Make your music louder and your day sportier with the Fli-Tunes. This two-in-one device is a frisbee you can chuck around with your buds and a smartphone amplifier. More like ampli-flyer, amirite? After you’re done showing off your athleticism (or lack thereof), just pop out the middle of the Fli-Tunes to make it into a cone-like speaker shape and make your music louder. It’s the ultimate frisbee.
Fli-Tunes: Frisbee and Smartphone Amplifier
Keep your ears warm this Winter yet still hear your music with these Wireless Speaker Ear Warmers. These ear warmers have integrated Bluetooth speakers to wirelessly connect to most smartphones. While you listen to your tunes, they keep you warm with a thermal fleece shell, soft polyester lining and insulation.
The ear warmers have an adjustable width design to fit comfortably behind the neck. They won’t interfere with glasses and your hair will remain perfectly in place. They even fold up for easy storage. One 3.5 hour USB charge gives you 9 hours of listening pleasure.
This elegant speaker design by Casey Lin takes a speaker back to a minimalist form. It might look like a pair of fruit bowls but it’s really a sound machine. The walnut box houses a pair of vibrating surface transducers that send the sound vibrations up through the glass bowls instead of a typical speaker cone. Moving the glass bowls around the box changes the timbre of the sound (hence the name Timbre Speaker). Here’s the demo video:
The speaker takes the minimalist approach even further by eliminating all knobs and dials except a single combine power/volume knob. Audio and power ports are hidden in the back. Instead of an equalizer, you just move the bowls. You could try different types of bowls of varying sizes and materials to play with the sound. Maybe even some with fruit in them (like an Apple maybe? obvious joke is obvious). (via yanko)
Timbre Speaker Uses Glass Bowls to Adjust the Sound
Cardboard electronics are not new (in fact we reviewed a Cardboard Radio a while back) but we really like the design of this Berlin Boombox. The bold black and white graphics harken back to the days of carrying a giant boombox on your shoulder while your buddy hauled in a rolled up sheet of linoleum. Except it’s a lot lighter than an old-school boombox since it’s cardboard (and only requires 3 AA batteries instead of a boatload of D’s). And since nobody breakdances anymore, you can skip the linoleum. But it doesn’t ship like that- it ships flat:
The boombox is essentially just a powered smartphone/iPod speaker dock; you slip your phone into the slot, hook up the stereo jack and control the volume and power through the single knob. The die-cut cardboard structure and minimal electronic parts all assemble quickly and easily without tools. Here’s what the back looks like:
Berlin based designer Axel Pfaender created the Berlin Boombox (hmmm, I wonder how he came up with the name). It even has a handy carrying handle. Another neat aspect is that since it’s made of cardboard, you can paint, doodle, or marker it up any way you want.
Berlin Boombox is Made of Cardboard
Open your ears and open your wallets to this Swiss Musical Starship. This out of this world music box with the out of this world price has 2 music playing cylinders. One plays 35 second excerpts from the Star Wars theme, the Imperial March, and the Star Trek Theme while the other plays The Wall, Smoke on the Water, and Imagine. (I assume that means Another Brick in the Wall?) Sidenote, it also plays Cat Scratch Fever since it’s the same damn song as Smoke on the Water.
For that $31,500 pricetag you get a Swiss made music box crafted by renowned horologists (timekeepers) Reuge. The starship’s body is made of black lacquered walnut with a brass vibration plate while the dual outriggers are from anodized aluminum. Then for you music box aficionados (and at 31g’s you’d better be) it also features this stuff:
A nickel-plated brass cylinder treated with resin for sonic clarity rotates via a precise Cartel 4.144 movement, its wire pins are plucked by a 72-note tempered-steel comb in perfect time. Each tooth in the comb is tuned to a specific frequency; lower notes are weighted for optimal sonority and dampened by synthetic “feathers” for mellifluous tone.
Which sounds good to me- I guess. Well I know what I’m getting all my friends for Christmas.
The $31,500 Spaceship-Shaped Star Wars and Star Trek Playing Music Box
Watch out Maxell guy, there’s a new game in town. Actually I don’t think the Maxell guy is even in town anymore. Maybe it’s a dated reference. Let me rewind this tape and think about it. Dallyn Rule created this massive pair of headphones for the Vancouver Maker Faire. Yes they are fully functional. Yes they are more like speakers than headphones. Yes there’s a video.
That’s some real surround sound. The cool part is that you can listen to music (loudly) and it won’t mess up your hair. The bad part- they might be just sliiiiiiightly awkward to bring with you to the gym or on a train. Then again, you don’t really need to go the gym when you could just do a set of headphone lifts. (damn geeky via technabob)
Continuing on with today’s theme of “things with a speaker in them” we present to you these Bloom FM Bluetooth Wellies. Or in less elegantly spoken American English: Speaker Rain Boots. Of course the American name doesn’t really matter since these limited edition (of 10 pairs!) boots are made in conjunction with UK based Bloom.fm. Although, you could ship a pair across the pond if you wanted. Look inside, there’s a pouch for your smartphone:
Each pair of boots has a speaker attached to one of the legs. It connects wirelessly to your device via Bluetooth and can put out 80db with a 5 hour playback time. You can really strut around to your own beat. I’m guessing these boots would draw some extra scrutiny if you tried to bring them past airport security.
Rain Boots with a Bluetooth Speaker
All the ladies in the house make some noise! It would probably be a lot easier to do that if you had a Superman Symbol Ladies Wallet because it not only holds your credit cards and money, it’s also a set of speakers. Just plug in your phone or MP3 player and it’s an instant party in your purse. Isn’t that just super? Wallet measures 7 by 4 inches with a red front and blue back.
PS: also available in a black colored Batman version if that’s your jam.
Superman Ladies Wallet with Speakers
This iPhone speaker dock not only looks like some sort of plane or ship from the future, it also works like it’s from the future. The future, today. The Futurist’s Hand Activated iPhone Speaker uses infrared sensors so you can control the music without touching. To adjust the stereo, just wave your hand over one of the four sensors- volume up/down sensors around the fuselage, track changing sensors near the two speakers, and a play/pause sensor in the nose. Connects via Bluetooth, so you can use other phones and devices to play music (but they won’t dock and charge up like an iPhone). Has a subwoofer underneath and includes a remote.
Futurist’s Hand Activated iPhone Speaker
Etón has just released a rugged outdoor music solution. The Eton Rugged Rukus All-Terrain Portable Solar Wireless Sound System
Measuring 5.9 x 1.8 x 6.5 inches and weighing about a pound, it’s easy to take the Rugged Rukus with you- it even has carabiner ready loops. The two full range speaker drivers connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to your phone. It can also charge your phone via USB while you listen. Available in black or green.
Eton Rukus Solar Powered Wireless Bluetooth Speaker