Plugable Technologies

We just gave Watts, our website AI assistant, a serious power-up.

If you're browsing the Plugable site, you'll notice Watts now responds almost instantly with precise product specs and compatibility info, no matter how heavy traffic gets. No waiting around or digging through help pages, just fast, accurate answers when you need them.

For folks who rely on the service to help their customers, Watts now does the heavy lifting on routine questions. That means fewer repetitive product inquiries cluttering your inbox and far better-informed prospects arriving in your queue ready to talk business.

Pop over to the Plugable site to give the new Watts a test run today, and let us know what you think!

Happy Birthday, Plugable! Here's to 17 years of building connections!

Where’s Watts? Plugable’s plucky little plushy took some PTO to see a bit of the world. Do you recognize this location? Give us your guesses before Watts shares the rest of the travel photos next week.

If you have a kid heading to college, you’ve no doubt spent the summer running around getting everything they’ll need to get started on their first foray into the world. There’s the obvious stuff like a laptop, bedding, and a few blacklight posters (those are still cool, right?). But what are you forgetting?

Macworld “surveyed a bunch of second-year students and their parents” to put together a list of the tech most first-year students forget to pack. The number one thing? Extension cords! Click through to see what you forgot, and don’t forget to pick up a Plugable USBC-9IN1E; it’s a USB-C hub the article recommends for adding useful ports to laptops (especially useful if your student is heading off with a MacBook Neo).

My daughter brought a Mac to college. This is the tech I wish I'd packed for her Don't leave home without this essential tech kit for college and university students

Big news for such a little computer. Apple's new Mac mini, announced this week, keeps Thunderbolt 5 firmly tied to its Pro tier. The $1,699 M5 Pro configuration includes three Thunderbolt 5 ports, while the new M6 model sticks with Thunderbolt 4. That's the same split Apple introduced with the previous M4/M4 Pro generation, but the new hardware makes the practical difference more interesting: the M5 Pro Mac mini can support up to three external displays over a single Thunderbolt port.

Is the jump from Thunderbolt 4 to Thunderbolt 5 really such a big deal? Thunderbolt 5 doubles the bidirectional bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4 from 40Gbps to 80Gbps and can shift to as much as 120Gbps outbound when additional display bandwidth is needed. That leaves considerably more room for high-resolution displays, fast storage, networking, and other peripherals sharing the same connection.

So, how do you get the most out of this new iteration of the mighty little computer? A docking station. Although maybe not for the typical reason one might consider a dock: extra monitors. The Mac mini doesn't need a dock simply to reach three displays—it already supports three natively. The value of a Thunderbolt 5 dock is instead in consolidating those displays and peripherals onto a single Thunderbolt connection while adding ports the Mac mini doesn't have, such as USB-A and SD/microSD card readers.

That's where the Plugable TBT-UDH2 fits. Macworld currently lists it first in its 2026 roundup of Thunderbolt and USB-C docks for MacBooks, highlighting its two dedicated HDMI 2.1 ports, and its standalone review awarded the dock Editors' Choice for its combination of dual HDMI, Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth, charging, and extensive I/O.

"Here's something many Mac users don't realize. Even though your MacBook has USB-C or Thunderbolt ports instead of a physical DisplayPort connector, the video signal coming out of those ports is actually DisplayPort Alt Mode."

For a lot of us, it doesn't matter what sort of monitor we're using as long as the screen lights up and the picture is clear and smooth. But for those folks who ponder every pixel (and happen to be using a Mac), one of the Plugable Product Owners took a deep dive into how Apple lights up their external displays. Click over to Plugable and take a look.

Understanding Thunderbolt 5 Bandwidth and Mac Multi-Monitor Configurat Discover high-quality USB-C docking stations, adapters, chargers, and portable monitors. Plugable connects this with that. Shop direct to get the best prices and avoid grey market problems.

This is Watts. If you’ve ever picked up a Plugable product, you’ve no doubt seen him inside the box. Since day one, Watts has been the face of our feedback program. Love it or hate it, if you’ve had something to tell us about our products, Watts was the face of our feedback. He’s always been our way of being here to help right when you need it.

Recently, he’s become the face of our chat system (and he’s really good at his job!). His quick answers are part of the reason Plugable has become #1 in docking Stations. Now Watts is stepping out of the box (and the chat window) and into the world. He's got some adventures ahead, and a knack for turning everyday tech headaches into easy wins. Follow along to see where he ends up.

And as always, you can pop over to the Plugable website to say hi.