Following up on the release of its Octiv Mini iPod/iPhone speaker system earlier this summer, Altec Lansing has announced the Octiv Duo speaker system. As one might expect from the name, the Duo offers two iPod/iPhone charging docks instead of one, so multiple devices can get a charge-up while pushing tunes into real air. The bragging point of the Octiv Duo, however, isn’t in offering dual-charging: it’s in a free Music Mix application that enables the dock to pull music from playlists on both docked devices, providing hours of endless entertainment as listeners mock each others’ playlists.
“The Octiv Duo takes into account the busy schedule of the everyday family and makes life easier by acting as a dual docking speaker and charging station,” said Altec Lansing product manager Steve Schlangen, in a statement. “And when combined with the Music Mix app, sharing music between playlists is simple, making the Octiv Duo the perfect solution for the modern household.”
The Music Mix app shuffles songs from both docked players, and also enables users to set the percent of music played from each docked iPhone or iPod. Thus, the app provides escape from a tween girls’ Hannah Montana-packed playlists…or, alternatively, enables tween girls to escape from the parents’ trip down memory lane with Kenny Loggins and Pat Benatar when they charge their phones.
As a speaker system the Octiv Duo is fairly typical: there’s an auxiliary input for playing audio from non-iPod devices (and a USB port for charging non-iPod devices), a remote control, and features a compact wedge form factor with two 2-inch drivers. The Octiv Duo is compatible with all iPhone and iPOd touch models, as well as the iPod classic, iPod with video, and the the iPod nano—through the 5th generation anyway, no word on the new 6th generation models.
