Apple Dock for iPod 3G (White)
Good idea
Obtaining this dock, or a spare isn't a bad idea.  I'm about to pick up a second dock.<br />Some folks might debate the wisdom of obtaining something whose only function is as a pass through.<br />But I'm not a fan of leaving my expensive electonics lying about, and it's a good place to put it where it's handy and always charged up.<br />The line out port will be put to use hooked into my home entertainment system with my 2nd dock.  (And after picking up the new remote.)  It so happens that I have a Firewire port on that device, so I should be able to charge it there too.<br />The autosynching works for me well.  The only drawback is I can't use it fully with Windows if I turn on the automatic autosync, that is I can't use it to haul files to and from the office and synchronize with iTunes.  (Note:  Your system may not have this problem, but mine did.  I suspect that's the nature of a LOT of sync problems with Windows and the iPods you hear about.  Yes, it is solvable, I did because I spent all night beating my head into the wall when it wouldn't work.  Install your drivers, and change the device drive mapping in Windows 2000/XP -- use a \\"new\\" drive letter that is unused by any other device.  Then restore the iPod to factory defaults.  Then it syched from iTunes no problem.  Best I can figure it's some kind of Plug and Pray issue, but nothing on Apple/Windows websites about it.)