dock

If you managed to score one of those $99-or-less first-gen Zunes I've been writing about, now's your chance to score a pretty sweet speaker dock to go with it. The Altec Lansing M604 offers room-filling power, deep bass, and a wireless remote. (This ain't marketing talking; I own one of them.) It also charges the Zune, connects it to your TV (via a video-out port), and works with other MP3 players (via a line-in jack). You can even mount the sucker on a wall.

The M604 sold for $199.95 when it debuted early this year, but … Read more

If you have an ExpressCard slot in your laptop, here's one way to make better use of it. Targus has a nifty device called the ExpressCard Docking Station that works somewhat like a port replicator. But instead of proprietary connectors, it utilizes the ExpressCard slot.

In addition to four USB 2.0, Ethernet (10/100/1000) and serial ports, the dock comes with standard VGA and DVI connectors that are useful to hook up to an external display to a laptop. According to the specifications, the dock supports up to 1,600x1,200 video resolution. The presence of audio … Read more

Part of the reason people buy Macs is because of Apple's attention to style. Whether it's bondi blue, smooth white, glossy black, or brushed metal, Mac hardware is as much about functionality as it is the overall aesthetic. Of course, attention to aesthetics doesn't stop at Apple hardware. Mac OS X and most Mac software shares the same smooth lines and beveled edges of the hardware surrounding it. The application icons in the Dock are bright and slick, and the open and close buttons on documents and applications are like pieces of candy. Anyone who has turned … Read more

The "Lars & Ivan Hybrid iPod Dock" is unusual for at least three reasons: 1) It doesn't have built-in speakers, instead opting to provide a 40-watt amp to boost your own set; 2) it looks like something left over from a Star Wars set, perhaps even the result of a misguided experiment involving the top of R2-D2's head; and 3) it's named the Lars & Ivan Hybrid iPod Dock. (We can live with the first two, but we're not sure about the third.)

Not exactly Best Buy mainstays, Lars and Ivan are peddling their … Read more

When we first plugged the Sharp DK-AP2 speaker system in and turned it on, we didn't know whether it was going to play music or take off. This iPod dock looks like something the Millennium Falcon should be avoiding.

The triangular DK-AP2 works with your iPod and is easy to use and compact. Essentially it's a plug and play machine. It's just a case of docking your iPod and plugging the system into the mains and away you go.

The DK-AP2 comes with a standard AC/DC power lead and a series of iPod adaptor connectors that … Read more

Remember that movie Cube? We think the designers of Logic3's new iPod speaker system were watching it and thought, "Guys, y'know what? The cube is such an awesome shape!" The result is the Logic3 JiveBox--a perfectly cuboid iPod setup with a big fat injection of '80s style.

Despite being a magnet for fingerprints, we like the glossy black finish to this box. The only controls sit on the front and include an off button (we love a good off button) and volume controls. For some reason--probably to do with style--all inputs are underneath the system. … Read more

Before you plunk down for an external drive, check out the clever yet poorly named SATA HDD Stage Rack. It's like an iPod dock, but for spare SATA hard drives you may have lying around. GeekSTuff4U.com is selling the SATA HDD Stage Rack for the odd but reasonable price of $46.79. The dock accepts 3.5-inch desktop drives and--with an insert--2.5-inch laptop drives, and it works with both PCs and Macs. It's unclear if the dock can be powered solely by USB, or whether it's necessary to make use of the dock's DC-in … Read more

It's easy to forget sometimes that some media players are actually made by companies other than Apple. And some might say that Microsoft and the Zune have had something to do with that perception.

But proving that the player is in fact a reality, other companies are making accessories to piggyback on the marketing of Zune's 2.0 version released last week. Altec Lansing, for example, just announced the "inMotion iM414," the Zune version of iPod speaker systems from the same line.

The system has yet to hit the market, but Best Buy has it listed for $100 … Read more

While Power Downloader was sifting through criminal case files recently, he received an e-mail from Kitty Kilobyte who had gone back to school. After telling him of her latest "impossible" assignments and new "amazing" friends she had made, Kitty had an interesting software request. Kitty wanted some way to make her computer stand out from the rest of her classmates. She figured, if she's the niece of a famous software superhero, it should show--perhaps even if it's just in her computer's interface.… Read more