Apple’s iPhone dock looks good, but has a couple of big problems. It doesn’t accommodate cases and it hangs onto your iPhone and won’t let go. The ODOC stand fixes both these issues, and looks great too.
Here at Cult of Mac, we’ve accumulated a ton of iPod and iPad docks, especially our reviews editor Charlie Sorrel, who has discerning tastes in docks. The same problems always crop up.
It’s not easy to find docks that aren’t grabby and that don’t require you to remove your case to park your iPhone. The ODOC, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, accommodates any case you can throw at it.
The ODOC is a compact cylinder with a lot of heft. Made of machined aluminum, steel and glass, it sits solidly on your desk or sideboard and stays there — even when you lift your iPhone up and out of it.
It has a high-gloss finish and is available in black, white and clear over matte-aluminum. It’s intended for FaceTime videoconferencing and as a home media docking station. It has five viewing positions — it revolves with a very satisfying click — a USB port and a stereo output port.
The early-bird-special is $79; only $50 more than Apple’s weedy dock.
Inventor Richard Singer estimates he’s put 700 hours into the project, about 170 of those were design hours. “I think it’s the best dock out there,” he said with the utmost sincerity.
Check it out yourself. Here’s Richard giving a quick overview of his invention:
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
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Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
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9 responses to “This Could Be The Coolest iPhone Dock Out There [Video]”
You say it has 2 USB ports. I only see 1…
I think it’s to the left on the one that has a cable plugged into it on the main pic…
The original design had 2 USB ports but they recently changed it to only 1.
ODOC has only one USB port for wall charging or plugging into your computer for charging and syncing.
$109 for a dock? That is way too much money, especially when there are docks that are much cheaper and provide similar functionality. The only feature I see that this offers over the dock Apple has available is fitting any case. However, Monoprice’s dock accomplishes that and only costs around $7.
I preferred the original design of the iphone dock with 2 usb ports instead of 1 usb port for adding additional gadgets.
What get me about accessories like this is their limited life span. What if Apple moves away from the current connector with the next iPhone? Then we all have $109 paperweights.
Anyone know if this would accomodate an iPhone 4S in a mophie battery case? or a dock that would? TIA! :-)
How is this post off topic? I’m asking about THIS Dock particularly first! read again before voting down genius!