Bluetrek MusiCALL: Beatweek Best of Show at Macworld 2011

Combine a multi-button iPhone music playback remote with a bluetooth wireless device, and you’re on the right track to getting the idea behind Bluetrek’s new MusiCALL product. After seeing it in action, all we could ask ourselves was why this product wasn’t invented years ago – and how soon we can get our hands on one, for that matter.

Scosche myTREK app enhanced exercise: Beatweek Best of Show 2011

iOS app integrated hardware continues to be the trend in early 2011 as Scosche thinks outside the box – and goes outside the house – with its new myTREK. It’s a heart rate monitor on an armband intended for use during exercise. So what does this have to do with the iPhone or iPod touch? The myTREK is bluetooth enabled, and a free companion app in the App Store allows it to pair up with your iOS device for real time biofeedback on how your exercise cycle is going. The app captures the data and allows for long term comparison from one exercise period to the next. This is exactly the kind of app enhanced accessory we like to see coming to market as it’s a unique idea which a certain segment of users can put to immediate good use, and as such the Scosche myTREK is a Beatweek 2011 Best of Show winner at CES 2011.

Matias Bluetooth Folding Keyboard for iPad: review

by Bill Palmer

The Matias Folding Keyboard isn’t an iPad specific keyboard, but rather a bluetooth wireless folding keyboard suitable for travel and fully compatible with the iPad, the iPhone, and Mac computers. It comes folded in half and folds out to a full size keyboard including number pad. The keys evoke memories of the keyboard Apple used to ship with its Mac computers back in the middle part of the last decade, before Apple’s focus on minimalism kicked in. So those longtime Mac users who appreciated that era will find immediate comfort and familiarity typing on the Folding Keyboard.

When it comes to using the Folding Keyboard with the iPad, which is how I tested it for review purposes, the two products don’t physically connect in any manner, meaning you’re on your own in terms of how you choose to stand up or prop up your iPad. This is good news if you’ve already got a favored method of elevating your iPad, but those users without any such method in mind may have to invest in some kind of stand in order to make this setup work (Matias optionally bundles its own iRizer stand with the iPad).

My take on the Folding Keyboard is that it’s a quite comfortable keyboard to type on. Although it’s quite wide when fully extended, the ability to fold it in half does make it much more palpable for travel. There’s one minor oddity in which activating the Caps Lock functionality requires hitting the Function key and the question mark, but aside from that it’s a pretty straightforward typing experience. My only complaint would be that while most iPad-specific keyboards include the same iPad-specific function keys across the top as Apple’s official iPad keyboard dock, the F1 through F15 keys atop the Folding Keyboard don’t do anything with the iPad. However, the Folding Keyboard does have its own volume and mute keys, so you do at least get a partial replacement for the iPad function keys. How much you little you’ll miss not having the music playback, search, and home keys will probably go a long way toward dictating whether you this keyboard as being iPad-appropriate.

Interestingly, while most iPad-specific keyboards have internal batteries which recharge via USB, the Folding Keyboard instead runs on a pair of AAA batteries, which are included.

As as side note, although it has no relevance to iPad users, there’s also a wired USB version of the Folding Keyboard available for Mac users.

buy now: $99 at Matias.ca or $86 at Amazon.com.

review: Kensington AssistOne Bluetooth Speakerphone

How about the idea of a bluetooth speakerphone for your car which doesn’t force you to stick your iPhone elsewhere? That’s the basic idea behind Kensington’s AssistOne. We’ve tested plenty of visor-mount bluetooth speakerphones designed to allow you to leave your iPhone in your pocket which get the job done well (in fact one such product won in this category last year), but such products are designed around the notion that you’d never want your phone visible or accessible while in your car – which makes plenty of sense for a generic flip-phone but doesn’t quite jive in the iPhone era, particularly when it comes to also having your iPhone hooked up to your car’s stereo for music playback purposes.

The AssistOne allows you to mount your iPhone within your car or leave it in your pocket, and it also allows you to rely on the AssistOne’s built in speaker (which in our tests sounds good for its size) or connect the entire thing to your car’s stereo system. It’s a jack of all trades product which may finally solve all the tasks you’re likely to perform with your iPhone in your car – at least all the cellphone-related tasks that aren’t hazardous to your ability to drive.

rating: 4.5 stars out of five • Kensington.com

review: JayBird SportsBand SB2 Bluetooth Headphones

When a company nails a product the first time around (Sportsband SB1, 4.5 stars out of 5, released early 2010) and then revamps it barely half a year later, I always get a little concerned: did they actually find something to improve, or are they just tinkering for the sake of tinkering? But in this case the rich have gotten richer, as JayBird’s new Sportsband SB2 manages to up the ante in the right ways.

JayBird products all have the same litmus test: if you like a good amount of bass, then you’re in luck as they have the bass cranked higher than typically found on competing products, and that bass is pristine. If you don’t care for bass no matter how pristine, best to look elsewhere. That disclaimer out of the way, I had no complaints about the audio quality of the SB1, as it sounded brilliant for its $89 price tag, a surprise given the wireless nature of the product. But improved audio (literally) sounds good to me, which is to say that the product has improved in the most important way an audio product can (thanks to something called Apt-X, which you don’t really need to understand in order to hear the improvement). The SB2 has a built-in microphone for taking phone calls when paired with an iPhone, and call quality has improved over the SB1, but again, I had no issues last time around.

My one real issue with the SB1, and the reason it didn’t receive five stars despite the fact that it wasn’t JayBird’s fault, was the fact that the next and previous track buttons built into the right headphone simply didn’t do anything with the iPhone. Apple never bothered to enable the technology in the iPhone, and so any such buttons on any bluetooth stereo headphones had the same problem (volume and play/pause worked just fine). But Apple finally enabled previous/next in iOS 4.1, and so the Sportsband gets better by default.

I’m not in love with the $10 price increase from the SB1 to the SB2, but I can overlook it because the SB2 is more than $10 better, and because the SB1 felt underpriced to begin with. Bottom line: JayBird made the Sportsband better, and Apple made the Sportsband’s features work better. The SB2 is the king of wireless headphones.

rating: five stars out of five • JayBirdGear.com

JayBird releases Sportsband SB2 bluetooth wireless headphones

JayBird has announced the Sportsband SB2 bluetooth wireless headphones to take the place of its earlier SB1 lineup. The SB2 features an array of nine color choices ranging from shiny metallic to pastel acrylic, and includes buttons on the outside of the headphones to control the volume and playback features of an iPhone, iPod touch or other bluetooth-compatible music player, along with a mic for phone calls on an iPhone or other bluetooth-compatible cellphone. The Sportsband SB2 relies on the built-in bluetooth of those devices, but can also be used on non-bluetooth devices such as the iPod nano or iPod classic via an optional adapter. The SB2 is available as of today for $99. We’re still waiting to test out the SB2 here at the Beatweek offices, but its predecessor, the SB1, was a Beatweek award-winning product.

Jawbone Icon bluetooth headset for iPhone: hands on First Look

Jawbone’s new Icon bluetooth headset has arrived on my desk, or at least “The Hero” model has; it’s one of six new metallic candy-coated Icon models which include flavors of black, gold, silver, white, and red. Out of the box it reminds me a bit of a current-generation iPod shuffle, both for its metallic finish and the fact that it’s shaped vaguely the same, with the Icon being smaller of course. While the Icon is a bluetooth headset which can theoretically be used with any bluetooth-compatible cellphones, Jawbone promises a special level of integration with the iPhone (including the new iPhone 4) including an Icon battery meter on the iPhone’s screen as well as the ability to listen to your iPhone’s music and audio via the Icon wirelessly (although obviously only in the one ear)…

Jawbone’s Icon is impressively shiny right out of the box. But in my hands-on tests the main things I’ll be looking for are audio quality, physical comfort, ease and thoroughness of the touted iPhone integration – and I’ll also be looking to make sure that the Icon is as compatible with the new iOS 4 as it is with existing iPhone operating systems. This one will require a fair amount of real world testing, but I’ll report back with a full review as soon as feasible. In the mean time, the company website is right here.

Top iPhone and iPod car products: Beatweek 75

The highest rated car products for iPhone and iPod on the market as of June 2010:

Scosche SolChat • Bluetooth speakerphone • $99: Every bluetooth speakerphone we’ve tried has its pros and cons, but this one comes out on top for one simple reason: rather than coming with yet another battery to keep charged, this one recharges via solar power. Going green is great, but more importantly you’re being charged up when you need to make a call.

Plantronics Discovery 975 • Bluetooth earpiece • $129: There are any number of bluetooth earpieces on the market that work with the iPhone. But this one is our new favorite, even though it doesn’t come cheap, thanks to a combination of audio quality and comfort – and the styling is worthy of the device’s price tag. The new hands-free laws are a pain, but this’ll help make the whole thing a bit less painful.

Belkin TuneBase FM hands-free • $99: Even the best FM transmitters aren’t ideal for big cities. But this is the best we’ve found, a short gooseneck which includes presets and auto-scanning, can be used with thinner cases, and has a hands-free iPhone option that actually works. More importantly, it offers some of the strongest FM broadcast quality on the market.

ProClip • car-specific mount • $29 + $24-$79: This is the only iPhone/iPod car mounting solution that works well in every car, because they send you a different mounting kit depending on your car. And the option of padded, swivel, and dock connector mounts seals the deal. It’s not inexpensive, but it’s totally worth it.

Belkin & Kensington micro car chargers • $19: Simply put, these two competing micro-chargers make all other standard car chargers obsolete because they’re tiny enough that they’re almost entirely housed within your car’s power socket. Say goodbye to big bulging chargers. Both come with a sync cable for $19; the Kensington is $9 without the cable, $29 with the cable and wall charger, while the Belkin is $14 without the cable.

Monster iCarCharger 1000 • charger plus stereo connection • $59: With the advent of micro-chargers, what would possess you to consider a traditionally shaped charger? Well, this one offers a hidden aux cable which wraps up inside the charger’s head, and has basic iPhone/iPod playback buttons on the front face of the charger. It’s not cheap, and the buttons are only useful if you can reach them. But this is the coolest car charger ever.

View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.

Plantronics Discovery 975: Beatweek 75

There are any number of bluetooth earpieces on the market that work with the iPhone. But the Plantronics Discovery 975 is our current favorite, even though it doesn’t come cheap at $129, thanks to a combination of audio quality and comfort – and the styling is worthy of the device’s price tag. The new hands-free laws are a pain, but this’ll help make the whole thing a bit less painful.

View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.

Scosche SolChat: Beatweek 75

Every bluetooth iPhone speakerphone we’ve tried has its pros and cons, but the Scosche SolChat comes out on top for one simple reason: rather than coming with yet another battery to keep charged, this one recharges via solar power. Going green is great, but more importantly you’re getting charged up for when you need to make a call.

View all seventy-five winning accessories for iPad, iPhone, and iPod (including cases, earbuds, car products, stereos, batteries and more) in Beatweek Magazine’s 75th issue which you can read digitally for free right here.

Review: JayBird Sportsband

While most of the buzz surrounding JayBird this month is centered on the company’s new iProng-award-winning BlueBuds wireless earbuds, which won’t ship for months, another cable-free JayBird product has also been quietly introduced – and this one, known simply as the Sportsband (model number SB1), is already shipping.

If your iPhone or iPod touch is running 3.0 software or higher, setting up JayBird’s Sportsband is as easy as you’d hope: charge the Sportsband’s battery via the included USB cable, then a few taps in your bluetooth settings, and you’re listening to your music wirelessly through these very nice, essentially minimalist headphones. As you can determine from the photo, the Sportsband extends to fit larger heads. But what’s not immediately apparent is that the the rectangular padded phones themselves each rotate in space for additional form-fitting.

Considering that wireless audio products nearly always come at a price premium, the Sportsband sounds surprisingly good for $89. Like other JayBird products, this one has a larger-than-usual amount of bass (treble lovers who hate bass should probably look elsewhere). The company’s claim of eight hours of music playback and 2.5 hours for recharging turned out to be about accurate.

Any new bluetooth headphones have to be compared to our Best of 2009 winning iMuffs, a product that’s similar but instead runs its band behind the neck instead of over the head. After listening to both, I pegged the Sportsband to be superior in the lower ranges (not just more bass, but higher fidelity bass), while the iMuffs sounded better in the higher ranges. With the iMuffs now at $79, I’d have to rate it a tie between the two overall, with the differences obvious enough that each of you should be able to figure out which of the two is a better fit for your preferences.

A few more things to be aware of about the Sportsband:

• Yes, you can take phone calls through the Sportsband, thanks to a little built-in mic, and yes, it actually works.

• While “next track” and “previous track” buttons are built into the outer cover of one of the Sportsband’s phones, right alongside the volume buttons, the next and previous buttons don’t do anything. This is the case with every set of bluetooth wireless headphones when used with the iPhone, from every brand and manufacture, for reasons that only Apple knows. Because this is clearly the fault of Apple not the vendor, and because it’s the case with every headphone of this type, we don’t subtract from the overall star rating for it. But you definitely want to be aware of it before making your purchasing decision. And for the record, any vendor who figures out how to work around Apple on this one, without requiring the iPhone to be hacked in any way, gets a free beer from me. But I digress.

• If your iPod doesn’t have stereo bluetooth, you can buy a snap-on adapter.

• This product does not come with a wall charger, so you’re limited to charging via the USB ports on your computer unless you pick up a third party USB wall charger (which can be had for around $10).

Not that my own personal preferences should influence you, but while JayBird’s BlueBuds earbuds are likely to become my new favorite wireless earphone product once they ship (I spent just enough hands-on time with them at CES that I miss them already), the Sportsband just might end up being my favorite for the mean time.

Learn more at JayBirdGear.com

Best of Show CES: motorMOUTH

Editor’s note: iProng Magazine has been on-site at CES 2010 in Las Vegas all week reporting on newly introduced products for iPhone and iPod. This is just one of our “Best of Show” winners…

Working around hands-free laws can involve everything from a bluetooth earpiece to a visor mount speakerphone, but Scosche has taken things in a different direction with the motorMOUTH, a bluetooth microphone that plugs into your car’s line-in port and pairs up wirelessly with your iPhone to allow you to talk normally while driving and hear the other end of the conversation coming out your car’s speakers.

While products such as this one require two-way hands-on testing to determine overall call quality, which we were not able to perform on site, the brilliant simplicity of the product is what places it among the winners. CES 2010 was not a strong showing for iPhone/iPod car integration overall, but the motorMOUTH provided a glimmer of hope.

Read about all of iProng’s “Best of Show at CES 2010″ winners and finalists in the January 14th issue of iProng Magazine, which will feature a cover story interview with The Flaming Lips and more.

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Filed Under: ces2010, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes
Tagged: award, Best of Show, bluetooth, CES 2010, iPhone, line in, Scosche, winner

Best of Show CES: JayBird BlueBuds

January 8, 2010 by Bill Palmer · Leave a Comment 

Editor’s note: iProng Magazine has been on-site at CES 2010 in Las Vegas all week reporting on newly introduced products for iPhone and iPod. This is just one of our “Best of Show” winners…

Bluetooth wireless earbuds have always been nice in theory, but are generally too large to be considered practical for most users. But technology marches on, and miniaturization with it, and the very pleasing result comes in the form of the JayBird BlueBuds, a pair of earbuds that connect to each other on a behind-the-neck rope but connect to your iPhone with no wires at all.

Four things you need to know about this product: 1) As you can see in the above photo, the wireless buds are much smaller than previously seen elsewhere, and just as light. 2) The audio quality is similar to, and almost as strong as, what you’ll find from JayBird’s wired earbud products, which is to say that they sound great overall and have a higher bass to treble ratio than just about any other earbuds on the market (if you hate bass, JayBird’s products are not for you). 3) The $129 price tag means that you’re paying about $30 extra for the wireless functionality, far less than we were expecting. 4) The BlueBuds charge via the increasingly popular micro-USB port, meaning that you can use the included cable to charge them via nearly any computer.

Read about all of iProng’s “Best of Show at CES 2010″ winners and finalists in the January 14th issue of iProng Magazine, which will feature a cover story interview with The Flaming Lips and more.

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Filed Under: ces2010, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes, Reviews
Tagged: award, Best of Show, Bluebuds, bluetooth, CES 2010, earbuds, headphones, iPhone, JayBird, winner, wireless

Review: Parrot by Starck

September 27, 2009 by Beatweek · 3 Comments 

New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the high-end Zimku “Parrot by Starck” speaker system for iPhone and iPod, priced at an eye-popping $1600…

review by Bill Palmer

Sixteen hundred dollars. Yeah, you read that correctly. Can any iPhone accessory possibly be worth that kind of price tag? Parrot wants to find out, with this new product designed by famous French product designer Philippe Starck (although the product is named “Zimku” it’s more commonly referred to as “Parrot by Starck”), and more tangibly, it comes in the form of two standalone speaker towers that connect to each other wirelessly. Cone-shaped on bottom, each tower funnels up into a rectangular shape that’s only about five inches wide and one inch deep, with an iPhone/iPod dock on the top of one tower and playback controls on top of the other.



If you’re going to spend the kind of money on an iPod/iPhone stereo system that could instead be used to buy an iPhone and an iPod touch plus all nine colors of iPod nano and still have money left over, then it had better offer a mind blowing experience. Not great. Not excellent. Mind blowing. Nothing less. And after having spent quality time this week with the Parrot by Starck, set up in various positions around the house, I can report back that the experience did in fact blow my mind. Is it perfect? No, and I’ll get to that. Is it worth $1600? As always, that’ll be for each of you to decide after reading the review. But here are my experiences and conclusions.



The first litmus test with any wireless product is ease of setup, and in this case, after taking the two towers out of their rather large box and plugging each into an electrical outlet, I found that there was no wireless setup to even worry about. I placed my iPhone into the dock, hit the play button, and music came out of both speakers. Ideally, wireless products should be as easy to set up as wired ones, and while that’s not always the case with various products I’ve tested, it is with this one.

As far as range, I started with the towers ten feet apart from each other, then twenty, then thirty, then forty, all with success. It wasn’t until I placed them about fifty feet apart (with two walls in between them) that I started to get some flakiness from the second tower. It’s not that the audio quality ever did degrade, just that it started to cut out intermittently at that distance. So figure on being able to use these up to roughly fifty feet apart within the same room, a little less if you’re going to put them in different rooms. In any case you’re probably most likely to position them ten two twenty feet apart in the same room, but it’s nice to have the extra flexibility.



Having passed the setup and range tests, it was time to move on to testing what really matters, which is of course audio quality. The music that comes out of the Parrot by Starck is just plain beautiful. Amazing. Stunning. Pick a word, they’re all understatements. The clarity is exquisite. The higher ranges and lower ranges all sound fantastic.



But then you probably already guessed all of that, based just on the price tag. At this price point, and also at this size, the Parrot by Starck had better go beyond merely delivering beautiful rich music, which you can get from a product a fifth the size and a fifth the price. It needs to offer something substantially more. Sure, you can crank the Starck loud enough to literally wake the neighbors without any loss of audio quality (actually, at its top volume, I think the Starck could not only wake your neighbors but enrage them to the point where they come over to your house and murder you), but it’s not just about high-fidelity volume, either. Placing one tower on each side of my desk, both facing me, I felt so immersed in the music that it seemed to be a part of the room itself as opposed to coming from any particular direction – and that’s what you can’t get from even the best of the $300 desktop dockable systems. It’s quite a price premium, but the immersion does offer an entirely different kind of listening experience.



My only criticism of the Starck is with what you can’t do with it. The included remote impressively also works through walls, all too rare in this market, but lacks the ability to navigate the iPhone’s or iPod’s menus, a feature that’s increasingly commonplace on even $100 systems. And perhaps more importantly, you can’t adjust the Starck’s bass or treble ratio. Not that you’d necessarily want to, seeing how stunning it sounds out of the box. But again, this is a standard inclusion for many less-expensive competing products.



Obviously you have to be at a certain income or wealth level in order to afford the $1600 Parrot by Starck in the first place. But if you are, then consider yourself lucky, as the listening experience is nothing short of amazing. It can also be used as a computer speaker system.

*****

Learn more about the Parrot by Starck at Parrot.

*****

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Filed Under: iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes, Reviews
Tagged: bluetooth, Parrot by Starck, speaker system, stereo, wireless, Zimku

Review: Altec Backbeat 903

July 23, 2009 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment 

With the arrival of iPhone 3.0 comes stereo bluetooth, which means that you can now listen to music wirelessly through both ears without having to attach a snap-on bluetooth component to the bottom of your iPhone. With regards to Altec Lansing’s Backbeat line, it means that iPhone users can now skip the Backbeat 906 and its $129 price tag in favor of the Backbeat 903, which is just the 906 minus the snap-on piece and minus thirty dollars in price, plus the same wall charger.



At the risk of oversimplifying things, the 903 almost like having a pair of Voyager PRO bluetooth earpieces for phone calls (made by Altec Lansing’s parent company Plantronics), minus the boom mic, with a soft rubber cable connecting the two behind your head. And that’s mostly a good thing, as the Voyager PRO is our highest-rated bluetooth earpiece on the market: good audio, stylish (at least compared to a lot of other bluetooth headphone products on the market), and comfortable all at the same time.



While the 903 is clearly intended primarily for audio playback, you can of course take phone calls on it as well. A button on one ear allows you to answer phone calls or hang up, and the button on the other ear allows you to play or pause your music. The controls for next and previous track don’t work, but that’s Apple’s fault for limiting the stereo bluetooth controls internally (you’d need to buy the 906 and live with the snap-on piece for that). Of more concern is that the volume controls, which increase or lower the volume in single steps, just aren’t that intuitive if you’re turning the volume up or down several increments at a time.



The audio quality won’t be mistaken for wired, in-ear earbuds in the same price range, but it’s strong as far as bluetooth earbuds go. I think I’ll stick with my iMuffs for now, but for those who don’t want the kind of relative bulk that comes with the iMuffs, the Backbeat 903 is a strong option. But as with all wireless audio products, the compromises are such that it’s only worth buying if you plan to take advantage of the wireless functionality on a regular basis and really want to eliminate the cabling.

•••••

Learn more at AltecLansing.com or buy now.

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Tagged: Altec Lansing, Backbeat 903, Backbeat 906, bluetooth, earphones, headphones, Plantronics, review, wireless