docks - page 4

This slinky little number is the Sinjimorou Sync Stand, a low-cost stand for iDevices of various shapes and sizes.

Remember the WALDok? It sounded like the unholy cybernetic offspring of WALL-E and Iron Man’s creepy hypercephalic floating robot head nemesis, MODOK, but the WALDok was actually a Kickstarter project for a gorgeously compact speaker dock for the iPod nano capable of outputting some truly impressive sound while simultaneously juicing you up.

The only problems with the WALDok? First, it was iPod nano only… a design decision which seemed to unnecessarily specify the WALDok into obscurity. Second, as a Kickstarter project, it hadn’t yet made enough money in $59 pledges to guarantee that it would ever be made.

Luckily, over the weekend, both problems resolved themselves. Designer Hern Kim not only redesigned the WALDok to accommodate other iPod models, but also surpassed the $30,000 pledge total thanks to some publicity from Gizmodo and Wired, meaning that the WALDok will soon be a very real product. $59 pledged at this point is as good as a pre-order. Hooray!

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — If the brief look we stole of the Altec Lansing lineup is anything to go by, we’re going to  be even more thrilled with their hardware this year than we were last year (when their InMotion Compact garnered a 4.5/5 rating). They’ve kept the key ingredients of intriguing-yet-simple design and cool features, but we get the impression everything seems somehow to be more grownup.

A good example is the just-released InMotion Air: An elegant, steel-grey rhomboid that streams music at a distance of up to a whopping 100 yards with the included wireless adapter, or via Bluetooth (at considerably less range); it also comes with a seven-hour battery. The InMotion Air will be available in February for $200, through Radio Shack or online through Altec Lansing.

AL has some additional tricks up its sleeve, which they revealed to us during a closed-door tour of their lineup; we can’t tell you exactly what they’re up to, because we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement just to get inside. But it’s cool, and it’s coming soon.

LAS VEGAS — After hours of driving through the cow-infested flatness of California’s Central Valley, CultofMac Editor Leander Kahney and I have finally arrived in Vegas, primed to report from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The doors only officially open on Thursday, but here’s some of the sparkly new stuff we saw released today that we’re mega-pumped to get our hands on at this year’s show:

While the audio benefits of an unpowered iPhone speaker dock are pretty minimal, Koostik’s line of wooden docks specially carved from assorted species of tree trunk in order to channel and boost your device’s sound volume are undeniably classy enough to live on almost any mantle. At $85 each, though, you almost wish they had at least a couple whizbang LEDs implanted within to justify the price.

Generally speaking, the only type of pies worth bothering with in the United Kingdoms are delicious savory ones, but if you’re jonesing for a pepperoni pizza while on a trip to olde Albion, you now have extra incentive to stop into a Pizza Express location: iPod docks built right into the seats.

Docks that can accommodate the iPad are a quickly swelling niche in the home electronics market; iHome’s throws another hat into the ring with their wide-stanced iA100, combining a sleek look and Bluetooth connectivity.

Bluetooth capabilities include streaming music from a BT-equipped iDevice, and turning the unit into an iPhone speakerphone (though Skyping won’t work, as Skype has yet to add BT functionality to their app). Sound from four active speakers is enhanced through the same Bongiovi DPS processing technology found on their flagship iP1, and a free app available through the app store add a slew of features like enhanced alarm controls, and even sleep stats.

The iA100 is available now, and sells for $199.

There are a lot of iPod docks on the market, but not a lot of them have docking trays big enough to accommodate the iPad without snapping it in half over your knee first… a tact which has some obvious repercussions on the resulting music’s audio quality.

Phillips’ latest dock changes that with a docking tray wide enough to accommodate the iPad’s chunky width. Called the Fidelio, the dock also features Bluetooth so that your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch doesn’t even need to be plugged in to avail itself of a nicer, room-filling speaker.

The Fidelio is also portable, with a battery that allows you to play music up to five hours per charge. Unfortunately, the Fidelio’s price and release date has yet to be announced.

[via, image Slashgear]