REASON FOR PURCHASE
I was looking to buy an iPod dock for my office with a line out for audio that could also charge my iPod. To my surprise, Apple only makes their dock in bright white which would not match my new black iPod, black Logitech Z4 speakers (see my review), or black keyboard, mouse, flat panel, etc. I was then on a mission to find a black iPod dock.

COMPARISON
Looking around online there really aren't many black docks at all for the iPod Video. There is this, the iDuo from AFTech, a dock from a British company called Vivo, and one from a manufacturer that I can't recall but it was basically a stand, not a dock. I decided to go for the iDuo because it has an s-video out, audio line out, and a flash card reader built-in, a novel idea.

DESIGN
Aesthetically, the iDuo is very nice looking. It is slightly thicker at the base than a standard iPod dock to accommodate the card reader, no doubt. The black, polished finish is a perfect match for the black of the iPod and is a nice compliment to the rest of the desktop as well. The Video (5G) iPod fits in perfectly with no adjustments. There is a built in "spacer" to make adjustments for the Nano or Mini. Not having either of those players, I can't comment on how the fit would be, but it looks like it would work.

SETUP AND OPERATION
This is where I started to have some issues. First off, you need to use your existing iPod cable (one is not included with the dock) to plug the dock into your computer for syncing and charging. Secondly, you need to plug in a separate standard USB cable into another port to use the card reader. The USB cable alone will not charge the iPod, only the actual iPod cable. The need to two cables is ridiculous. A standard USB cable should be all that is required for both functions and to charge the iPod. The standard cable that comes with the iDuo is a joke. It's 4 feet long so unless you plan on putting the dock almost directly next to your computer, you will need to buy a longer cable.

Once everything was hooked up, including the audio out to the aux input on the Z-4's, I plugged in the iPod. The computer picks it up just fine; I use Anapod Explorer to transfer some files back and forth with good speed…so far, so good. I then eject the iPod from Anapod so that I can play audio out of the speakers, only the audio is only coming out of the right speaker. After a few minutes I happened to unplug the iPod cable and Viola...the sound is corrected. Yet when I plug the wall charger into the dock, no problems. I repeated this with a different iPod cable and also on another computer...same issue. It's a bug apparently, but not the end of the world since I am not syncing with my work PC anyway.

The card reader was tested with CF and SD formats and seemed to work as well as any card reader I've used. You can use it while playing music through the iPod and also while syncing the iPod (a benefit of the pain-in-the-butt 2 cable system, I suppose.)

The s-video output worked well enough and coupled with an 1/8" to RCA stero cable, my iPod was playing video and audio through my entertainment system. There were no on-screen menus, which was not a surprise but would have been nice.

I was disappointed that the card reader could not transfer files directly to the iPod. Again, it would have been a nice feature but for $40 I guess I shouldn't have expected it.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
After my initial disappointments and issues I haven't had any problems and the iDuo does what I need it to do. I have it sitting on my desk at work, the wall charger is plugged into the iPod connector slot, an 8 foot USB cable hooks the card reader into the back of my PC, the audio line out is plugged into the speakers, and all is well. Considering that I needed another iPod hookup and a longer USB cable I question the value of the iDuo at it's $40 to $50 price tag. Had I bought it locally it would have gone back the same day, however not wanting to deal with the hassle of returning to a second rate retailer in XPCGear.com, I have decided to live with the shortcomings.

For a black iPod dock with all of these capabilities save for the card reader, I would probably go with the Vivo product (http://www.vivocases.com/products.asp?cat=55) if I had to do it over again.

UPDATE
Another black iPod dock was pointed out to me by a coworker. It looks interesting and includes a lot for $50. You can take a look and order here: http://www.podsplus.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=197

Recommended: No