The iPod's still a player at CES

Just like last year, the pervasiveness of iPod accessories and iPod-compatible gadgets at the massive Consumer Electronics Show makes clear the influence of Apple's iconic media player. Everywhere you walk in Las Vegas this week, you come across yet another case, adapter, clock radio, or speaker system. Most, quite frankly, aren't much different from what we've been seeing for the past few years, but a few stand out from the crowd.

Here's a look at some of the iPod-related products and technologies that caught my eye during my time at CES this past week.

HD-radio iTunes tagging

Last fall, iBiquity, the developer of HD Radio, announced a clever new technology called iTunes Tagging. With a compatible iPod audio system, whenever you hear a song you like on an HD Radio station, pressing a Tag button "tags" that song--that is, it stores information about the song in the system's memory. The next time you place your iPod in the system's dock cradle, information on tagged songs is transferred to the iPod. When you sync your iPod with iTunes, that information is then automatically transferred to a Tagged playlist in iTunes, from which you can purchase the tracks from the iTunes Store with a click of a button.

This week, we're finally seeing audio systems that take advantage of this new technology. Polk added the feature in its updated I-Sonic Entertainment System 2; JBL introduced the On Time 400IHD, an iTunes-Tagging iPod alarm clock; and even JVC and Sony have adopted the feature (which also means, notably, that they've introduced iPod-docking products).

But perhaps my favorite application of iTunes Tagging, given that I do most of my radio listening in the car, was from Alpine, which was showing a line of car-audio head units--the iDA-X100, -X200, and -X300 (US$100, $200, and $300, respectively)--featuring iTunes Tagging and iPod connectivity. The only drawback is that each requires the separate Alpine TUA-T550HD HD-Radio tuner.

Tannoy's i30

Following in the footsteps of fellow British audio manufacturers Monitor and B&W, Tannoy showed its own high-performance, desktop speaker system for the iPod, the $400 i30. Although similar in appearance to innumerable iPod speaker systems on the market, the i30 uses Tannoy's proprietary point-source two-way speakers (which place each tweeter driver on the central axis of the woofer), a BASH amplifier, and a digital signal processor to produce, as Tannoy puts it, "music as it was intended to be."

It's tough to judge audio quality in the environment of a trade show, so I look forward to putting the i30 through its paces when our review sample arrives.

iHome's next 100 products

Way back in 2005, iHome released what was then a very unique product: the iH5 iPod clock radio. Since then, the company has diversified into all manner of iPod-related audio systems, and if iHome's private showcase room at CES is any indication, the company is showing no signs of slowing down.

Among the myriad products on display, a few stood out. The $99 iP14 is a compact clock radio designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch. Used normally, your player stands vertically in the requisite dock cradle. But if you want to watch video, you simply rotate the system 90 degrees so the screen on your iPhone or iPod touch is oriented horizontally; the iP14's clock display automatically rotates, as well, to remain upright.

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