While the MacBook Air’s blend of portability and functionality is hard to top, its puny hard drive, lack of an optical drive, and dearth of USB ports put it far behind a normal notebook in terms of everyday usefulness. Apricorn aims to change this with its new Aegis NetDock, a compact, 3-in-1 USB docking station designed for notebooks, ultra-portable notebooks, and tablet-style PCs. Incorporating a triple threat of a 500GB hard drive, a dual layer DVD burner, and a 4-port USB hub—all in a package not much larger than a standard external DVD player—the Aegis NetDock could very well bring your MacBook Air up to par with a full-sized notebook.

The NetDock, which connects to your Mac via a single USB cable, comes in a candy-red enclosure and sits either flat on your desk or vertically with its included stand. Its four USB ports provide ample connections for your peripheral devices, and since the NetDock already gives you 500 GB of storage, you probably won’t need to devote any of those ports to an external hard drive. Furthermore, two of the NetDock’s USB ports are always on, so you can use them to charge your mobile devices even while your MacBook Air is disconnected or off.

The built-in dual-layer DVD player is perfect for playing movies and can record up to 8.5 GB of data on compatible DVD-Rs. The NetDock also includes a power saving feature that powers the device down when not in use, and automatically turns it on when you connect it to your Mac.

The NetDock sells for $129, and can also be purchased without a built-in hard drive for $69.

Apricorn's Aegis Netdock -- Mac Edition is making me rethink some future purchases. It actually has me considering a MacBook Air as my main Mac.

As for the Apple US$79 SuperDrive, forget it. The Aegis Netdock blows it away.

The Mac Edition of the Aegis NetDock is an ultra-compact 3-in-1 USB docking station that combines a four-port USB hub, a space-saving vertical stand, a dual layer DVD burner and 1TB hard drive in a footprint smaller than a stapler. It's designed especially as an accessory for a MacBook Air, which has no optical drive and a small solid state drive.

The Aegis NetDock -- which costs US$229 for a1TB model, which is what I took for a test drive -- adds desktop functionality with a single USB connection. Of course, it works with any Mac, but it's a near-perfect complement to the Air line.

With the Aegis NetDock's dual layer recording engine you can record up to 8.5GB of data per DVD, virtually doubling data storage capacity on a DVD recordable disc from the single layer recording capacity of 4.7 GBs. With the optical drive, you can play and burn CDs and DVDs from your Air.

Fully compatible with Time Machine, the Aegis NetDock's built-in hard drive comes in a 250GB ($189), 500GB ($199) or 1TB version. The Aegis NetDock is also available without a hard drive for $69. The open enclosure enables you to add or change out the hard drive and fits any 2.5-inch, 9.5mm SATA hard drive.

In addition, the Aegis NetDock's energy efficient design incorporates an auto "On" and "Off" feature. It automatically turns on when connected to your MacBook and powers down the Aegis NetDock down when it's not in use. The two inchesalways oninches USB ports makes the NetDock is perfect for charging USB devices, such as iPhones, iPods and iPads.