First filed in June 2008 but just unearthed by AppleInsider, it's been called the "Aesthetically pleasing universal dock" and is made from an "elastic sponge-like substance." It would be able to -

"retain its shape between uses or could be reset using a button placed on the front of the dock for use with a different device. This would eliminate the current problem of differing generations of iPods/iPhones needing adapters to fit into certain docks and chargers."

A shape-shifting iPod dock to match your shape-changing Jaguar C-XS car, perhaps? [AppleInsider]

Too bad my desire for funky naff is not $3700 strong. [Artcoustic via BornRich]

The 2000mAh battery should be good enough to for 1.5-2 charges and the whole thing folds up for easy transport. The basic P-Flip retails for $55 so don't be fooled by the ridiculous "Brookstone exclusive" that goes for $70—it appears to be the same dock. Alternatively, you could always bring along your own cord and make this DIY cardboard dock for nothing. [Dexim via Slashgear via CrunchGear]

Pretty sweet. Go get the PDF and do it yourself here. [iPhone Dock via Unplggd]

The MCR-140 has a wireless transmitter that attaches to the bottom of your iPod and streams music using Yamaha's own "uncompressed" wireless tech instead of Blueooth. The MCR-040—the orange one—is the exact same, but no wireless. iPod aside, they do CD, FM and USB. The 040's $280, while the wireless step-up puts the 140 at $400, and they're both out in October.

SHARPÒ INTRODUCES TWO NEW ULTRA-PORTABLE
IPOD® DOCKING SYSTEMS
High-fidelity Sound and Convenience in an Elegant, Handheld Design

ATLANTA, September 10, 2009 – Sharp today introduces two new iPodÒ docking systems for headphone-free music on the go. The DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P allow users to play music directly from any iPod or iPhoneÒ while simultaneously recharging the unit. Weighing less than 1.6 lbs, these 2.1-channel units feature premium sound quality, a long battery life and an ultra-portable design. An IR wireless touch panel remote control on the DK-AP8P adds flexibility and convenience, acting as a magnetic cover when not in use, while the DK-AP7P folds shut – protecting the units from damage during travel.

"As the popularity of digital music devices continues to grow, so does the desire for consumers to share their vast digital music libraries, whether traveling, in their backyard or in the comfort of the home," said Sean McBride, senior product marketing manager, audio, Entertainment Products Division, Sharp. "The introduction of the DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P strengthens Sharp's lineup of portable iPod audio systems and gives users the ultimate ease and convenience of high-quality music on the go, with an extremely small footprint."

The DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P join Sharp's existing lineup of iPod audio systems, including the DK-AP7N and DK-CL6N.

DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P

These small, yet powerful, made for iPod audio systems also work with iPhone and feature an ultra-portable design that folds closed for safekeeping when on the go (the DK-AP8P has a magnetic cover). A 2.1-channel speaker system houses all of the necessary components for an enjoyable listening experience, including the main drivers and subwoofer. With approximately six hours of battery operation and an AC adapter and soft carry bag included, these models are truly a portable solution to enjoying high-quality audio from any location.

The iPod terminal allows the user to charge and play music directly from any iPod or iPhone through the unit's full-range bass reflex speakers with HDSS™ (high-definition sound standard) sound technology. For optimum sound, the units offer ESound, a digital signal processing technology that improves the quality of compressed digital music. By enhancing the sound frequency and increasing the sound pressure, ESound mode corrects deterioration to the sound quality that plagues most compressed music. Both models also include a video output so that when connected to a TV, users can enjoy their favorite iPod videos and photos on a larger screen. Additionally, each unit features a 3.5mm stereo audio input for use with other audio MP3 players or PC audio for increased versatility.

The DK-AP8P and DK-AP7P feature a piano black finish. The current DK-AP7N is available in two eye-catching color combinations, sporting a glossy black body with either white or red accents.

DK-CL6N

With this clock radio music system made for iPod, users can wake up to their favorite playlists, direct from any iPod or iPhone (in airplane mode). The DK-CL6N charges and plays music from the docked iPod or iPhone (in airplane mode) with high-quality sound through the system's 4 watt, 2.0-channel audio speaker system. The alarm clock function includes a sleep timer with snooze and dual alarms for ultimate convenience. An AM/FM tuner allows users to program up to 10 favorite radio stations. The unit also features an electronic equalizer that customizes sound based on the music genre and has a five-step mode to accurately adjust the sound for any type of music.

The DK-CL6N is designed for the home or dorm room, featuring a compact design with a blue illuminated clock display. The unit also supports MP3 music players as well as streams video files from iPod video via the video output jack to the television.

All models feature low power consumption and comply with Energy StarÒ standards.
Pricing and availability

* The DK-AP8P will be available in September for a for a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $189.99
* The DK-AP7P will be available in September for an MSRP of $129.99

[Sharp]

Sony's ICF-CL75iP alarm clock has a 7-inch WVGA screen, 1GB of internal storage (and a USB port for more), a retractable iPod dock and an FM radio. It seems kind of excessive to have an extra screen when an iPod or iPhone is sitting right there, but as it plays video too (MP4, Motion JPEG and AVI), maybe you'd like to wake up to a video instead. It's available for pre-order now from SonyStyle Canada for $200 CAD (about $180 USD at the moment), shipping October 1st. [Sony Insider via Engadget]

SendStation's PocketDock, available now, is incredibly tiny, having "the same footprint as Apple's iPod plug," and features a 3.5mm jack in addition to the miniUSB. The 3.5mm jack lets you bypass the volume board used by the headphone jack, giving you clearer sound quality, just like a dock. It's pretty simple, and a little expensive at $30, but if you use a ton of miniUSB gadgets, it'll be worth it. [SendStation]

SendStation releases tiny PocketDock Line Out Mini USB adapter for iPod

Frankfurt/Main, Germany - August 25, 2009

SendStation Systems today released the world's smallest Mini USB-to-iPod adapter with integrated Line Out jack: the brand-new PocketDock Line Out Mini USB.

Mini USB has become the connectivity standard for portable electronic devices and the latest addition to the PocketDock family of iPod & iPhone adapters addresses that: now you can sync & charge your iPod or iPhone using the same cables, wall or car chargers found with digital cameras, portable hard drives, GPS devices, PDAs and many more. Additionally the integrated 1/8" (3.5 mm) Line Out jack offers pristine audio quality for connecting the iPod or iPhone to your home or car stereo or DJ equipment.

"This is the best PocketDock we've ever created", says SendStation's President André Klein. "Not only did we further improve our already known, excellent built-quality, but we were also able to shrink the size by an incredible 66% over our existing USB Line Out model."

The new PocketDock Line Out Mini USB comes in black color, weighs merely 4 grams and with 7 by 25.5 mm has the same footprint as Apple's iPod plug, thus fits through the dock connector opening of any case. Like all SendStation accessories with 30-pin dock connector, it is "Made for iPod" certified.

SendStation has also redesigned the included set of slim audio cables: the RCA (Cinch) plugs feature a flattened top to accept the thumb, which, by slightly turning while pulling, helps to unplug them easily.

For additional info visit www.sendstation.com.

Pricing & Availability

The SendStation PocketDock Line Out Mini USB is immediately available from SendStation Systems at www.sendstation.com and from authorized dealers worldwide. Suggested retail price across Europe is EUR 29.95, respectively USD 29.95 in the US and the rest of the world.

It can charge two iPod/iPhones simultaneously while also charging a Blackberry and a bluetooth headset for instance. In fact, using the two iPod connectors and two of your own iPod cords, you could even charge four iPod/iPhones at the same time.

It's good to see they've thrown in Micro USB, too. That's a nice bit of future-proofing given that most cell phone makers (in Europe at least) will soon be using it universally. You can pick one up in white, black or pink for $90. That isn't exactly cheap, but the Refresh definitely looks like a pretty slick piece of kit. [Bluelounge via Yanko Design]

The S125i, checking in at $70, is totally standard: Universal iPod/iPhone dock, 3.5mm auxiliary input for other audio sources (I like using my Zune, because I'm a rebel like that), a one-touch bass boost button, and can run on 4 AA batteries for around 10 hours.

Equally dull is the S315i, pictured, a little more expensive at $130, has the same inputs, except its battery is rechargeable and lasts twice as long, up to 20 hours. Apparently the "custom, full-range drivers" give excellent lows and highs, though without having heard it we can't confirm that.

Like we said, these docks are totally fine—if we were in the market for a new iPod dock, we'd definitely consider them. Logitech has a history of nice-sounding, nice-looking iPod accessories and it stands to reason these'll be perfectly nice as well. But there's also nothing new here, and we just can't get too excited about another black plastic and silver metal iPod dock. [Logitech]

There are more than a few iPhone/iPod battery packs floating around these days, but Kensington's gone and thrown one in with its new $70 charging dock.

The err, adventurously named 'Kensington Charging Dock with Mini Battery Pack' comes with its own mini battery that charges next to your dock-compatible iPhone/iPod. Kensington claims it'll provide an extra 30 hours of music or 6 hours of video on an 3rd generation iPod Nano, and an extra 3 hours of talk time on an iPhone.

Kinda cool, but enough to make you excited for yet another iPod dock?
[Kensington via Engadget]

The dock uses only one USB cable, and it has been certified by Apple to work natively with iTunes. [Parasync]

When combined with the free Kensington Rise&Shine iPhone app—which shows the time and the weather—it converts your iPhone into a retro-looking bedside alarm clock. Maybe a way too expensive at $40, but it's a good idea. [Kensington and Rise&Shine App via Geeky Gadgets]

The 6400 has a standard Bluetooth range and looks exactly like a Bluetooth headset from Jabra, whereas the 9400 looks like a receptionist's headset that you can take around your house at up to a 450-foot range.

They both have dual-microphones for noise cancelation and both have the touchscreen to quickly switch between a cellphone, VoIP or landline connections. Both will be available later in the year for $200 each. [Slashgear]

Adding to the composite, component, and USB, the SATA HDD Multimedia Dock II also has an HDMI port, although it only supports 1080i. The media player supports the following formats:

• MPEG-1 (MPG, DAT)
• MPEG-2 (MPG, MPEG, VOB)
• MPEG-4 (AVI, MP4)
• DivX 3.11/4/5 (AVI, DIVX)
• XviD (AVI)
• AVI decode audio: MP3, AC3, ADPCM
• VOBSUB: srt, sub, smi, txt, ass, ssa
• MPEG-1 Layer 3, 24-320kbps (MP3)
• AC3 (in the movie)
• Microsoft PCM Wave (WAV)
• Advance Audio Coding LC (AAC)
• Microsoft Windows Media Audio WMA7/8 (WMA), no support for WMA9 Pro
• MP2 (MPA)

Looks like crap, but nice for $79. [Brando]

As John mentioned yesterday, it's an update that resembles Windows 7's amazing Taskbar, in that you can get at more windows and files from the Dock itself, currently considered more of an app launcher than an app manager. Here are the new key attributes for Exposé, and how it works within the Dock:

• Exposé itself has a new look: Windows are arranged in a grid rather than in whatever open space is available, and the title of each window appears underneath. (You can see this in the video below, if you pay attention.)

• Stacks, those folder contents that pop up from the Dock, also got tweaked. Most notably, you can scroll to see all the stuff in a stack without clicking the "More" arrow, and folders that appear in stacks can be opened and browsed, too.

• If you click and hold an app icon in the Dock, all the windows open in that app will reveal themselves in the Exposé grid, lined up neatly. Using some key command or cursor gesture (which I don't know), you can even zoom in to one of the open windows, and check it out without leaving Exposé.

• If you grab a file, you can drag it to the dock and hold it over an app icon. This springs open App, and arranges the open windows of that app in Exposé, so you can easily drop the file where it needs to go. (I currently do this by holding the file with my mouse while doing a combo-keystroke to bring the window back into view, so I can see how this will make life easier.)

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

[Apple's Snow Leopard "Refinements"; Snow Leopard Full Coverage on Gizmodo]

The device attempts to solve a problem that doesn't exist—cooling netbooks that generally run pretty cool—while simultaneously destroying a netbook's main purpose on this earth, portability. Because the USB Mini Netbook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5" HDD Dock is almost as big as the netbook itself. Almost. In this case, the USB Mini Netbook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5" HDD Dock is just small enough to make the resting state of your computer into a dangerous challenge of physics.

And then it's painted pink to top it all off, a color that matches everything.

That's because the "superbar"—as the taskbar is known by developers—jerks taskbar functionality in a new direction. It's no longer merely a window manager—just a place to manage open windows and by proxy, open applications. It's now a bona fide application launcher. More than that, it blends the two in ways that will remind many of the OS X Dock—apps that are running and those that aren't can live together. True, you've been able to launch apps from the Windows taskbar's Quick Launch ghetto for ages, but that's been demolished so that Microsoft could completely and seamlessly integrate the launching of new apps and the managing of running ones.

Managing Apps and Open Windows

The OS X Dock operates from a similar standpoint, but Windows 7 takes this (not to mention the translucency gambit) a step further: The visual signification of a running application (versus one that's not and merely "pinned" to the taskbar) is exceptionally subtle—a kind of "glare" appears on the top left corner of the icon and it's faintly outlined. It borders on actively encouraging you to forget the distinction, which as computers become more powerful and applications launch more quickly, matters less and less anyhow.

The flashing colored glass effect when an app is trying to get your attention, however, is nice, and though way less ostentatious than the old blinking button, definitely obvious. Unless you have the taskbar set to auto-hide, then the notification is barely visible as a flashing line of color on the bottom of your screen. The Mac Dock's bouncing icons definitely works better there.

These aesthetic similarities aside, what actually makes the superbar superior to the Dock is window management—including, by extension, application management. I can easily find, access or close any window I want from the taskbar nearly instantly, thanks to the combination of live thumbnails and Aero Peek. Rolling over an icon in the taskbar pops up live thumbnails of every open window of that app. If that's not enough to tell which one you want, rolling over a thumbnail brings that window to the front, full-sized, and makes every other window translucent. And it's easy to move from app to app in one motion to bring up the window you want, or close it. This is not just a neat visual trick, like Flip 3D. It's genuinely useful.

The benefit breaks down if you have more open windows of an application than the number of previews that will fit across your screen horizontally: In that case, you get a much less useful list of open windows, like old school Windows or control-clicking a Dock icon on the Mac.

The Power of the Pop-Up Menu

Right-clicking—or clicking the icon then quickly swiping upwards—brings up a pop-up menu (aka a jump list). Control-clicking on the OS X Dock does something similar, giving you a list of open windows. Some apps (like Adium) are coded for additional Dock functions, but it's not the same as the powerful visual metaphor that the superbar and Aero Peek give you. Applications still need to be coded specially to take advantage of the superbar's pop-up menu, but it's more powerful. If an app is coded to use Windows 7 jump lists—when you right-click on an icon or click and swipe upward, you have instant access to frequently used or other functions—it will erase the slight advantage the Dock currently has.

The superbar does share one of the Dock's major shortcomings as an application launcher—it's not immediately apparent how to launch a new window of an app from the taskbar. The secret as Windows evangelist Paul Thurrot points out is that you right-click the app icon, then click the app name itself appearing in the pop-up menu. Granted, from the Mac Dock, unless opening a new window is coded into the app as a Dock function, like Safari, you can't do it at all.

The superbar's biggest shortcoming—at least when you first use it—relates to the way it handles folders and document shortcuts, which is exceptionally confusing. You can only pin one folder to the bar. After that, every subsequent folder you want to pin to the taskbar is pinned to Windows Explorer. Say you have the Libraries folder pinned for quick access to Documents, Downloads, Pictures, etc. But I also want another folder (in this example, Games and Computer) pinned to the taskbar, so I drag it to the bar. There, it shares the same icon as my first pinned folder. When I click the icon, up pops Libraries. Where's the Games folder? I have to right-click on the folder icon (or click and swipe up). This gives me a jump list of pinned folders and other frequent programs. You pin documents the same way, only they're hidden in the jump menu of the application that opens them. It takes some learning before you can use it fluidly.

The View From Above

The challenge of learning a totally new Windows behavior is the cost of getting this huge step forward in UI. The superbar makes Windows way more conducive to running tons of applications, since it's actually possible to find apps and precisely the window you want in a second, no matter how bad the shitstorm on your desktop is. In this sense, it's a better application manager than the Dock, from which, generally speaking, you can't do much more than jump to open applications or close them.

It's true that it's actually less necessary for the Dock to be a superpowered wunderkind—Spaces gives you multiple desktops to work on, and Expose is pretty fantastic. It's faster, though if you've got too many windows, the thumbnails are too small to be useful. Aero Peek solves this issue nicely by letting you quickly cycle through full-screen windows. The superbar has a button in the bottom right corner that works sort of like an OS X Expose hot corner, instantly making every window transparent so you can see the desktop—clicking will actually clear everything away.

There are definitely arguments to be made against the density of the superbar, packing so many function into a single UI element—many criticisms of the Dock apply to the superbar, like the total lack of text labels, and though it sidesteps some of the Dock's issues, like the poof, it presents new flubs. It could definitely improve in some ways (especially the notification area, which I didn't even go into).

But it shows the most thought of any Windows UI element in a long time, and manages to handle the complexity and multiplicity of functions about as well as one could expect. It does more than the Dock, and for the most part, works beautifully to enable—encourage, even—serious multitasking that the default Windows UI never has before.

Priced at $30 apiece or $150 for the set, the "handcrafted" fleece pillows are stuffed with polyester alongside several ounces of pure fanboy concentrate*.

Fanboy concentrate is the mixture of stone ground OS 9 discs, cotton derivative, Jobs saliva substitute, MSG and high fructose corn syrup. [Throwboy via Unplggd]