New iPort In-Wall (IW) series announced, dated

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New iPort In-Wall (IW) series announced, dated

Following the successful launch of iPort (iLounge rating: B+) last year, the recently-formed iPort division of Dana Innovations has announced iPort In-Wall (IW), a new series of five iPort docking stations for the iPod. According to the company, the new iPort models “feature a universal docking system (patent pending) with a self-adjusting base plate that automatically conforms to any size iPod,” and represent “a dramatic leap forward in install-ability and future upgradeability.”

As contrasted with the original $600 iPort, the new models vary in suggested retail price from $200 to $1100. The IW-1 ($200) charges an iPod and outputs unbalanced audio and video, with an included wall plate for audio only; a video wall plate is optional. IW-1 is the only new iPort without an upgradeable motherboard.

The IW-2 ($350) adds an integrated IR receiver, and is compatible with optional feature cards for balanced audio ($275), balanced video ($325), and RS232 communications ($225). iPort’s RS232 card enables the docked iPod to provide metadata such as artist, track, and playlist information for viewing on separate video displays. The remaining three models are bundles of the IW-2 with various feature cards: IW-3 ($600) bundles the IW-2 with the balanced audio card, while IW-4 ($800) bundles the IW-3 with RS232, and IW-5 includes the IW-4 and the balanced video module.

All of the new IW series products except for the IW-5 and separate feature cards are now shipping; the remaining products will be available later this month.

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Comments

1

This seems totally overkill, I don’t see any need to cut a hole in my wall for my ipod. Why?

Posted by Mike Thompson on July 2, 2005 at 7:32 AM (PST)

2

You can also install it when remodeling or for new construction situations.

Posted by John MacKenzie on July 2, 2005 at 9:14 AM (PST)

3

I can’t help but think that in a couple of years these are going to look really obsolete. Much like the in-wall intercoms that were all the rage during the 80s. (at least in upper-middle class homes here) Looking at the same intercom units now, they’re hideous and look like someone bolted trash into the walls. Big and plastic, like a ‘boom-box’ but with fewer knobs and buttons.

Posted by ash8080 in Florida, USA on July 2, 2005 at 11:12 AM (PST)

4

My question is what happens when Apple redesigns iPod and the dock position completely changes. Looks like the wall will have to be ripped out.

Posted by Joe I on July 2, 2005 at 5:00 PM (PST)

5

Hey can I buy A iPod for each of my rooms and run this thing next to the Lightswitch. My house will be worth more right?

Hey Good idea how bout instead of mounting this crud to a 6in hole in your wall how bout we focus on some stuff that really would be helpful i.e.
Voice controled menus (for driving).
Or LCD remotes the help you navigate your ipod on the subway (so you woun’t get mugged)
Or how bout some better car intergration. F.Y.I. FM stinks and if you go to the UK you are breaking the law (what is up with that? Crazy FCC rules there huh?)
P.S. I can make this same thing for uder $100 with a dock, a transmitter and the help of home depot.

Posted by bmxing85 on July 2, 2005 at 10:27 PM (PST)

6

As I commented before, you have to be one sick iPod freak to want to have an itty, bitty little shrine built into the walls of your home (glowing cascade of holy-like light optional???). It’s amazing the extent some will take a device that’s the epitome of mobility and personal freedom and anchor it down—even symbolically—to a fixed location.

Posted by flatline response on July 3, 2005 at 10:26 PM (PST)

7

By the tone of the messages above, I can see that some people just don’t “get it.”

This unit, with the proper hardware, will let an iPod owner slip his iPod into a cradle and enable that user to interface with his or her “whole house audio system.” It is not for a 13 year-old kid that does not own a house! We (my family and I) use this thing all the time. We had it built-in to our new home and it is awesome.

Start thinking “home integration” and stop thinking “small.” Everyone knows that an iPod is supposed to be portable. That does not mean that it can’t also be the heart of your home system.

Posted by Tim Childers on July 6, 2005 at 8:42 AM (PST)

8

“Start thinking “home integration�? and stop thinking “small.�? Everyone knows that an iPod is supposed to be portable. That does not mean that it can’t also be the heart of your home system.”

You’re definitely right…I certainly DON’T get it. Nor would I want to.

Again: why?

If you’re going to built a comprehensive home system, what is about the iPod that makes it so important as to build in receptacles throughout the home? Sure it gives a user an easy point of reference to ‘plug in’, but if the iPod is already managed on a PC or Mac, those same audio files can already be made available via a computer interlink to the rest of the audio system. Why should a homeowner need to transfer those same files to an iPod and go through the expense for a dedicated docking bay, just to then listen to them through his or her stationary-based audio system? If someone is really building some sort of comprehensive, all-inclusive home system, doesn’t it make more sense design a system that goes straight to the source to retrieve and play media straight off the iPod’s (or any other managed MP3 player) linked base computer instead? They’re just sitting there anyways; why not utilize that instead of waiting for the wife to return home from her morning run so the husband can jam away with his favorite tunes, or have to go out and buy his own iPod.

As it is, I don’t even let ANY of my iPods get close to my main listening rig (I do have a dock down in the workshop system and on the system in the family room), even if I were to use lossless; they simply aren’t good enough source gear to me. Good enough for on the go, but they’re not going to replace my Naim or my Rega, or any of my other source equipment.

Posted by flatline response on July 8, 2005 at 12:20 PM (PST)

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