Hasta La Gadget!

With a fantastic Bluetooth headset on the market and a pumpin’ portable speaker to blast out jams, how could Jawbone improve their product lineup? Well, we still think a stereo headset might be swell… but that’s not what the company delivered today. No, this is the Jawbone Era, the world’s first Bluetooth earpiece with a built-in accelerometer for motion-sensing apps, and plenty more improvements where that came from. There’s a new version of the company’s NoiseAssassin noise-canceling algorithms that adjusts inbound volume and equalization to let you hear better, an extra-large 10mm cone speaker with a larger range of frequencies, two processors, more memory, and an hour of extra battery life compared to the Jawbone Icon, to be specific. With only two motions currently recognized — a double-tap to begin / end / switch calls and a rapid shake to pair — the accelerometer’s a bit of a gimmick for now, but Jawbone suggests more gestures are probably on the way. In the meanwhile, the other advancements might make the Era worth the price of entry — which is $130, by the by.

We’ve spent about five hours with the headset already, listening to music and taking calls, and while the accelerometer seems almost wasted at present, there’s no discounting that new 10mm driver and the audio it can pump out. While no substitute for a set of quality dedicated earbuds, it sounded worlds better than the Jawbone Icon’s tiny, tinny drum, and playing Pandora tracks we no longer felt an overpowering desire to take it out of our ear — making a cyborg existence all the more bearable, we suppose. We’ll bring you a full review soon, but if you’re already sold, you’ll find four different Era designs on sale at Jawbone’s online store… oh, right about now. PR after the break.

Continue reading Jawbone Era sticks an accelerometer in your noise-canceling headset, we go hands-on

Jawbone Era sticks an accelerometer in your noise-canceling headset, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That didn’t take long. ID8-Mobile, which creates accessories for mobile devices, just released the MoGo Talk XD2 for the Verizon iPhone 4. It’s a Bluetooth headset and a case all in one. The included MoGo Bluetooth headset stores and charges on the iPhone. The case now features a sleek industrial design with a carbon black headset and case. It will begin shipping on February 3, 2000, to ensure that new Verizon iPhone 4 users will have it already when their new iPhone ships.

The whole package gets you the MoGo talk headset, the Easy-Grip case, six different earbuds, a microUSB charging table, and a quick start guide. Look for it to list for $99.99.

The Olympus PENpal is a Bluetooth widget that beams photos from your camera to your computer. It slides into the accessory shoe on the top of the Olympus PEN E-PL2 camera and is controlled by the camera itself.

This ingenious dongle integrates with the camera’s own menus, and sends images to any device compatible with Bluetooth file transfers (which counts out the iPhone and iPad, as we noted in our full review of the E-PL2). It works like this: Browse your photos on the camera’s screen as usual and then hit the menu button. From here, choose the “Send a Picture” option and you’re done. The photo will appear on your computer a few moments later.

The PENpal will also resize photos before sending. Depending on your settings, it will shrink pictures to 1280 x 960, 1920 x 1440 or 640 x 480, and can store up to 2,600 pictures in its own memory.

This seems like an ideal solution for crappy cellphone cameras. You can take a snap with a proper camera and then send it to your phone for editing and uploading, letting both devices do what they’re good at. This seems to be a trend in consumer electronics in general: We’re moving away from convergence and the do-everything machines that entails, and coming to small ecosystems of networked devices. Camera, computer and tablet are all beginning to talk to each other.

It’s just a shame that this won’t work with the iPad, which really needs a camera, and that it is Olympus-only. At least it’s cheap, though, at just $80.

Olympus PENpal [Olympus via Derek Story]

See Also:

• Looxcie, A Futuristic Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder
• Siemens Bluetooth Box Beams Music Direct to Hearing Aids
• Olympus Pen EP-2, Now in Retro-Tastic Silver
• New Olympus Pen Adds Flash, Loses Good Looks

Okay, so maybe that’s a stretch, but there’s no question that Quirky‘s latest socially-developed product is one of the slicker wireless speaker / dock combos out there. Dubbed Perch, this two-piece device acts as a standalone Bluetooth speaker if you’d like, but it also includes a dock / tray for holding your device while it’s charging. It’s model and brand agnostic, and it’s up for pre-order right now for $179.99. Gallery’s below, but don’t dive in if you’re easily swayed by eye candy.

Continue reading Perch: the Bluetooth speaker / smartphone dock of your dreams, shipping soon for $180

Perch: the Bluetooth speaker / smartphone dock of your dreams, shipping soon for $180 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We visited Griffin’s CES booth to check out the Beacon universal remote control expecting yet another Redeye clone, but instead wound up walking away impressed. Two notable features of the prototype Bluetooth to IR converter device are that it’s battery powered and includes a 360 degree IR blaster. These are key since they give users the freedom to place the transmitter almost anywhere around an entertainment center. The free iPhone remote app built by Dijit was the real highlight though. The UI and functionality was incredibly intuitive, and we especially liked that the setup process doesn’t require inputting device model numbers. Instead, users just pick the brand and then test a series of code cycles to see if their components respond. The TV guide and Netflix integration are also points of distinction over competitors — since you can select shows or movies to watch directly from the app. Last but not least, your remote settings can be saved and downloaded to as many devices as you like. To give you a feel for the system, we’ve included plenty of shots of the app’s UI in the gallery below along with more photos the device.

Continue reading Griffin Beacon universal remote control system hands-on

Griffin Beacon universal remote control system hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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