The (temporarily code-named) iTV promises to connect the TV to the Mac, which means that all those downloaded iTunes movies can be viewed on the boob tube as well as the iPod's tiny-but-portable screen and the monitors on the Mac boxes and notebooks. But that is still to come.

For now, there's the ViewSonic ViewDock Desktop iPod Dock, which will do for the iPod's screen what a host of speaker-dock accessories have done for the iPod's earphones.

The ViewDock, being shown off at the Paris Expo, will display the video content of its docked iPod on a 19 or 22-inch screen. No resolution details have been released by ViewSonic, as well as the expected retail price. But the company has released other technical details for the ViewDock, including several USB 2.0 ports, a microphone (iPod karaoke?), and integrated stereo speakers with a subwoofer for a decent audio experience from that downloaded movie of yours. The product is expected to go on sale later this year.

Okay, this thing doesn't do anything for portable video entertainment - not at 19 inches minimum, anyway. But no one can criticize the iPod for its small screen anymore. Of course, once the iTV comes out, this might turn out to be redundant, but maybe it could double as an LCD CPU monitor, too. And besides, at the rate things are going, the iPod will soon be able to dock to anything. Like, you know, the toilet paper dispenser.

Buy: [iPod]