple. I think there are quite a lot of MBP owners who'd want something like this too.
This dock seems a bit better engineered, it looks more sturdy and it looks like it has a higher quality to it. That is a big must if you look at the very high price tag of $200. They could be a bit more expensive than the Hengedock because it does more than simply patching the ports on the notebook, it has an internal usb nic, usb hub, etc. which are more costly. For the $200 price tag I'd rather have it in aluminium (think Just Mobile Cooling Bar). This makes the product look cooler but it mostly makes it much more durable. If you dock and undock quite a lot this becomes a must.
Whatever they do I hope they get the Thunderbolt license and make a Thunderbolt dock. I also hope they make docks for the other notebooks from Apple. I think there are quite a lot of MBP owners who'd want something like this too.
Perhaps, but then that is even more odd IMO, especially since not all older MBAs have two usb ports.
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There is no licensing for Thunderbolt AFAIK.
I'm not sure if this is the perfect one for me, but I sure would love to have a dock of some sort.
This is just awful! Put $200 towards a TB display. Cheap looking, additional psu, limited to 10/100mb Ethernet, terrible.
set them up with several million $ so they can hire engineers, management, and pay for an advertising campaign. oh yeah, and get those licenses handled. then all they'll need is a Chinese sweatshop and you'll have it on the shelves at Best Buy.
Talk about plastic pieces of junk...
As mentioned, Thunderbolt is not easily licensable right now. The resolution limitation is due to the Minidisplay port, not the dock. Unless you expect them to build in a active dual-link dvi adapter...
What's your point? If they can't make it right because they don't have the money/engineers, are we supposed to buy it just to make them feel better about selling an expensive USB hub?
It needs to dock on both sides so the secure lock will work. Just docking on one side will not secure the laptop.
There is a huge difference between licensing and a licensing fee! You are mixing those up which you really shouldn't. I was only responding to the part for having a license to use it and for that you have to because it is registered, copyrighted, etc. You also need a license to use the SDK (which is crucial if you want to create thunderbolt products) and/or to log into the official thunderbolt website. So yes, you do need a license in every aspect. You nor I said anything about fees, that's what you are talking about now. If you want to know more about that I suggest contacting Intel via the link to the official website.
It needs to dock on both sides because on the left is power + usb + audio (and sd card on the 13"), on the right there is usb + thunderbolt or mini DisplayPort. Docking on both sides also makes it more sturdy and in this case it also looks good imo.
I have supported a number of kickstart projects, and I would like to like this one, but I just can't. It is over priced and feature poor and really just doesn't look that great. Sorry.
Very nice design but 4 USB ports and ethernet sharing the same bandwidth? Products like this need thunderbolt. There's really only 3 ports to be connected on the MBA, if you're not going to expand the current functionality, I'm not sure what the point is.
well it's not for you then. wait for something on slickdeals for $9.99. for someone who likes this project and is willing to spend more to help invest in a company who may do greater things in the future, $200 might be what they make in a few minutes.