Hasta La Gadget!

If you looked at the photo above thinking Dr. Martens got into the portable speaker game, you’re not so far off. Jabra’s taken its Bluetooth headset know-how and blended it with a footwear-inspired design to create its first portable speaker, the $200 Solemate. At first glance the shoe theme does seem a bit silly, but don’t let that fool you as this Bluetooth 3.0 speaker packs some notable specs — especially pitted against the Jawbone Jambox. Available inblack or white, the features rubberized casing that’s shock- and water-resistant, and can be supplemented with an included waterproof soundbag (similar to the Braven 625). Taking it a step further, the unit actually has a “heel tab” for carrying purposes and a replaceable sole, which also serves as a storage point for a handy 3.5mm cable.

Moving onto to its less quirky features, at the front you’ll find a duo of acoustic tweeters separated by a subwoofer with a passive bass radiator on the back — all together they pump out up to a whopping 120dB of volume. On top are two volume buttons, along with a multifunction button for commanding calls and enabling its Voice Guidance feature. Lastly, the right side houses two indicator lights (battery and Bluetooth), a power and pairing switch, a 3.5mm jack and a micro-USB input for charging and direct digital audio connection. According to Jabra the unit is “about the the size and weight of a water bottle,” and you can expect to get around eight to ten hours of use per charge. We’ll be giving you our in-depth impressions of the speaker before long, however, the Solemate will be up for pre-order today at the likes of Best Buy and Amazon, and set to release on September 2nd if you’re already interested. Check out the press release after the break for more details in the meantime.

Continue reading Jabra’s $200 Solemate portable Bluetooth speaker wants to kick the Jambox aside

Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video

Jabra’s $200 Solemate portable Bluetooth speaker wants to kick the Jambox aside originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And I thought that John’s Phone was as dumb as dumbphones get. But now, a UK-based company has created OwnFone, a phone that doesn’t even have a number pad, just speed dials people that you set when you order the phone. If this isn’t idiot proof then I don’t know what is.

Users can choose to have 2, 4, 8 or 12 contacts on their OwnFone. Aside from the numbers, users can further customize their OwnFone by adding colors and style. You can leave the phone as it is, add a pattern or upload an image to be used as its background. Right now customers can only use alphanumeric characters to label the contact buttons, but in the future it will be possible to use Braille or even images as labels to make the phone even more accessible.

The phone is only about 0.28″ thick and weighs just 40g (about 0.09 lbs). It’s also rechargeable and can last up to a year in “Shutdown” mode. I’m not sure if the last feature is merely a sleep mode or a literal shutdown state.

Want your own OwnFone phone? Better move to the UK as it’s currently exclusive to the state. If you’ve got that taken care off, head to the OwnFone website and be ready to fork over £55 (~$87 USD) for the device itself. You’ll also have to sign up for a monthly plan that costs between £7.50-£15 (~$12-$24 USD).

[via The Verge]

Portable scanners aren’t quite the novelty they used to be, that much is true. But they’re no less impressive or useful. The latest IRIScan, the Anywhere 3, follows a long tradition of tiny, wireless document and photo scanners with rechargable batteries. It’s capable of saving your files to its internal storage, an SD card or even a standard USB thumbdrive. At $199 the IRIScan Anywhere 3 isn’t any cheaper than its competitors and, as you can see from the photo above, it’s certainly not the smallest portable scanner. But, it does come with some free apps (Readiris Pro and Cardiris Pro) that let you import contact info from business cards into Outlook or Lotus and turn your scanned docs into editable files through OCR. For more check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading IRIScan Anywhere 3 saves your receipts and photos without the cables

Filed under: Peripherals

IRIScan Anywhere 3 saves your receipts and photos without the cables originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Supersized screens may be the centerpiece of Nintendo’s 3DS XL, but a new Iwata Asks interview reveals that its top display packs some new anti-glare tech too. Takashi Murakami, from the company’s Mechanical Design Group, notes that each of the LCD’s three glare-prone layers were specially treated to reduce reflectivity from the original 3DS’ 12 percent, down to three. According to head honcho Iwata, anti-reflection coatings have been on the Big N’s radar since the GameBoy Advance era, but were typically abandoned because they were too pricey. The Q&A session also confirmed something we noticed when we put the handheld through the review gauntlet — the larger display increases the parallax effect, which translates to a deeper looking 3D experience. If your current handheld’s screen bounces too much light for your liking, the XL can take its place starting August 19th in North America.

Filed under: Gaming

Nintendo 3DS XL sports less reflective screen than its predecessor, improved parallax effect originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The software behind Google’s augmented reality future may not be here yet, but if this wearable display from Olympus is any indication, the hardware part of the Project Glass equation may be easier to solve. The MEG4.0 connects to smartphones via Bluetooth to serve as a secondary display, among other functions.

Note that the MEG4.0 is separate from the glasses, so you don’t have to worry about it not being cool enough for you. The display itself is just QVGA (320×240) resolution, though. Aside from functioning as a display, MEG4.0 also has a direction sensor and may be used in conjunction with GPS software. According to Olympus, the idea is to enable users to check their phone in short bursts. If it’s turned on for only 15 seconds every 3 minutes, then its battery will last about 8 hours. I think the short battery life is a good thing, unless you want to be run over because you’re busy tweeting while walking down the street. And because the person who ran you over was also tweeting while driving.

It’s significantly less useful than the concept device for Project Glass, but then again, everything’s worse than a concept. Olympus hasn’t mentioned if they’re going to release it as a consumer device, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just a prototype either. Perhaps MEG9000 will be good enough for daily use.

[Olympus via Akihabara News]