Big-name brands are acting especially generous this week — we found deals on Panasonic, Sony and even KitchenAid products. eBay is back at it again with a new-and-improved PlayStation 4 bundle. Amazon’s cutting the price on its Echo smart home package. And Walmart is joining the fray with a major deal on a Panasonic 50-inch HD TV.
Read on for all the juicy details.
A free software update for Ultimate Ears’ popular Boom and Megaboom speakers lets you connect dozens of the Bluetooth devices to create a massive wall of sound.
The over-the-air update, coming today to the “life-proof” speaker line, enables a new feature called PartyUp that can connect “more than 50” of UE’s popular tube-shaped speakers. “More than 50” is the party line, but UE product manager Jim Saraco said his team connected 130 of the speakers at the company’s HQ.
“In reality, we’re still trying to find a cap,” Saraco told Cult of Mac.
The speakers in our iPhones and iPads keep getting better and better, but they’re not close to replacing Bluetooth speakers just yet. If you’ve just splashed out hard-earned dollars for a new iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, a low-priced, quality speaker may come as a welcome relief.
There are a few rare finds out there that deliver good bang for buck, and the $60 DKnight Big MagicBox is one of them.
Check out the full video review below.
It’s ok to admit you pretend the shower nozzle is a microphone, but let’s be honest — rocking out in the shower is a lot better when you can actually sing along. With this waterproof Bluetooth speaker, Splash Tunes, you can bring your favorite music, podcasts, e-books, etc. into the shower with you. It’s a major upgrade for a major part of your (hopefully) daily routine, and right now you can get a Splash Tunes speaker for $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Cupping your hand around the iPhone speaker just isn’t cutting it anymore. If you’re looking to get a groove from your mobile devices while keeping them mobile, your best bet is a portable Bluetooth speaker like the Double Spot by Soundfreaq. It’s slim, sounds great, goes anywhere, and right now you can get one for just $79.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Libratone makes speakers so gorgeous they look like they belong in a museum more than in my home. The company’s latest wireless speaker is so damn cool I’m tempted to take it with me everywhere.
The new ONE Click speaker from Libratone’s new portable lineup packs more features than any wireless speaker I’ve ever used while coming in a form factor that is adaptable to so many different uses it’ll make your head spin.
Every week we take the many amazing deals we have and decide on a small handful of the absolute amazingest. This week we’ve got a dead simple way to streamline your desktop workflow, a speaker that projects sounds and glittering light, a high-speed VPN subscription and a lifetime of courses in iOS coding — including the soon-to-be-released iOS 10.
Summer is as much about its sights as its sounds. Whatever your musical mood, the FRESHeCOLOR renders it in a dazzling and colorful display that you can take anywhere you go, from the poolside to the party to just hanging out in your living room with the fan on your face. Right now you can get this portable vibe enhancer for $59.95.
This week’s Cult of Mac Magazine has loads in store for your weekend wind-down. Following our coverage of WWDC 2016 the previous week, we’ve got more iPhone 7 rumors for you including the possibility of a dual-lense camera.
And, discover the news changes and design overhauls iOS 10 brings to the Apple Music and Apple News apps. Plus, screaming terrific deals on the G-BOOM Bluetooth speaker, and the opportunity to get five years of unlimited cloud storage for just $29 per month.
Finally, the CultCast expounds on all those iPhone 7 leaks!
All this, and much much more, in Cult of Mac Magazine, free for you right now.
Here are this week’s top stories.
Another week, another batch of great deals. This time around we’re looking at 5 years of unlimited cloud backup, a lifetime of virtual private network access, a 10-foot long Lightning cable and a bluetooth boom box that really bumps. Take a look for more details:
Summer’s here, but it’ll be gone before you know it. We’ve got some great gear and gadgets to make sure you get the most juice out of your iPhone before the fall. We’ve got water-resistant earbuds, a sturdy car mount, a set of iPhone camera lenses and a proper Bluetooth boombox. Take a look, and get your iPhone summer-ready:
What ever happened to the boombox, the chunky sound blaster built to bring the noise anywhere, and built to last? With all the effete Bluetooth speakers on the market — designed to be compact and pretty — the G-BOOM does away with pretense and gets right to the point.
This thing is tough, with rubber feet, a big, dumb handle on top that begs you to take the G-BOOM with you, and a sturdy build with plenty of space for the speaker’s powerful sound driver. Of course it also packs in all the nifty wireless features you’d ever want. It’s a modern take on the classic boombox that’s just $79.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
A firmware update to Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speakers lets you use simple voice commands to make song requests.
After you install the over-the-air update, just tap the Bluetooth button on the top of your paired Boom 2 or Megaboom speaker, then say something like, “Play ‘Iron Man’ by Black Sabbath.” Soon the track will play as if by magic.
The UE Roll, a UFO-shaped Bluetooth speaker that’s built to withstand the rigors of your super-splashy summer, is getting a welcome upgrade. Much like this year’s refreshed MacBook line, the UE Roll 2 packs performance enhancements (and a new paint job) into a product we already know and love.
With its “lifeproof” design, and a beefy bungee cord built right in, it’s the ultimate “take your tunes anywhere” speaker. Only now it’s a wee bit better.
These days, there are as many options for speakers and headphones as there are stars in the sky. Out of such a bewildering array of audio choices, we’ve picked four of the brightest, each one unique and distinct.
From a Bluetooth speaker that looks like a cajon to DJ-grade headphones, this audio gear makes the grade. And we’ve got hot deals on each of them. Take a look — and a listen.
These days, very few of us actually purchase individual albums or singles, thanks to the growing popularity of subscription-based services such as Apple Music and Spotify. Playing these streaming services through Bluetooth speakers is just as easy as playing them from your iPhone. But what if you want to play your favorite Spotify playlists without having your phone glued to you?
Introducing the GGMM E3 Wi-Fi Smart Cloud speaker. I admit, I’d never heard of GGMM either. Launching on Kickstarter last week, the E3 boasts a ton of features to earn the “smart” title, including cloud music play, favorites, multiroom play and much more.
Check out the video after the jump to see it in action.
As a teenager in the 80s, I love a good boombox. The bigger, the better, like Radio Raheem’s.
That’s why I was keen to check out Nyne’s new Bluetooth Boombox, called — what else — the Rock. It’s the biggest Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever seen, promising to put out 65 watts of raw music power.
But does it rock — or not?
Speaker maker Soundmatters has just released an audio device you can talk to without looking like a crazy person. And even better, it’ll talk back with the voice of Apple’s digital assistant, Siri.
The aptly named Dash7+Siri has all the functions of the basic mini soundbar, but it also lets you issue commands directly to the speaker with the press of a button.
Oh, my, is this a cute little speaker. It’s so adorable that I’ve waited through three software updates and spent more time charging the speaker to test than almost any other one I’ve ever reviewed.
Why? Because this thing is drop-dead adorable. The Sugr Cube looks like something straight out of Cupertino: I wouldn’t be surprised to find one sitting on an Apple retail store display table before long.
Grace Digital’s Voice Enhanced TV Speaker promises to enhance the sound of your television and potentially give it a volume boost. The sound was engineered with voices in mind because, more than anything when watching TV, dialogue is what you need to hear. As a bonus, a Bluetooth connection lets the speaker work with any Bluetooth-enabled computer or smartphone.
I hooked up Grace Digital’s Voice Enhanced TV Speaker to my television and gave it a whirl.
If music is one of the lights of your life, then shouldn’t your speakers shine, too?
Acoustic Research introduced a new line of wireless speakers that offer quality sound, a design attractive indoors and out and a customizable, multi-color LED light to fit the mood of your music and social scene.
LAS VEGAS — For all Sony’s talk about high-definition audio and video during its CES press conference, the company’s most intriguing new product is a weird glass speaker with LED lights that looks something like a tubular hurricane lamp.
Called the Glass Sound Speaker, it’s a refreshing twist on the ordinary Bluetooth speaker that is certain to add a unique ambiance to any room. I’m not sure how it sounds, but its soothing, candle-like glow practically screams sophistication.
There are those of you who like to take risks. Face it, you love living on the edge, taking your precious electronics into dusty, dirty and even wet locations.
If your dream is to play tunes at high volume while you raft Class V rapids, rappel down a sheer cliff face or just take a shower, GoGroove has you covered.
The BlueSync RGD is a super-rugged, water-resistant Bluetooth speaker that will go with you anywhere and deal with almost all the dangers you can throw at it, all for a wallet-friendly price.
We fit all the music in the world in our pocket; if only we could also carry around a great way to listen to it. Enter the Soundfreaq Pocket Kick Bluetooth Speaker, a pocket-size brick that brings the beat and fits anywhere you can keep your wallet. And you won’t have to empty your wallet to get one, either: Right now you can get a Pocket Kick for just $59.99.
Now that we can basically all the music in the world anywhere we go, it’s up to us to make sure we’re hearing it at its best. Headphones are great, but when it’s time to share the noise you’ll want to pick up a UE BOOM Bluetooth Speaker. The critically acclaimed speaker will get any room moving with rich, balanced sound, and right now you can get one for just $149.99.
