Compare Ipod Speakers » Fun Speakers

The iPod speaker that thinks it’s a chair

Chris — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:22:21 +0000

Safield Bubble pod iPod speaker chair

There’s always a temptation when writing a site like this that it’s going to turn in to the Top Gear of iPod speakers.

What I mean is that it’s always more tempting to write about the bigger, shinier and hence more expensive iPod speakers that do some thing new and really clever.

Sometimes this can mean neglecting the more reasonably priced, or fun speakers around that a lot of people are looking to buy. So from here on in I am swear upon my favourite Apple device to write to the people and for the people…or at least include some fun and everyday speaker reviews!

So here we go. Safield are a gadget company in the UK who offer everything on their website from canvas wardrobes to chocolate fountains and in the middle of this gadget bizarre, is the is the iPod Bubble Pod.

The Bubble Pad is a comfortable inflatable chair that doubles up as an iPod speaker.

There’s no need to huff and puff as the Bubble Pod comes with an electric pump that will inflate and deflate the chair for you, which is made from ultra-durable long lasting PVC.

Within the Bubble Pad are two iPod speakers as well as a pocket for your iPod or iPhone, so that you can relax with your favourite tunes emanating from the chair itself.

There’s no dock, the connection is via an audio jack, so as well as an iPod or iPhone you could hook up your dvd player, cd player or even games console to the Bubble Pad if you wanted to.

Apart from the cable needed to connect your device to the chair, there’s no need for any other cables as the iPod speakers get their power from the device they’re connected to.

Verdict – I think this is a great little gadget for a teenager or kid who enjoys their music or games. The self powered speakers are never going to be enough for a serious audiophile, but a good fun addition to a bedroom.

Price: £16.99 at Pixmania

Vestalife Ladybug speaker for iPod and iPhone

Chris — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:20:06 +0000

Vestalife Ladybugs iPod Speakers

If you’ve been looking for an iPod speaker with personality then you just might have found the one for you.

If you’ve been searching through the growing swarm of iPod speakers to find yourself a little ‘friend’ to sit on your desk or bedside table and keep you company, then this might just be the Vestalife Ladybug.

For those who haven’t heard of them before, Vestalife are a company of repute, having most recently picked up various awards at the ‘Innovations, Design and Engineering’ award at the 2008 international CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics show.

With the Ladybug, Vestalife have created an iPod speaker with heart or a face at least.

The face appears when the speaker wings are in their ‘up’ position and as you can see, the result is quite cute. I’m not sure whether it’s the result of the Ladybug’s face or its lovely round shape, or whether its that you can hold this little (1.1kg) iPod speaker is your hand, but the Ladybug is a really tactile speaker dock; a phrase I can honestly say I’ve never used to describe a speaker before.

Once you open up the wings of the Ladybug you find the cradle which, you’ll be pleased to hear, is compatible with all dockable and all generation iPods including nano, iTouch and classic and compatible with iPhone 2G & 3G, including the iPod mini, as well as the iPod nano (1st generation) and the iPod nano (2nd generation) thanks to a couple of dock connectors that are thrown in.

A big plus for this little speaker is that it charges your iPod or iPhone while docked, as long as the Ladybug is plugged in and using its AC power input at the time. You’ll have worked out then that the Ladybug can also be powerered without being tethered to your kitchen or bedroom wall and you’d be right. The Ladybug can do her thing (why am I calling it her now?) powered by just 4 AA batteries.

Another big tick in the box for the Vestalife Ladybug is that at the back of the unit there is a USB port so that you can synch your Apple device while its docked; a feature that not too many other speakers of this size have and one that fits its profile of a great desktop or worktop speaker system.

As you’d expect from this delicate little thing, the Ladybug on its own is never going to have the volume to fill Wembley stadium, but with its digital amplifier technology, 1.5 inch mid/high drivers and 3 inch subwoofer, it should be plenty for your bedroom, kitchen or office space.

What I like about this speaker is that Vestalife have put real thought and care in to it. Many other manafacturers in this price range have taken a slightly lazy approach of to their designs, making speaker docks often black and often the similar soundbar shape. Vestalife have put thought in to creating a great little desktop friend that works well as a home iPod speaker with good sound and a handy remote control, as well as making the Ladybug a good travel speaker thanks to its battery powered capability and handy travel bag.

My feeling is that the Ladybug is priced a bit high when you consider there’s no FM radio or Alarm clock, but the makers no doubt justify the price with the cutesy design and I can understand why a lot of people are going to go for that.

Verdict: Cute little speaker, a bit pricey but some nice touches.

Price: £96.95 at Amazon

Vestalife Ladybug Speaker Dock for iPod speaker (Special Edition - Light Blue)

Mi-Football – a great ipod speaker gift

Chris — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:59:10 +0000

Mi-Football iPod Speaker

Now sometimes I get news of iPod speakers sent to me that I’d really like to have myself and sometimes I get news through of speakers I wouldn’t want.

Usually the speakers I don’t want for myself are the ones that aren’t very good, or that look rubbish.

I’ve got to be honest the new Mi-football iPod speakers available from HMV are not my kind of thing, not because they’re rubbish or look awful, they’re just not me.

I think that a teenage boy or a bachelor football mad lad is going to love these though and with Christmas fast approaching if you’ve got a football loving man in your life, these could be the perfect gift.

Also, I guess with the World Cup on its way next year, the Mi-Football is going to be a hit over the next 12 months.

The Mi-Football is from the same people that brought us the fantastic iPig iPod speaker. Just as the iPig does, the Mi-Football packs a lot more in to its novelty looking exterior than you’d think.

The dock has 3 speakers and very effective amplification to give out more sound than you’d think from this compact device. In fact this compact iPod speaker produces a total 23 watts of power from its 3 speakers.

Most footie fans should be able to connect their favourite apple device to this little gem as the Mi-Football is compatible with the iPod touch, iPod classic and iPod nano. Don’t fear if your device isn’t in this list as a 3.5mm stereo audio in connection lets you hook up this great little dock to the iPhone, Xbox, PSP, a DVD/CD player or your TV.

The manufacturers are already working on a number of deals to apparently produce a range of Mi-Football speakers branded up with the colours and badges of the Premier Leagues to clubs. But for the moment the colour options are: black and white, blue and white and red and white.

There’s a handy remote control for the dock that controls the usual volume, bass, treble and track navigation controls. The coloured patches are also clever touch sensitive controls for these functions as well.

The Mi-Football is far more than just a novelty gift, its a nifty little iPod speaker in its own right; so go on and treat the football fan in your life. It’s a winner.

I found the Mi-Football available at HMV priced at £49.99.

The iPod speaker that thinks it’s a pig

Chris — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:10:06 +0000

The iPig iPod Speaker

Is it a bird, is it a plane…no clearly its a pig. This is not just any pig though, this is the iPig.

Yep, they’ve finally gone and done it, they’ve gone and started making iPod speakers that look like cute little animals.

Now those reading this will be in two very different camps.

Camp number one, you are at this point rolling your eyes, finding it hard to imagine who would buy such a thing and who would display a speaker like this in their own home.

Camp number two, you are right now cooing with delight, wondering exactly where you can get you’re hand on this thing and saying things like, ‘It’s soooo cute!”.

At the moment, I’m not sure which camp I’m in. I am finding it difficult to imagine my living room with an animal iPod speaker in my living room, especially a bright pink one!

Saying that, I wouldn’t have to get pink; the iPig does come, not quite in all colours of the rainbow, but certainly a few others including a limited edition black pig (which does look quite cool).

Now those reading this will be in two very different camps.

Camp number one, you are at this point rolling your eyes, finding it hard to imagine who would buy such a thing and who would display a speaker like this in their own home.

Camp number two, you are right now cooing with delight, wondering exactly where you can get you’re hand on this thing and saying things like, ‘It’s soooo cute!”.

At the moment, I’m not sure which camp I’m in. I am finding it difficult to imagine my living room with an animal iPod speaker in my living room, especially a bright pink one!

Saying that, I wouldn’t have to get pink; the iPig does come, not quite in all colours of the rainbow, but certainly a few others including a limited edition black pig (which does look quite cool).

iPig iPod speakers in a variety of colours

iPig iPod speaker in black

The most surprising thing about this little piggy is that it’s not a one trick pony(tee hee!). It doesn’t just have out of the box cuteness, it actually sounds pretty good as well.

Packed in to the iPig are 5 speakers including a 4” subwoofer with bass reflex system that between them can produce up to 25 watts of power and a nice sound. The manufacturers also say ‘It also has a super Hi-Fi Amplifier, an interior dynamic airflow optimizer, and an interior dynamic cooling exchange system with high sound stabilization to produce a clear and powerful sound.’

Before we get carried away with technical specs for this little beast, this dandy little iPod speaker tells us that its turned on by lighting up its mouth and you can adjust the volume by using the iPig’s ears (admittedly quite cool again).

You can also adjust the volume with the handy remote control that comes with the iPig, that also lets you control the bass and treble settings as well as letting you jump inside your iPods controls, which is a nice feature.

The iPig comes with a number of adapter cradles, and the manafacturers say that consequently all iPods should work with the iPig.

The iPig shouldn’t be any good, but it is and would make a great christmas gift for an iPod owner in your life.

The iPig is available from Play.com for just £39.99.

Air Guitaring with style on your iPod

Chris — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:17:37 +0000

Lets face it, at some point all of us have played a little Air Guitar. Now we’ve not necessarily done it in public, most of us probably on our own, in the privacy of our home.

But the time of being a bit embarrassed about our Air Guitar habits is over! All hail the iRock, the iPod speaker that truly rocks!

The iRock is an aluminium guitar frame with a speaker built in to the neck. The iRock is designed to be compatible with the iPod classic and the Touch, but other versions may also fit. At this time there are no specs out at the moment, although there is much rumour about this unusual iPod speaker across the net.

I think it’s pretty funky and definitely could add some fun to my next ‘on-own’ air guitar session, but I’ve got to be honest; I’d only enjoy it if someone bought it for me.

The iRock sounds like good fun, but surely can’t compare to the fun of rocking wirelessly with Guitar Her on the Wii…can it?

If anyone spots the iRock on sale, do let me know as I would definitely be tempted to have a closer look

Ottoman iPod speaker, we kid you not

Art meets and iPod speaker and it kinda works

Chris — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:35:27 +0000

Yoshihiko Satoh's new iPod speaker

Probably more Object D’art than iPod speaker dock, this new offering in to the marketplace is certainly something different.

This approach that designers are taking when looking at creating iPod speakers, of designing something that isn’t just a black sound bar is both welcoming and becoming more commonplace.

This latest creation by Japanese artist Yoshihiko Satoh is just that and is best described as a crafted wooden bag that doubles as an iPod speaker.That is pretty much what this is, a cool ittle wooden bag that you can carry your iPhone, iPod or iTouch around in that will play your tunes through its modest 30 watt speaker so you can share your favourite tunes with your favourite friends.

Initially priced at around $335, this isn’t going to be the best iPod speaker dock that was ever invented, but instead more of a nice-to-have that will sit in some nice boutiques and be carried around by some tottering socialites, probably with some small dogs under their other arm.

This speaker unit is more than that though, it is another example of how Apple have made music a core part of our lives again and how iPod speaker manafacturers are reacting to this by bringing us a continuosly wider variety of speakers that fit more snugly into our lives and lifestyles than some of the more commonplace boxy speakers that are more commonplace in the market.

So rather than mock this slightly odd offering from Yoshihiko Satoh we’ll say, ‘Well Done’ and ‘Thanks for being different’.

If you’d like to have a look at some slightly more useful iPod speakers and compare the prices of some of the UK’s leading stores, just click here.

Ottoman iPod speaker, we kid you not