Back onstage: Belkin busts out the TuneStage II

Following up on its well-received and TuneCommand AV iPod accessories, Belkin has announced the TuneStage II, which should address most of the shortcomings of its predecessor when it's released in November for $150.

Like the earlier TuneStage, the TuneStage II lets you wirelessly transmit your music from your iPod to your home stereo, utilizing a snap-on transmitter and a small base station. But the newer model offers two key improvements: it's compatible with the newly released iPod Nano and 5G models (as well as pretty much every other dock-enabled iPod), and it utilizes Bluetooth 2.0 (rather than the 1.2 version found on the original TuneStage), which offers the potential for better sound quality.

While the original TuneStage performed adequately, the product was limited by the fact that the snap-on dongle interfaced only with older iPod models. We'll have a full hands-on review of the TuneStage II as soon as it becomes available.