Ever see a portable TV from the 1950s? The first ones, like this set from Emerson, were little more than standard picture-tube televisions with a handle attached. The sets were just as heavy as tabletop models, but now you had a way to pick it up, if you were strong enough.
Sometimes, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean it’s going to be that great an idea.
I was thinking about that when I took a look at iHome’s newest product, its iA100 iPad/iPod/iPhone dock, available by mid-October for $200 retail. It’s the company’s first iPad-compatible MP3 player/clock radio, and it will be familiar to anyone who has ever stayed in a hotel room in the U.S.: iHome’s chunky iPhone docks have become ubiquitous throughout the hospitality industry.
The iA100 is the company’s second product that integrates an iPhone/iPad app with its hardware. You can use the app to set the dock’s clock and alarms, as well as choose a wakeup alarm or music. The app also downloads news to greet you in the morning, and you can set it up to send a message to Twitter or Facebook. Now, all you friends can know what time you’re brushing your teeth.
Because the company expects most users to physically connect their iPad/iPhone to the dock, the unit’s hardware buttons are tiny and placed in the back of the dock; the assumption is, few will ever really want to access them.
The iPad fits snugly onto the unit’s 30-pin connector and a small frame holds the iPad in place. You can even attach the two while your iPad remains in its case.
The question is, will you want to? While everything fits together well and operates as expected, with quite decent sound quality, the iPad sitting atop an already large utilitarian-looking clock radio does not make for a svelte appearance. It took over my nightstand, and it didn’t pass the Spouse Acceptance Factor: my wife asked me to take it down and out of the bedroom.
The iHome people seem to know that the iPad-on-a-stand look may not go over well with everyone, as they’ve thoughtfully provided Bluetooth functionality to the unit, allowing you to operate the radio via the iPad even when not physically connected.
And I suspect that that will be the standard operating procedure for most buyers of this useful but not particularly good-looking product.
