Wireless power is a lot harder to direct and control, at least for noe. Whilst it'd be cool to charge your laptop by entering a room, it'd be sucky if your forks heayed uo as well
Wireless power is wasteful! The last thing we need is to introduce more inefficiencies into mobile devices. What is it with people and cables? Is it really that big of a chore to plug something in? Personally, I only use WiFi when necessary, it is totally insecure.
Cheap computer power supplys often have losses of 30%+. If the wireless charger is a mat and dell designs the system to minimise the air gap then it's losses could be less than 10%. Yes this is on top of the dock's power supply losses but a standardised mat could reduce phantom draw and ewaste as fewer power supplys would be needed.
The problem with an eGPU would be latency, even if you could get throughput up high enough (from what I've read, you'd need even more than Thunderbolt's 20 Gbps to run a high-end card).
Isn't this what Thunderbolt has been promising for a while? Yet the only somewhat solid implementation we've seen was on Apple's displays, and adoption is still very slow. I'm not holding my breath for this, I'm not even sure why most docking usage cases would benefit from going wireless. Streaming wirelessly to a big display would be the one standout but WiDi and Miracast stands a far better chance.
Business class laptops like the Latitude and equivalent HP and Lenovo models have had docking connectors for years. The premium for the docking station itself has kept them from gaining momentum in the consumer market; but they've been a cash cow for people selling to larger businesses for years.
That said, the only major advantages I see for a wireless option that doesn't also include power is that it's more convenient for conference rooms and other locations when you're not going to use the laptop for longer than your battery will support, and that you can change supported ports without forcing a 1:1 replacement of laptops and docks. The Latitude C, D, and E families have each came with their own docking station connector size and locations and were needed to add support for newer ports and features. This is always messy in the time period when part of the workforce has one model and part the other and an overarching protocol that wraps everything will help a lot here although a combined power/thunderbolt cable would be nearly as good for replacing the current standard of docking stations.
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nathanddrews - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
and take my money!Now we just need wireless power.
nevertell - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
Wireless power is a lot harder to direct and control, at least for noe. Whilst it'd be cool to charge your laptop by entering a room, it'd be sucky if your forks heayed uo as welldanjw - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
Wireless power is wasteful! The last thing we need is to introduce more inefficiencies into mobile devices. What is it with people and cables? Is it really that big of a chore to plug something in? Personally, I only use WiFi when necessary, it is totally insecure.This Guy - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Cheap computer power supplys often have losses of 30%+. If the wireless charger is a mat and dell designs the system to minimise the air gap then it's losses could be less than 10%. Yes this is on top of the dock's power supply losses but a standardised mat could reduce phantom draw and ewaste as fewer power supplys would be needed.Darkstone - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
The latitude Z600 from 2 years ago has wireless charging:http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-z600/pd
Google it.
rallyhard - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
I wonder how many Mbps or Gbps this is?External GPU over wireless?! That would be extremely impressive.
BTW, I couldn't get my comment to post under IE10
Spivonious - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
Wikipedia says a theoretical 7Gbps.ClockworkPirate - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link
The problem with an eGPU would be latency, even if you could get throughput up high enough (from what I've read, you'd need even more than Thunderbolt's 20 Gbps to run a high-end card).yefi - Thursday, November 1, 2012 - link
I'd like to see what the real-world throughput is going to be - USB 2.0 speeds maybe?Impulses - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Isn't this what Thunderbolt has been promising for a while? Yet the only somewhat solid implementation we've seen was on Apple's displays, and adoption is still very slow. I'm not holding my breath for this, I'm not even sure why most docking usage cases would benefit from going wireless. Streaming wirelessly to a big display would be the one standout but WiDi and Miracast stands a far better chance.DanNeely - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Business class laptops like the Latitude and equivalent HP and Lenovo models have had docking connectors for years. The premium for the docking station itself has kept them from gaining momentum in the consumer market; but they've been a cash cow for people selling to larger businesses for years.That said, the only major advantages I see for a wireless option that doesn't also include power is that it's more convenient for conference rooms and other locations when you're not going to use the laptop for longer than your battery will support, and that you can change supported ports without forcing a 1:1 replacement of laptops and docks. The Latitude C, D, and E families have each came with their own docking station connector size and locations and were needed to add support for newer ports and features. This is always messy in the time period when part of the workforce has one model and part the other and an overarching protocol that wraps everything will help a lot here although a combined power/thunderbolt cable would be nearly as good for replacing the current standard of docking stations.
mirrormicky - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - link
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