Bought the LapDock!

SnydersWeb · Sep 9, 2011

longiotti said:
Anyone going to try the atrix dock? Try and flip the ports somehow. If you hack it i wonder if it would work. Half the price.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

One of my coworkers has he Atrix.. I am planning to bringing my LapDock into work tomorrow.. I could just have him try it and see if it works. I am personally hoping that this LapDock isn't going to be a thing *just* for the Bionic.. i.e. I would rather not have to buy it when I upgrade my phone later on or when my wife does.

GBH2 · Sep 9, 2011

longiotti said:
Anyone going to try the atrix dock? Try and flip the ports somehow. If you hack it i wonder if it would work. Half the price.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

That was what I planned, but they made a mistake at VZW and ended up selling me the lapdock for $200 and I just couldn't pass that up.

A guy over on XDA hacked the Atrix dock to work with the Photon, it's certainly doable. I think Moto just messes with the connectors so most people won't bother and they sell more.

On a side note, I love this thing - I was just playing with it thinking of things to do and I ended up watching Hulu on it. It was fun because it is blocked if you try to watch it from our phones.

Even now, before all the crazy stuff we are going to come up with, with just a stripped down linux distro and a full desktop browser it adds a lot of functionality to the phone!

patfactorx · Sep 9, 2011

Are you paying for a tethering plan with the Lapdock?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

Johnly · Sep 9, 2011

SnydersWeb said:
I have it. Tomorrow I'll buy the phone itself from Costco.

Opted to pick up the LapDock tonight to have one secured. The employees at the local corporate store seemed impressed. I can confirm that there is no tethering required!

Right now it's charging. Without the phone it doesn't do anything. I can say the finish on it is very nice and doesn't feel flimsy or cheap.

Looking forward to tomorrow!!!

No tethering fee?! That is first class, what a cool set up!

Roger_H · Sep 9, 2011

Man, yesterday the online store would give the 25% off on the lapdock, today it won't. I knew I should have grabbed it then. Oh well, I guess I'll pass on the whole thing untill big red decides to stop sticking it to us.

GBH2 · Sep 9, 2011

patfactorx said:
Are you paying for a tethering plan with the Lapdock?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

NOPE, No tethering fee.

longiotti · Sep 9, 2011

SnydersWeb said:
One of my coworkers has he Atrix.. I am planning to bringing my LapDock into work tomorrow.. I could just have him try it and see if it works. I am personally hoping that this LapDock isn't going to be a thing *just* for the Bionic.. i.e. I would rather not have to buy it when I upgrade my phone later on or when my wife does.

It was my understanding that the ports are flipped. I was thinking if i can get one for cheap, pull it apart and flip the ports it might be worth it. If i did all that and it would not power up with my phone i would be very sad. I do think it is wierd how they change stuff with every model. I have a droid x2 car dock. I thought oh i will just cut a little of the dock out so the bionic will fit. Nope. The port on that is flipped also. Hummmmm guess i will list it on ebay.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

SnydersWeb · Sep 9, 2011

@longiotti - Bummer.. I hope to God that Moto doesn't play games like this. That's utter BS swapping crap around just enough to prevent you from using different lapdocks. IMHO if they really want this idea to be successful then they should consider standardizing the connections unless there's a big reason not to. If I can upgrade my phone 2 years from now and still be able to use my current dock - that's a nice advantage!

Anyway.. to add more to my initial reviews and findings...

I did finally run into the issue that Gizmodo was running into. I still don't consider it a problem though. The deal is that this dock shares the same memory your phone uses. So, you do need to be mindful of what your phone is running. I was running Beautiful Widgets Live Wallpaper, the phone handles it beautifully but that sucker also gobbles 21MB RAM.

Another thing that really helps is I installed AdBlock on my Firefox. Getting rid of the darn Flash based ads really helps the performance.

Bottom line is, it's a lapDock that shares your phone's memory.. it's not a full on lap top computer. Being smart about how you use your LapDock and phone will allow you to get the most out of it.

Having said that, would someone, please God, make a darn RDP client for it?!? This thing would be pure awesome if I could use it to remote into my full Win7 box downstairs!!

ChevyNovaLN · Sep 9, 2011

SnydersWeb said:
Having said that, would someone, please God, make a darn RDP client for it?!? This thing would be pure awesome if I could use it to remote into my full Win7 box downstairs!!

I have done a few hours worth of reading on this... and basically, without at a MINIMUM of rooting your device and getting Debian Linux running... RDP won't be possible. Atrix users apparently have a fairly repeatable way to do this but i'm not that brave. haha. I just don't know enough about the custom stuff they've done to even dare give it a try on the Bionic. I sure hope XDA developers can confirm what they've done on the Atrix will work on the Bionic or modify it so that it does.

SnydersWeb · Sep 9, 2011

ChevyNovaLN said:
I have done a few hours worth of reading on this... and basically, without at a MINIMUM of rooting your device and getting Debian Linux running... RDP won't be possible. Atrix users apparently have a fairly repeatable way to do this but i'm not that brave. haha. I just don't know enough about the custom stuff they've done to even dare give it a try on the Bionic. I sure hope XDA developers can confirm what they've done on the Atrix will work on the Bionic or modify it so that it does.

It's my hope that the Bionic will bring an influx of new users/blood into WebTop much like he D1 did to Android. As more get it, hopefully the louder the voices will become.

IMHO time is on our side. Think of what was available on Android a couple years ago vs now...

nightstorm6 · Sep 12, 2011

I purchased the laptop dock with the Bionic yesterday. Normally I get the multimedia docks but thought this would be pretty cool to have instead. I had an issue at first trying to get the phone's screen to display on the dock. After some researching, I realized that I needed to access the Webtop Connector on the phone the first time I connected it. I just opened and closed the app and docked the phone. No further issues after that.

I really like the dock and the fact that it has 2 USB ports so peripherals can be connected (mouse, externed HD, etc.). With the phone and dock fully charged, I got around 14 hours of battery on my phone. The dock charges the phone when its docked. I was going to get the extended battery but wasn't sure if it would still fit on the dock. I read a few other comments that said it did fit so I'll be going back today for the extended battery.

PROS: Love how thin the dock is, great for traveling; easy connection; USB ports; I can watch Netflix or other videos and access other applications at the same time; battery life of the dock; no more Mobile Hotspot needed. I will always have a connection when I want it.
CONS: Have to get used to typing on the keyboard; wish the keyboard was backlit, or at least a small light on the cover of the dock that lit the keys up a little.

If I had to choose between the laptop dock and multimedia dock, I would pick the laptop dock again. Hope this helps anyone 'one the fence' about purchasing it.

lembowski · Sep 12, 2011

I really want this, but this is the 1st accessory that I am almost talking myself out of. I already have a laptop (macbook air 13?), tablet (galaxy tab10.1) and my phone. The only way I will get it is if I can get it off ebay or somewhere at a discount since my 25% discount doesn?t seem to apply to the lapdock. Since I really don?t use my galaxy tab to much I may consider selling it and buying the lapdock.

SnydersWeb · Sep 12, 2011

lembowski said:
I really want this, but this is the 1st accessory that I am almost talking myself out of. I already have a laptop (macbook air 13?), tablet (galaxy tab10.1) and my phone. The only way I will get it is if I can get it off ebay or somewhere at a discount since my 25% discount doesn?t seem to apply to the lapdock. Since I really don?t use my galaxy tab to much I may consider selling it and buying the lapdock.

Well, one thing you can do is to get the HD Dock and see if you like WebTop before you make that leap. $300 isn't cheap!

Overall, I bought it so I could always have a screen and USB ports attached.

XDCX · Sep 12, 2011

Will the Lapdock run Java?

I thought I read somewhere that the Lapdock with Firefox doesn't have the ability to view sites with Java - is that true?

There are some websites that I use (E-Trade and Copart) that have interactive Java apps and not being able to access those sites with the Lapdock would be a deal breaker.

Does anyone know the answer?

lembowski · Sep 12, 2011

SnydersWeb said:
Well, one thing you can do is to get the HD Dock and see if you like WebTop before you make that leap. $300 isn't cheap!

Overall, I bought it so I could always have a screen and USB ports attached.

I have an Atrix for work and have used the Webtop a few times on friends lapdocks. For traveling it would be nice to have a netbook esque device that can run off of Lte. Currently I just use PDAnet's tablet tether for my galaxy tab from my phone. The USB's are pretty important to me also and the galaxy not having them pretty much sucks. A wireless mouse with scrolling ability would be nice with the webtop since it doesn't have multituch and no scrolling.

GBH2 · Sep 13, 2011