Sometimes little things can make a big difference. When I was at CES this year I had a problem. HP had loaned me a very cool (and small) EliteBook 1020 that only has two USB C ports and no “standard” USB A ports. That’s still twice the number of ports as an Apple MacBook but not enough for me at CES when I needed one of those USB ports for my power supply, another for my USB microphone and a third for an ethernet adapter.
During my podcast interviews at Showstoppers during CES I had to run on battery power because of a shortage of ports but, fortunately, one of my interviews was with Larry O’Connor, the CEO of Other World Computing who happened to have the OWC USB Travel Dock with him. The $49.88 3.4 ounce dock punches way beyond its weight.
This little device plugged into one of my two USB C ports and gave me an additional USB C port, two USB A ports, an HDMI port (for video) and an SD slot, which is handy if you have a digital camera or other device that users SD cards.
What’s cool about this is that you can plug your regular USB C charger into the device and it will provide up to 60 watts of power for your laptop and all your USB peripherals, which is important with some devices like portable drives that require more power than typically comes from a laptop’s USB
The company says that in addition to USB Type-C connectivity, the OWC USB-C Travel Dock is also fully compatible with Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs and PCs, and may be connected directly through a Thunderbolt 3 port on a computer or Thunderbolt 3 device.
To learn more, listen to this freewheeling interview with Other World Computing CEO Larry O’Connor from the noisy Showstoppers event at CES.