Lenovo's new laptop accessories are modular, stackable, weird
Docks, external hard drives and other laptop add-ons are supposed to make your life easier, but they can be a hassle if you have to carry more than one. Just ask any traveler unpacking a mess of boxes and wires if you need proof. Lenovo wants to get rid of this clutter as much as you do, so it's launching a rather oddball accessory system, the ThinkPad Stack, to simplify things a bit. The modular, magnetic design lets you pile peripherals on top of each other (complete with shared data and power) to save space and eliminate cabling -- think of it as a Voltron for road warriors. As quirky as that sounds, it makes sense in real-life situations. If you need both a wireless hotspot and a battery pack on your big business trip, for instance, you won't have to lug around two sets of cables to keep them powered up.
The initial roster of Stack add-ons launching is pedestrian, but covers much of what you'd need while on the move: there's a 10,000mAh battery pack ($50), a Bluetooth speaker ($90) and a hybrid 1TB external drive and wireless hotspot ($200). All of them should arrive in mid-April. They're fairly expensive by themselves (it's easy to get a regular 1TB USB drive for under $100), but it's the whole that counts here. Lenovo is betting that you'll be willing to pay extra to save space and time, and it might just be worth that premium if your laptop bag is normally stuffed to the brim... even if you'll probably have to explain that strange-looking tower of electronics every time you take it out.
