Called ChargeDock (£40/$75), Gear4's simple and austere black charging and synchronization dock for the iPod and iPhone comes with a power adapter, USB cable, and inserts to resize its dock for certain iPod and iPhone models.

For those who aren’t yet familiar, Apple touted the dockability of its iPods starting back in 2003 with the addition of a bottom-mounted “Dock Connector” port, which when connected to Apple and subsequent third-party accessories allowed the iPods to recline, recharge, output audio, and synchronize with computers—assuming that you had the right, generally inexpensive cables.

Like Simplifi, MHub is made from a combination of aluminum and plastic, here a mix of a silver aluminum top surface with a black plastic adjustable top dock and a silver plastic bottom. Dexim was clearly inspired by Apple’s MacBook Air, using heavily tapered sides to give MHub the appearance of thinness while hiding an SD/SDHC card reader and a USB input port on the left side, a power port and an accessory-ready USB port on the back, and…

The official iPod shuffle USB Cable ($19) box appears as if it was assembled more to justify a minimum Apple Store accessory price than to offer real value to consumers. Third-generation iPod shuffle buyers know that the model comes packaged with a short 45-millimeter (1.6") cable with a full-sized USB plug at one end and a tapered, shuffle-matching 3.5mm headphone port plug at the other, all in a combination of silver metal with gray and white plastics.…

iCrado arrives as nothing but a stand, specifically a vertical one that’s made from black or silver metal, and dependent on you to insert your iPhone’s or iPod’s included USB-to-Dock Connector cable into a hole in the base. The hole accommodates official Apple cables of the most recent variety—the stubby little Dock Connector ones—using a plastic insert that holds such cables in place, as well as larger, prior-generation…