AAUG Reviews

by Ronald Schoedel, AAUG Member

Send Station has a hit on their hands. Imagine an iPod accessory that can be billed as “Zero features; Most wanted.” For at least three years, I have wanted a product like this, and have emailed several manufacturers requesting they produce it. Forums on iPod- and Mac-related websites contain similar pleas from other iPod users, all of who would like nothing more than for all their iPod accessories to “just get along”.

Allow me to set up the problem, before explaining the solution. Many of us keep, or would like to keep, our iPods in a case. Perhaps a silicone “skin”, perhaps a leather cover, or whatever. These cases add a bit of bulk to our iPods, and usually just enough bulk that they become incompatible with any “docking” accessories while iPod is in its case. Now, no one wants to keep taking iPod out of the case just to use accessories, sometimes multiple times throughout the course of the day. Some cases, especially those that are very protective, are very involved to put on and take off. This inconvenience–wanting to dock your iPod but leave it in its case–called for a dock extender, the very thing Send Station has produced and now markets for $28.95.

The dock extender is a very simple concept. It is a small white device that contains a female dock connector on the bottom, and a male dock connector on the top. You place the dock extender between your iPod’s dock connector and the docking accessory you want to use, such as a speaker, alarm clock radio, or multitudes of others. The dock extender is just big enough to lift your iPod up above the recess in your accessory, allowing your iPod to play through and stay clothed in its protective duds. Brilliant.

Send Station has gone a step further and included a backrest for your Dock Extended-iPod. Because some accessories dock the iPod at an angle (rather than perfectly upright), placing the extender between the device and the iPod might create additional stress on the connectors. Send Station has prepared a backrest that slips easily into any Universal-sized dock (most docking accessories are now adapting Apple’s Universal Dock) and gives the proper support to the back of your iPod to ease any undue stress that could otherwise cause connector failure.

So, having described the concept, how well does this new iPod accessory work? Perfectly. I have tried it with several docking accessories, and I am delighted to report that I have been able to leave my fifth-generation video iPod in its case the entire time. I use a case that enclosed the whole iPod in silicone and has an extra hard slab of plastic that goes over the screen, and I have not been able to use this case as much as I had wanted, for lack of the dock extender. When I saw that Send Station was finally going to release it (in response to my suggestion last year, they emailed me about a year ago and said they were working on it), I determined right away that I would be getting this product. I am glad I did.

Send Station’s Dock Extender is a clever answer to a common problem. I wholeheartedly recommend it to any iPod user (and perhaps any future iPhone user) who uses a case on their iPod. (Incidentally, the PR pictures on the Send Station website show the dock extender being used with precisely the same case I use.) For a product with Zero Features, I am happy to say it has a whole lot of very useful nothin’. Definitely, a 5 moose product if ever there were one. I cannot be too pleased with the Dock Extender: so simple, yet sooooo helpful and convenient. And that’s a whole lot of something.