A Card Reader, iPod Dock, USB hub, and a Paperweight?

This month should be a bit busier thanks in part to the holidays coming up (more new gadgets to review!), and also to me starting to abuse my discount at (my unnamed big box electronics retailer) work. In today's (tonight's? Does anyone pay attention to the time stamp on these things?) post I'm going to go over the many benefits of Griffin's latest iPod dock / USB hub / card reader mash-up, and finish with some insight into my music collection. It shall be a good time indeed!

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The Griffin Simplifi iPod/iPhone dock is pretty simple, and the brushed aluminum look is undoubtedly spiffy as well. The USB 2.0 hub is a very nice touch, especially since the iMac (not to mention the entire MacBook line) isn't exactly covered with USB ports like some PC's. So now I can have my keyboard, iPod, external hard drive (for Time Machine), and a printer hooked up at one time! What an accomplishment. Sarcasm aside (since, for the millionth time, the iMac should have more than 3 USB ports) it's a welcome feature to an otherwise bulky dock. The camera card reader on the front works wonderfully, seemingly much faster than my old one (which was part of my older HP printer). I'm glad they chose for a simple two-slot approach, instead of four different holes (like some other readers and most "photo" printers) for all the types of memory cards that it can read (Secure Digital, xD, MemoryStick, and CompactFlash).

One of my biggest problems stems from the card reader, and perhaps by the fact that they chose the more elegant two slot method over the more practical multi-slotted one. I am one of those people who sometimes chooses style over substance, like my choice of camera - a Sony T series. So when I got my new dock all hooked up, I decided to test it out and slide my MemoryStick Pro Duo into it. Come on Griffin! It's 2008! If you're making an all-in-one dock that has MemoryStick support you have to throw in Pro and Pro Duo compatibility! I'm sure that the SD slot accepts SDHC, and to have it any other way would be moronic. Long story short the card did read, but I needed a paperclip to get my Duo card out. Fortunately I have a Pro adapter, but at this point in time I really shouldn't need it.

Another tiny complaint that I have is this blue light that is always on. You probably can't see it in the picture (because I'm a horrible photographer) but in the top right corner there is this blue light that is on all the time regardless of whether or not the dock is actually doing something. iPod or no iPod, USB's on the back or not, that damn blue light is always shining. It flickers a little when you put a card in it to tell you that it's reading it, but other than that it's just a static light. I understand that most things have a light to indicate when they're on (my desk looks like a control panel from Star Trek when I turn the lights off) but it would be more helpful if it were dimmer or actually did something useful.

The bottom line: Griffin's Simplifi is a very attractive (I love how the aluminum matches the iMac's) and useful dock that does what it's suppose to (what a world we live in where that's a nice feature).

It loses half a point for the MS Pro Duo issue, and half for that blue light, bringing the final score to a 4.0 out of 5.

If you're tired of cluttering up your desk, or the idea of saving yourself some USB ports tickles you pink, this is definitely the dock for you.