I may have a new favorite toy. Miccus has this interesting line of products they call “BluBridge”. The arguable centerpiece of the line is the BluBridge Mobile Speaker. While not exactly pocketable (well, maybe with cargo pants), it lets you pair any A2DP device with it for some stereo audio fun. Sure, it also has a USB and 3.5 line-in, but why bother? This is made for on-the-go sound.
I’m hardly a huge audiophile, and as such my Pre’s sound never bothered me. I’d taken to carrying it from room to room as I worked, with Pandora on, playing whatever popped up. However, the difference between just my Pre and my Pre with the BluBridge is like night and day. There’s the occasional “pop” when nothing is playing, but music streams easily and smoothly, with no stuttering. I was able to walk up the steps and almost made it to the far end of my (albeit small) house before the connection was lost. I was also able to fire up my video player and stream the audio to the BluBridge. Another plus is that it has a separate amp/volume control instead of just boosting the volume on the sending device, like some headsets do. It makes for a nice, clear, loud, portable, stereo alternative.
You know what else is neat? The BluBridge is a speaker phone. So if someone calls in the middle of your music, you can have a nice conversation without taking the phone out of your pocket. It’s an elegant solution that I don’t believe many devices in this class feature.
Like I said, I’m not an audiophile, so I got a second set of ears. My test case was rather impressed- to the point that he wanted to know where to buy one. You’re not going to use it for a dance party any time soon, but if you want to have something in the kitchen or a conference call in your house or just a quick stereo speaker, the BluBridge is a solid choice.
But wait, you ask? What it your audio device doesn’t *have* Bluetooth? Not a problem. Miccus makes a bunch of BluBridge adapters. There’s the almost-expected iPod adapter one, and it’s great. It didn’t work with my 5.5 gen iPod Video but it worked fine with a new model Nano. It also worked great with an iPod Touch. Sure, the Touch/iPhone have their own Bluetooth option, but they’re heavy on the battery. We felt that using the BluBridge instead of the internal Bluetooth option gave us slightly better battery life. Still, this is more for the Nano and the like.
More impressive is the mini-jack, a rechargeable device that hooks to any 3.5 device. That’s right, I said any. Once you plug the BlueBridge in and pair your older device to your speaker of choice… boom, you have Bluetooth. This means your aging laptop just got with the program. This is a great product and might even eclipse the BluBridge speaker in some ways. Why? Because it works with *any* Bluetooth speakers (that accept the passcodes 0000 and 1234). I used it with my aforementioned 5.5 Gen iPod Video, coupled with one of Miccus’ ChargeBlocks.
At just $99 the BluBridge, $59 for the MiniJack or iPodBridge, these are really great stocking stuffers. They’re even better when you check out Buy.com and see that they’re all on sale.
When you visit Buy.com you’ll notice that there’s an additional member of the Miccus family, the auto-talk. I’m still testing this device out and there will be a full review soon. However, you may want to take advantage of Buy’s 50% off price and get this. Main reason? Solar-powered hand-free Bluetooth speakerphone for your car.
It’s official: Verizon’s first Android phone, the Motorola Droid, will be out November 6th. Costing a “mere” $199 on contract, this is also the first Android 2.0 device to hit the streets, and features a bunch of interesting features. We’re talking 16GB storage (Which is allegedly on a removable bundled card – interesting, no?), a 5 MP camera with dual LED flash, Visual voicemail, a slide out landscape Qwerty keyboard (that looks a heck of a lot more usable than the Moment or Cliq), Google Maps with turn-by-turn navigation (Beta, but still wow), and a bunch of other features.
Even without the ads, it should be pretty clear to anyone that this is aimed right at the iPhone demographic. It’ll be interesting to see how they do head-to-head. One should note that Verizon’s last attempt to market an iPhone alternative was the much maligned Storm. Targeting a business-oriented device at the iPhone crowd didn’t work so well. Indeed, it seems Storm is a bit of an embarrassment to Verizon, at least enough to bury today’s announcement of the new, improved Storm2 (available as of today for just $179) beneath a deluge of Droid news. Here’s hoping the Droid does better for them.
One things for sure, the smartphone segment of the market just keeps heating up.
Let’s just get this out of the way – Bluetooth headsets generally look kind of silly. The bigger, older models with their tacky blinking lights remind some of The Borg (personally, they make me think the Cybermen have infiltrated Torchwood One). They also don’t always have the best sound, can be uncomfortable, and give people momentary pause as to our sanity (“Is that guy on a Bluetooth or is he just nuts?”). While we can’t recommend anything to alleviate the latter, we can happily say there are more and more Bluetooth headsets out these days that don’t look silly, and people seem to finally be paying attention to comfort. Case in point: Sound ID. Founded by an actual Ear Doctor and focusing on how the ear works, Sound ID’s products are meant to be “all day wear”, with clear sound and noise reduction. (more…)
Here are some interesting things from DigitalLook, but not exactly interesting enough to be their own article (no offense to the vendors, who were all awesome)
Note that I do have photos, but I seems to be mangling the photo functions of the blog, so I will be holding off on adding them. (more…)
I do not know how many people actually get pulled over for driving while holding their cell phone’s up to their ear. I personally know 5 people who over the past year have gotten pulled over for such an offense. Very recently California and Washington just joined their east coast brethren in banning cell phone cusping while driving.
The solution of course is just to use a headset or some kind of handsfree device. And for those of you that find the concept daunting Headsets.com will send you a free headset if you have been cited for driving without one.
And while they acknowledge that studies have studies have shown that talking on hands-free devices are just as dangerous as talking on cell phones regularly, they nevertheless want you to be as safe as possible.
Oh, the handset they will send you is the sexy sleek Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset.
Before you hit the streets chasing down cops to see you cell phone hand just remember that a fine in California will set you back 20 bucks and some other states 200 bucks (way more than what the bluetooth costs).
Sometimes we just yearn for that physical connection and technology clothing company CuteCircuit understands that. Thats why they invented the Hug Shirt which allows you to exchange the physical sensation of a hug over long distances. All you need is the shirt embedded with special sensors, a java enabled bluetooth handset and a warm compassionate heart. Simply put on the shirt, give yourself a hug and let the removable sensors beam the temperature and pressure data to your mobile phone. Your phone then automatically sends the hug to the person you designated hugs to go to via SMS and actuators of wearing a similar shirt. f the other person or the sender doesn’t have the shirt she can just send an SMS text message, and it will be transformed into a hug! If you don’t need a hug you can switch it off.
A recent article by Carlo on MobHappy on being able to receive and respond to text messages via a computer, reminded me of a service that I often use but never blogged about here on MOPocket. I would say that I have been using Salling Clicker (click here for PC version), a software provided by Salling Software, for almost two years now… first on my Treo 650 and later on the various S60 Nokia phones I have had the pleasure of having.
Salling Clicker essentially turns your supported phone into a remote control allowing you to access and control things on your computer such as iTunes, Keynote or Powerpoint, the DvD player, VLC, QuickTime, Mail, iPhoto, Volume, Sleep and even the Mouse (although this is a lot more easier and fun on the Treo touch screen then on a Nokia). But it does not just act as a remote controlling things on the PC screen. The phone screen itself acts as a third screen and presents the relevant information on there as well. I cant tell you how many times I have gotten into bed and heard my email alarm go off and instead of getting up to see who it is I just picked up my phone, connected to my Mac using Salling Clicker and open the mail. When you play a song from your iTunes using Salling Clickr the song and cover art appear on your phone as well (its also a great way to control your music while hosting a a party at your house).
I also get a lot of ooohs and ahhhs when I use my mobile phone to sift through a power point presentation (slides do not appear on your phone though, an d neither do photos via using the iPhoto remote feature).
Now, besides letting you control virtually every component of your computer with your cell phone like a remote control it also has a few calling and phone like feature that are worth mentioning. Phones that are capable of handling what is Salling is calling “Phone Events” allow a user to activate proximity and phone call monitoring, allowing things like your computer alerting you when you have a call (and sometimes by whom) as well as allowing iTunes, for instance, to pause when you receive that call.
There is also a feature, which is not supported on all phones, but allows you to go into your Address Book and send a text message to a mobile number which transfers through your cell phone via bluetooth connection.
Salling Clicker is one of those products and features that people 10 to 20 years in the future will look back at and say “duh.” They have tapped what the future of mobile should be, a a mobile extension of your PC self. When you get back home and sit in front of your computer all the stuff you do on your mobile should be able to be done from there. In the future I imagine this will happen a lot more seamlessly. Salling Clicker, thus far, is the closest thing that comes to that.
Salling Clickr is the winner of several Mac awards. Its nice to see a mobile application made for Macs first every once in a while.
The user experience is different for everybody as it really depends on your mobile device. Every device is different therefore ever interaction with a various program will be different but Salling has done an amazing job given the plethora of phones they have to work with it. I have used it on 4 phones and have enjoyed each experience.
Installing is pretty much a breeze with a bluetooth connection.
Download Salling Clickr and Buy it now. Current version 3.0.1
Like Mr Sponder I to noticed the new advertisements for New York City Transit’s TransitTrax Podcasts. The podcasts cover everything from staying safe, service advisories, transit news, MetroCard Deals information and even interviews with special guests and subway passengers.
Pretty cool for a service notorious for its lack of ingenuity and communication.
But I have always wondered about podcasts that have the words “update to date” information on them. Update information for mass transit usual means by the minute and its hard to find out via podcast various service interruptions when you have not been a computer that can link up with your Pod in a while.
But I guess its good in terms of what the MTA has to work with. The days of streaming Metro Transit News via SMS far away I guess. But here is an idea for the future.
Proximity SMS alerts for the subway you are waiting for. This will be made possible in the future as the carriers start setting up networks on the platform’s in subway stations. So say the 6 train is delayed at 42′nd street because of an “ongoing investigation.” The Transit SMS alert system could then send an SMS blast to the 6 train platforms and thus any poor soul waiting for the 6 train would receive the SMS. You would have to make this an opt in system of course but I bet most people would not mind. A general opt in system for transit SMS alerts would not work because, well, if I sign up SMS alerts for the 6 train I really don;t care if delayed when I am already up in my office. I way has to be made so that the information only gets to me when I need it and the wiring of NYC platforms is perfect for that kind of proximity service. As the technology and usage rates increase, they could then turn to systems like MMS to deliver the same type of info with pictures, video and voice as well.
The NYC transit authority should take advantage of bluetooth technology offering some of the podcasts and other information via a bluetooth poster and or advertisement. Advertisers will eventually do it so they might as well to. This is also another great way to send out alerts.
Honestly, the more I think about it… the subway, tube…whatever you call it is one of the most fantastic places to play with, test and implement mobile marketing and other mobile tools and systems. It is an amazing ubiquitous with huge potential for mobile… just like the line at the post office.
Anyways, thats my two sense. Here are some more relevant Subway meets Mobile stories for your friday reading pleasure.
Thats right, British scientists studying the disease claim to have discovered the main cause of Mad Cow when they accidentally came across a pack of Friesian Holsteins chatting away on mobile phones.
“We knew mobile phones were dangerous, and we knew cows were intrigued by wireless technology, but when we saw them using the mobiles, we made the connection right away,” said lead researcher Kevin Barrington, who spotted the culprits at a dairy farm outside Kent.
With the already existing concern linking cell phones to brain cancer this will prove to be yet another headache for the mobile industry which has already dismissed the British claims. “To even insinuate that cell phones could somehow be the cause of this disease is as absurd as the notion that cows could use cell phones at all,” said Nokia spokesperson Nigel Wanthorpe.
I may have a new favorite toy. Miccus has this interesting line of products they call “BluBridge”. The arguable centerpiece of the line is the BluBridge Mobile Speaker. While not exactly pocketable (well, maybe with cargo pants), it lets you pair any A2DP device with it for some stereo audio fun. Sure, it also has a USB and 3.5 line-in, but why bother? This is made for on-the-go sound.
