Wireless docking stations have been around
for years now, but the main issue has been bandwidth. Sure, it's easy to send a wireless mouse signal through the air, but try shoving 720p video, four USB signals and a little bit of arrogance though those highly-spaced particles. Toshiba's new
dynadock wireless U USB docking station does a commendable job of doing the best it can with what it has, tapping into
wireless USB technology in order to nix the need for your laptop to actually be seated into your docking station. The device can be setup to auto-connect when your machine is in range, and a one-touch undock button carefully shuts down all of your peripherals as you exit. There's six USB 2.0 sockets (included two of the
Sleep-and-Charge variety), integrated 7.1 audio and support for a VGA / DVI monitor with resolutions as high as 1,680 x 1,050. Nah, that's not quite 1080p, but we'll take it for now. The $299.99 asking price, however, is a bit harder to swallow.
posted Sep 17th 2009 11:23AM
Seriously? "Full HD"? are you guys really using Sony Buzzwords now? Actually According to NTSC HD broadcast standards, 1,680 x 1,050 would have the bandwidth to support a resolution of 1080i, and thus would be considered "HDTV Compatible". now it wouldn't support 1080p resolution, but common, lay off the buzzwords.
Chill, fullHD is an easy to use term, no matter who thoght it up.
then please, DEFINE what the heck it means....HD is an umbrella term that basically means "anything above the old NTSC standard of 720x480 D1" so please, enlighten me to what FULL-HD means...
HD - anything above NTSC standard quality
FullHD - the highest resolution currently available for movies and tv aka 1080p
see, was that so hard?
THAT'S...aaugh, must...refrain...WHAT...no, no...mustn't...can't help...SHE...not...going to...make it...SAID!...the pain...
then what do you consider 2K and 4K?
until i see 2k and 4k movies for home use, FullHD will mean 1080p for me. Now once 2k and 4k movies come out, if Sony is still calling 1080p HDTVs FullHD, then I will call BS on them. For now, I think its a perfectly legitimate term.
"fullHD" means "a pony".
Too expensive! It is just too easy to using a wired usb port for a tenth of the price.
"those highly-spaced particles"
...
I think you mean something more along the lines of:
"those densely-packed 1s and 0s"
This is much more than a wired usb port though. This is, imo, a great start for feature-packed wireless docking stations of the future!
Wireless autoconnect to HD Audio+DVI+USB port for my laptop is excellence!
Add wireless charging of my laptop, and you've got yourself a deal!
If it'll process my ego too, I'll take it!
Hmm how much badwidth does wireless USB have. I have the dyna dock that uses USB 2.0 and it works decent but it has some quirks. It gets really crazy when trying to play various flash video. Also I think that a lot of CPU cycles are eaten up processing the video that goes to the dyna dock.
Still a cool product.
Also why does the toshiba site suck for drivers. I have to goto display link to get the new video driver. The toshiba dyna dock website needs some focus to actaulyl have the latest drivers for all components in the dyna dock.
Weird, I see the price as $149, which seems a bit more reasonable.
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/accessories.jsp?category=Docking%20and%20Expansion&sub%20category=Port%20Replicators&src=BUEM&cm_mmc=google_sem-_-toshiba_accessories-_-brand_dock-_-toshiba_dock&gclid=CNHhz5qK-ZwCFUwwpAodWHgbbA
Duncan,
That price is for the 'wired' version. The article is about the 'wireless' version. This distinction is made on the method of connecting the laptop to the docking station.
Also, the 'wired' version is silver with matte black accents; whereas the 'wireless' version is a darker silver with glossy black accents thereby upping the 'shiny' factor.
Very nice!
And as soon as the price comes down to a reasonable $100, I'll pick one up, Toshiba. (At the current price, I'll buy a netbook instead ...)
Actually, this is fantastic. A cross platform docking station that doesn't require the laptop to be plugged into it and can handle all these devices? Its fantastic. I paid about $150 for my Lenovo docking station and the only thing that that does better than this is charge the laptop. This has such potential. If they make that hideous dongle into a micro dongle or an internal card, this device would be a huge seller.