Review: $80 Logitech Mini Boombox—the diminutive wireless speaker with huge sound and battery
Last month, I put the full-sized Logitech Boombox up against the Jawbone Jambox in a $150 Bluetooth Speaker battle. I liked both devices, but they had separate strengths and weaknesses and were best suited to different tasks. For instance, I liked the portability of the Jambox, its speakerphone capability, and charging via USB. I liked the sound and simplicity of the Logitech Boombox, but I did not like the proprietary AC adapter.
After the review, Logitech got ahold of me and said if I liked the Jambox and the Boombox, they made another product that I would love called the “Mini Boombox.” Unlike Logitech’s full-size Bluetooth speakers, the Mini charges via Mini-USB, can fit in the palm of your hand (or cargo pants pockets), and it acts as a speakerphone for an iPhone. This one retails for $100, but it can be found for $79.99 at both Amazon (with $30 of MP3s) and Best Buy.
How did it stack up against the two $150 Bluetooth speakers mentioned earlier?
Review: Tenqa REMXD $39 over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones — Cans this good should cost more
For a pair of headphones under the $50 mark, we often find ourselves recommending something like the standard $35 Apple earphones. You typically cannot beat the sound quality (build quality up for debate) for the price, but if you want to go Bluetooth, pickings are slim in the under $200 category.
If you are looking for DJ-style, over-ear Bluetooth headphones, your options are even fewer before hitting the $250+ price point for a wireless pair of Beats by Dr.Dre.
However, at just $39, Tenqa’s Remxd Bluetooth Headphones are clearly not for the pros, but looking at the Bluetooth alternatives from Rocketfish, Sony, and Sennheiser, they definitely impress at a fraction of the competition’s prices. They were also built with iPhone in mind, which means they pack a microphone and controls for hands-free calls—just like Apple’s stock iPhone earphones…
Speed review: Replacing your car dashboard with an iPad
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has re-written his acclaimed Speed for iPhone application for the iPad. The new iPad application takes full advantage of the iPad’s larger display, Retina graphics support, and the device’s GPS. The concept of Speed is simple: it uses the iPad’s sensors, including the GPS, to be able to process and inform users how fast their car is moving. The application has a beautifully embedded Google Map interface to show your car (as a blue dot) in motion, and also uses the device’s compass to which direction you are headed. The application also features a center dial (analog or digital) that allows users to setup a maximum speed. If a user goes above the set speed limit, the iPad will notify them that they are passing this limit. This is perfect for speed-limited driving environments, and pushes the iPad as a fully digital car dashboard replacement or complement.
The application will also tell you how long (in terms of distance) you have travelled, much like a car will tell you in the dashboard, when the application is running and even in the background. If you flick up on the Speed dashboard interface, you are presented with options such as true north and magnetic north for the compass feature, analog or digital presentation for the speed limiter, trip total resetting, and background tracking. The interface of the application is beautifully crafted and appears like a real car dashboard complete with a leather background and chromed-out toggles.
In our real life tests, the application is very accurate against our actual real-life car speeds measured by our actual car dashboards. For anyone living in this digital world, Speed for iPad is the future – we believe of car dashboards. On an iPad, it’s portable, can be held by anyone in the car, and can be your media center with the device’s built-in music player. iPad car dashboard mounts are even already appearing. Something important to note about Speed for iPad is the development process that went into the application. Speed started as one of the initial App Store applications, grew very popular (the app even was promoted by Apple), and has now been completely redesigned and re-written for the iPad with a host of new features. This circle will continue when Speed 2 launches later this year for the iPhone, complete with all the new innovations in this new iPad app.
Speed for iPad is available for $2.99 on the App Store today. You can read more about Speed at the official website. Press release:
Crest: The most fun, creative way to view tweets on your iPad
Retina Display iPads are fully supported
The iPad App Store is packed with many Twitter clients, but most of these clients offer a similar experience. A user interface with a timeline, a button to open up a tweet sheet, and several more advanced features like direct messaging, tweet quoting, translating and more. Crest ($1.99), however, throws the concept of a typical iOS Twitter client away and offers a brand new way to view your Twitter timeline. This view is a plain black background with falling tiles of Twitter user profile pictures. A user taps the small icon and then that particular user’s tweet will popup.
The application also allows you to view that user’s profile by tapping on their name. You can view your own profile by swiping your finger across the display to the right, and you can post tweets by swiping to the left. Additionally, you can swipe to the right on a tweet to reply to it. Tapping the top of the user interface brings up a settings module and a search bar. The application is very minimal and we can’t recommend it as a Twitter “power-user’s” only iPad Twitter client, but we can recommend it to Twitter users who focus on reading tweets, and we can definitely recommend it to any Twitter user who wants to complement their main Twitter application with a fun alternative. I’ve been using Crest for about a week and have enjoyed the unique and convenient experience.
Review: Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD Projector turns your iOS device into a portable home movie theater
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Just seeing Epson’s MegaPlex iOS device projector at tradeshows and in still pictures doesn’t do it justice. Set up in a small, awkward booth and surrounded by bright lights, the projector does not inspire a second look. It was not until I got a private screening at Macworld that I really saw what this thing could do.
The MegaPlex MG-850HD is an incredibly bright 2800 lumen 720P projector with some mighty 10-watt stereo speakers built-in, but it adds something that you would not find in many other high-end consumer projectors: a 30-pin iOS device dock. The dock will accommodate anything from an iPod touch, iPhone, or even any iPad.
Amazon has the MegaPlex MG-850HD for $612. Buy.com has it for $620.
This thing is a Portable. Home. Movie Theater—and I mean that in every sense of the word “portable.” At less than eight pounds and with a sturdy handle, it is easy to pack and take it to the parents’ house, or even move it from the basement to the bedroom. Your iOS device is the “brains” of this thing, and it starts working immediately upon plugging in, so it takes only seconds to set up. You can watch your iTunes, Hulu, or Netflix videos in under a minute after choosing a destination.
Similar to most high-end projectors, this one features manual movable feet to adjust projection angles, focus, zoom, and horizontal keystone. The MegaPlex also does auto-vertical keystone and iris controls to make setting it up at angles surprisingly easy.
This thing boasts some range, as well. With the early spring weather this year, we turned an evening birthday party into an impromptu outdoor movie showing on the backside of our house (with a sheet over a window). The MegaPlex is rated for an over 25-foot diagonal screen, and I can attest that it looks fantastic even before it is fully dark outside.
With that said, something even better happened with the release of the new iPad and 1080P Apple TV…
Weekend Reading: The Apple Experience by Carmine Gallo [excerpt]
If you are wondering why your recent trip to the Apple Store left you loving Apple more than ever or wanting your customers to feel the same way about your company, we got the book for you.
“The Apple Experience” by veteran Apple/technology author Carmine Gallo deep dives into the Apple retail experience and breaks down exactly what it is that Apple retail employees are trained to do just to make a customer feel good about an experience (and want to come back). The 235-page book goes through every aspect of employee training and pours through countless hours of interviews with employees and shoppers on Apple’s five-step service: Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, and End.
Even if you do not own a retail business and just want to understand how Apple retail works, there is a lot here for you.
Gallo heeds his own advice by delivering a fun and incredibly insightful book that will help people understand the “magic” of the Apple retail experience.
The Apple Experience is at Amazon. The hardcover is $16.50, and the Kindle version is $9.99. When it hits the iBookstore, it will be available here.
An “Apple Experience” excerpt from “Chapter 10: Sell the Benefit” is below: Read more
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