Macworld Pundit Showdown VI

It's been far too long since we took off the gloves, threw out the rule book, and indulged in a little no-holds barred punditry. With iPads, iPhone SDKs, and misplaced iPhone prototypes in the news, what better time to turn our podcast over to another Macworld Pundit Showdown?

We've got a stellar panel of Mac industry heavyweights slugging it out for your amusement. Champion of champions Jason Snell puts his unbeaten record on the line against senior editor Christopher Breen, Macworld Lab director James Galbraith, and PCWorld reviews editor Tim Moynihan in a contest that awards points for bold opinions and punishes reticence.

Read

iHome Studio Series iP1

It is always refreshing to see what iHome is up to. Last time, we covered the small iHM77RC Portable Multimedia Speakers, but iHome has really upped its game as far as iPod/iPhone docks are concerned.

The iP1 Studio Series Model has “museum quality” speakers, which apparently means they are made up of smoked acrylic. It is nice to know that someone has finally made an iPod dock that looks like a boom box. After all, iPod and iPhone docks are a dime a dozen, but the iP1 looks like an iPod dock on crack.

According to the specs, these speakers are “100 watt class D biamplified architecture with Bongiovi sound processing through twin 4-inch woofers and matched 1-inch dome tweeters”. If you aren’t familiar with Bongiovi, he is a music producer, and the second cousin of Jon Bon Jovi. Yes, Tony Bongiovi invented the Acoustics Digital Power Station, “an active digital signal processor that the company says makes the MP3s sound better”.

This Digital Power Station is on the iP1. Other features include GSM shielding for the iPhone, and a video out port in case you want to watch video from the iPod or iPhone.

The iHome Studio Series iP1 will be available in July, for a projected retail price of about $300.

Source

The Dexim DWP005 Hub Dock Station

Instead of just plugging your usual iPod cord into your computer, there is now this Dexim DWP005. In some ways it initally looks like it’d just take up space. However, it’s slim, it’d keep your iPhone/iPod in the upright position, plus best of all it has other devices built into it. Giving you even more functions and a nice sleek dock to pop your iPod into. Since it is so sleek, you have the added perk of it being easy to just toss into your laptop bag for traveling purposes.

In addition to being a charger, it has a memory card reader and a 3-port USB hub built-in. Plus it has provided cables that work for devices that use micro and mini USB ports to recharge, such as the Blackberry. All around it gives quite a lot of function on a very small device. Sadly though, it is a bit pricey. It’ll cost you $69.99, which does seem a bit on the steep side. However, it offers quite a bit of functionality for that price.

Source