>> Donald: Hey, I'm Donald Bell, Senior Editor for Digital Audio and MP3 and this is a first look at the Altec Lansing inMotion iM414; this is a speaker dock made just for the Microsoft Zune that includes and FM radio and a remote control all priced for just under $100.00. Now, this model has actually been out for several years but Altec Lansing recently updated it to be fully compatible with the Zune HD. So if you snag a good deal on one of these make sure that it's the latest model since the older version won't include a dock fitting for the Zune HD and may not be compatible with the Zune HD's radio tuner. All in all it's a fairly straightforward speaker dock. There's a display on the front and these nice big buttons for controlling power, volume, audio source and track skid. A remote control is also included giving you extra controls for base boost and expander affect and radio station presets. When you don't need the remote there's a place to store it on the back of the unit. The back also includes an AUX input, an FM radio antenna and an input feed including a power adaptor. One of the nice features here is that you can also run the speaker from 3 AA batteries, which Altec Lansing raised for around 24 hours of playback time. Now, the big downside to this system is that it doesn't double as an alarm clock. The display on the front doesn't give the time and there's no alarm clock option on the Zune HD itself. So if you're looking for a Zune HD alarm clock the iHome ZN9 is the way to go. Also, while the sound quality here is impressive for its size the power is somewhat restrained. The portability makes up for this since you can always bring the speaker closer to you but if you're after something that really cranks this isn't the speaker for you. So there you go, that's the Altec Lansing inMotion iM414, a portable and stylish speaker for the Zune HD with a nice balanced sound. For CNET.com I'm Donald Bell.
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