mac.iLounge

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock ($299)—that would be last September—but it got a big make over just in time for the 2012 International CES, as well a promised release date: September 2012. Billed as the ultimate accessory for the MacBook Air, this new dock is compatible with all Thunderbolt-equipped Macs, adding extra I/O ports to whatever machine you use it with, and enabling you to make a simple connection to a notebook computer when it returns to all the peripherals on your desk.

Sporting Belkin’s new logo and a fancy silver metallic shell, the Dock is designed to augment your Mac with a pretty impressive array of connectivity options. Using just a single Thunderbolt input, you get three USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire 800 port, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio port, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt output for daisy-chaining more devices. The price is high, but there’s no other competition in the field right now, and manufacturers are still struggling with the cost of incorporating Thunderbolt. Hopefully costs will have fallen by the time this hits shelves.