This week at iLounge: Two of Bose's most famous iPod-compatible products have been challenged by aggressive new alternatives. Still the top-selling iPod speaker dock despite its price, Bose's $300 all-in-one speaker system SoundDock has two new competitors, both of which we've reviewed. Altec Lansing's M602 is a bigger dock with bass and treble controls, plus all sorts of rear ports that were missing from Bose's design. And Sonic Impact's T24 delivers even warmer sound than the SoundDock, with noticeably deeper bass. Both systems are available now for $100 less than the SoundDock — which should you buy?
Hit the jump for all kinds of iGoodness.
Bose's famous $300 QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones also see two new competitors: one from Logitech, which sells for only $150, but offers comparable noise cancellation and isolation, and another from... Bose. The $350 QuietComfort 3 drops the passive isolating earcups of QC2's design, in favor of less aggressive "on-ear" phones. We strongly prefer the isolation we receive from in-canal earphones, like Shure's new E500PTH — an outstanding but expensive new triple-driver design that won over all of iLounge's editors.
Also: We take two looks at the iPod's first Karaoke Station, the IPS-11G from CAVS, and come away surprised at how fun iPod karaoke can be (and how horrible our singing is). Our First Look checks out what's inside the box, while an editorial on our weekend with the Station explains just why karaoke fans might want to carry their favorite singalongs in their pockets. Finally, we look at ATO's iSee 360i, a weird little 3.5" screen add-on for some non-video iPods that lets them record and play back video content.
In iPod news this week, Apple firmly defended its iPod and iTunes DRM to Scandinavian regulators, while the French iTunes law went into effect Thursday. Audible extended its partnership with the iTunes Music Store. Coke said it will be giving away 70 million songs in the UK and Germany, while Apple announced that it has sold over 200 million tracks from its European iTunes Music Stores in just over two years. Plus, Ford, GM and Mazda will add iPod integration to their 2007 models, and eMusic moves into No. 2 in digital music sales thanks to the iPod.