I was waiting for it. I knew it was on the horizon. In a way I'm glad it's here so we can get past it and on to better things. I'm talking about the iPod Hi-Fi; the bad product you just knew Apple had to churn out to prove just how good all the other products are.
There's a great little set on flickr showing off what's in the iPod Hi-Fi box, and you must read the comments - they are not flattering. Even more than that - I agree with most of them. Putting the iPod in the stand-up position on top of the unit is probably the single dumbest thing I've seen Apple do in a while. Maybe that wouldn't be that bad (yes, it would) if you could lay it down or fold it back or something. Plus it's $429 (!), which means it is more than the Bose SoundDock and it doesn't even have a name brand speaker manufacturer behind it that we know of.
What else doesn't it do? It's not an AirTunes receiver. Having just set-up one of these for my uncle, AirTunes is amazing. I can't understand why something you're going to be touting as the next generation of Home Stereo doesn't include this. Okay you could argue that traditional radio is dead, so it's okay that it doesn't include that, but internet radio isn't dead, and I don't want to have to drop another $160 to add that to an overpriced speaker.
Let's not forget there are already a few options for hooking up your iPod to your existing stereo/home theatre, which will undoubtedly deliver much better sound.
It could have been much worse however. This is basically just a bad iPod Accessory, it wasn't another G4 cube. For that me and my few shares of Apple thank Steve Jobs. The damage could have been much worse.
