Logitech’s upcoming dock boasts a load of ports from USB-A to USB-C to HDMI to a Bluetooth connection, all built-in and ready to use out of the box. And, of course, it can also charge devices like laptops and tablets while they’re hooked up. The Logi Dock has been of particular interest to my wife, Diana Teeter, who’s both a part-time librarian for CUNY and a full-time artist. “Both jobs have resulted in tech and cords snaking around my desk—made worse now that my day job is remote sometimes,” she said. “The library job also consists of a lot of Zoom meetings throughout my work day so that all the teams in the library can keep things going for our patrons while we are off site.”
The Appeal of Organization
As Diana and I both rely on having various forms of technology gathered around us throughout the day, being able to keep everything organized is important. In particular, the way her workspace is arranged makes it difficult to plug in more than a couple of devices at a time. That and the layout makes it difficult to avoid tripping over power cords when stepping out from behind the table. Being able to plug several devices into one central box—especially one with multiple ports for different cable formats—would be huge. It would all but eliminate the restriction of having a single wall outlet, and would make it easier to keep everything above 0% battery power. Diana always has at least an iPad open while she’s painting, either as a reference or for background entertainment. With a Logi Dock, she could keep it charged, feed the audio into the dock for better sound, and have the physical space for her laptop, phone, or just about anything else. “My desk has one outlet close by and after I have plugged in my desk lamp and work laptop there is no room for my phone, my tablet, my personal laptop… you know, everything else,” she said. “Getting that nest of cords tamed and keeping everything charged in a limited space sounds amazing.” The only stumbling block is that $399 price tag. “I think that for what it is, it’s very fairly priced,” she said. “However, for someone like me who is on a limited budget, it is a bit more of an investment than I currently want to make.”
The Handiness of Remote Meetings
More alluring than the convenience of being able to organize and charge multiple electronics in one place are those built-in remote meeting features. When it’s released, the Logi Dock will support Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, without the need to download additional software. That support entails a handful of buttons on the top of the box that can be used to join/leave a call, mute/unmute the microphone, or turn your video camera on/off—all handled via the external buttons with no need to use the app or keyboard shortcuts. According to Diana, “The idea of having one device that can both clean up my workspace/keep my many devices charged and link me into my Zoom calls quickly (while reminding me that a call is happening) sounds very appealing.” Though more specifically, she’s excited about the background noise reduction.“My desk is right by the front door of our apartment and hallway noise is frequent,” she said. “I get very tired of diving for the mute button every time someone walks into or out of our building!” Not having to worry about unexpected noises would free up a considerable amount of time and concentration, both better spent on those meetings. There is one more thing Diana would like to see from the Logi Dock, though it’s entirely up to Logitech and wouldn’t be a make-or-break feature; just something nice to have. “I love the blinking light alert when a [scheduled] meeting is about to start,” she said. “I think integrating that alert feature into other calendar events could be useful, like one color blink for a web meeting and a different color blink for a phone meeting could be helpful.”
