Official Lapdock 100 & 500 Discussion thread

[twospirits]

This is true, I really do not miss my EVO at all. And except for the ability to flash roms easy I'll give it a 9 out of 10.

TS

 

[drexappeal]

This is true, I really do not miss my EVO at all. And except for the ability to flash roms easy I'll give it a 9 out of 10.

TS

To build on TS' comment, the one other thing that I do miss about HTC's interface was it was easier to merge contacts with their Facebook profiles. Other than that, I've found that Motorola allows for a lot more options that I wanted on the EVO.

In particular, I like that you can set individual ringtones/alerts to more functions on Motorola's UI than HTC's. On the EVO, I couldn't set a separate ringtone for the exchange mail notification and text messages.

-EDIT- But to get this back on topic...LOL...The lapdock is such a great compliment to a great phone.

 

[twospirits]

^ lol Touche.

TS

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Question for those of you who already have the Lapdock: Can you play movies from a SD card or USB stick?

If yes, what file format do they have to be in?

 

[KOLIO]

Question for those of you who already have the Lapdock: Can you play movies from a SD card or USB stick?

If yes, what file format do they have to be in?

I've heard that the SD CARD slot is non-functional w/the PHOTON @ the present time.
Not sure about the USB port,but,I get a USB error when first booting up the LAPDOCK 500 & the error icon remains on in the notification area afterwards.

 

[KOLIO]

The lack of sound glitch w/the LAPDOCK 500 has recently been discovered & discussed in the MOTOROLA FORUMS @ https://forums.motorola.com

Also,I've discovered that MEDIA VOLUME is turned all the way down AFTER undocking.
Even after turning the volume up in the SETTINGS>SOUND>VOLUME>MEDIA,the volume remains all the way down.The only way to re-enable MEDIA VOLUME is to re-boot & return to SETTINGS>SOUND>VOLUME>MEDIA & adjust as desired.
I've also posted these findings in the MOTOROLA forum listed above,in the MOTOROLA WEBTOP,DOCKS,& LAPDOCKS section.

 

[PyroSporker]

Incidentally, I love the phone. It's a bit different than the Evo - not bad, just different.

From one former EVO owner to another, once you get familiar with the differences between Moto and HTC, you won't even miss the EVO at all!

This is true, I really do not miss my EVO at all.

Since we are talking Evo's; I'm still in Evo 3D Land (Hi Drex and TS), but watch the market from afar and lurk around. I don't want to compare and contrast phones or companies, but just want to say that over time I have found myself extremely jealous of the Lapdock compatible devices. Even more so now that a Sprint device works with the Lapdock it hits even closer to home. I'm not even sure how much I would use it, But I find myself really wanting one just because I can't have one currently. You guys are fortunate with the Lapdock compatibility even if it is sometimes not working 100%. (Edit: Google Purchasing Motorola could be another benefit down the road.)

I'd love to replace my ancient desktop and have 1 high quality all in one device. Phone, Laptop/Dock, and Tablet dock. So far it seems most 'Transforming' devices have dual use (Padfone, Transformer), I'm looking for the triple threat though from a big name producer.

 

[twospirits]

It boils down to what you use your desktop for? I can possibly get by not using Excel or Word and use OpenOffice instead on my phone/webtop combo. But there are a lot of things that a Photon/Lapdock or even a tablet/dock set up cannot do as well as a regular desktop or laptop. I just like it because it allows me to just take my phone and lapdock instead of so many other stuff.
Motorola is getting there with the concept, as well as Asus and Lenovo and a few others but there is a whole in one killer all thingy out there yet.

TS

 

[KOLIO]

Let's hope that the PHOTON/ICS/LAPDOCK 100-500 is a complete update,w/100% functionality/compatibility.

Now that GOOGLE has been given the green-light to acquire MOTOROLA MOBILITY ®, perhaps a greater sense of urgency will be the prevailing attitude & support/updates will arrive sooner rather than later.

 

[twospirits]

Even though they were given the green light, I am sure that it will take no less than 6 months for us to see the results of their marriage. lol

TS

 

[lejf123]

I got the lapdock 500 pro with the droid razr maxx and for things that require flash, it is a bit slow but for standard web browsing, its just fine. (I'm using it right now) the battery is great. the mouse isn't all that great so I use a usb one.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I picked up the Lapdock 500 yesterday.

Initial review:

- Startup is quick
- The thing is HEAVY. Weighs in at 3 pounds 8 ounces according to my digital kitchen scale
- It is BIG.
- It will play .mp4 files directly from the usb port
- I don't like the dock configuration. You can tell that they intend for you to place your phone on a flat surface next to it. It is difficult to use the pull out tray with my Razr MAXX.
-Interface seems clunkey to me. Some of the apps on the phone do not scale up, so you are left with them in the small phone window.
- I do not like the track pad. I wish they incorporated pinch and push into it. It does have two-finger scrolling, but for me it is jerky.
- I left the phone hooked to it over night. The lapdock battery charged to 100% but the phone battery only charged from 40% to 60% with the default setting.

*DISCLAIMER* I have not RTFM yet. I got it home, plugged it in, and plugged my phone into it.

As of now it is not looking like a good solution (for me). I am going to give it another day or two to win me over, but most likley it will go back and I will get a tablet of some sort.

 

[lejf123]

I have the macbook air 11 inch and I like it. the only problem is that I have to pay money (tethering) to get large screen broswing and a real keyboard. So I like the lapdock because I don't have to pay 20 bucks a month.

also, about the battery, the macbook air has a 35 watt hour battery and it is a lot smaller. I am thinking that they could have put twice the amount mabey even 3 times. there is no actual computer in the lapdock. I am doing a battery test now.

 

[lejf123]

the battery last way to long to test it. I could easily see the 7 hours

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Okay, I RTFM and I have to say it is as useful as a football bat. Using the Lapdock to post this. I keep rubbing the track pad and unintentionally repositioning my writing spot. Frustrating! The more I use this thing the less I like it. It lacks the touch screen of a tablet and the power of a laptop. While I don't want to have to pay $20 to use the MAXX as a hotspot, I don't see the need to do it that often. When I will need to use it as a hot spot chances are my wife or anyone else I am traveling with would benefit from the hotspot too.

Looks like the Lapdock is not ready for prime time (IMO).

 

[KOLIO]

Okay, I RTFM and I have to say it is as useful as a football bat. Using the Lapdock to post this. I keep rubbing the track pad and unintentionally repositioning my writing spot. Frustrating! The more I use this thing the less I like it. It lacks the touch screen of a tablet and the power of a laptop. While I don't want to have to pay $20 to use the MAXX as a hotspot, I don't see the need to do it that often. When I will need to use it as a hot spot chances are my wife or anyone else I am traveling with would benefit from the hotspot too.

Looks like the Lapdock is not ready for prime time (IMO).

Sorry to hear you're not pleased w/the LAPDOCK 500.

I agree w/the trackpad issues,it is a PITA.Touchscreen would be nice as well.More than a few of us have found ourselves swiping at the screen.

Did you get a chance to try out all of the features w/the LAPDOCK 500/RAZR MAXX (Webcam,Ethernet,VGA,SD Slot,USB)?

If so,please share your experience w/these features.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Sorry to hear you're not pleased w/the LAPDOCK 500.

I agree w/the trackpad issues,it is a PITA.Touchscreen would be nice as well.More than a few of us have found ourselves swiping at the screen.

Did you get a chance to try out all of the features w/the LAPDOCK 500/RAZR MAXX (Webcam,Ethernet,VGA,SD Slot,USB)?

If so,please share your experience w/these features.

I didn't make it that far. The interface is so clunky and annoying that I shut the cover and disconnected the phone. On that note, I had to power cycle my phone after disconnecting it from the Lapdock. It would no longer rotate the screen. My ringer volume had also been turned all the way down.

It goes back today after work. Back to giving a serious look at the ASUS EEE Prime. If that does not work, I may look at swapping out an SSD for the hard drive in my netbook.

 

[twospirits]

Mind you, what I'm about to say are my opinions only, but from what I gather alot of folks think the same way.

but its posts like these that really piss me the heck off, not at the poster but at Motorola. Moto has a good thing on their hands and it seems that they are out playing ball when they should be in house providing the customers the updates to phones such as the Photon to make it 100% compatible with the accessories devices that they claim should work. Otherwise they should shut the hell up and not advertise that numerous phones will work with the Lapdocks when in reality only one works (the Razr, and not 100 percent either.) It can't seriously take this long for crying out loud.
By the time lapdock 500 compatibility or ICS for that matter comes along, we will have Jelly Bean or Kustry cake.

I really hope Google slaps them into reality.

TS

 

[Boffy1]

Hi everyone, just wanted to post an update since I received my lapdock on this past Wednesday. When I first opened the box at work, I didn't have time to play with the device so I immediately put it on charge and left it alone. It showed a full charge in about 2 hours.

Once I got it home I tried to put it thru a few paces. I forgot to bring home my bluetooth headphones and my wireless mouse from work so I wasn't able to immediately check those out. When I first opened the device after it was docked, I got a warning message that there was a USB device plugged in that was not compatible. I didn't have anything plugged in, but I wonder if that had to do with the Photon not being fully compatible and having a USB connection via the microUSB port.

I tried out the web browser and like some other posters here I wasn't too thrilled with the touchpad. I adjusted the sensitivity but really was wishing I had my wireless mouse. The two-finger scroll is pretty handy and I could see myself getting used to that.

If you have seen my previous posts you know that I was interested in being able to view AutoCAD drawings and editing them. Well, since I have to open the app in the mobile view on the lapdock, I immediately noticed that I may not have a way to zoom in and out like I would if I were just using the phone itself. Without this capability, I wouldn't be able to use the AutoCAD app at all for what I intended. Does anyone know if there is a way to zoom in and out in the phone view screen?

On to the other problems: As I continued to try out the features, I discovered that the lapdock's speakers didn't work. I tried to find the settings, and was able to transfer the sound to the phone's speaker (and eventually also used bluetooth headphones and they worked fine, both for music from the phone and for audio from the browser on the lapdock).

Two days ago I discovered a couple of other issues: the second time I went to charge it (and charge my phone thru the dock) I left it on the charger at night and got up the next morning to find that the charging light was still blinking (steady light indicates full charge) and my phone didn't charge fully. Two separate issues apparently: problem with charging and a weak USB connection to the phone from the docking cable. The cable just barely pulls away from the phone and stops charging it. The second issue was that the touchpad locked up. I could find no way to get the mouse to move from the touchpad. I rebooted the phone a couple of times, deleted the data cache from the webtop app -- no luck. I finally hooked up the wireless mouse and it worked great from the moment I plugged it in. I tried to find a setting for enabling the touchpad but no luck. I read some documentation that said there is a way to disable the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in, but I couldn't find that toggle to see if it was accidentally engaged.

Well, long story not so long, I ended up talking to tech support who were not very helpful. Their final suggestion was a factory reset of my phone, which I refused to do since the problem was with the lapdock hardware and not my phone, in my opinion. They finally gave me an RMA and the good news about that is they are sending me a FedEx box with a shipping label (since it is under warranty) and I don't have to pay to ship it.

Sooooooo, not much to report on yet, with these issues. Sending it back on Monday, hopefully will have it back in about a week.

I'll get back to ya......

 

[KOLIO]

Hi everyone, just wanted to post an update since I received my lapdock on this past Wednesday. When I first opened the box at work, I didn't have time to play with the device so I immediately put it on charge and left it alone. It showed a full charge in about 2 hours.

Once I got it home I tried to put it thru a few paces. I forgot to bring home my bluetooth headphones and my wireless mouse from work so I wasn't able to immediately check those out. When I first opened the device after it was docked, I got a warning message that there was a USB device plugged in that was not compatible. I didn't have anything plugged in, but I wonder if that had to do with the Photon not being fully compatible and having a USB connection via the microUSB port.

I tried out the web browser and like some other posters here I wasn't too thrilled with the touchpad. I adjusted the sensitivity but really was wishing I had my wireless mouse. The two-finger scroll is pretty handy and I could see myself getting used to that.

If you have seen my previous posts you know that I was interested in being able to view AutoCAD drawings and editing them. Well, since I have to open the app in the mobile view on the lapdock, I immediately noticed that I may not have a way to zoom in and out like I would if I were just using the phone itself. Without this capability, I wouldn't be able to use the AutoCAD app at all for what I intended. Does anyone know if there is a way to zoom in and out in the phone view screen?

On to the other problems: As I continued to try out the features, I discovered that the lapdock's speakers didn't work. I tried to find the settings, and was able to transfer the sound to the phone's speaker (and eventually also used bluetooth headphones and they worked fine, both for music from the phone and for audio from the browser on the lapdock).

Two days ago I discovered a couple of other issues: the second time I went to charge it (and charge my phone thru the dock) I left it on the charger at night and got up the next morning to find that the charging light was still blinking (steady light indicates full charge) and my phone didn't charge fully. Two separate issues apparently: problem with charging and a weak USB connection to the phone from the docking cable. The cable just barely pulls away from the phone and stops charging it. The second issue was that the touchpad locked up. I could find no way to get the mouse to move from the touchpad. I rebooted the phone a couple of times, deleted the data cache from the webtop app -- no luck. I finally hooked up the wireless mouse and it worked great from the moment I plugged it in. I tried to find a setting for enabling the touchpad but no luck. I read some documentation that said there is a way to disable the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in, but I couldn't find that toggle to see if it was accidentally engaged.

Well, long story not so long, I ended up talking to tech support who were not very helpful. Their final suggestion was a factory reset of my phone, which I refused to do since the problem was with the lapdock hardware and not my phone, in my opinion. They finally gave me an RMA and the good news about that is they are sending me a FedEx box with a shipping label (since it is under warranty) and I don't have to pay to ship it.

Sooooooo, not much to report on yet, with these issues. Sending it back on Monday, hopefully will have it back in about a week.

I'll get back to ya......

1) The USB error issue is known,& I believe is a PHOTON-LAPDOCK 500 issue only.I plugged in a USB memory stick yesterday & the error indicating icon disappeared, & was able to view content.
(Text & pix only,didn't have any audio/video on the stick to test).Wired mouse worked fine also.


2) No sound: This was just recently discovered & the cause is known & a fix is in the works.Again,a PHOTON only issue.

BTW,how we're you able to work around the sound issue to get audio through the phone's speakers?

Edit: Speakerphone mode works well while docked(which is the way cool feature that got me looking @ the LAPDOCK 100/500 to begin with).

 

[twospirits]

Just posted in an new thread about the rumor to which Android 5.0 may beet Lapdock type support built in.

Its something I've mentioned and have hoped for some time now.

TS

 

[KOLIO]

Question for those of you who already have the Lapdock: Can you play movies from a SD card or USB stick?

If yes, what file format do they have to be in?

Thought this would be as good a place as any to give an update to what works & what doesn't w/the PHOTON-LAPDOCK 500 COMBO:

What works:

1) WEBTOP
2) PHONE/SPEAKER MODE(in call)
3) USB/SD CARD SLOT*(Document/video only) & WIRED-WIRELESS MOUSE/KEYBOARD

What doesn't:

1) NO SOUND AT ALL (except speakerphone mode in-call only) no working audio media.
2) VGA
3) ETHERNET
4) WEBCAM

* Hooked up my HUAWEI ASCEND to attempt to read files on it.No-go,but,the LAPDOCK will charge it up.Anyone that has drivers {?} to install to allow this to work(if possible) please post an upload link or send in a PM.
Another quirk w/this is the sound gets borked on the ASCEND,just as it does w/the PHOTON,when attempting to use/adjust the volume on the LAPDOCK 500.
A re-boot & a visit to SETTINGS>SOUND>VOLUME on the affected phones will cure the lack of sound bug after un-docking.

 

[drexappeal]

Just posted in an new thread about the rumor to which Android 5.0 may beet Lapdock type support built in.

Its something I've mentioned and have hoped for some time now.

TS

Just posted in your thread. Oh man, to have built in support that'll allow for all-in-one accessories to be made? That'd be the perfect combination for my needs.

 

[pinnellj]

New to the Bionic and am seriously looking at the Lapdock 100. A couple questions come to mind. I'm a Verizon Wireless customer. Looking at the details on Motorola web page it says that when the Bionic is in the Lapdock, you can browse the web, while simultaneously making calls and sending texts. Both the phone and browser are shown on the screen as simultaneously operating. I thought with CDMA technology that you can't talk and browse at the same time. So how is that possible? And is there a specific Lapdock version for the VZ Bionic and another for the AT&T Atrix?

Just curious to know before I proceed to lay out the cash.

JP

 

[KOLIO]

New to the Bionic and am seriously looking at the Lapdock 100. A couple questions come to mind. I'm a Verizon Wireless customer. Looking at the details on Motorola web page it says that when the Bionic is in the Lapdock, you can browse the web, while simultaneously making calls and sending texts. Both the phone and browser are shown on the screen as simultaneously operating. I thought with CDMA technology that you can't talk and browse at the same time. So how is that possible? And is there a specific Lapdock version for the VZ Bionic and another for the AT&T Atrix?

Just curious to know before I proceed to lay out the cash.

JP

I would suggest trying out the store demo model.
If they don't have one on the floor,just request to try out what is in stock.

I can verify that both can be accomplished simultaneously,as a user of the PHOTON-LAPDOCK 500 combo.

Edit:

Yes, there are specific LAPDOCKS for the BIONIC & the original ATRIX, but, the BIONIC should work on all LAPDOCKS.

The LAPDOCK 500-BIONIC combo may have limited functionality(as the PHOTON does),check the MOTOROLA website & definitely test one in the store.

Also,the original ATRIX LAPDOCK should work, but, may need alterations to the HDMI-MICRO USB connection to properly fit & work. See YOUTUBE for the video on this.