Hasta La Gadget!

Smartphones make great navigation devices (where still allowed by law), but trying to read the things while they slide about on the dash or peek out of a cupholder is hardly ideal. Universal windshield holders help, but none are as smart as the Parrot‘s latest. How smart is it? Why, it’s right there in the title. The Minikit Smart will hold smartphones “whatever their size” — so long as that size is between 56 and 70mm in width. It has an integrated speaker and telescoping microphone that connects to your phone over Bluetooth, boosting your celly’s paltry internal speaker so that you can better hear directions and, of course, make hands-free calls. There’s also a USB pass-through, so that you can not only charge this unit while driving but charge your phone. Imagine how happy and secure your phone would feel when being spooned like this, but at $129 it had better be over the moon.

Continue reading Parrot Minikit Smart windshield mount cradles your phone, caresses its Bluetooth, charges its battery

Parrot Minikit Smart windshield mount cradles your phone, caresses its Bluetooth, charges its battery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since 2006, Jawbone’s been making noise-canceling bluetooth headsets boasting modern design and military-grade sound. This is not one of those. This is the Jawbone Jambox — a wireless bluetooth speaker — and it’s what happened when the company decided to let the music out. Functionally it’s almost exactly the same as a Jawbone Icon, down to the pairing process, three-button controls and MyTALK upgradable software platform, but instead of a tiny mono earpiece you’re getting a stylish portable speakerphone with a 3.5mm input jack and some serious stereo potential. We’ve had it playing for several hours now, and while it’s not going to be the life of a large party even at maximum volume, it pumps out a terribly impressive amount of clear, room-filling sound for its size. If you pick it up or set it down on a table, you’ll feel the vibrations nearby.

You can’t quite tell from this angle, but that stainless steel grill wraps around an airtight enclosure made of polycarbonate infused with glass, which houses a pair of full-range drivers and a microphone up front and a “moving-wall passive bass radiator” around back for some extra low-end goodness. We’re told this last was quite the innovation, which didn’t impress us much until we were told what Jawbone put inside the radiator to ensure mass and rigidity: the unit’s 800mAh lithium-ion battery. Speaking of juice, Jawbone tells us the unit’s good for about eight hours of continuous playback at 75 percent volume. You’ll be paying a good bit to get this designer toy pumping out your jams, as any of the black, red, blue or silver units will run $200 at Best Buy and the Apple Store when they hit November 16th, but if you’ve been aching for a modern, handheld ghetto blaster, this is definitely one way to go. PR after the break.

Update: As some have pointed out in comments, a number of the ideas here aren’t actually new — you can find a very similar portable Bluetooth speaker (down to a patent-pending “BassBattery” and a $200 price) in the Soundmatters foxL v2 with Bluetooth.

Update 2: As it turns out, the foxL v2 isn’t exactly a competitor, it’s an ally of sorts, because the Jambox is a collaboration with the same Dr. Godehard Guenther who invented the original device. “JAMBOX leverages the core analog acoustics that made FoxL great,” says a representative, but with numerous improvements: Jawbone’s noise cancellation and Bluetooth know-how, a thicker, stiffer speaker enclosure and a Yves Behar design.

Continue reading Jawbone intros Jambox portable bluetooth speaker, we go hands-on (update)

Jawbone intros Jambox portable bluetooth speaker, we go hands-on (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are many things to like about the SuperTooth speaker: Its name, which conjures images of a superhero baby that got his powers by sucking on a radioactive lollipop, leaving one all-conquering SuperTooth in his mouth. Or the sound, which is a beefy 28 Watts, much more than usual in the market of Bluetooth speakers.

Or we could point to the battery life, which stretches from 3-10 hours depending on just how high you crank the volume, the DC-in jack for home use (and charging) and the standard minijack to hook up any audio device whether Bluetooth or not.

All those are fine reasons to check out this $150 stereo-speaker, but the thing that really gets my wallet-hand twitching is the looks. The SuperTooth has style, looking more like a guitar-amp with its metal grille, laid-back angle and big, retro-styled volume knob. Even the remote controls which let you skip and play/pause the audio from the source device are stylishly tucked in around this main dial.

For those less shallow than me, here are some specs: The SuperTooth contains a subwoofer, with its own 12 Watt amp, plus left and right speakers (2 x 8 Watts) and, well, that’s all you need. If this thing sounds as good as it looks, the the Bluetooth part is just icing. I’m certainly going to check one out.

Available now.

SuperTooth product page [SuperTooth. Thanks, Tanya!]

See Also:

• SonyEricsson Reveals Ball Shaped Bluetooth Speaker
• Bike Speakers Rock Your Commute
• Review: Yamaha Blutooth Speaker Will Sock It To Ya Without Wires …
• New iPod Touch Has Bluetooth Inside
• Suicidal Bluetooth Headset Looks Like Gun

The official Bluetooth headset for the PS3 has been around for a few years, still rocking the same $49.99 price point, still wearing the same “Wow, look at me, I’m a Bluetooth headset” design while others have gotten fancier, artsier and, well, better. Now Sony looks to finally be making an update, whittling the sides down make the new model look a bit more modern — while not actually going too far. The price is said to stay the same and overall the design looks much the same too, just pointier and featuring a daintier clip that should be somewhat less taxing on your ear as you spend hour after hour screaming at your SVER teammates who insist on staying back and sniping while you throw yourself at the Valor lines. If only they could see your cool new headset, maybe then they’d listen.

Sony’s PS3 Bluetooth headset sheds a few ounces and gets a slinky new outfit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With its brand-new Google TV Blu-ray Players and much-loved universal remotes, you might think Logitech would let its well-established business in keyboard and mice coast a little bit. Instead, they’re coming out with a new wireless keyboard with a new wireless charger: the Sun.

Actually, that’s not quite true. The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 may have solar in its name, but let’s face it: how much typing on a full-sized keyboard do most of us do in bright sunlight? Thankfully, “solar” here are a shorthand for “powered by any light source whatsoever,” including the bare-incandescent bulb in your dank basement office.

Disclosure: I have a Logitech DiNovo wireless keyboard that I love, although I’m indifferent towards its plug-in charging cradle, which always seems to get unplugged when someone else in my house needs an outlet. I also have a solar-powered calculator from elementary school that I’ve loved since before puberty. So even though I have neither seen or used this keyboard, I am predisposed to be enthusiastic about it, in the hope that those solar cells across the top can keep the keyboard charged at least as well as my old solar-powered calculator.

Logitech says that the keyboard “can operate for up to three months in total darkness,” and they’re not shipping it with a separate plug-in charger, so they seem pretty confident. They’re also shipping a desktop app that helps “measure ambient light in the room, gives at-a-glance information about battery levels, and even alerts you when you need more power.”

So that covers the wireless charging. For wireless connection to your computer, the K750 doesn’t use Bluetooth, but 2.4 gHz wireless, meaning that you’ll need a plug-in USB receiver. I knew it! I knew you’d have to plug something in! Oh, well. For better connectivity, I guess I’ll take it.

Below, I’ve got the Logitech promotional video, which tauts its super-thin frame, $80 price and one of the better tech catchphrases I’ve heard in a while: “If you’ve got light, you’ve got power.”

H/T: Navneet Alang.

See Also:

• Logitech's Google TV: Brilliant Concept Hampered by Networks …
• Review: Logitech F540 Wireless Headset
• Logitech Box Brings Google TV to Living Rooms
• Our Remote Controls Are Amazing, Yet Nobody's Happy
• Hands-on With The Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard
• CES 2008: Logitech DiNovo Mini Is One Sexy Remote Control/Keyboard …