The Unmonday 4.3L is a $700 ceramic AirPlay speaker which comes with its own leather carrying case. It is gorgeous, and if you want to use it to its full potential, you’re going to have to buy another four of them.
The iPad Mini is here, and it is lying naked and vulnerable on your desk/bed/lap/passenger seat. And that’s ok, because today is all about tweaking and configuring your settings, installing apps and seeing which of your pants have back pockets big enough to carry it (don’t sit down!)
But what of tomorrow? Soon you’ll start searching for cases, speakers, docks and other accessories for the latest tiny addition to your family, and that’s where we come in. Yes, you can use most of your iPad and iPhone accessories with the new Mini, but here are some add-ons which work particularly well with Apple’s littlest tablet.
It turns out that the iPad Mini is the first Apple mobile device to ship with stereo speakers. Although Apple’s product page only mentions a “built-in speaker,” the two grilles on the new iPad’s bottom edge do in fact contain separate stereo speakers.
When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, there’s one company’s product against which all others are measured: Jawbone’s iconic Jambox.
There’s a reason for that. Jawbone entered a pretty much empty market segment with a new product that they polished to hell. The Jambox doesn’t sound like sonic nirvana, but it sounds pretty good, and the rest of the details — from the way it feels in the hand, to the way it’s boxed, to the Nintendo-like bleeps and bloops it makes when you pair it or skip a track — are just polished to hell.
Just like with Apple products, though, that polish comes at a premium: the MSRP of the Jambox is $199.99, which is a lot of money for most people. Enter the CUBEDGE EDGE.sound, a new Bluetooth speaker that attempts to do everything that the Jambox does for an MSRP of $50 less.
Just when you thought an iPhone or iPad dock had been built into every possible household object, here comes the iRocking Chair. In looks, it's a pretty traditional rocker, but it has some surprises built in. Not least is the fact that it can charge an iPad 3.
It’s rare that you can point to an accessory and say “Jony Ive” designed that, but with the Harman Kardon Soundsticks, that’s literally true.
Back in July 2000, Apple partnered with Harman Kardon to release an officially blessed subwoofer and speaker combo to perfectly accentuate the translucent iMac G3. One of the benefits of that partnership to Harman Kardon was that Jonathan Ive undertook the design of the product. The result — the iSub 2000 Subwoofer and SoundSticks — are a classic example of vintage Ive design, all bubble shaped and translucent.
If you aren’t Apple, it’s rare to be handed an Ive design every day, and so Harman Kardon has wisely kept the shape and look of the SoundSticks line pretty much the same for the last twelve years, only improving the technology inside as they can.
The new SoundSticks Wireless system is a further refinement of the classic year 2000 design. There’s one big difference, though: the SoundSticks now do Bluetooth.
Libratone’s Zipp is a another AirPlay speaker, only this one has a couple of twists. The most obvious difference between this and the Big Jambox (its closest competitor) is the colorful wool felt cover. The other difference is in how it connects: The Zipp creates its own Wi-Fi access point.
If it’s anything like the other products in the ever-burgeoning Beats franchise, the Beats Pill is likely a triumph of pricing over quality. It comes in at a Jamboxian $200, stands just two inches high, and works like any other portable speaker — via Bluetooth.
Aside from being fatter and heavier than the the last-gen model, and running hot, and taking like a year to charge, the iPad is almost perfect. Apart from all those problems, of course.
But while those issues all stem from jamming a multi-million-pixel display into a mobile device, the iPad’s speaker is another matter. It sounds just fine — if you’re standing behind the iPad that it.
The SoundJaw Unlimited — itself a sequel to a thinner product — fixes that. And fixes it good.
The Jambox and its ilk of wireless high-tech boomboxes are fantastic, for both sound and freedom. But there’s no way my Mum would use one — it simply wouldn’t fit in with the crystal and porcelain knick-knacks (what I call “dust-catchers”) which carpet every horizonta surface like mushrooms on, well, you know.
The Joey Roth Ceramic Subwoofer, though, would probably be allowed.
You probably don’t need the 10,000-watt iNuke Boom speaker for your iPhone, but you might just find a place in your home for the iNuke Boom Junior, a 1:23 scale model of Behringer’s basbehemoth.
Journalists and PR folk, or hacks and flacks, are supposed to fight like cats and, uh, laser pointers shone onto walls. But like Jedis and ninjas, there are good ones and bad ones. And today, I got the best product tagline from one of the good ones, regarding the ECOXBT Bluetooth speaker:
Think Jambox…if Jambox wasn’t scared of the water and a wimp.
Who can argue with that?
Apple’s legal team is freaky fast, and they don’t mess around. Yesterday we saw these portable speakers by iAudio2 that feature a glowing Apple logo on the casing. They’re small and probably sound like crap because they’re so cheap, but they look great. Too great. And we warned that if you wanted to get one you should act quick because Apple would be coming out with the ban hammer real fast.
Well, Apple has already sent iAudio2 a cease and desist letter telling them they better stop the sales of the iAudio2 immediately, or else. But iAudio2 has decided they’re not done having their fun just yet, and that even though Apple said to stop selling their product immediately, they’re going to keep selling them for the next 24hours before they run away scared. Unless of course Apple calls again, then they’ll stop immediately.
Here’s iAudio’s full letter to customers regarding the situation:
If your iPhone 5 speakers aren’t loud enough when you’re trying to have an impromptu Lady Gaga dance party, you might wanna look into getting a portable speaker that can keep your beats fast and your base down low.
The iAudio 2 portable bluetooth speaker is perfect for Apple Fanboys. It even looks like something Apple would make and comes with a glowing Apple logo on the front, which really means that Apple’s going to slam iAudio with a cease and desist letter pretty soon, so grab it while you still can.
There’s so much wordplay to be had in this post that if I start now, I might just forget to write about the product itself. So if you want dick jokes and Star Wars references, you’ll find them at the end of this post. In the meantime, let’s take a look at Richard Solo’s horribly-named FreeWheelin Audio System For Helmets.
Sick, enraged or just plain glum about the fact that your new iPhone 5 won’t work with your multiple and expensive speaker docks? Then you should probably lose that sense of entitlement.
Or you could move to Brazil (where an iPhone costs the same as a small private plane, more or less) and start buying paper magazines. Because a recent Coca Cola ad turns a copy of Capricho magazine into a passive cylindrical speaker dock.
I’m one of those people that loves background noise. I like listening to podcasts when I cook; I love a running telly while I’m doing chores; and even when I’m in the shower, I’ve either got Spotify or those podcasts going again.
Previously, this love of shower-time bluegrass meant bringing my iPhone into the bathroom, cranking up the volume on its little speakers, then straining to hear its tinny audio through the whir of water and intense loofahing. But the iShower ($100) Bluetooth speaker fixes this problem simply and wonderfully. It brings your iDevice’s audio anywhere where water would usually kill it, like your bathtub, shower, or sink, and works so well, it’s quickly becoming my favorite new iPhone accessory.
With the announcement of a single piece of hardware, Apple has obsoleted thousands of iPhone accessories, almost overnight. Between the thinner, taller case and the new Lightning sync/power adapter, pretty much none of your old accessories (or any accessories you can currently buy) will fit the new iPhone.
Does it matter? Should you stop buying iPhone-specific accessories? Just how useful will these stop-gap adapters be? Find out with our iPhone 5 accessory guide.
Jawbone’s wireless Jambox speaker has been a fan favorite among mobile users for quite some time, and while everything about it rocks, users have been begging for more color choices. Those prayers haven’t fallen on deaf ears, as Jawbone has teased its next iteration of the Jambox: Jambox the Remix.
Hey! Remember those old travel alarm clocks which would fold out from a pocket-sized, pillow-shaped package into a three-sided stand-up clock? No? Well I do, because that’s what my ever-frugal Nan used to use as a regular clock in the living room, and I never tired of folding and unfolding it – whenever she wasn’t around, at least.
Which is why I have a thing for this neat-o Bluetooth speaker from Geneva Labs. The handsome package folds up just like my Nan’s did, and even manages to hide a cute clock in behind the minimalistical grille.
This is the SuperTooth Disco 2. It’s the sequel to one of my favorite Bluetooth speakers ever, the SuperTooth, only smaller, a little quieter, and a lot more stereo-er. It also has a quirky little flower-vase style which will probably grow on you, especially if you have small tables.
Hidden Radio, a Bluetooth speaker and radio so minimalist it makes a sheet of blank paper look like something from a Jules Verne story, has finally emerged from a lengthy Kickstarter pupation to go on sale in a web store near you.
It’s stylish, it’s loud and it lasts longer than most other Bluetooth speakers around. What’s not to like?
Wood is, indeed, awesome. Speaker makers have been using wood for years to wrap high-end speakers in, utilizing the highly resonant natural properties of wood for sound reproduction. Now, with the all the rage for tiny bluetooth speakers like the Jambox and the Logitech Mini Boombox, perhaps it’s time for something just a bit more, well, woody.
The Mini Boombox ($100) is Logitech’s entry into the hotly contested Bluetooth micro-speaker contest. Like its contemporaries (the Jawbone Jambox and Monster iClarityHD are two prime examples), the Boombox supplies big sound in a tiny, wireless, battery-powered package — only in this case with Logitech’s signature sleek, stylish approach and a futuristic control panel. Let’s take a look at how it stacks up.
Admit it. You took one look at the tiny Satechi Bluetooth speaker up there in the photo and thought “This is going to be a piece of junk.” It probably won’t help your hastily formed opinion if I tell you that it costs just $30.
Don’t worry. I thought the same. I only had the PR people send me one so I could tease, and write a mean but hilarious review about this obviously crappy little speaker. It turns out that I was dead wrong.