dock

Dual Electronics is no stranger to taking risks with oddball gadgets that combine features in interesting ways (just take a look at its XGPS300 car kit/GPS receiver/battery extender for the iPod Touch), so we'd like to say that we weren't surprised when it revealed a car stereo that rolls in its own iPod dock at the 2010 SEMA Show. In truth, however, we're still a bit confused by the oddity of it.

The Dual XML8150, as the stereo head unit is called, is a mechless car audio receiver. By omitting the CD transport, Dual was … Read more

Pico projectors haven't really taken off like some people thought they would, but this new one from Optoma looks interesting. That's because Optoma has combined an iPod/iPhone sound dock with a "tabletop" projector, which seems like the way to go with these sort of projectors.

Though the Neo-i, which ships in mid-December, isn't cheap at $449, its specs are better than your typical pico projector. The company says the Neo-i is 50 ANSI Lumen DLP projector that offers WVGA (854x480 pixels) resolution in 16:9 format, with a "full-bodied" 16-watt stereo system. … Read more

DockView is a desktop customization app that lets you take a neat trick from Windows and mimic it in Snow Leopard: with DockView running, when you mouse over an app's icon in the Dock, you can instantly see live thumbnail images for all the windows open in that app.

You can accomplish something similar without DockView, by clicking and holding a Dock icon for a few seconds, but DockView gives you a much quicker and less intrusive view, while allowing you to quickly flip between different apps in the Dock. Plus, DockView's ability extends to the Mac OS … Read more

Sonos, the company behind the highly rated multiroom music system, has released an accessory for users who have a lot of music stored on an iPod or iPhone.

With the Sonos Wireless Dock (WD100), which is now shipping for $119, you can play all of the music from an iPod or iPhone in any room where you have a Sonos ZonePlayer setup.

Of course, a lot of people keep their music stored on a computer or networked drive, but apparently Sonos has identified that many people simply want to be able to dock their iPod or iPhone and stream music … Read more

For this week's giveaway we've got something that hasn't even quite hit the market yet: the Audyssey Audio Dock "South of Market Edition." We already reviewed this high-end iPod/iPhone audio system, which is due to hit Apple stores in early November, and liked what it had to offer. We said that while the Audyssey Audio Dock is on the expensive side, "it's one of the better-sounding--and versatile--iPod/iPhone audio systems with built-in Bluetooth and speakerphone capabilities we've tested." (Read the full review here).

Normally, Audyssey Audio Dock "South of … Read more

If you like the interface of the Mac OS but are stuck using a Windows machine, this little app from Stardock can help--if only very slightly. The premise behind ObjectDock is very simple: it adds an animated, Mac-inspired dock to your desktop that provides easy access to useful shortcuts and can serve to replace your taskbar.

Read the full review of ObjectDock.

If you like the interface of the Mac OS but are stuck using a Windows machine, this little app from Stardock can help--if only very slightly. The premise behind ObjectDock is very simple: it adds an animated, Mac-inspired dock to your desktop that provides easy access to useful shortcuts and serves to replace your taskbar (if you so choose).

The ObjectDock install is quick and light, and the program is extremely easy to set up. A simple settings menu lets you choose how many items you want on the dock, where it is positioned, and whether you want zoom enabled. … Read more

TinkerTool is a small, free app that lets you tinker with your user preferences, allowing access to options that you can't find through System Preferences. These "hidden" preferences--extras like adding scroll arrows to both ends of scroll bars--exist for a variety of reasons, but are usually invisible to users without the help of an app like TinkerTool.

TinkerTool's preferences are organized under 10 main headings: Finder (for options like showing hidden files or restricting the Finder), Dock, General (a lot of useful options, including control over scroll arrows and screenshot file formats), Applications, Snow Leopard (with … Read more

A subtle but important change could be in store for the iPad.

Though the touch-screen tablet can be used in both portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) mode, it can only be placed in its charging dock in portrait mode. There's just one 30-pin connector on the bottom of the short side of the rectangular iPad.

But according to documents Apple filed with the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union earlier this year and made public last week, a horizontal docking option may be on its way. The blog Patently Apple found the documents submitted by … Read more