Matias Bluetooth Folding Keyboard for iPad: review
December 17, 2010 by Bill Palmer · Leave a Comment
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
November 5, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
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
November 2, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
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
June 29, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
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
June 28, 2010 by Bill Palmer · 1 Comment
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.
More top accessories for iPhone and iPod: Beatweek 75
Thirteen more top accessories for iPhone, iPod, and iPad that don’t fit into any of the official categories:
Dexim mHub • iPhone+iPod dock • $66: Most iPhone and iPod docks do nothing more than allow your device to sit upright while connected to your computer, but this is a dock on steroids, with three built-in USB ports for connecting additional devices to your computer along with an SD card slot for syncing your photos to your computer as well. And oh by the way, you can sync your iPhone or iPod to your computer too.
Griffin PowerDock 4 • multi device dock• $69: We’ve seen any number of twin chargers come to market for iPhone and iPod, but this one remains king of the hill by charging four devices at a time thanks to its front-seat, back-seat design. We wish it were able to somehow allow the devices to connect to a computer, but we’ll take it as is. Also available in a standard twin-charger option for less-connected families.
RadTech Bezel Blaster • restoration product • $8: The only part of the iPhone 3G/3GS that’s easily scratched is the mirrored chrome bezel running around the screen. Until now we’ve just had to live with those scratches. But if you’re willing to put eight bucks and a little elbow grease into it, those scratches can be gone (yes, it actually works!) – good news for users who’ve decided to hang onto their iPhone 3G for another year.
Marware Game Grip • iPhone 3G+3GS gaming product • $39: What initially looks like an absurd child’s toy actually turns out to be a great low-tech way to make your iPhone (or iPod touch) less of a cellphone and something closer to an actual handheld gaming device. This won’t come close to fitting into your pocket, but comes in handy at home – and it offers a hidden way of running a charging cable to your device while in use.
Griffin Navigate • Dexim mHub • $66: This radio remote runs circles around other radio remotes, as its LED screen gives you artist and track information whether you’re listening to FM radio or the music on your iPhone or iPod. It’s as close as you can come to never having to take your device out of your pocket during the course of your music listening experience. Might even be worth it if you don’t care about radio.
Just Mobile Lounge • iPhone stand • $59: This is a whole new take on the concept of metal iPhone stands. While such stands up to this point have generally consisted of a metal pedestal that grabs the iPhone by its corners, this design simply grabs it by its sides. It rotates just as easily as previous pedestal-style stands, and even holds your iPhone while it’s in its case – all with a lower profile and arguably svelter design.
H2O Audio Interval • waterproof iPod shuffle case• $99: If you’ve always wanted to strap your iPod shuffle to the back of your goggles and go swimming with it, H2O Audio’s Interval executes the idea perfectly. The waterproof housing has built in waterproof earbuds, and the external controls are easily reachable. Obviously aimed more at the adept swimmer than the shallow end wader.
Scosche showTIME • video connector • $39: Playing your iPhone or iPod’s video content on your television should be a simple matter, but often gets massively overcomplicated by products that only a geek could love. In contrast, this cable simply connects to your iPhone or iPod on one end and to your television’s RCA (red, white and yellow) ports on the other. Just make sure your TV actually has those ports.
Blue Microphones Mikey • high end audio recorder • $79: Snap-on iPod microphones are nothing new, but it took until this year for an actual microphone company to get in the game and produce something that sound pristine. A little larger and more expensive than the $50 standard fare we’d gotten used to, but this product is worth it on both counts. Fair warning: the new Mikey 2 is coming later this year, and it’s even better.
Incipio Lloyd • budget audio recorder • $18: At the other end of the spectrum is a snap-on mic so tiny it barely adds any bulk to the fourth-gen iPod nano at all. And while the audio quality isn’t such that you’d want to use it to bootleg a concert (see the product at left for that), it’s an inexpensive and unobtrusive way to record voice conversations with surprisingly decent audio quality.
GelaSkins • iPhone+iPod skins: Too substantial and durable to be dismissed as mere stickers, these stick-on skins for iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod classic are easy to attach and easy to become addicted to, as they come in a nearly limitless number of custom patterns and designs from various artists. Also available for Mac and PC laptops, netbooks, and even gaming devices.
Audioengine W2 • wireless adapter • $169: You’ll pay a hefty price for the privilege, but if you’ve got a stereo system on the other side of the room (or in another room) and you want your iPod’s music coming out of that system while your iPod remains in your hand, this is the best way we’ve found yet. Only worth it if said stereo system is high-end enough to warrant further investment, but you can’t beat the flexibility.
Elgato Turbo.264 HD • iPhone/iPod video converter • $149: Trying to get any video onto your iPhone or iPod that you haven’t downloaded directly from iTunes can be a pain, as you first have to use your computer to convert it to the correct format – which can take hours. This USB stick significantly accelerates the conversion process. It’s not cheap, but if you’ve got an massive DVD collection you want to get onto your iPhone, it’ll pay for itself.
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
June 21, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
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
June 21, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
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.
Printing comes to iPhone and iPad
April 20, 2010 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
One flaw of the iPhone OS is the inability to print files. However, it is possible to connect to a printer from an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch with the app ActivePrint. The features include the ability to print office documents including spreadsheets, presentations, and PDF files by connecting to a Windows compatible printer. [Editor's note: we don't ever, under any circumstances, condone the development of software, particularly for the iPhone and iPad, that only runs on Windows and not on Mac. Frankly, we think these developers are knuckleheads for doing so, and aren't afraid to say so in public. However, for those of you who do use Windows, here's the app nonetheless.]
Photos, contacts, web pages, notes, and more are also printable. The print options include portrait or landscape, color or black and white, and single or multiple copies. It is available from Pocket Watch, LLC for free in the app store, although the full features are only available through an in-app purchase for $3.99.
Review: JayBird Sportsband
January 10, 2010 by Bill Palmer · 9 Comments
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: 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.
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.
Review: WildCharge
September 15, 2009 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
New in iProng Labs: a hands-on review of the new WildCharge wireless charging solution for iPhone, priced at $79…
review by Bill Palmer
Ask most people what they want from the future, and they’ll say “flying cars” – but with our lives becoming ever more filled with portable devices that need frequent recharging, that answer is quickly changing to “a product that can magically recharge itself.” If you’re looking for a solution that allows your iPhone to juice itself while you’re walking around with it, simply by grabbing up random electrons around you, then you’ll be waiting awhile. But if you’re willing to settle a rubber iPhone skin that allows you to recharge your iPhone simply by setting it down on a pad on your desk, without having to connect any wires, then say hello to the WildCharge.
While “wireless” typically implies some empty space between devices, the WildCharge is only wireless in the sense that there’s no connector cable needed to connect the skin to the pad. The skin has a hidden docking plug inside that runs from the iPhone’s dock connector port to four tiny electrodes on the back of the skin; setting the skin-clad iPhone onto the pad allows the the iPhone to charge.
The idea is that you carry your iPhone around in the skin all day, which aside from the impressively small bulges on bottom and up its back, resembles any other medium-thickness rubber iPhone case – and then when you get home, you simply pull your skin-clad iPhone out of your pocket and set it onto the charger. And based on my tests it works as advertised. As soon as you set it down, you’ll instantly hear the familiar charging chime from your iPhone. This is in contrast to having to remove your iPhone from a typical rubber skin and then either drop it into a dock or plug in a sync cable. Eighty dollars is a LOT to pay for this privilege. But if uncasing your iPhone so you can charge it is something that aggravates you on a daily basis, then it could be worth the investment – particularly if you’re a multi-device household, as you can buy a second skin for $35 and charge both on one pad. Also available for iPod touch (not tested).
The Wildcharge seems like an expensive solution to something that isn’t that much of a problem. When they can make it work so your skin-clad iPhone can recharge while it’s still in your pocket, a few feet away from the pad, then I’ll be drooling all over it.
Learn more about the WildCharge at WildCharge.com.
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.
Review: EOS Wireless for iPod
July 14, 2009 by Beatweek · Leave a Comment
Wireless iPod speaker systems have arrived in various incarnations over the years, the most successful to date being Griffin’s $349 Evolve, whose pair of built-in speakers can be picked up and carried around with you while continuing to play the music coming from your iPod docked in the base station. Now EOS offers up a different paradigm in which the base station is a stationary speaker itself, there’s a wireless speaker in the box, and a second/third/fourth wireless unit can optionally be added.
It sounds good in theory, and from a wireless perspective, works automatically and flawlessly right out of the box. Dock your iPod (or, unofficially, iPhone) into the base station, start playing your music, and you’ll hear it coming of the base station along with the wireless speaker(s), wherever you’ve placed them. If that’s in another room or even outside, no problem, as long as it’s less than about 150 feet away. Each unit has its own adjustable volume, and the base station includes a remote control.
Two things hold the EOS Wireless back from its full potential. One is that the wireless speakers each need to be plugged into the wall for electricity (they can hang directly from the outlet, which is pretty cool, or be placed further away from it via the power cable). But unlike the Evolve, whose speakers are portable, these can’t be moved around the house on a whim without finding a new electrical outlet each time.
The other issue is the sound quality. We’re talking serious money here: $249 for the base station and the one wireless speaker; $149 for each additional speaker. Trouble is, though, that the base station itself doesn’t sound any better than typical sub-$100 iPod speaker systems on the market, with too much treble, not enough bass, and no ability to adjust that ratio. Fire up the included wireless speaker in the same room and it sounds better overall, but that already puts you at $249 before you start adding more wireless speakers. In other words, it’s only worth its hefty price tag if you plan to take full advantage of the wireless functionality – otherwise spend your money on one of the plethora of much better-sounding non-wireless systems in this price range.
