Although Altec Lansing was never a strong competitor to Logitech and other dedicated speaker manufacturers in terms of innovation, the company has managed to stay afloat due to affordability of the products it produced. However, Altec Lansing seemed to have changed its presence recently. The company is surely not the affordable manufacturer it once was, but it is moving rapidly towards becoming one of the innovative consumer electronics companies in the industry. It has proven that with the surge of specialized speaker units made specifically for Apple’s iPod. As a new edition to its previous inMotion series of products, Altec Lansing has added unique capabilities to the latest inMotion iM7.

From the outside, the inMotion iM7 is surely a speaker unit like no other. Altec Lansing’s latest edition to the product line proves to be innovative and an overall desirable match for Apple’s iPod portable music player. The design features a tube-like structure with the connectors situated vividly in the back, and the iPod cradle in the center of the front panel. The product appears to have an impressively clean outlook overall and is compatible with the iPod Mini, and 3rd and 4th generation of regular sized players.

What’s perhaps the most interesting feature of the iM7 is the iPod cradle, as it works more or less like a cassette recorder. You press the frame of the cradle to open and insert your iPod similarly to a cassette. Once the cradle is open, you have the option to "resize" the cradle to fit either the iPod Mini or the standard iPod. Furthermore, the iM7 will charge the iPod while you are playing it via the speaker set. According to Altec Lansing, this is a unique concept and is a patent pending technology.

In addition to the great exterior, it also offers a wide array of features. The iM7 is integrated with the company’s XdB enhanced subwoofer technology. Due to the shape and size of the speaker unit, the subwoofer would still deliver low frequency sound with 4" side firing subwoofer; the XdB technology will work to improve the quality on the speaker set. In addition to the subwoofer, the iM7 also features two 3" neodymium drivers that distribute smooth mids and mid bass. Altec Lansing has incorporated two 1" custom-designed tweeters for nicer sounding highs as well.

While Altec Lansing has continued the institution to have a wireless remote present with the iM7, the company has indeed worked on two aspects that offer exciting possibilities. The first out of the two is the ability to power the speaker set either via batteries or with an AC adapter directly. Although Altec Lansing does not discuss the potential battery life of the speaker set, this feature could impact greatly on iM7’s portability and usability; you will have your portable audio player as well as a jukebox wherever you go. The second interesting feature is the speaker’s ability to output a video signal through an S-Video Out port. This is possibly the only speaker set that currently has this feature specially designed for the iPod Photo.

The iM7 also has an auxiliary port and a universal power adapter for international use, which makes this particular speaker unit even more compatible and usable in various environments. The wireless remote control has stand-by, master volume, bass, treble and power button right on the fingertips for convenience.

The Altec Lansing iM7 is currently retailing for $249.95; however, we expect the price to fall down somewhat once it ships in mass quantities to various retailers.