Apple's Universal Dock is a great cosmetic setup for the 30-pin USB chord.
It keeps the iPod/Phone in an upright charging position.
It also has a line-out jack next to the USB port to connect (preferably) external speakers.
To give your iPod a bit of functionality around the house/room, this package also comes with an infared remote.
The only problem I encountered was that since I had the dock in front of my iMac, it would play my iPod & the iMac's iTunes simultaneously, which was annoying if anything.
Comes with 5 adapters for the various iPod / iPhone models currently in use.
I had to turn off the infared option in the system preferences and everything was okay after that.
For $49+tax it's a bit expensive, but I feel that since I'm going to be utilizing this desktop Mac, I might as well have something to make it look nice with, and that is this Universal Dock (as opposed to just laying your device on the table flat out, basically how everyone does it). As long as Apple keeps the 30-pin connector for their iPod/Phone, I don't see this "Universal" device to go anywhere for a while.
The current setup
