New iPod Peripherals: ViewSonic Dock Projector

What tech event these days would be complete without a plethora of iPod peripherals and accessories? As I mentioned last week, many of the innovations in iPod-compatible devices address the video capabilities of the device—I'm surprised it took this long, considering the video iPod has been out for well over a year now. On the heels of its LCD monitor with an iPod dock, ViewSonic today launched the PJ258D DLP projector with built-in iPod dock.

The lunchbox-sized unit is not going to win any bleeding-edge, HD-ready awards—it's got only a 1,024x768 XGA resolution, 2,000 lumens of brightness, and a 2,000:1 contrast—but who cares since it's going to be used for iPod video, right? (You can also plug in DVD players, PCs, and the like with either the S-Video or VGA inputs.) The dock, which of course also charges your unit, is located on top of the unit.

I had a chance to try out an early version of the unit a couple of weeks ago and found it supereasy to use, particularly for lazy people such as myself who don't feel like connecting a few wires to the back of a projector (as one would with a traditional video dock). Not to mention how it get rid of those wires, which can get pretty unsightly if you're a media hound with multiple components.

Available for $999 as of January 15, the PJ258D is hardly the most expensive projector out there, but considering the Optoma HD70 can do HD-quality 720p resolution for the same price...

I have iPod peripherals coming out of my ears—and I'm not even at the Macworld Expo—so expect more coverage in the next few days.

For more pictures from CES, check out Yahoo! Tech's CES images on Flickr.