A clever application for ExpressCard

I've admittedly been highly critical in the recent past of notebook manufacturers' decision to drop PC Card sockets from their latest-generation designs. Fundamentally, this was a cost-driven move; the Intel core logic chipsets inside the systems have migrated from supporting PCI to ExpressCard-friendly PCI Express, and nobody wants to cost-burden their design with a PCI Express-to-PCI bridge that'd enable continued PC Card inclusion. But the migration unfortunately means that lots of folks' existing PC Card peripherals are now orphans.

I'm happy to report, however, that I've just discovered the first ExpressCard peripheral that really blows my socks off. It's Belkin's $199.99 Notebook Expansion Dock, and the manufacturer really leveraged the available 2 Gbps peak ExpressCard bandwidth. Look at the list of features:

• DVI and analog RGB video outputs capable of 1600×1200 resolution 32-bit color (at unspecified frame rate)
• Six-channel audio output over analog and optical digital outputs, plus an analog microphone input
• Five USB2 ports, and
• 10/100 Mbps CAT5 Ethernet

Currently compatible only with Windows XP and Vista, but with Mac OS support reportedly under development, the Notebook Expansion Dock will begin shipping in the U.S. in late November. It's on my Christmas wish list, if anyone reading this is feeling particularly generous….