After having spent hands-on time with iPod-related products from seventy-four exhibitors at this week's Macworld Expo, thirty-five of whom launched new products, the iProng Editorial Team selected thirteen newly introduced products which we collectively felt represented the best new iPod-related products that this year's Expo had to offer. Although iProng has been communicating with Expo exhibitors since November regarding who would or wouldn't be launching new products, the iProng Team combed every inch of both Exhibit Halls in order to ensure that every new iPod-related product was given consideration whether we were aware of the product in advance or not. iProng's entire Expo Team worked together in selecting the winners, and while some products were able to be identified as winners more quickly than others, the thirteen winners were a collective decision of the entire team; no product was given an award unless the entire team could be convinced that the product was award-worthy.
In addition, we wanted to recognize the twelve other finalists that didn't quite make the final cut, so a link at the bottom of this page leads to a listing of the products that came close to winning. The "Best of" trends for early 2007? High-end wireless iPod speaker systems, improved dockable iPod alarm clocks, the best iPod car mounts getting even better, and iPod nano cases (finally) done right.
If anyone tells you that iPod accessory innovation is dead, they weren't at this Expo. Now, without further ado, iProng's Macworld Expo 2007 Best of Show awards, listed in alphabetical order by company: This dockable iPod speaker system comes with a big price but even bigger sound, pumping out enough pristine audio to fill even the largest of houses. So where's the innovation in that?
The included iPod dock operates wirelessly from the main speaker system from up to a hundred feet away, and up to three additional speakers can also be added wirelessly, meaning that you can place them on the other side of the room or several rooms away. The included remote control features significantly better range than some previous Altec Lansing systems we've seen, and what really sold the entire team is the fact that unlike so many high-end dockable systems, this one actually produces four hundred dollars worth of sound. The M812 will be available for $399.
95 in spring 2007. We'll have plenty more to say about the iPhone over the next several months, but for now we'll keep it brief: despite its high price point and its attachment at the hip to a single carrier (Cingular/AT T), the iPhone has already managed to make not only every cell phone on the market, but also every iPod on the market, almost fully obsolete in comparison -- and even the concept of obsessively lugging your laptop computer around with you now seems antiquated due to the fact that you'll be able to carry out many of your computer's primary functions on your phone. This one's a winner no matter how long it'll take you to pay off the $499 (for 4 GB) or $599 (for 8 GB) on your credit card bill or how many years you have to sign the contract for.
Too bad it's not available until June. If ever there was a time to petition the FCC for expedited approval of a communications device, this might be it. With products like GarageBand continuing to blur the lines between professional and consumer musician, it shouldn't be surprising that a consumer company like Belkin is launching a four-port mixer for less than two hundred dollars which includes an iPod dock for direct recording to iPod.
Wan to get your band together, record a demo, and listen to it on your iPod on the plane ride to Macworld Expo? Piece of cake, as the recoded tracks can be played back instantly on the iPod without modification or syncing. Recording directly to your iPod always raises the question of what happens when you eventually connect the iPod to your computer, but in this case the recorded tracks automatically find their way to a playlist in your iTunes sidebar, much in the same manner as Belkin's existing TuneTalk microphone recorders, a process which we've always found intuitive.
For those times when you want to record to something more substantial, a computer can be hooked up to the TuneStudio as a fifth device. Probably only useful to those musicians who plan to actually use the direct-to-iPod recording feature at least some of the time, but sufficiently innovative and executed well enough to be award-worthy -- not to mention a lot of fun to test and review when the product ships in June for $179. We've seen any number of shields for the Second Generation iPod shuffle made from plastic and rubber, but Case-Mate has officially raised the bar on 2G shuffle shields by not only introducing leather to the mix, but also by providing a complete (and easy to use) replication of the shuffle's frontside controls on the front of the shield.
The former allows the shuffle to fit in better when clipped to a lapel while wearing formal attire, and the latter provides protection for the frontside controls that so many other 2G shuffle shields lack. Although it's a fairly simple product, it nails what we think most 2G shuffle users are looking for in a shield: the ability to make a fashion statement that suits them and their attire, combined with keeping the part of the shuffle others can see -- the front face -- scratch-free without interfering with the shuffle's operation in any way. The Leather Case is not yet available on the Case-Mate website but should be there soon in a choice of red or black.
DLO's original TransPod (now known as TransDock) was a breakthrough in terms of providing a car mount, charger, FM transmitter, and line-out all in the same product, and the newly introduced TransDock is a major upgrade which we felt transcended incremental status. The industrial design is sleeker, featuring more clean lines on the front face of the product. The FM broadcast quality, which was already comparatively strong to begin with, has been improved (to the extent that we could test it with an FM stereo at the company's booth).
The innovation comes in the form of a hookup which allows a video iPod to send its video content to a car's back seat television screen. Although the TransDock remains significantly more expensive than other FM transmitters on the market, we continue to feel that the price is justified by the product's four-in-one status and the fact that it's so easy to go back and forth between using the FM transmitter and using the line-out. The new TransDock is currently available for pre-order for $99.
99. iHomeAudio's original iH5 rocked our world back in 2005 and set a precedent for sub-$100 dockable iPod alarm clocks. But as much as we loved the iH5, it was laden with just-good-enough sound quality, a lack of adjustable bass and treble, the inability to wake to anything but a buzzer when running on batteries, and a remote which cost $20 extra.
While we never considered any of those deal-breakers for a $99 iPod speaker system (particularly one with alarm clock functionality), ezGear's new ezWake beat out the iHome in all four areas. The ezWake's sound quality is noticeably better, it features adjustable bass and treble on the included remote, four D batteries allow full functionality when not plugged in, and it does all of this at the same size and price point. And about that remote -- it features a series of buttons which allow you to fully navigate up and down the iPod's menus without having to touch the iPod.
Although you still have to be within eyesight of the iPod's screen, you can now avoid having to grasp the iPod while it's docked. The only thing we didn't like? Like the iH5, the ezWake lacks dual alarm functionality.
The ezWake is now shipping for $99.99 in a choice of black or white. We've seen component iPod speaker systems whose individual pieces can be combined into a single unit before.
But Griffin's Evolve takes things to a whole new level with a pair of cube-shaped speakers which can be picked up off the unit's base and carried around the house -- wirelessly. A small indentation on the back of each cube allows one or both to be taken with you when moving from one room to the next. The excellent sound quality backs up the high price point, but what really sold us was that unlike so many other remotes on high-end systems, the Evolve's remote uses RF technology which works from fifty feet or more and through walls.
The Evolve will ship later this year for $349. It's rare that an accessory maker manages to replace the iPod's interface with one of their own without knocking the whole thing down several notches in the usability department (see any number of "integrated" car solutions). But with the Outdoor Case, H2O Audio not only seals the iPod in an airtight case which protects it from outdoor elements, it recognized the need to supply users wearing gloves with an interface better suited to the situation.
By placing a secondary set of controls directly over the iPod's click-wheel, the Outdoor Case spaces out the click-wheel's buttons and allows scrolling to be controlled via circular lever instead of via the usual heat conduction. What sold the entire iProng Team on this product is the fact that using the Outdoor Case's frontside controls was almost as intuitive as using the click-wheel itself, as well as the fact that the Outdoor Series can be connected to anything from an armband to a bicycle mount. The Outdoor Case is now shipping for iPod nano for $39.
95, and H2O has informed us that the 5G iPod version should be shipping soon. Even the best full-body film products for iPod tend to share the same traits of being laborious to apply as well as prone to air bubbles that must be worked out afterwards if the product was applied less than perfectly. So we were intrigued by (if a bit initially skeptical of) the iWRAPr, a single-piece film product which is attached by slipping the film loosely over the iPod and then quickly passing over the exterior of the film with an ordinary hair dryer.
A late-night session hotel room session involving the iWRAPr, the hotel hair dryer, one of iProng's iPod nanos, and a set of car keys left us concluding that A) the product is as easy for a non-trained user to apply it is for the company reps, B) the heat from the hair dryer isn't making its way to the nano during application, and C) throwing an iWRAPr-clad nano into your pants pocket isn't going to result in any scratches. The product is removed simply by ripping it off; it comes in a seven-pack which means that they'll last you awhile but you'll theoretically have to reload eventually. The obvious catch here is that you have to own a hair dryer, not always a given.
The iWRAPr seven-pack is currently available from a number of resellers in the $15 to $18 range. Not officially rolled out for another week or two but introduced at the Expo in a limited capacity, Marware's updated Sidewinder for nano starts with the original stark-looking Sidewinder concept (which we loved in a functional sense) and evolves into something as fashion-conscious as the Second Generation nano itself. Consisting of a clear hard plastic front and a choice of nano colors on the back, the new Sidewinder retains the hidden pull-out earbud cable winder as well as the removable Multidapt belt clip, but now you can take advantage of the Sidewinder's superb protection without having to give up your nano's personality.
One of the things that pushed the new Sidewinder over the top for us is the fact that our one concern with the Sidewinder, the potential for the slide-off piece to get lost, is mitigated by Marware's policy of replacing lost slide-off pieces at no cost. While we don't yet have pricing for the new Sidewinder, we expect it will be similar to the $24.95 price tag on the current model.
This product and the next one on our list have left us believing that iPod case innovation is alive and well. Similar in concept to the company's earlier Mueva Wraptor for the Second Generation shuffle (previewed exclusively here on iProng back in September) but necessarily different in execution, the Mueva Wraptor for Second Generation nano uses a combination of silicone (in a choice of nano-inspired colors) and clear hard plastic to produce one of the more unique-looking iPod nano cases in recent memory. The plastic piece occupies the left side of the nano and slides out just enough to allow the nano's earbud cables to be wrapped around it, but slides in and appears to simply be part of the unique design when not being used for cable-wrapping.
The Mueva Wraptor for nano is currently available for pre-order for $20. The trouble with most component speaker systems for iPod is that you have to bring your own iPod dock, which adds to the cost, potentially clashes with the styling, and adds additional bulk to an already large-ish footprint. So while the new Cube HIFI 5 inch speaker system sounds every bit as good as its $299 price calls for, what really sold us here was the fact that an iPod dock is built right into the top of one of the two cube-shaped speaker units.
Okay, so their rectangular dimensions and rounded corners don't technically fit the definition of a cube, but after hearing what they sound like, we'll wager you won't care. The Cube HIFI 5 inch is currently shipping in white or black, and there will also be a similar-yet-smaller Cube HIFI system available for $199. ProClip's system of combining a self-install custom mount specific to your vehicle and a choice of holders specific to your iPod has long been the ideal way to get your iPod mounted in your car in a way that appears to be a professional job without having to pay professional install prices.
While the holders have provided open bottoms to allow dock connector access and more recently the ability to semi-permanently attach the docking cable of a third party device to the holder with screws, the company has simplified things once and for all by providing a pass-through dock connector port on the bottom of its new line of holders. It's perhaps a subtle enhancement, but it takes a product that was already ideal and pushes it into holy grail territory. Now, you can leave your third-party car accessory cable plugged into the holder 24/7, meaning you never have to fish for it when you get into the car, and yet removing the cable when necessary is is a snap.
The ProClip system, which may set you back a hundred dollars or more depending on the holder you choose, seems pricey only until you compare it to "iPod integration" products from car manufacturers which cost two hundred dollars and up and don't allow you to use your iPod's own interface. The holders aren't yet available on the ProClip website but are expected to be soon. If this is your first ProClip product you'll also need to order the car mount; if you're already using the ProClip system then you'll just need the holder.
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