SmartAlx
09-17-2007, 11:05 PM
I am in a bit of a rush so I'll have to flesh this out a bit later, but I wanted to let you guys know that I found a nice iPod dock with a RF remote control that works (mostly) with the iPhone. This is the Keyspan AV Dock for iPod (http://www.keyspan.com/products/av/avdock/). iLounge did a nice review (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/keyspan-av-dock-for-ipod/) for using it for an iPod.
Now about the iPhone functions. Naturally, we get the warning dialog that says that it's not compatible with the iPhone and would we like to turn the airplane mode on. Yeah, sometimes I do get the wierd noise if I don't put it on airplane mode. But you know what? This airplane mode thing is actually almost convenient for me. I use my iPhone for teaching a dance class and obviously I don't want my Spongebob ringtone to come through the speakers while the class is trying to dance Salsa. (Just kidding, it's Futurama, not Spongebob.) It's also great that all you have to do to turn off airplane mode is remove the phone from the dock. I would hate to have to go through a menu to fix that. Good job Jobs.
The reason why I chose this dock over the Apple one was for the remote control. The RF remote is great. Radio Frequency remote controls are so much better than Infrared ones. You don't have to aim the remote. And it has a longer range. I was able to test it to about 50 feet with absolute 100% success. I'll test it further later on when I have it connected to something more significant than my headphones. LOL.
This remote also has more options than your normal IR or even RF remote control. It doesn't just have your usual Volume and Track controls. It also has repeat, shuffle, playlist, album, and audiobook chapter cycling. I don't listen to audio books and I'm still working on the logic behind the playlist (I can't seem to get an On The Go playlist to cycle through) but all in all I am very pleased with the RF remote. You can even fast forward and rewind by holding down the track buttons. The one thing that puzzles me is the on/off button on the bottom of the remote. I just kNOW that I'm going to forget to turn the dern thing off one day. Will it drain the battery? That remains to be seen. I'll let you know if it does when that day comes. Unfortunately, you can't power down your iPod from this remote. 'Course you probably won't want that with your iPhone, but you might want to take it off of airplane mode. When they start making these things for our iPhones, it will really be nice if we can use the remote to toggle Airplane mode on/off, in fact, it would be great if it would automatically turn airplane mode off when you stop the music.
Now this is an AV dock. The A (standing for Audio) works as you would expect. The V portion of the title however (being Video of course), well, you shouldn't be surprised that this particular function doesn't work at all with the iPhone. 'Course that's not the dock's fault. The iPhone doesn't have the capability. But your iPod might. Now I'll warn you, if you want to use this with your video iPod, then you'll have to purchase an S-Video cable separately. Oh well. S-Video is the only way that you can connect this dock to your TV. Yeah, it would be nice if they had more ways to output video, but come on, this thing is only around $70.
It also comes with a wall charger that will connect to a USB cable. Very nice. Since it's USB you can connect ANY device that can take a charge from your computer to charge it. You just have to make sure that you have the proper USB cable for your specific device. As luck would have it, Keyspan included the proper USB cable for the AV Dock. Which means that you can connect the dock to your computer. I think you can use it to sync your phone to the computer too.
I purchased mine at Micro Center for $65 + Tax. There were two models. A white one and a black one. The black one was curiously priced at $79.99 and the white one was priced at $64.99. I did an exhaustive search on the features and confirmed that the only difference was the color. They even had the same part numbers, except for a B instead of a W. I think black works better with the iPhone so I took both up to the counter and asked them if they would lower the price of the black one because the two were virtually identical. To my joy, they did.
So, if you are looking for a dock to charge your iPhone, connect with your computer, and give you RF remote functionality, and even play videos on your spare video iPod, I would absolutely recommend this sucker.
Now about the iPhone functions. Naturally, we get the warning dialog that says that it's not compatible with the iPhone and would we like to turn the airplane mode on. Yeah, sometimes I do get the wierd noise if I don't put it on airplane mode. But you know what? This airplane mode thing is actually almost convenient for me. I use my iPhone for teaching a dance class and obviously I don't want my Spongebob ringtone to come through the speakers while the class is trying to dance Salsa. (Just kidding, it's Futurama, not Spongebob.) It's also great that all you have to do to turn off airplane mode is remove the phone from the dock. I would hate to have to go through a menu to fix that. Good job Jobs.
The reason why I chose this dock over the Apple one was for the remote control. The RF remote is great. Radio Frequency remote controls are so much better than Infrared ones. You don't have to aim the remote. And it has a longer range. I was able to test it to about 50 feet with absolute 100% success. I'll test it further later on when I have it connected to something more significant than my headphones. LOL.
This remote also has more options than your normal IR or even RF remote control. It doesn't just have your usual Volume and Track controls. It also has repeat, shuffle, playlist, album, and audiobook chapter cycling. I don't listen to audio books and I'm still working on the logic behind the playlist (I can't seem to get an On The Go playlist to cycle through) but all in all I am very pleased with the RF remote. You can even fast forward and rewind by holding down the track buttons. The one thing that puzzles me is the on/off button on the bottom of the remote. I just kNOW that I'm going to forget to turn the dern thing off one day. Will it drain the battery? That remains to be seen. I'll let you know if it does when that day comes. Unfortunately, you can't power down your iPod from this remote. 'Course you probably won't want that with your iPhone, but you might want to take it off of airplane mode. When they start making these things for our iPhones, it will really be nice if we can use the remote to toggle Airplane mode on/off, in fact, it would be great if it would automatically turn airplane mode off when you stop the music.
Now this is an AV dock. The A (standing for Audio) works as you would expect. The V portion of the title however (being Video of course), well, you shouldn't be surprised that this particular function doesn't work at all with the iPhone. 'Course that's not the dock's fault. The iPhone doesn't have the capability. But your iPod might. Now I'll warn you, if you want to use this with your video iPod, then you'll have to purchase an S-Video cable separately. Oh well. S-Video is the only way that you can connect this dock to your TV. Yeah, it would be nice if they had more ways to output video, but come on, this thing is only around $70.
It also comes with a wall charger that will connect to a USB cable. Very nice. Since it's USB you can connect ANY device that can take a charge from your computer to charge it. You just have to make sure that you have the proper USB cable for your specific device. As luck would have it, Keyspan included the proper USB cable for the AV Dock. Which means that you can connect the dock to your computer. I think you can use it to sync your phone to the computer too.
I purchased mine at Micro Center for $65 + Tax. There were two models. A white one and a black one. The black one was curiously priced at $79.99 and the white one was priced at $64.99. I did an exhaustive search on the features and confirmed that the only difference was the color. They even had the same part numbers, except for a B instead of a W. I think black works better with the iPhone so I took both up to the counter and asked them if they would lower the price of the black one because the two were virtually identical. To my joy, they did.
So, if you are looking for a dock to charge your iPhone, connect with your computer, and give you RF remote functionality, and even play videos on your spare video iPod, I would absolutely recommend this sucker.