My favorite gadget: JAMBOX
Wednesday, April 27, 2011I’ve been using the JAMBOX from Jambone since January and it’s become one of my favorite gadgets that I didn’t know I needed until I started using it.
What is JAMBOX
The JAMBOX is a portable bluetooth speaker that is about the size of a 20oz soda bottle. You can pair it with a handful of devices including phones, laptops, iPads, etc. The sound quality is tremendous. It’s no Bose but it’s leaps and bounds better than the built in speakers on the aforementioned devices. You can charge it through a wall adapter or a USB cable and holds a charge for weeks. I typically use it for 10 minutes every morning and an hour on the weekend and only recharge it once a month. It comes in multiple colors but black is the only acceptable color, in my opinion.
Why and when do I use it?
I love music, podcasts, and NPR programming (mostly the news). JAMBOX allows me to have this in a variety of scenarios I usually wouldn’t, or where headphones aren’t appropriate.
- Getting ready in the bathroom: after a shower in the morning I like to put on the morning news from NPR while I get ready for the day. I just grab my iPhone and pull up the NPR app. It sounds much better than the iPhone speakers and I can even hear it in the next room.
- Trips to the mountains in the car: we don’t have an auxiliary input in our car so our choices are listening the radio (not always available in the mountains) and CDs (we never remember to make new ones). This allows us to listen to anything: podcasts, new music, streaming music, even TV shows or movies.
- Conference calls at home: it’s pretty awkward for two people to crowd around a cell phone and yell into it when having a conversation with someone on the line. This has a great microphone and excellent sound quality for a true conference call solution.
- Watching laptop in bed: we have a laptop that runs Hulu and other movies at the other end of the room hooked up to a monitor but the sound from the laptop isn’t loud enough. By simply pairing the laptop with JAMBOX we can have the speaker rest on the headboard behind us and watch in comfort.
All in all, it has become a very handy music solution. This summer I expect we will use it outdoors on our new patio for entertaining and lounging.
What about Sonos?
We have two Sonos systems which are great but the JAMBOX can be taken anywhere and isn’t tied down to a pair of speakers. Plus, I can use literally any audio source on my iPhone or iPad (which have Bluetooth) which the Sonos does not.
All in all, this is one of the best audio devices to have and would recommend it to anyone.