Inspiration comes from all manner of places. Cars often taken their names from animals (Impala, Mustang, Bronco). Cell Phones are often verbs (Captivate, Restore, Vu, Remarq) or just seemingly random word association (Gravity, Pursuit, Fathom). The name of speakers, on the other hand, often reflects the shape of the product (Zeppelin, Soundsticks) or is simply a random pairing of numbers and letters.
Audyssey’s latest iPhone dock has taken inspiration from a different place entirely–San Francisco’s SoMA district. Says the company,
Nestled between downtown San Francisco and the Mission District, South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood of artist lofts and night clubs, restaurants and start-ups. This blend of old warehouses, culture and technology make SoMa a unique and diverse urban landscape. Its eclectic blend of energy and history serves as the inspiration for the innovative audio technology and iconic design of the Audyssey Audio Dock, South of Market Edition.
For those of you on the East Coast, think of these as the Williamsburg, Brooklyn of iPhone speakers, only much, much cleaner.
Speaking of clean–our audio analyst Tim Gideon tried the dock out and remarked how crisp the Audio Dock: South of Market Edition’s sound is, particularly in the case of speak phone calls–a place where similar docks often drop the ball. The dock features Bluetooth connectivity, letting users make calls via the iPhone or any other Bluetooth-enabled device.
There are microphones mounted on the front and rear of the device, and the included remote lets users answer the phone from afar, without touching the iPhone.
The SoMa also connects to Macs and PCs wirelessly, letting users stream music, sync to iTunes, and make calls via VoIP. A built-in BassXT subwoofer offers deep low-end sound by “monitor[ing] the low frequency signals and constantly pushes the speaker to its
maximum safe capability.”
With a five inch width and nine inch depth, the thing is pretty small–it’s not particularly cheap, however, at $399.
Topeak has updated its top-of-the-line Alien bike multi-tool making it smaller and lighter, and easier than ever to carry an almost full bike toolkit in your pocket.