Century's all-in-one dock gives your netbook a greater sense of value
By Ross Miller 
posted May 2nd 2009 6:57PM
posted May 2nd 2009 6:57PM
[Via Everything USB]
Read - Product page
Read - Hands-on
posted May 2nd 2009 6:57PM
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hmm i think if it went on sale for under £50 would be a good deal, seems handy:)
Since it's hard to find a slimline USB DVD drive for much less than £50 I doubt it.
GO BULLS!!!
lolz
theyre down by 23
im just watching to see if Garnett walks on in the 4th
I would like to see this shipping as a barebones, so you fir your own drive etc,
I'd rather spruce my drive up.
"but no word on how well it'll jibe with Linux"
That shouldn't matter, right? Because Windows is installed on 96% of netbooks, right?
Right?
Right...
You're right.
/me takes this opportunity to shake his fist at the Intel GMA500.
Considering it probably connects via USB, I don't see why Linux would have any trouble with this device.
Seems like a great idea.
I like the price, hope it comes to North America
Just import it using Tenso. (tenso.com)
This is actually a really good idea!
>SSD
>USB interface
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
your joke isn't nearly as funny as you act
What?
It's like hooking a v8 up to a blender.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4zLk2ZfgQ8
Why am I being voted down?
I'm just saying that putting an SSD in something that you'll only be able to get USB speeds out of is a waste of time.
And what the hell are you trying to say dtwhite?
Sweet: now get it compatable with OS X and bring it to teh US of A, and you've got yourself a customer.
I think they actually want to aim at more than the 32 people that are willing to spend gaming-laptop-grade money on the fruit's hot air.
@Prokanda
Dell Mini, Boot 132 and Hackintosh much?
@Prokanda
Dell Mini 9 $259
OSX Leopard $129
Kick-ass netbook for less than $400 and a half-hour's work: Ok, I'm not going to say "priceless", but it kinda rocks.
Heck, 100 bones for a DVD writer, a USB hub, and an external hard drive enclosure? Sign me up. I'll figure out how to get it working with Mac.
Oh wait, I don't have to. It's just an external USB hub with a hard drive connector and a DVD built in. It will just work with Mac or Windows. And probably Linux, with a simple Google driver search...
Next step would be fabricating an enclosure so that its permanent.
I'm not sure if that's what he meant though.... yes, a hackintosh netbook sounds nice. However, how well is a sub-$300 netbook really going to run OSX?
The complete original series of Dr Who only takes up around 200GB.
Duh. Some fans you are.
My netbook has a 160GB hard drive. I'm pretty sure you did NOT just invalidate their point.
My laptop has 40GB HDD. :P
@locuus: Mine too! *high five*
My omnibook 800 has a 7Gb drive...
My Toshiba Satellite has a 1.2GB HDD.
No one cares.
"Lets put a blue disk in the tray and advertise this DVD player." Did that throw anyone else off?
$100 is not bad...
Why no e-SATA???
so close, and yet so far....
I suppose because netbooks don't typically come with that interface.
Since the pop-up fan is a gimmick, and so is the "dock" really since it's just a USB cable tether, this is really just an external optical drive + external USB hard drive in one case.
Fortunately the price is quite reasonable, assuming it comes with the optical drive...
That wouldn't really make much sense. The speed of eSATA is just going to end up getting bottlenecked by the USB input into your netbook, because there aren't any netbooks with eSATA in. If you have an external hard drive with eSATA chances are it also has USB as well.
$100 huh? Maybe ill get it for My Aspire One.....just "beacuse"
If that can be completely run from USB Power, than that would ROCK. (Heck I would dedicate 2 USB ports to it, one for data & power, the other for more power)
Sure it would cut into the battery life, but the ability to have a 2nd HD is pretty cool. Plus it's smooth surface also makes it a fairly effective lap desk.
It has a dc power input on the side. It's a no go for me because of this one thing.
ah...thanks for that mitch.
No go for me too, because of that one detail...
If the DC input is "optional" than this device is a great idea.
HOWEVER I doubt that a single USB port can power BOTH a DVD burner and hard drive, and a fan.
I have some external 2.5" hard drives that are powered bu a single USB port.
And I have seen external DVD Burners that are powered by a single USB port...
So this device totally takes away from the whole point of these mini computers!
FTFA: If your greedy heart is desiring any really power hungry devices you better make sure you attach the included AC adapter otherwise things might get a bit dicey.[...]Having both these devices connected running on bus power (No AC adapter) can decrease battery life.
That would imply that the DC input is OPTIONAL to power the thing.
if a netbook is 2ndary and you have another machine lying around => network a drive?
That's a very reasonable price. If it's thin enough to fit in my already-thin netbook case, I'll buy one.
Cool design and a pretty good price too.
And Ross, respect for mentioning Doctor Who! :)
We're supposed to tape this to the bottom of our netbooks right?
/half sarcasm
Who cares how it will "jibe" with Linux? Why do people like to pretend that this OS is worth a damn and that people should have it in the back of their minds when designing a product of some sort? What happened to "OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY LOLOL?" Let your little community code the drivers themselves. That's their belief system after all.
I would have thought this would be plug and play, or at least you would just pile together existing drivers for usb sata and external drives.
Another reason why netbooks aren't good choices is they're just not complete. This accessory is a must have. If you're going to carry that dock around, may as well get a laptop. Get one with a good processor to future proof it.