NavDock A Great Alternative to AppleTV
Yes, we’re all still coming down from the Macworld announcements high and now we’re looking at the cold, hard reality of what we really got from this year’s Macworld. Take the AppleTV, for instance. Sure, you can use your iPod and navigate music and videos and even rent movies through it. It’s still quite expensive for not having any DVR capabilities or the ability to read media on a disc.
There’s a great alternative that you can use on your television to watch your videos and music from your iPod. The Tekkeon NavDock is (according to the official website) “a Home Media Center with On-TV Navigation for iPod.” The NavDock “lets you navigate your iPod through an on-TV menu to play videos, photos and music on a connected television.”
The NavDock also supports the following models of the iPod:
- iPod classic
- iPod nano (3rd generation)
- iPod (video)
The following models are compatible with NavDock, but do not support video on-TV navigation. NavDock’s on-TV navigation of music is supported.
- iPod touch
- iPod with color display
- iPod 4G
- ipod nano (1st and 2nd generation)
- iPod mini
Also, the on-screen interface can be customized to use one of four colors: green, blue, orange, or pink. iLounge has a great review of the NavDock and shows you very detailed photos of the unit itself and what works well and what doesn’t - a great resource if you’re considering the NavDock. Granted, you can’t rent movies on the NavDock like you can with the AppleTV, but isn’t that what Netflix is for? But you can pick one up for $130 when its released soon.
Full Feature list:
Dock
- Remote navigation of videos and music via on-TV menu
- Play slideshow on TV
- Now playing screen with album art, song info, and status bar
- Viewable song lyrics
- On-screen display of iPod user name
- User adjustable screen savers
- Customizable color schemes
- Access to equalizer presets
- Multilingual menu: English, Spanish, Japanese
- Charges iPod
Remote Control
- One-touch mode selector for videos, photos, music and settings
- Five-way navigation pad
- Home key
- Volume control
- Mute
- Play/pause
- Skip next/back
- Fast forward/backware
- Shuffle
- Repeat
[Tekkeon via iLounge]
Tags: computers, digital, MP3, gaming
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