Hello, OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock

Today I installed the used OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock I purchased for $177 or so on eBay earlier this week.

Ken Rockwell lauds their Thunderbolt 3 dock. Here’s a link to the point on the page where he talks about it. It doesn’t have its own review page on his site.

This is the most recent OWC Thunderbolt dock. It looks like this.

Front:

Screenshot 2023 06 09 at 9 34 29 AM

Back:

Screenshot 2023 06 09 at 9 34 39 AM

Part Number: TB4DOCK

SKU: OWCTB4DOCK

 

You have to plug your computer into the front USB-C/Thunderbolt_4 slot. You can’t just plug it into the back. If you plug it into the back, nothing works. Okay, that’s fine.

I plugged it into my 48” LG OLED TV with an Amazon USB-C to HDMI cable. It took perhaps 25 seconds, but the image appeared on my TV. I haven’t yet seen how this works on a reboot or power up from a cold Mac. I use my M1 MacBook Pro 16” with a closed list. I hope this works well with reboots and cold power-ups so I don’t have to open the lid to do initial stuff like logging in, or whatever.

1 July 2023 Update: I noticed yesterday that this dock is charging my M1 MacBook Pro 16”. Yay! So plugging my MBP into the front of this dock to connect to its accessories is doing double-duty to charge my Mac. Nice!

The Godfather

I finished watching The Godfather with my eldest daughter last night. What a special experience to watch it together. It was my first time watching more than just a few minutes from the beginning of the film. This type of film was not my cup of tea decades ago.

But this version of me loved it. Even better was sharing it with my daughter.

Apple Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro was announced this Monday. Today is Friday.

I’m excited for what this could be. I don’t know what that is.

But today it occurred to me while watching the keyboard entry animation at the top of this article, that the Vision Pro could be of considerable value to users with certain disabilities and difficulties. I don’t know what those benefits would be and I don’t know what users they would help. But it feels like it could change lives. That’s powerful and important.

I had the nearly simultaneous idea that the Vision Pro (some version of it as it will evolve over time) could wind up gaining traction with some disability niche but then eventually (more slowly) be adopted by mainstream users. And the mainstream users would be late to the game.

This article only includes a screenshot of that animation, not the actual animation.