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speakers posts

GPS, music, power: Nokia busts out slew of accessories

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 27th 2007 @ 3:57PM

Ear candy aside, Nokia showed a bunch of other goodies today to adorn that special handset in your life, too. First up, the LD-4W GPS Module adds a little style -- "Nseries style," sez Nokia -- to the previously released LD-3W, offering 10 hours of operation on a single charge; it'll be available for about €125 ($170) and promises compatibility with a "wide range" of Nokia hardware. Next, the MD-7W stereo Bluetooth speakers let you share the tuneage with those around you, willingly or not; they're also designed with the Nseries in mind but should work with any device supporting A2DP when they hit for €130 (about $177). Last but certainly not least, the DC-1 Power Pack acknowledges that media-centric phones aren't always the easiest on the battery, offering juice to one or two phones with 2mm Nokia power ports simultaneously. Look for this one to run about €105 ($143). All of 'em should be available "globally" in the fourth quarter of the year.

iPhone news roundup: benchmarks, Facebook, and (obviously) rumors

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 17th 2007 @ 6:03AM

There was a lot of iPhone chatter this week -- although Apple might have done all it can to lock the little bugger down, it seems people are still finding ways to extend and explore its capabilities, while AT&T might have finally gotten the hint about those ridiculous paper bills.

Logic3 unveiled the i-Station Traveler (pictured), the first speaker dock we've seen specifically for the iPhone. While most iPod docks tend to work fine with the iPhone, the $60 Traveller is designed specifically around the horizontal orientation, allowing you to watch movies while the iPhone is docked.
Meebo and Facebook both launched iPhone-specific versions of their sites, allowing you to IM your friends and stalk your exes with all the swoopy-slidey flair you'd expect.
Orange continued to act all coy about potentially being Apple's partner in France, saying only that it had "no comment" on the iPhone, even as rumors heat up.
The iPhone got straight-up benchmarked for the first time: Craig Hockenberry whipped out his stopwatch and discovered that Javascript in MobileSafari runs right around eighty times slower than on a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo Mac. He also whipped up a little app using that pirate toolchain we love so much and discovered that native ARM code runs right around 200 times faster than Javascript in the iPhone. Looks like that Safari sandbox might not be so "sweet" after all.
AT&T seems to have decided that its vendetta against the trees of the world might be a little misplaced, and is in the process of moving to "summary billing," according to a call center employee. Either that, or they're trying to guilt people into switching to e-billing by sending out ridiculous bills. Really, that's what the email says.

All in all, a pretty busy week for the iPhone -- kinda makes you wonder how much action there'll be when Apple finally releases that official SDK, eh?

Read - i-Station Traveler
Read - Meebo
Read - Facebook
Read - Orange declines to comment on the iPhone
Read - iPhone benchmarks
Read - AT&T reducing paper bills

[Thanks, risingsonn and The Boy Genius]

Veritronix's VX-818 Bluetooth speaker / handsfree device

by Darren Murph posted May 3rd 2007 @ 11:05AM

Veritronix's latest certainly won't go down as the first of its kind, but it does add a dash of style and compactness to the ever-growing BT speaker market. Coming in at just 13-millimeters thick and resembling the size of a "business card," this speaker / handsfree interface sports Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a touch-sensitive control panel, a set of stereo drivers, and a built-in microphone as well. Furthermore, you'll find both 3.5-millimeter line-in and out jacks, USB charging abilities, and a reported playback duration of eight hours. No word just yet concerning pricing or availability, but the challenging part will finding a way to get this sucka into North America once it hits the Hong Kong streets.

[Via Slashphone]

Jabra and Klipsch team up on S5010 cellphone speaker station

by Darren Murph posted Apr 18th 2007 @ 11:35PM

Just as Klipsch is no stranger to the world of musical docking stations, Jabra tends to enjoy slapping its name onto anything it can. Unsurprisingly, the two lovebirds have met in harmony to offer up the S5010 cellphone boombox, which sports an edgy, stylish design, weighs in at a very portable 3.7-pounds, and should handle just about any handset, DAP, or external music source you desire to pair up with it. The system touts a "universal" connectivity panel that consists of 2.5- and 3.5-millimeter inputs as well as a mini-USB connector, 30-watts of power split between the stereo drivers, a Class D amplifier, and "subtle" LED indicators littering the case. Curiously, you won't find any Bluetooth love on this one, which certainly stands out given Jabra's long-standing relationship with the short-range wireless protocol, but if you still find yourself lusting over the fairly average S5010, you can snap it up real soon for $149.

[Via ShinyShiny]

Smart V888 doubles the fun with two huge speakers

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 3rd 2006 @ 9:13PM

Stereo speakers aren't terribly uncommon among modern featurephones, but this isn't exactly, uh, what most manufacturers have in mind. The V888 slider from Smart rocks (and we literally mean, "rocks") two bigass speakers on either side of the display with support for some sort of spatial audio enhancement. The buttonless front looks clean, sacrificing some usability in the process by moving those pesky send / end buttons off to the side of the bezel. Besides the speakers, the phone offers a microSD slot upon which to load the music you'll surely be enjoying and a 1.3 megapixel shooter, but not much else -- such is the price we must pay for crappy, unnecessarily loud audio emanating from our handset these days.

[Via Slashphone]