Hasta La Gadget!

There are plenty of Bluetooth speakers around, but not many are capable of being used outside, at least without suffering damage from the elements. The Turtle Shell is pretty durable, and it will play your music almost anywhere.

Outdoor Technology’s Turtle Shell is a rugged Bluetooth-enabled speaker made to handle plenty of rough situations. It’s shock-proof, dust-proof and water-resistant. The underside of the shell has a threaded mount for any standard tripod and a reinforced latch to attach carabiners too. The controls are pretty simple. It has three buttons, which allow you to change songs. It also comes with a built-in microphone to receive and make calls.

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts for 9 hours and comes in a number of different colors. It was launched over on Kickstarter, and has already amassed about $9,000 of it’s $40,000 goal with 17 days of fundraising left. You’ll have to pledge $99(USD) to get yours.

[via Cool Hunting]

Just in time for Halloween, Jarre’s new Aeroskull dock embodies 70 watts of total power in a human-like cranium, complete with a pair of speaker-packing shades. Jarre is showing off the colorful chrome tune machine in black, white, blue, green, orange, pink, purple and yellow finishes, with a matching IR bone remote to boot. With a tinted lens appearance, the permanently affixed sunglasses actually contain two 15-watt speakers, with a 40-watt subwoofer occupying the skull’s rear. The lofty £349 (about $565) sticker price will net you some of the latest technologies, including Bluetooth audio support and a standard 3.5mm audio input, but Apple’s new Lightning port is notably absent, with a good-as-dead Dock Connector mounted up top, instead. With 70 watts of power and Jarre’s backing, this seemingly bizarre rig may actually offer decent performance. You’ll need to wait until its October ship date to see for yourself, but if a skeletal sound system is on your list of must-haves, you can rest in peace knowing that you have but weeks to live (with your current spirited setup).

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

Jarre Aeroskull speaker dock packs dual 15-watt woofers, recently departed Apple Dock Connector originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 23:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back at IFA we spent most of our time handling new tablets and Win 8 devices, but, given that the show has grown into something of a mini-CES, there was news in almost every product category, portable audio included. TDK announced a trio of speakers that week, and though we didn’t get hands-on in Berlin, we got a second chance tonight at a New York City press event. In particular, the company is showing off its first ruggedized product, the Wireless Weatherproof Speaker. As you can see in those photos down there, it has all the stylings of a run-of-the-mill portable speaker, except it also happens to be IP64-certified against the elements. When TDK talks about its durability, it talks about liters of dousage, so a splash on your next beach vacation shouldn’t be an issue.

As for audio, it has two speakers up front, a subwoofer and two passive radiators ’round back. TDK declined to clarify the wattage, but we’ll say this: the little guy is powerful enough that we could hear it over the din at Pepcom, a local press event. And, TDK had a larger, more powerful speaker playing nearby, and we still had no problem hearing the song coming from the weatherproof model. Granted, then, this was hardly the best scenario to evaluate audio quality, but we did sense that the treble was a bit trapped compared to the bass, which came through loud and clear. Lastly, there’s a rechargeable battery inside, which TDK rates for up to six hours of runtime. It’ll go on sale in late October for $250, but in the meantime help yourself to some first-hand shots below.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video

TDK preps its first weatherproof speaker, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Beats by Dr. Dre badge has usually been attached to headphones and the occasional laptop or smartphone. We’ve never really seen it attached to dedicated speakers, however, and that’s where both an FCC filing and a sighting at UK retailer HMV’s online store raise a few eyebrows. The House that Dre Built appears on the edge of launching the Beats Pill, a Bluetooth wireless speaker with four drivers and a shape that more than explains the medicinal name. While we don’t know just how much of that signature Beats thump we’ll get, we do know from the FCC that the Pill can serve as a speakerphone, carries an aux-in jack and will last for a typical 8.5 hours on its USB-rechargeable lithium-ion battery. There’s also signs of a red version of Beats’ Mixr headphones coming at the same time. HMV has publicly scoured its pages of any trace of a ship date or price for the Pill, but cached copies point to a £170 ($276) price and a release around September 28th — not necessarily trustworthy figures, but they may be in the ballpark. Our only question is whether or not we’ll get a dose of the Pill in the US.

[Thanks, Germaine]

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio/Video

Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker spotted at FCC and HMV: take one and call Dr. Dre in the morning originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve certainly encountered a fair share of interesting speakers in our time, albeit most of them have had a different focus than Opalum’s new Flow 1010s. How so? It’s simple, really: these aren’t going to be known for their Bluetooth capabilities, oddly-shaped design or even being portable. Instead, Opalum’s hoping to take the living room by surprise with its “floating” aesthetics and patented Actisonic and Actiline digital audio tech — which, apparently, has taken decades of academic research to accomplish and, in the end, offers reverse filtering algorithms alongside state-of-the-art aluminum drivers that allow the Flow 1010 to have “control of the air movement.” Now don’t let the minimalist looks fool you into thinking these will come cheap, as the starting price point is a whopping £1,649 (around $2,700) — though, if it makes it any better, that does take into account an included “hub” and an RF touch remote. Be sure to read over the PR below, where you can find out where’s the nearest place to snag a set of Flow 1010 speakers for yourself.

Continue reading Opalum’s Flow 1010 TV speakers sport ‘minimalist floating’ design, get priced at £1,649

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD

Opalum’s Flow 1010 TV speakers sport ‘minimalist floating’ design, get priced at £1,649 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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