A dock for the iPod. Do I need one?

[Dmitry]

Can someone clear this out for me, please - do I need an iPod dock? What are the benefits of having one?

Thanks!

[John L]

It helps you not lose the iPod, ayou can display your inclusion in the iPod generation prominently for family and friends.

More seriously, I use it to play my iPod through the home Hi-Fi. As I am now living in your Rodina (Russia) away from my CD collection, that is an essential advantage for me. But I know of no other real advantage.

Edited August 10, 2006 by John L

[jazzbo]

There is one other advantage at least with the Belin dock station that I am using: you can recharge your iPod more quickly (I believe, I haven't timed it) and you can recharge without updating your iPod, so that your iTunes (if that's what you're using) and your iPod may contain differing material for a while if you want it that way. I enjoy that now and then.

[John L]

Interesting. I haven't timed it either. There is a separate wall plug you can buy, which works with and without the docking station, that also used to come free in the box with a purchased iPod.

Lon: If your Pod is close to full, you should shift your iTunes away from automatic synchronization to manual in the preferences. That gives you full independent control over what you have in the Pod relative to what you have in iTunes. I hope that you are not truncating your iTunes to take things off of the Pod. That is not an efficient approach.

Edited August 10, 2006 by John L

[Deuterium]

No, you don't need a dock. I always used one with my earlier generation iPOD (G3), but when I got a G5, it did not come with a dock. The G5 fit in the G3 dock until I added an invisible shield to the iPOD for scratch protection and now it is too thick. No problem, I just plug the jack into the line-out on the bottom of the iPOD.

I am not sure how you were planning on using the dock, but if you are using your iPOD as a source for your sound system, you will get better sound reproduction if you use the line out and not the headphone jack.

[jazzbo]

Interesting. I haven't timed it either. There is a separate wall plug you can buy, which works with and without the docking station, that also used to come free in the box with a purchased iPod.

Lon: If your Pod is close to full, you should shift your iTunes away from automatic synchronization to manual in the preferences. That gives you full independent control over what you have in the Pod relative to what you have in iTunes. I hope that you are not truncating your iTunes to take things off of the Pod. That is not an efficient approach.

Thanks for that tip.

Actually, my iPod can hold more than my iTunes in my iBook. . . .I'm just using them both identically now.