i suppose we can ignore the fact that this product will have been vaporware for 7 months before actually/finally shipping ....

except for one thing: due to apple's inertia, the ipod is missing sooo many basic feature built-in -- so the dock is a very precious resource that should be maximized with as many features as possible.

the extremetech (hardly a felicitous name) is missing BASIC connectivity like bluetooth/fm/irda/rds ...

not to mention omitting some nice touches like a few break-out video mini-ports eg s-video/hdmi/dvi/vga etc (thereby obviating the need for tons of other adapters/cables -- wouldnt it be great if a dock adapter restored a direct firewire (and usb) port so that charging options were greater; or what about adding a 5VDC port to the dock adapter so that a cellphone charger could do double-duty for an ipod!). there is only so much real estate availible once one decides to extend the form factor of the 5G: so every possible amount of connectivity mustbe embeded.

extremetech (and all the other accessory oem/odm's) is simply missing the boat when it comes to the dock: there is room for only one 5G adapter, so it better be a swiss army knife ... versitile yet simple.

and dont even mention how far off the mark the charger/battery people are -- they also underwhelm the obvious.

forget the fancy data-centric stuff like gps & cdma - those will probably have to wait until apple deigns to roll out the iPhone.

by ignoring how people work in the real world, extremetech misses the opportunity to solve real problems -- if someone needs to record ambient audio, they probably also want to record/OCR their hand written notes -- which means being able to plug in a BT "digital pen" ...

but none of the oem/odm's seem to get the WHOLE picture ...

and apple doesnt even bother to partner with them -- eg:

* the pen from Pagasus Technologies uses ocr software (inclusing asian languages!) from Vision Objects -- not only are their no drivers for osx, but neither of them has even recieved contact from apple about integrating with ipod

* and it's not just small compaies: IBM's R&D labs would also like to find someone at Apple to work on porting their amazing UI for visual keyboards - totally kick-a** for ipod as a PDA-lite (ie focusing on its role as data capture/storage/transfer rather than high-end data-processing of a full-fledged PDA like a symbian iPhone) -- cf

http://www.almaden.ibm.com/u/zhai/shapewriter.htm http://www.almaden.ibm.com/u/zhai/ATOMIK.htm

Bottom line is that the iPod cant do everything: but what it does do must be subtly pervasive - that is how good eco-systems work.

cont'd::

PART II:

the 5G dock is precious: no one single peripheral can monopolize it: all the core connectivity must be built-in or else someone will come along and eat apple's lunch (when one is in apple's precarious situation - long-term - there is almost no room for failure; everything must be a home run in oder to sustain momentum; HP, Intel, Microsoft, IBM etc -- all can go / have been through slumps in one area that do no threaten their existence: apple does not face that luxury, especially with all the attention that sucess brings!).

(eg: hasnt anyone stopped to notice that Dell is the first to ship laptops with 3G (cdma) data modem built-in: it has become a ritualizstic incantation to say apple leads by innovation - but that statement is often more well crafted hyerbole (aka RDF) rather than concrete fact).

This level of exertion may seem too much over just a little av adapter for ipod -- but i am convinced that there is something larger at stake (just as there is with apple's so-called 'digital hub' strategy -- which has dragged on for years without actually producing anything tangible, let alone a home run like a real DVR; the fact that the mini was realeased on intel without media centre hardware is insane: Front Row is a solution looking for a (hradware) problem to solve! .... why isnt it //at least// paired to a new version of Airport Express that can stream video to TV's (not just audio to stereos)?!

in short, with so many pieces of the puzzle in hand, why does apple continue to court disaster by delay delay and more delay?!

extremetech needs to leverage their first mover advantage //for the 5G// by quickly hooking up some odm/oem deals --- their audio adapter faces no compition for the 5G, so they might as well cram everything they can.

Well now that this is finally out (July 28th ship date), hopefully Griffin and/or others will announce theirs. I think these companies were waiting to see who spoke first and set their price accordingly. One can only hope that the flood gates of dock-connector devices will open up.

For me - it is simply amazing that this device, or one like it, took so long to deliver. What the ? For apple to announce this in the specs and nothing to be available for nearly a year is... well... amazing. I bought my 5G vidpod based on the specs. Little did I know it would take this long. Well, 7 more weeks to wait! I hope it works.