Tech Blog

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Before you wonder “Who would need to charge and sync 30 iPads at once?”, remember more and more schools and businesses are deploying iPads en masse. Can you imagine keeping all those iPads charged and synced (i.e. updated and backed up) if you had to do them one at a time? A nightmare. True tech nightmare. Actually, I’m scared just thinking about it, hold me.

Oh, wait, Griffin has it covered with their new Multidock. I feel better now.

I think this is pretty amazing. Amazing not only that we need something like this (and believe me the need is only going to get great) but that Griffin got it to work in the first place. So the system works by connecting a Mac to the Multidock (they come in blocks that hold 10 iDevices each—yep iPhones work too) and then you slide the iPad into the slot. At first I wondered about wear and tear on the dock connector trying to align it into the slot, but looking at the system that isn’t an issue. The slot just serves as a shelf, the dock connector points out and you use a standard iOS sync cable for the charging and syncing. Griffin says that via a USB hub (powered I’m going to assume) you can bridge up to 3 10-slot Multidocks together to reach the 30 limit.

Looking at this solution (and it isn’t cheap), I can immediately see the benefit to IT folks trying to keep a fleet of iOS devices managed. Yes, I know there are other management options and many of those might be better for larger install bases, but for school or company this could really eliminate headaches.

Via TUAW and other pubs. Image from Griffin.