MultimediaStation
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DROID Phone Holder and Multimedia Station go for $30 apiece
Already got your DROID pre-order in and wonder what else you can blow your non-assured holiday bonus on? Well, that Phone Holder car dock and Multimedia Station home dock (pictured, our hands-on gallery is here) have just gotten price tags: $30 a pop. About in line with the general worldwide dock population, but horrifically overpriced in comparison with our own homebrew dual-purpose solution.
Antec's Multimedia Station turns average PCs into, um, multimedia stations
Antec's new line of Multimedia Stations won't convert your Pentium 2-based beige box into a cutting edge HTPC, but it will give your tired PC a bit more functionality in dealing with media. Aimed at the timid DIYers in attendance, these bundles include an IR receiver, a remote, and iMEDIAN HD media management software (at the very least), with the Basic, Elite and Premiere kits offering up optical drive bay gear to really make your rig feel like something it isn't. Truthfully, we get the feeling this is just a fancy remote interface with some unnecessary software thrown in for style, but if you respectfully disagree, you can part with your $29.95 - $119.95 right now.
Alpine's KCE-415i car interface for iPod video
As followup to that audio-only Alpine KCA-420i iPod interface from oh, about 2 years ago, it looks like Alpine has been quietly pumping out an iPod video capable KCE-415i unit in Europe for the last month. Yet a North American KCA-415i version is, at best, stil only on display on the trade show circuit. The E-variety 415i retails for about $100 and allows you to play/pause, skip, fast-forward/rewind the main 5G iPod directly from your Alpine MultiMedia station or overhead monitor with additional controls available from the Alpine head unit, remote control, or iPod itself. The interface is seen by your Alpine system as an external DVD source and not only charges your iPod's battery, but allows the iPod to be switched on/off via your car's ignition system. The unit provides composite or S-Video outs and as you'd expect works with a wide-variety of Alpine monitors. So just kick-in the autosync on your iTunes season subscriptions and you'll never suffer the lack of fresh, child numbing content on those long-haul trips again. [Thanks, Jeff G]
