but it doesnt do 1 port to 2 ports, it does one port to 1 port (because you'll be using one of the two ports to connect to your mac, so its passthrough single port, not one port in, two ports out)
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Sonnet Announces Thunderbolt Dock With Internal Drive Bay and Blu-Ray Drive
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but it doesnt do 1 port to 2 ports, it does one port to 1 port (because you'll be using one of the two ports to connect to your mac, so its passthrough single port, not one port in, two ports out)
I have a blu-ray burner and player in my mac pro. I'm not sure where you got the crazy idea that Apple doesn't allow blu-ray playback. I burn blu-ray discs using Toast, and I play movies using Blu-Ray Player for Mac. In the future you might want to get your facts straight before you get all excited and post misinformation.
There are people out there that rip the content they purchase, thanks for assuming they don't exist.
There are also people that hook computers up to tvs, many even have a dedicated htpc machine for that, the mini actually makes a great box for the use, although it lacks a disc drive that would make it a more complete solution.
A box that matches the profile of the mini, holds a drive for media storage, has a blu ray drive, includes blu ray software, has esata and provides other connectivity.
That reads like a potentially great addition to a mini htpc rig.
Hell, assuming the thunderbolt display still hasn't been updated by the time this launches this would make a great companion for it. Run the tb display off this, one cable for full connectivity, disc, storage, lan, ports, sound system, etc.
If this launches at the stated price, with the stated features it will blow the matrox and belkin docks out of the water. At this rate it may even beat the belkin dock to market.
The other docks being delayed, disappointing and overpriced for limited features is the only thing since the op that matters.
40" isn't big anymore.
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Interesting
This is the first dock I would actually consider... Good for Sonnet. Shame they made it so ugly though...
This is the first dock I would actually consider... Good for Sonnet. Shame they made it so ugly though...
I see a lot of people aren't happy about the price but thunderbolt peripherals are still very young and rare. The technology is expensive because it is new and faces stuff competition from USB 3 and its difficult to break this mold because at these prices it only caters to early adaptors. It is a cools idea non the less.
Then don't buy it.
Read what the op posted again. His comment was that he just wanted (like most people) a pretty simple little thunderbolt 'splitter' to get 2 ports out of one.
A lot of us just want a simple thunderbolt to usb 3.0 hub, or something similar.
Yet all the devices coming out are high-end (and in this case, butt ugly) docking stations (this one isn't really a dock though, merely a mashup of crap loads of connectors in a box).
A few more simple devices are needed, thats what the MAJORITY want, and wont pay silly prices for it.
I'd rather have it ugly and functional, rather than pretty and cut out some key features. Especially considering there's a HD drive bay and an optical drive bay that need to be shoved in there. Kinda looks like a tall Mac Mini from the G4 days.
this thing would be awesome with one of the new imacs. get the wall mount option and you would only have the power and thunderbolt cable coming off the imac. mount this thing under your desk or something, keep all the (and more) ports of the imac accessible, no cable clutter.
Attaching a bag of hurt with Thunderbolt does't make it less of a bag of hurt.
And besides, Apple has the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes.
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Apple has the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes. They are making certain that you have the best possible User Experience. That is what they do.
And besides, Apple has the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes.
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Apple has the best HD movie and TV options in iTunes. They are making certain that you have the best possible User Experience. That is what they do.
I'm going to second this. For all that, it's the best TB expansion, value-wise.
That said, I only need the ports and not the drives. Maybe they'll offer a smaller model minus the HDD/Opti drives for a lower price.
It seems most Mac users are only asking for more I/O, and yet vendors are wanting to give us everything but the kitchen sink and at a huge price. Is it really that hard to make a box with a couple FW800, USB3 and Gig E? Hell, I'd even take a squid configuration. Just please leave me with a video port. I don't even need an extra TB, MDP is fine.
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Oh, and this, too.
Apple will simply allow you to download it overnight. It will be SO worth it!
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You may also want to drive a horse and buggy, but don't try that on the freeway!
Apple skates to where the puck is going to be. And the puck is going towards iCloud and iTunes.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Your choice.
Well I'm 17 and don't have an income like most high school students in Ireland. Going down to a film rental shop is slow, poor choice of films and expensive. Thus my current form of acquiring films is better.
However, I love something like netflix that is even lazier than my current method. This I would pay for in a heartbeat given income.
I acquire my games similarly, but if I like a game, especially Indie games, I always purchase the game legally.
Cheaper and better looking
I'll wait for this...
http://www.hengedocks.com/order_horizontal_dock.php
I'll wait for this...
http://www.hengedocks.com/order_horizontal_dock.php
Really out done themselves on design. It looks AWFUL. If its a Mac product at least do what G-tech do and make it sorta have a Mac look, its not like its a cheap product either.
Which isn't technically possible (at least, not if you want to keep the word "simple" in there).
If you have a USB3 Mac, then what you want is a regular USB3 hub.
I agree that a TB-USB3 box would be useful - but only to those of us with 2011 Macs with Thunderbolt but no USB3. That's probably too limited a market - and shrinking as the people with deeper pockets upgrade their 2-year-old Macs - for anybody to make an affordable one.
(Personally, I can live without USB3 until I upgrade in a year or so - but the Sonnet box looks far more useful, and will probably still be relevant to whatever I upgrade to).
If you are desperate, you can get a Sonnet Thunderbolt-to-ExpressCard adapter and stick in a USB3 ExpressCard interface. However, that product isn't for you - its for AV people with expensive ExpressCard-based kit who are up the creek since Apple dropped ExpressCard from the MBPs - so you won't like the price.
Thing is, there's a large fixed cost to building a box with a TB-to-PCIe bridge and Thunderbolt in/out (plus the punter has got to buy a relatively expensive cable). Once you've done that, it makes sense to throw in all the interfaces you can eat, using regular PCIe-to-USB3/Firewire/Ethernet/SATA controllers.
That's not what Thunderbolt is for. If you want a "simple device" then USB will almost always be a better bet. USB3 is fast enough for anything up to a single fast SSD. Thunderbolt comes into its own when you want something like a SSD RAID set... or a dock with half-a-dozen interfaces running at once.
I suspect that Apple's 'cheap and simple' Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet/Firewire adapters are heavily subsidised - and/or some type of kludge short of a full blown Thunderbolt device - on the basis that Apple needs them to smooth over the removal of these interfaces from the rMBPs.
What you have with the Sonnet dock is a box that turns a Mac Mini or MacBook Air into something more like a desktop mini-tower.
Sure hope these Docks deliver full throughput on all those ports. They cost a fortune.
Ugly, isn't it? Looks like someone punched some holes in one of Nanna's old biscuit tins and painted it black.
Thunderbolt is very cool, so I do hope this brings its advantages to more users.
I got a LaCie Thunderbolt drive a while ago - only 5400rpm, but man it's fast. Open a huge folder of folders and all the sizes are already calculated. No tricking the system into calculating, it's all just there, the way it should be. You know, the way it was in Mac OS, before OS X made Mac as dumb as Windows.
Ugly, isn't it? Looks like someone punched some holes in one of Nanna's old biscuit tins and painted it black.
Thunderbolt is very cool, so I do hope this brings its advantages to more users.
I got a LaCie Thunderbolt drive a while ago - only 5400rpm, but man it's fast. Open a huge folder of folders and all the sizes are already calculated. No tricking the system into calculating, it's all just there, the way it should be. You know, the way it was in Mac OS, before OS X made Mac as dumb as Windows.
Anyone remember font sizes that didn't change with screen resolution? (points ain't pixels, dumb-arse)
Apps that you could actually put into the background and kept processing, not popping back to the front, for no apparent reason? Heck, it wasn't that long ago you could put a Safari tab into the background and it kept loading - not any more, it waits until you switch back to it, to load. Yech! OS X is getting dumber by the minute. I really miss Mac OS.
Er
more power to Sonnet
just make it live up to the promises.Apps that you could actually put into the background and kept processing, not popping back to the front, for no apparent reason? Heck, it wasn't that long ago you could put a Safari tab into the background and it kept loading - not any more, it waits until you switch back to it, to load. Yech! OS X is getting dumber by the minute. I really miss Mac OS.
