JBL has just announced it's shipping the OnBeat Xtreme iOS device dock. It can hold the iPad or iPad 2 as well as the smaller iPhone and iPod touch in its rotating dock connector. Bluetooth is its standout and gives it device independence, letting it pair with Android or any other Bluetooth audio source.
JBL has just unveiled its Jembe desktop speakers. The powered speakers sport a 3.5mm input for connecting to devices other than just PCs. Styled using JBL's Weave design, they have metal grilles covering the drivers.
Home, car and marine audio maker JBL has shown off the MS-2 digital signal processor. It promises to make stock in-car sound systems sound better, most of all for smartphones like Android and iPhone devices. It routes to the car's audio system through standard 3.5mm audio inputs and with a relatively hands-free design.
Dell replaced the higher-end of its all-in-one desktops Tuesday with the Inspiron One 2320. It stays framed around a 23-inch, 1080p display with optional touch and freshens it up with a jump from AMD to the newest Intel hardware. Systems start off at the entry level with a twin-core Pentium and scale up to as much as a Core i7 and 8GB of RAM.
Harman, the maker of Harman/Kardon and JBL audio equipment, has launched a compact stereo music system aimed at mobile audiophiles. The JBL On Tour iBT is a portable two-channel all-in-one system that connects to iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as most other tablets and smartphones, using Bluetooth. The circular unit is relatively small at 6.5 inches diameter and just over 1.6 inches thick.
Sidney Harman, the co-founder of the Harman Kardon audio equipment brand in 1953, died on Tuesday at 92 due to complications from acute myeloid leukemia. He left the company in 2007, which is now called Harman International Industries and had since been teaching polymathic studies at the University of Southern California. Last year, he was in the headlines after buying Newsweek magazine for $1 while assuming its liabilities.
JBL on Monday began shipping its promised On Air speaker dock. The previously unveiled iPhone and iPod dock is JBL's first with AirPlay and will take any audio from a matching source over Wi-Fi, including iTunes, key apps on iOS 4.2, and a wider range again under iOS 4.3. A color LCD will display album art and other details from at least a locally docked source.
Harman on Wednesday revealed the latest in its line of home theater products with the Cinema 300 and Cinema 500 speaker systems. Either is a 5.1-channel system and has voice-matched satellite speakers for consistent sound. The center channel in both systems houses two PolyPlas cones.
JBL on Tuesday debuted its On Beat speaker dock for portable Apple iOS devices. The universal dock is shaped to fit iPads along with iPods and iPhones, and can rotate them by 90 degrees to simplify watching videos. The dock will charge the devices and has an equalizer for its 360-degree sound stage.
After a recent appearance at the FCC, JBL's first AirPlay-capable dock has launched on Tuesday. The On Air pipes audio wirelessly from any iOS 4.2 or later iPad, iPod or iPhone, as well as the iTunes library on Macs and Windows PCs. The dock comes just in time for iOS 4.3 and will have the full range of AirPlay sources.
At the Geneva Motor Show, audio gear maker Harman has announced it teamed up with German concept car maker and tuner Rinspeed on what the two call the world’s first social networking vehicle. It sports Aha Radio tech that will read out text-based content from Twitter, Facebook, podcasts and streaming music, along with an integrated Wi-Fi connection. It will also have the ability to integrate with Android smartphones and HTC-made tablets for SMS and e-mail integration.
As a minor element of its IdeaPad revamps, Lenovo today detailed the specs of the Y460p and Y560p it previewed last month. They can use the full range of Sandy Bridge chips from the 2.1GHz Core i3 through to the quad 2.5GHz Core i7. Either has the option of a 32GB or 64GB SSD as an OS drive that can dramatically speed up the boot time without sacrificing a primary disk up to 1TB.
One of JBL's plans for CES was given away today as an FCC filing has uncovered its first AirPlay-capable speaker dock. The On Air Wireless will let users either play from a docked iPhone or iPod as well as push audio over Wi-Fi from those same devices as well as an iPad or computer. Despite the network link, it won't stream Internet radio directly and still needs an outside device.
The convertible netbook that turns into a tablet that is the Dell Inspiron Duo has now popped up for pre-order on Dell's site. The 10-inch device starts at $550 and will ship beginning December 15. The major specs, as revealed at its introduction last week, include a dual-core Atom N550 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium preloaded on the 250GB or 320GB hard drive, and 2GB of RAM.
JBL revamped its iPhone and iPod speaker docks in unusual fashion today, launching the On Stage IV and On Stage Micro III. Both make a sharp break from earlier design and use a new "weave" design reminiscent of a fan blade. Audio output doesn't change with the new design, which includes four transducers on the full-size On Stage and two in the Micro.
An unconfirmed report originating from French-language forum LesDeLLiens maintains that Dell will soon replace its Studio XPS 13 and 16 notebooks with the XPS 15 and 17, respectively. They are due to show up in the French market sometime in late October or early November, which means they could arrive in the US sometime before then. There are also some leaked technical specs for each flagship notebook, optioned up to their limits.
Apple has reportedly entered into a rare partnership with third-party vendor BridgeCo to help showcase its new AirPlay feature. At the company’s Sept 1st music event, CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated an iPad streaming the movie Up to the new Apple TV. Apple is said to have given BridgeCo -- a software and embedded audio chip specialist -- unique access to iTunes code, in particular to enable AirPlay on devices made by Denon, iHome, Marantz, JBL, and Bowers & Wilkens. All of the companies are listed on Apple’s website as featured partners.
JBL has shipped its promised successor to the original On Stage Micro iPod dock with its On Stage Micro II. Like the earlier Micro, the dock is made for traveling and has has a four AAA battery housing. It improves on the original by coming equipped with two Odyssey transducers that provide a fuller sound.
Harman Kardon and its sub-label JBL this morning refreshed their audio lineups for the spring, centering attention on a unique car audio kit. The MS-8 is the first car audio tuner designed explicitly for owners themselves: it combines a digital audio processor with adjustment controls and headphone monitors to tune a car's existing speaker system. A step-by-step process theoretically improves bass, dynamics, frequency response and other factors within 10 minutes.
After a brief tease earlier this fall, Harman's JBL label today released its Creature III speakers. The successors to JBL's 2.1-channel computer speaker line keep a similar alien-like shape but have a more compact subwoofer that more readily fits on a desktop. It also glows from beneath and now remembers volume set by the touch-sensitive controls on one of the satellites.
Dell today quietly slipped the Studio 17 Touch into its lineup as its first touchscreen notebook. The 17-inch system adds multi-touch input and carries Dell's own suite of touch apps, such as its photo browser. Most of the design remains the same and is treated as a desktop replacement and media center hybrid with a 2.1-channel JBL speaker system and HDMI output.
Dell today backed its Alienware updates with the addition of Intel's mobile Core i7 processor as an option to three of its self-labeled systems. The Studio XPS 16, Studio 15 and Studio 17 all have the choice of either the 1.6GHz or 1.73GHz quad-core processors as a build-to-order upgrade. The high speed choice boosts the price of a Studio 15 to $999, while the larger Studio 17 to $1,099 and the lone Studio XPS update to $1,249.
JBL today dipped into more fashionable gear with the formal launch of its Roxy Reference line of earphones. Both the in-ear Reference 230/250s (shown) and the over-ear Reference 430s come in dual tones of either blue and green or orange and pink and are meant for girls looking to customize their appearances while they listen. The in-ears produce about 50mW of power, with the 230 using a closed-back design and targeted at music players; the 250s use a semi open-back design and have an in-line mic and button to answer calls from iPhones or other supporting cellphones.
Today's featured DealNN deal is available this weekend only J&R.com. The JBL Spyro speaker system is regularly priced at $129.99, but for this weekend only get it for $49.99. Featuring a pair of flower shaped speakers and a subwoofer with one touch volume controls, the Spyro speaker system can be used with almost any multimedia source via the stereo mini jack.
Manufacturer of the world's first modular cellphone, modu, and audio hardware maker JBL on Tuesday announced the release of the modu music jacket for the handset, giving it standalone capabilities as a music player. The phone enclosure contains two JBL Odyssey speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB connector, as well as a digital sound meter. It also brings with it a 2.2-inch display and a 3-megapixel camera with flash.
JBL today rolled out a unique set of speakers it says is an ideal match for unusual home audio setups. The Control NOW has an unusual curved shape that allows them to sit either horizontally or vertically against any surface: they can rest against the wall in the corner or on a shelf, rest flat on a table, or even hang in a circle from a special pole mount, the company says. The tweeter and dual 4-inch woofers are tuned to produce a similar sound regardless of where the speakers are facing.
