Impossibly Thin

OK, no more iPod praising or rant at the beginning of this piece of news. Yes, it's about iPod, another "Made for iPod" equipment, from one of the new brands I have grown to respect quite a lot, Altec Lansing. Altec Lansing has become one of the leading speaker system manufacturers in a rather short time: I don't know their recipe for success but who cares as long as they release outstanding and yet affordable gear?

They (Altec Lansing) have designed and released more iPod-oriented gear but this particular one has something different about it: it's incredibly thin! Most of the travel-purpose iPod docks are small and/or thin, because after all, this is their purpose - portability, but this one is ridiculous! 0.7" (17mm) thickness (or should I say thinness) is quite a thing!

Despite this Lilliputian dimension, the Altec Lansing inMotion IM500 iPod dock outputs great sound; well, don't think it would sound like your $1,000 home cinema system at home, it's a travel speaker set, for goodness sake! Nevertheless, this compact and low-weight (3.4kg) piece of equipment is one of the coolest gadgets you could buy for your (obviously beloved) iPod nano.

It runs on two full-range speakers and it also benefits from bass enhancement technology, therefore the sound it will deliver isn't by far a cracked and shallow one but a rich and full one, perfect for filling up your hotel room or even tent with the music you like.

Yes, tent, because the Altec Lansing IM500 runs not only connected to an AC source but as well with 6 AAA batteries which will most likely give you 8 to 10 hours of music.

Sync and recharge your player, but in the battery mode this is costly. Anyway, another cool thing is that the IM500 can also receive audio signal from other external sources such as PC or CD player.

Finally, one word on portability: its stand folds so it becomes not much bigger than a larger notebook; notebooks as in school, not in laptops! For just under 100 bucks, you can add value to your (already) valuable iPod nano.