Jawbone JAMBOX: Small Speaker, Big Sound, Smart and Stylish

Jawbone is launching an interesting new gadget for this Holiday season:the JAMBOX is a small loudspeaker designed to be the perfect companion for Bluetooth enabled mobile devices that lets people stream and share music, movies, games, phone and conference calls. The powerful sound delivered by a so small loudspeaker is very impressive, part of the technology behind it has been developed for over 10 years by a NASA scientist.

According to Jawbone, this material scientist holding 3 PhDs combined a lot of rare magnets together to recreate an airtight enclosure that has only been featured in expensive high-end speakers. The airtight enclosure allows the JAMBOX to preserve the energy that typically smaller speakers fire off, and then, that energy is stored with the passive bass radiator. The battery is part of the acoustic technology and is used to move the air to enhance the audio quality, which also helps to reduce the size and weight of the device. The polycarbonate material with 30% infused glass plays a significant role in the audio quality: it prevents audio loss. The company claims that “the two highly powerful acoustic drivers and ultra-small dome produce an audio spectrum almost as wide as the human ear itself.”

The JAMBOX comes already half charged right out of the box, and the setup is super easy: push the pairing button on the side, turn on Bluetooth on your iPad, iPhone or any Bluetooth enabled mobile device (I tested it with a Windows Phone 7 smartphone as well) and you are ready to go. Thanks to the embedded Full-Duplex speakerphone, the JAMBOX can be used for conference calls.

Another cool feature is its ability to be updated with apps, software and new features via the MyTALK platform. You just need to plug the JAMBOX via USB to a computer and go to the website http://mytalk.jawbone.com/jb2/mytalk/beta. Users get informed about battery life, caller ID, call functions and more via audio alerts. JAMBOX can also be personalized with voice and language options. I have not tested MyTalk, I will update this article later.

Delivering an impressive sound quality in a small form factor, the JAMBOX features a stylish and minimalistic design, thanks to Chief Creative Officer Yves Béhar. “It’s built totally differently from your typical speaker: All four sides are wrapped in a single grill to cut down on moving parts, achieving a strong, minimal form unlike any other speaker, while also making it highly durable.” says Béhar. The attention to details is remarkable, the four different design options offer different grill patterns: dots, diamonds, and waves.

JAMBOX comes in four flavors: Blue Wave, Black Diamond, Grey Hex and Red Dot. They are available for pre-order today on jawbone.com for $199. JAMBOX will be available at Apple Stores and select Best Buy outlets on November 16, 2010.

Eliane Fiolet
Categories: Apple, Audio, Cellphones, Top Stories
Tags: Apple Inc, Bluetooth, Hands-On, iPad, jawbone, mobile, Music, speaker