While the concept of a “universal” dock for your portable computer is certainly a welcome idea, the actual execution has been limited to what are essentially glorified USB hubs with so-so external video capabilities. Still, these docks shave seconds off of hooking up a regular USB hub, plugging a VGA cable and an Ethernet cable into your laptop, and connecting an external microphone and speakers.
The Targus Universal Notebook Docking Station with Video is billed as “the first USB based docking station with true video output capabilities,” and has finally been marked down from well over $100 at most places to a very-manageable $22.99 at Buy.com.
While most present-day competitors are capable of relatively high-resolution external video, the Targus does a maximum of 1024×768 at 16-bit color, so it might be good if you’ve got a tiny monitor or, hey, maybe your kid wants to play grown-up-with-a-universal-notebook-dock but you don’t want to spend a lot until you’re really sure he or she is going to stick with it.
Targus Universal Notebook Docking Station with Video [Buy.com]