Powered by good old valves, the Wall of Sound iPod Speaker claims to the most powerful iPod speaker available.
It’s for “people who believe that music should be listened to loudly,” the company’s website says. “It looks frightening, and it IS frightening.”
Handmade by a company called by Brothers of Stockholm, the first edition of this monster speaker is sold out, so the company is taking pre-orders for a second gen speaker. Only $4,495.00 — sign up here.
Marware, maker of iPod and iPhone accessories, Wednesday introduced a sports grip for Apple’s update iPod nano. The $19.99 sports grip provides a slip-free silicone surface which also protects the device’s sides, top and back. The grip provides easy access to various ports.
My beloved truck used to be behind the times. The factory-installed stereo had a cassette deck. Remember them? No iPod/iPhone connection and worse, no hands-free cellphone.
But now its got a shiny Sony Xplod aftermarket stereo, which features both iPod and Bluetooth connectivity.
There’s a lot of replacement stereos, but the Xplod has the easiest Bluetooth setup ever, and it always makes a seamless connection with my iPhone. It just works, every time, period. Now I’m always chatting it up in while I’m driving, and I love streaming music via Bluetooth. I should have got one years ago.
Jabra’s new Stone headset is the first non-dorky Bluetooth headset I’ve ever seen.
Actually, it’s the second. The first was a Secret Service-style single earbud from Hong Kong that clipped to your shirt. Trouble is, it sounded awful.
The Stone should have no such trouble: it supports A2DP (good for music, even though it’s a single earpiece) and has nice, clear noise-canceling microphone. Volume controls are handled by the surface of the Stone, which is touch-sensitive – how cool is that?
It’s called the Stone because when docked into its portable charging dock, the pair look like a polished stone.
But boy, does it need that charging dock. Battery life is a skimpy two hours talk time, according to Jabra (and less than an hour according to one early review). The charging dock is good for three charges of the headset before it too has to be recharged. Standby is 12 hours.
Jabra’s Stone costs $130 and will be available exclusively from AT&T in early November. Might be worth the price for the cool touchscreen volume controls — and for not making you look like Lieutenant Uhura.
The latest release into the already crowded market of iPod/iPhone holders is the StandHear Travel Stand & Headphone Splitter from Agent 18.
The compact, fold-out case allows you to support your iPod/iPhone at four different viewing angles, leaving your hands free to do whatever they might need to be doing whilst watching your favorite movie or reviewing por… er, important documents.
I’m going to climb out on a limb here and suggest that most people don’t use their headphones to dig trenches or compute the rotational velocity of Jupiter. No, headphones are for sound reproduction. Shure’s new SRH440 Professional Studio Headphones do nothing more or less than that, do it very well, and at the bargain price of about $100.
Among the many dozens (hundreds?) of companies in the cottage industry that makes cases and other protective doo dads for your iPhone, Totonto-based Gelaskins probably produces the most arresting and beautiful of them all.
Actually, just saying they produce protective devices for the iPhone is selling the company way short since they adapt fine art from a deep roster of global artists working in a broad range of styles, putting photo quality prints on thin, but tough, scratch-resistant polymer with a patented 3M adhesive, allowing you to personalize and protect everything from iPhone to the full range of Apple iPods and laptops.
The iPhone covers go for about $15, while iPod protection runs a little less and laptop protective art will set you back about $30. Not that Apple’s industrial design isn’t beautiful itself, but all the Gelaskins art is distinctive – and any of it is guaranteed to make your device stand out from the crowd.
Hit the jump for a gallery of 10 of the newest designs that we think are among the coolest.
If you are a parent you know the drill for the iPod Generation: turn that down before you lose your hearing, inserting the required cautionary tales of sitting too close to the speakers at a Stones concert. The usual reaction: “What did you say?” (lifting one headphone cups.) Well, Griffin Technology was speaking to the choir when it introduced MyPhones, their new volume-limiting headphones for children.
Key to MyPhones is the 85db limit, the maximum the $39.99 headphones permit. The 85db number is the threshold for safe listening; above 85db and your hearing will be damaged, according to the Academy of Pediatrics and other safety experts. “Parents can rest easy, knowing that their kids’ hearing is not compromised,” Griffin Technology founder and CEO Paul Griffin announced.
Along with over-the-ear rather than in-the-ear design, the new headphones also offer soft rubber ear cushions and an adjustable band. But the addition that may be most embraced is the heavy-duty cable for what Griffin calls “a traditionally weak link in headphone design for kids.” I prefer to call it the saving parents big bucks option. Headphone cords are not simply conduits for wiring, but a hanger, a pulley, and a dangler for the attached device.
MyPhones also speaks the creative side of kids. Headphone owners can replace the inserts with designs created by other children by going to the www.myphoneskids.com site.
It’s true there is very little new under the sun. However, the way similar ideas are delivered can make all the difference. Take two very similar Nano cases introduced within days of each other. The Kickster ($14.35) from the community-design folks at Quirky is a case in point. Created for the latest generation of iPod Nano’s, the Kickster props up your iPod in either landscape or portrait orientation and can also serve as a great way to take hand-held video.
“Design by committee that actually works? Who’da thought?” mused Gadget Lab.
Now, flash back to Friday and another Nano kickstand case, but with a much different reception. Rather than being seen as useful, the kickBACK n5 from Scosche was seen a a gadget with an absurd name and design.
In order to break through the growing skepticism toward Yet Another Case, designers need to take note of Quirky, selling not only looks, but functionality.
When i was younger I worked as a house painter and had a great JVC boombox that blasted punk tunes to everyone’s annoyance.
That’s why I like Altec Lansing’s new $300 Mix iMT800, a ghettoblaster for the iPhone age.
The Mix Boombox is loud and obnoxious, like a boombox should be. It mixes old school block-rockin’ beats with new school digital connectivity. It easily fills a room with sound and can piss off the neighbors, even in the daytime.
Just released, Duracell’s $20 Instant Charger is good for about half a charge of an iPhone, or a full charge of an iPod nano.
“Duracell’s Instant Charger is a perfectly executed little gadget,” Gizmodo says.
The site has seen plenty of pricey chargers with all the bells and whistles, which are usually superfluous. Gizmodo is charmed by the Instant Charger’s purity: it’s basically a rechargeable litium ion battery hooked to a USB port, and that’s it.
You plug in your own charging cables, so it’s good for iPhones, iPods, digital cameras, Bluetooth headsets and any other gadget that comes with a USB cable.
The Instant Charger ’s bigger brother, the $50 Powerhouse Charger, stores enough juice to charge an iPhone 3G 1.2 times, or an iPod nano 4 times, Giz says. But it isn’t as compelling as the Instant Charger, which is perfectly simple and cheap.
Now this is what I call an iPod sound system. Most iPod speakers are pretty weedy. Not the Mix Boombox IMT800, a digital ghetto blaster released on Thursday by Altec Lansing. Available now for $300, the Mix Boombox promises to be loud and heavy.
Altec Lansing also announced a stylish — and loud — 200-watt computer speaker set: the Expressionist Ultra MX6021.
Design student Lee Washington wants to make earbuds tangle proof by zippong them together like the seal of a sandwich bag.
Here’s a great idea for making tangle-proof earbuds. It’s so simple, I’m surprised no one has thought of it before.
To prevent your earbud wires from tangling when not in use, join them together using a Ziploc-like zipper.
By pinching the two wires together into a single wire, they become tangle-proof, like a piece of thick, rubbery string. The two wires are simply unzipped when you want to use them.
The idea was dreamed up by London design student Lee Washington, who has made a short video to demonstrate them in action — see below.
“The prototype was made very basically with a sandwich bag seal,” says Washington. “It was just designed to demonstrate the concept.”
As yet, Washington doesn’t have a manufacturer. He’s talking to his professors this week about patenting the idea. He now regrets making the video, which is fast becoming popular. He’s afraid his idea will be ripped off.
“This could go either way,” he says. “Either the video will get very popular and someone at Apple will eventually see it or someone will do the idea themselves. That would be a pity.”
Indeed. We wish Washington the best finding someone to market his brilliantly simple idea.
What it is: Nike+iPod-iPod. Basically, an inexpensive watch that doubles as a run tracker with the help of a transmitter in your shoe. Not an Apple thing, per se, although they did design the chip that goes in your shoe.
Why it’s cool: The Nike+ system originally developed for the iPod nano is a pretty remarkable little invention that allows you to keep track of your running statistics and inspire yourself to greater heights.. Unfortunately, it’s only recently been available across Apple’s mobile devices. If you own anything but a nano, a second-gen iPod touch or an iPhone 3GS, you can’t use Nike+ with your iPod. And, bizarrely, the Nike+iPod set-up actually behaves in obnoxious ways if you’re an urban runner. For example, if you get caught at a long stop light and pause your run clock, the iPod stops its music, too, making the wait that much more interminable. The NikePlus Sportband acknowledges the value of run tracking and music without making them interdependent. You can pause your workout and keep listening. And it obviously works with older iPods and iPhones, or even your shuffle.
And the new model, out as of a few weeks ago (available in gray/neon yellow or white/hot pink), is brilliant and fixes some significant flaws with the previous generation. The original black and orange Sportband had poor sealing, which led to a lot of people ending up with unreadable watches as moisture left smears on the inside. Nike recalled the product and now offers one-for-one swaps if you help onto your original Sportband. Besides fixing the moisture problem, the new display goes for a pleasing black numbers on white background instead of the former’s extremely dim white letters on black. It’s very stylish, and the functionality is better than ever. Additionally, because the face clips off and syncs vis USB (see below)
The watch sets itself and can even charge its (already long-lasting) battery, which means it won’t die the way normal watches do. It’s fuss-free, and the nicest $59 watch you’ll ever find, whether or not you’re a runner.
Where to get it: Finer local running specialty shops or the Nike Store. If you’re making a swap, bring it into the original place of purchase, with or without a receipt. At any NikeTown location, they’ll even give you cash, including tax, if they don’t have enough in stock.
