ihome

Lights-on with iHome's 'iLamp' iPod dock

A bog-roll holder with an iPod dock and speakers built-in was always going to be one of the most unusual instances of modern convergence. But although daft, it's sort of a useful idea, because most of us don't have speakers in our bathrooms. We do, however, have speakers in our bedrooms, which is why we're confused about whether a bedside lamp with an iPod dock and speakers built-in is anything but an epic fail.

iHome's new $180 iHL31 is the brother of the $130 iHL20, another iPod-ready lamp. Both are on sale only in the U.… Read more

Hyatt gets it

Maybe I've been staying in the wrong kind of places, but until now, I've never stayed in a hotel room that would let me use my MP3 player of choice for background music and to wake up in the morning. Not in downtown San Jose, not in Las Vegas--I had to come to the outskirts of D.C. to find a hotel room with an iHome radio that included not only an iPod dock, but also a 1/8th" input for any other player of choice. Instead of waking up to NPR or a local classical music … Read more

iHome homes in on iPhone and Zune with new audio systems

SDI Technologies, the company behind the iHome series of affordable iPod audio systems, is not surprisingly embracing both iPods and iPhones in 2008, as well as Microsoft's Zune line of portable media devices. SDI is showing off several new products at CES, including an L-shaped alarm clock for the iPod and iTouch (as well as other iPod models) that allow you to change the orientation of the unit so you can watch videos, "while the clock display rotates accordingly to complement the position of the unit." We also liked the looks of the iP51 2.1 Micro … Read more

iHome phones home

After having done its level best to corner the iPod clock radio market, iHome is expanding into mobile phone accessories. But despite its extensive experience with media players, the new business won't necessarily be a slam dunk.

As Chip Chick rightly notes, wireless speakers and other Bluetooth accessories have proven to be rocky terrain for other companies, and iHome's new iHC5S system is trying to succeed on multiple fronts--as a four-speaker stereo, MP3 clock radio, speakerphone and who knows what else, for $150. It's an effort well worth trying, however, as mobile phone makers continue to morph their handsets … Read more

Bike-mounted speaker for mean streets

Even in this day of permanently affixed earphones, some people insist on enjoying their music the old-fashioned way, in the open air. And cyclists are no exception.

The only problem is that some speakers created specifically for bike frames are, as colleague Jasmine France would delicately put it, fugly. iHome, however, is trying to remedy that with its "Bike to Beach Bicycle Speaker" for the iPod.

The sleek design of the $100 " iH85," as it's also known, makes it look something like a rifle scope. But MobileWhack says it's supposed to add brawn to … Read more

Timex's MP3 clock radio chimes in

SDI Technologies, the company that brings you the iHome line of iPod speaker systems and clock radios, also has a licensing deal with Timex to create forward-thinking clock radios. The Timex TM 80BR, a clock radio that plays MP3 and WMA files from thumbdrives and SD memory cards, is one such model, and it's apparently going to be available very soon.

Aside from the SD slot, the flash drive port, and the included remote, there isn't anything terribly exciting about it. At its core it's just an inexpensive dual-alarm, AM/FM clock radio. But some people get … Read more