I'm starting to see quite a few brands co-opting the President-elect's signature slogan like they have here. This baffles me. On the one hand, yes, it's a slogan that pretty much every (at least) American knows and is familiar with. On the other hand, there's some very significant portion of the population that is very viscerally offended (at the least) by the President-elect. So to jump on that wagon, you risk very strongly offending and alienating a large portion of the population along a line that has nothing to do with whether or not they'd be you consumer...but with which way their political beliefs fall.<p>My comment isn't meant to be a judgement call on whether or not doing this is normalizing something distasteful...it's simply meant to point out that OWC like many other brands may be shooting themselves in the foot over a lazy and reactionary marketing gimmick.
Despite there being no info on this page, judging by the sheer size of this thing (it looks bigger than the whole MBP), I would hope that it has eGPU, storage, battery, etc. Shit it's big enough to have a DVD drive from the looks of it.<p>If it doesn't have all that, I can't fathom what they could even put in all that empty space. Maybe it's only thick around the perimeter? It gets shallow in the middle?
<i>Precision CNC milled from aircraft grade aluminum to 1/1000ths of an inch tolerance</i><p>There's some marketing hype there, I think 0.001" precision is standard for CNC machining with aluminum. All it's effectively saying is that the product is CNC-machined aluminum. Having said that, a CNC-machined aluminum enclosure is really great (as any MacBook owner can tell you) and it is more expensive to produce than injection moulded plastic.<p>In terms of machining precision on its own, relatively impressive precision would be somewhere around 0.0001" (one ten-thousands of inch) precision. But that would be complete overkill for this kind of product.<p>Apple is one of the world's largest (if not <i>the largest</i>) users of CNC machining. There are some great write-ups online about this that I can't find right now.
According to the images, this will only work with the MacBook Pro with TouchID as the connection between the computer and the base seems to be via the USB-C port on the right side, something that does not exists in the non-TouchID version. I hope there is a cable or something that I can extend to connect the base to the USB-C ports on the left side because that is the computer that I have.<p>I really miss the RJ45 connector. Since I bought this computer I have complained about inconsistent Internet speeds as the router — which is placed behind the computer — delivers only 60% of its real connection because it is consumed over WiFi. I am forced to restart the router every hour or so just to get the miserable 10Mbps that I pay.<p>I was already prepared to buy one of those accessories for the Mac that people hate so much, just to get a stable Internet connection because WiFi seems to be broken, even at less than 20cm from the router. I hope that this "base" does not weights as much as it looks. I assume it will also include a (replaceable) SSD and — maybe? — an extra battery.<p>I wonder if this thing can be lifted without a separation from the computer on the left side.<p>Edit #1: To add more to the story, I have a Raspberry Pi directly connected to the router with a script that runs every 30 minutes, the script measures the Internet speed and reports back to me, every time the speed is lower than 5Mb I get a notification to reboot the router, that is my "setup". I wish I could change the router, but somehow the ISP restricts the delivery of the service to the device that they provide, and they are not willing to change it for a new one because — according to their statistics — the 10Mb are being delivered (which is true, except via WiFi).<p>Edit #2: I live in a country where there is no Apple Genius bar, so it is difficult — if not impossible — to me to get assistance on this matter from them. I will do what others have suggested, will replace the router and see what happens. Thanks.<p>Edit #3: Thanks @heavymark I meant 10Mbps instead of 10MB<p>Edit #4: On a side note, this will be funny to carry in an airport specially if you come from a country known for drug trafficking. People have tried to smuggle drugs on the back of computer screens with less space than that and still get caught, now imagine an skeptical officer checking a computer with this base.
more information: <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/11033/owc-previews-dec-addon-for-macbook-pro" rel="nofollow">http://www.anandtech.com/show/11033/owc-previews-dec-addon-f...</a>
This seems a little more appropriate to me: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypershop/hyperdrivetm-compact-thunderbolt-3-usb-c-hub-for-m" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypershop/hyperdrivetm-...</a>
A permanently attached docking station. This is not going to sell like hotcakes.<p>However, what if computers ended up being made and sold like very expensive cars? You know how it goes, a standard brand new Mercedes G-Wagon/Range Rover won't do, that is just the donor vehicle that gets transformed with more cylinders, even bigger wheels and lots more leather.<p>Why aren't the people who go for that sort of display of opulent wealth not getting visibly pimped computers such as this one? A few more ports, a bigger battery, some quality to the machined ports, with that people will think I am pro. A bit like getting a Porsche and swapping all the panels out for carbon fibre, bigger wheel arches and a roll cage.
This idea is great, but it'd be cool if they offered the same form factor except putting a giant battery in there instead of more storage. I think people would be more willing to carry this around if it effectively doubled their battery life.
How much weight it adds to the laptop? Does it increase battery life? It obviously not gonna increase RAM, likely increase SSDs because OWC sell them... It looks terrible tbh. How is this better than using dongles?<p>I saw the MBP 2016. I was very happy and went and bought a old MBP 2015 with retina at a discounted rate... I'm a happy camper and lousy early adopter.
The panel gaps on the sides look about the same size as a tray-load DVD/Blu-ray drive would be. So I wonder if the new SD card slot & USB ports are modules that could be swapped for optical drives, additional SSD storage, batteries, etc.
The ethernet port seems a bit close to the 2 USB Type-C ports. I wonder if the USB Type-C ports will still be able to support a flash drive (the thicker ones anyway) while being wired in.
This clunky contraption reminds me of the "Ultrabase", a sort of mobile docking station for the Thinkpad X220 and earlier -- only those offered way more connection options.