SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 –
While Apple’s newer notebooks like the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro are certainly aesthetically pleasing, some trade offs had to be made in order to achieve such thin machines. Apple has been slowly paring down the number of ports it includes on its notebooks, most notable with the MacBook Air.
Even though these machines are becoming more and more capable all the time, the lack of connections on them puts a serious strain on their functionality. That’s where the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock comes in. This little attachment for your laptop gives you eight additional ports to work with right on your desk.
By simply plugging in the dock with a Thunderbolt cable, you’ll instantly have access to an ethernet port, three USB ports, two Thunderbolt ports, a FireWire 800 port, as well as audio in and out jacks. Since the device works over Thunderbolt, it’s consistently fast, even with multiple devices plugged in.
Best of all, the Thunderbolt Express Dock’s design makes it easy to hide your cable mess and keep a clean desk. While the device isn’t on sale yet, Belkin promises that it’s coming in the first quarter of 2013 and will cost $299. You can find more information on it here.
