There are real uses for these, as Rory mentioned. Just perhaps not for the average Engadget reader... ;-)
We keep a Magma box installed on the instrument rack in our research aircraft, for image and data acquisition cards, etc. When we fly, we hook up to a laptop for data collection with LabView. It's a far better solution than keeping a full desktop installed in the aircraft.
There's at least one practical application that appeals to a slightly wider user base that no one has mentioned: docking. The video cards in most laptops have okay support for one external monitor, but what if you have a multi-monitor setup at home? As part of a docking station you could have this box hooked up to a multi-monitor video card and then whenever you docked your laptop you'd have full access to a keyboard, mouse, and multiple monitors. I might not pay the price quoted above for that functionality, but being able to add a multi-monitor video card to my laptop is something that I would drop a few shiny nickels for.
The N9 has arrived. What we can say from our first experience is that we're in the presence of a fantastically designed device with a gorgeous AMOLED screen and some highly responsive performance.
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Paul, E71:
There are real uses for these, as Rory mentioned. Just perhaps not for the average Engadget reader... ;-)
We keep a Magma box installed on the instrument rack in our research aircraft, for image and data acquisition cards, etc. When we fly, we hook up to a laptop for data collection with LabView. It's a far better solution than keeping a full desktop installed in the aircraft.
There's at least one practical application that appeals to a slightly wider user base that no one has mentioned: docking. The video cards in most laptops have okay support for one external monitor, but what if you have a multi-monitor setup at home? As part of a docking station you could have this box hooked up to a multi-monitor video card and then whenever you docked your laptop you'd have full access to a keyboard, mouse, and multiple monitors. I might not pay the price quoted above for that functionality, but being able to add a multi-monitor video card to my laptop is something that I would drop a few shiny nickels for.