Jibe preps iPhone audio dock with Bluetooth

Newcomer Jibe Audio will draw on past Apple success to create one of the first deluxe iPhone docks, says BusinessWeek. The magazine notes that Jibe has enlisted the help of former Apple designer and PowerBook co-creator Robert Brunner and his firm Ammunition Group to produce the Sound Machine. Resembling the recent iMac with a floating design, the dock includes a connector to charge, play, and (through USB) sync the iPhone but brings Bluetooth audio support: even when physically detached, the Sound Machine will serve as a speakerphone for the iPhone and any other handset with hands-free support.

Other features will also set it apart from more utilitarian docks, Jibe says, such as DVD playback, Internet radio through an unspecified link, and flat-panel speakers that keep an exceptionally thin profile. The San Francisco company has not committed to a price or release date but confirms it should release the Sound Machine in the first half of 2008 and is likely to showcase the dock at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. [via Gizmos]