Aliph Jambox brings apps to Bluetooth speakers

Aliph today unveiled the Jambox, its first venture in Bluetooth audio beyond headsets. The compact wireless speaker is designed as a stylized companion to an iPad, iPhone or notebook and comes in the same colors and metal patterns of a Jawbone headset. It goes so far as to support the same Jawbone apps, such as Jott, and is rare among speakers in being firmware upgradeable as time goes on.

Audio quality is still the emphasis and here focuses on loudness and range: it can put out as much as 85 decibels of sound and has a pair of drivers that, combined with a passive bass radiator, cover low-end frequencies and not just the highs or mids of typical portable speakers. As necessitated by the apps, a microphone is built-in and allows hands-free calling from phones and VoIP-capable hardware.

An internal lithium-ion battery gives the Jambox as much as eight hours of completely wireless audio when away from a wall outlet, and those with wired-only audio devices can plug into a 3.5mm aux-in jack.

The Jambox will come in black, blue, red and silver color trims and will be available at Apple and Best Buy retail stores for $200.

By Electronista Staff