iPod HiFi

That's the iPod HiFi, a home stereo for the iPod, unveiled by Steve Jobs yesterday at Apple headquarters. The size of a long shoebox and designed to look like a speaker, it has a dock on top for all varieties of iPods and is priced at $349. Like most other iPod home stereos (including my iHome), the HiFi charges the iPod when docked and comes with a remote. But unlike my iHome, it features molded handles, a removable front grille (you can expect personalized skins real soon!), touch-sensitive volume control buttons and a built-in power supply (IMO, the best part) . According to Jobs, it delivers “breathtaking acoustic performance and room-filling sound unlike any other speaker system designed for the iPod in an innovative, all-in-one design.”

Having captured the digital music player market, Apple looks like it now wants a slice of the pie of the burgeoning iPod accessory market. The HiFi is definitely a step in that direction and the company is soon going to come out with its own leather cases for the iPods too.

Also introduced yesterday was an iMac Mini, running on Intel chips. Two models, with a single-core chip and with a dual-core chip, were introduced priced at $599 and $799 respectively. They come without a monitor, keyboard or mouse.