Our product database has expanded this week to include some modest, though helpful add-ons—a pedestal for your iPod, a packet of clips to accommodate an iPod shuffle, an inexpensive shuffle cover/clip combo from Marware, and two SiK cables.
Thought Out’s iPed is a $26 metal stand for full-sized iPods. It doesn’t provide a dock connector or hold an iPod inside a case, but it’s an attractive desktop holder for your iPod (plus it features a cutout at the bottom so you can attach a dock connector cable while it’s in the pedestal.
DVForge’s The Clips is a $15 bundle of three clips for the iPod shuffle. If you’d rather not use the shuffle’s lanyard and would like a way to easily secure a shuffle to your person, The Clips is an affordable way to do so.
Marware’s $9 SportGrip for iPod shuffle is both a case and clip. It surrounds an iPod shuffle’s sides with a protective bumper, leaving the iPod’s front and back exposed for easy access to the power switch and front controls. Attached to the bottom of the case is a small key-ring that can attach to a lanyard or the included carabiner. A cheap and functional accessory.
SiK is known for creating iPod adapter cables that offer greater functionality that those made by Apple. The company’s $22 ram din and $11 HotWire cables are no exception. The ram din features a split-cable design with a dock connector on one end that splits out to a female FireWire adapter and male audio jack. With this cable you can plug your iPod into power with a standard FireWire cable while also playing it through portable speakers via the audio plug.
The HotWire offers more by providing less. When you string a standard FireWire cable between your first- or second-generation iPod and your computer, iTunes will launch and want to sync your music between computer and iPod (this option can be turned off, of course). There are times when you want only to charge your iPod. This cable, which looks exactly like a standard FireWire cable, will do just that. It’s wired only the charge the iPod, not transfer data. When plugged into a computer’s FireWire port and an early iPod, it will charge the iPod only with iTunes blissfully unaware of its presence.