At least your stereo can be a flat panel

Remember antennas?

(Credit: Altec Lansing)

You can't walk two steps around here without tripping over some company's latest Apple iPod-docking mini stereo. The majority of these gadgets are just landfill fodder, but the new Altec Lansing InMotion iM600 looks like it might stand out from the herd. First, it folds flat--down to 1.7 inches. With a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated at 7 hours, that flatness might come in handy if you want to take it on a romantic iPod picnic or even to a room in your house with an inconveniently located outlet. There's a built-in FM tuner with a digital display and an antenna, a remote control, and an alarm clock feature that wakes you with music from your Apple iPod. If you really want to go crazy integrating this into your home theater, the back of the Altec Lansing iM600 gives you composite video output for your TV, a stereo auxiliary input for routing other MP3 players into the system, a dedicated subwoofer output, and a USB port that can sync your docked iPod to a computer running iTunes. It spits out 16 watts and has some DSP sound enhancement technology as well.

So long as the sound quality holds up to the standard set by InMotion products like the iM7, the Altec Lansing iM600 should be a good deal at less than $150.

Now, can I hook my future iPhone to it?