Octiv650
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Engadget's back to school guide 2011: speaker docks
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have speaker docks in our sights -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of the month we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- and hit up the hub page right here. Yeah, studying's the hip thing to do, but waking up for class is arguably where success begins. Rather than relying on some ear-piercing tone emitted from one's cellphone, we prefer something more... substantial. Here, we'll be covering the best and brightest in speaker docks, also known as the alarm clock that your grandkids will eventually point at and laugh, mockingly. Jump past the break for our recommendations, and another opportunity to enter our back to school giveaway. Simply leave a comment below to be entered to win, and head over to our giveaway page for more details.
Altec Lansing's Octiv 650 iPhone / iPod speaker dock does video out, brings new meaning to Mood lighting
It ain't drastically different than Altec's iDevice speaker docks from earlier in the year, but if you're looking for a living room peripheral that'll output video from your iPod touch or iPhone, the outfit's Octiv 650 is certainly worthy of consideration. Ditching iPad support in favor of a cleaner, more compact design, this particular sound dock features a component / composite output as well as one other trick -- support for the free Music Mood app. Put simply, it'll pipe hallucinogenic visualizations onto your screen, all while cranking out the jams through a pair of three-inch, full-range drivers and a nested 4-inch subwoofer. We're told that YouTube and Netflix output is a go, and there's an auxiliary port thrown in for those pals who wander over with the worst-named PMP of all time. Check it next month for a nickle under $200, and start mulling the most important decision of all right now: black... or slate?
