Griffin is now shipping TuneFlex, a dock and recharger that mounts the iPod nano on a flexible steel arm, bringing the music player up in your face where you can conveniently control it. We first saw one of these from Belkin at CES, and wondered why no one had thought of it before. You just plug the $40 TuneFlex into your car s cigarette lighter, and from there your iPod s power is replenished.

Only problem is, other than supplying power, that dock connector doesn't really connect to anything having to do with music—you'll need a cassette adapter or other means to get that music into your car audio system via TuneFlex's built-in 1/8" stereo line-out audio jack. Of course, Griffin suggests that you hook TuneFlex up to its $50 iTrip FM transmitter (or any of the numerous other devices it offers) to accomplish this task. The good thing is, it puts your iPod at a level where it's probably safer to control while you're driving.

Product Page [Griffin Technology]