The TuneBase is significantly sturdier than it looks, and in my testing held my iPod mini perfectly still in almost all cases —the more treacherous urban potholes resulted in little more than a mild sway. And because of the length of the neck, I was able to position the iPod mini at a much more accessible—and safer—height. (We don’t recommend trying to control your iPod while driving, no matter what accessories you’re using, but we realize that many readers will do so anyway. If you’re going to barrel down the freeway while trying to choose a song on your iPod, we’d rather you were doing it using the TuneBase than some of the other car holders/mounts we’ve tested.)

The accessory plug base on both models provides an audio output jack—featuring a line-level audio signal for better sound quality than the headphone jack—that allows you to connect your iPod mini to your car stereo via a mini-to-mini cable or cassette adapter. (If you don’t have an auxiliary-in jack or cassette deck on your car stereo, you’ll want the TuneBase FM, as described below.) The iPod mini’s headphone jack remains exposed, so if you have a cassette adapter that can’t handle line-level output, you can use the headphone jack instead.

All five of these accessories have three things in common. They’re all made substantially from black plastics, although each has silver and/or gray accents. Their FM transmitter performance was universally good in our testing, with only small variations from unit to unit. And they are all a little more restricted in frequency tuning than the best pre-2007 devices we tested: all tune from 88.1FM to 107.9FM, rather than up to 87.7 or 87.9FM. This is an issue only in that the latter station has consistently been better than any other in our prior testing—it’s almost always empty in the United States because major broadcasters aren’t allowed to use it.

As an FM transmitter, TuneBase FM does a very good job—the convenience of its ClearScan feature and the clear, balanced sound it puts out on empty channels make it a strong competitor; it’s easier to use than last year’s model, and the fact that you can tweak its audio a little with the Pro button rather than using the prior TuneBase FM’s two-button combinations and manual adjustments helps, too. However, as a car mounting solution, Belkin has done and can do better: the gooseneck mount is still just too short for several of the test cars we’ve used, and detracts from what would otherwise be an almost universally appealing car accessory.

Its main feature, though, is an FM transmitter, broadcasting your iPhone’s music to your car’s stereo. It’s smart, scanning the airwaves to pick one that’s clear of interference. The frequency is then displayed on the (rotatable) screen, and you just have to tune your car’s stereo to that frequency. (Nice touch: RDS-capable stereos display the station name as ‘TuneBase’.) FM’s a bit clunky for this, and on long journeys you may find you have to rescan and retune a few times; audio quality’s pretty clean, and there’s a 3.5mm jack for optional direct connection.

It bears the name of Tony Stark’s armored persona, looks like Spiderman’s wristwatch, and gives you controlling powers like that of Professor X. Okay, the last bit was a little exaggerated. Still, the Timex Ironman iControl for iPod is loaded with features that should keep you pounding the pavement hard. It helps you control iPod nanos, classics, and 5th-gen iPods remotely. Telepathy not included.

This Timex wristwatch should set a trend, especially among the hordes of gym rats, weekend runners, and even triathletes. Music, experts say, boosts your energy at any stage of training provided you play the right tunes. With this on hand, you could easily set a playlist and switch tracks without the hassle of fumbling for your iPod.

The iControl’s web-like strap makes sure it stays on whatever you do. Besides the Chrono feature to time your runs, it also has an Interval Timer to bring your cardio training to a higher level. And it’s water resistant up to 100 meters, thus making it your almost-complete triathlon companion. We say almost because the only thing lacking is a heart-rate monitor and a display panel that shows what track is currently playing.

Daydreaming aside, this gadget is perfect not only for the active but also for the sedentary. Hook your iPod to a speaker and you can control it from up to 10 feet away - perfect for maneuvering through traffic or lounging at home. If only we could do something about the price tag that’s undeserving of the iControl’s toy-like appearance.

The first thing you’ll notice about the third-generation Apple iPod Nano ($199 for the 8GB version as of 9/7/2007) is its 2-inch display. How can you not? The display occupies more than half of the device–fitting considering that one of the big selling points of the Nano is it can now play video in addition to music. The second thing you’ll notice is its new shape: The Nano’s long, thin stick design has been replaced by a wider, stouter design that accommodates both the generous screen and Apple’s signature scroll wheel. And it delivers all this in the same impressively thin profile–about a quarter-of-an-inch thick–as the previous Nano.

The body is now a two piece affair — an anodised aluminium front with a chrome back — instead of the all aluminium version seen in second-gen unit, which we still prefer. Naturally the shiny back was a fingerprint magnet — Apple should really include a cleaning cloth with all chrome-backed iPods. Worse though was its lack of scratch resistance, after just a week the back was scuffed worse than a rugby player’s knee after sliding in for a try.

In terms of cutting edge features Apple has been behind the game for some time now. The past year has seen virtually every single other major manufacturer build in some form of video capability into their premium flash memory based players, so it’s good to see that this third generation nano has finally caught up.