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Friday, May 02, 2008

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Is There a Dock On Your Desk? Lenovo Wants Your Input

- Matt Faulkner

Inside The Box, the Lenovo blog, has an article that talk about something we don't think of here much where people are 'mobile' all the time..  But there are also those that are mobile and also have to be a the desk a lot too. (That's me) 

While it is centered around Lenovo computers, the article still puts out an interesting perspective on docking and the designing of docks.  I have never seen or been in an office where 'hot desking' was in place, so that take on the dock idea never really crossed my mind:

Customers who use “hot desking” love this compatibility. Hot desking is often used in sales or other environments when users are commonly away from the office. Instead of giving each person a dedicated desk, users can drop in to the office once every so often, find an empty desk, and then sit down and work. This saves real estate space since on average only a small percentage of people will come by the office to work.

Read the full article over on Inside The Box and give comments if you wish.  My first comment would be support for at least DVI, HDMI would be a bonus, but not necessary.  What's the most important thing for you in a dock?

Survey Link



Friday, May 02, 2008 9:53:09 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
The most important thing to me about any dock is that it "just works." One should be able to dock quickly and easily, and pull the computer and go just as quickly and easily. There are so many issues right now, I'm not worried about how many USB ports and what type of monitor it supports nearly as much as I am that I will be able to set it up without a lot of headache and it will remember the settings.

Sharon
sbtablet
Friday, May 02, 2008 11:22:20 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
I've seen hot desking at a couple of homebuilder companies, but the hot desks were basically cubicles with USB keyboard and mouse available. No external monitors.

I did work at one place where docking stations were standard, but that was for people who take their notebooks home and for accommodating their semi-fluid arrangement of workstations. Hardware appeared standardized, so compatibility was not an issue.

My home "docking station" consists of a USB hub to my peripherals and a VGA cable to the TV. I'd upgrade to a real dock, but they cost too much for the amount of use it'd get, and VGA is fine given the quality of web video. Not like I need a digital connection to watch low-res YouTube videos. I am, however, eyeing the Belkin network USB hub for a wireless docking experience. No external video, but that's not a major consideration.
Friday, May 02, 2008 1:11:09 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
I have the ultradock (or whatever it's called) for my x61t and it's just great for the 40% of the time I'm using my computer at my desk. The big thing I'd like to see from lenovo is a usb powered enclosure for my ultrabay dvd burner. Honestly I find myself having to pack up my dock which nearly doubles amount of bag space needed when the only reason I am taking it is for the optical drive. I've thought about buying another slim external burner, but why should I when I've already got one that can just pop out of my dock and slip into an enlcosure to be taken with me. Now that would be great.
Eric C Rusch Jr
Friday, May 02, 2008 4:22:18 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
Agree with Sharon (sbtablet) that well working, no-thought dock and undock is very important (although Microsoft have more work to do in this field, also in reliability of external screen detection.)

[Of course, to be fair we should note that Apple fails to provide a dock at all, so you have to plug in the screen and the USB and the power manually, every time.]

One of my biggest frustrations is poor detection of USB peripherals attached to the dock.

I'd like to see more docks with Firewire ports (pref FW800) also an eSATA connector. Part of the value of the dock is to have faster connectivity.

For laptops that don't have an internal dvd drive, it might be good to have one in the dock. Also a dock with a built in HD for doing backups could be good too.

The other thing on the wishlist (which I understand ATI/nVidia were working on, but Microsoft messed up by some poor design decisions in the Vista architecture) was a dock with a faster graphics card. That would be special.

Beyond that, my current Sony dock for my Vaio is pretty good as is.
Metatone
Friday, May 02, 2008 4:56:05 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
I use a dock for my Fujitsu T2010 and it's just perfect. A dock needs an opical drive (if the tablet has no), a few USB ports (at least three) an HDMI and/or DVI connector and an VGA connector, audio out, mic in, power connector, LAN and then maybe eSATA
Frank
Sunday, May 04, 2008 10:05:00 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
Dock quickly and pull the computer to go quickly and easily. I was more impressed with my Motion dock than I am with my Lenovo Ultradock.

Next on my list would be the ability to have an external monitor as primary and my TabletPC docked as secondary with the ability to ink on it!
Edward Lee
Comments are closed.


       





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