Thodio iBox houses speakers in customizable iPod dock

By Kelly Montgomery Published February 22, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ipod docks are about as ubiquitous these days as corner Starbucks shops, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few unique versions out there. If you prefer something a little more funky than your typical shiny iPod dock, take note of the Thodio iBox (about $490 and up). This portable speaker solution and iPod dock provides a unique look and several customizable features to help you create your ideal high-end small speaker system. The iBox has two front-mounted, uncovered speakers and a central bass port directly below. You can choose your preferred amplification up to 140 watts RMS, as well as the body style, with choices of MDF, oak, mahogany, teak, zebrawood, and others. The top-mounted iPod dock is optional (but we think essential) and the speakers also include a 3.5 mm input and output, and a rechargeable battery that’s good for about 15 hours of music playback.

Kelly Montgomery

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kelly Montgomery is a magazine journalism graduate from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications…

Smart Home

Proxima wants to move blood tests into the home, and it has cleared an important early hurdle

The portable analyzer delivers blood-count results in about 20 minutes, but its promise depends on transparent clinical data

Algocyte’s Proxima is designed to run blood-count tests from a small finger-prick sample and send the results to a clinician in about 20 minutes. For patients who need frequent monitoring, that could mean fewer trips to a clinic or laboratory.

The device has also moved beyond the concept stage. Proxima carries UK conformity credentials, while Algocyte operates under a certified medical-device quality system. Those steps give the project more weight than a prototype shown at a launch event.

Emerging Tech

Remember Samsung’s Ballie home robot? It may finally be inching closer to reality

Leaked app wireframes give the strongest hint yet that Samsung's Ballie home robot, first shown at CES 2020, might still be headed toward an actual release.

Samsung Ballie robot in a room next to a dog feeder.

Samsung's rolling home robot has been the industry's longest-running "will it ever actually ship" joke, and I'll admit I'd mostly given up on it. Now, there's finally a glimmer of hope.

Samsung first unveiled Ballie as a concept at CES 2020. Then, it showed it as a significantly upgraded version four years later. However, the company never confirmed a release date or committed to releasing it at all.

Smart Home

The US foreign-made robot crackdown is coming for future Roombas too

Future Roombas face new US sales hurdles, but existing models are unaffected

The FCC has already made it much harder for foreign drone makers such as DJI to bring new products into the US. Now, the same crackdown is reaching a machine far more likely to be moving around your living room.

The US government recently added foreign-made advanced robotic devices to the FCC’s Covered List. The announcement appeared focused on humanoids, robot dogs, and industrial machines, but an FCC spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that robot vacuum cleaners are covered too.