Filed under: Home Entertainment

Remember Kerbango? In the early months of the decade, 3Com’s foray (via acquisition) into the then-nonexistent world of tabletop internet radios crashed and burned before it was ever even launched, a classic example of an arguably visionary product launching well, well ahead of its time. Over seven years have passed since the Kerbango Radio’s untimely death, but for whatever reason, the concept really hasn’t re-emerged on a grand scale. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer: everyone has an alarm clock, many have bedside or kitchen radios, WiFi has since emerged as a ubiquitous cloud of high-speed data, and more people are listening to streamed audio than ever before — yet the market for these devices is still treated like a niche. What gives?

Continue reading Squeezebox Boom review

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Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

At first glance, the Zivio Boom seems like a novel approach to the Bluetooth headset problem, but as we experienced, it’s actually a little less pleasure and a touch more pain. The design and packaging of the product are highly stylized and sufficiently handsome to be sure, but once you get down to the meat, this peripheral leaves quite a bit to be desired. In our tests, not only was the sound quality of the earpiece far below the standards you’d expect from a product in this price range ($129.95), but the general design of the Boom is lacking in many regards. Firstly, the ear-clip is held onto the device by a magnet — and not a very powerful one at that — which renders the component largely useless. The headset does an okay job of staying on with the varying size bud attachments, but it still felt a bit heavy without hanging it off of something. All of that might be surmountable were it not for the abysmal sound quality we experienced. The thin, telescoping microphone seemed like it would do a better job at picking up audio than a standard Bluetooth headset, but it didn’t hold up next to Jawbone’s offerings, and the fragility of the metal makes it seem like we’re only a day or two away from cashing in the warranty. The reception quality wasn’t any better — we literally had to ask a friend of ours if they were speaking through a towel. Both on the receiving and transmitting ends, we found the Boom to be a disappointment. There’s no question that this is a good looking device — just not one that we can really recommend.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

It’s been a month since we first caught a glimpse of the sharp-looking Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but the wireless network speakers are official today, coming in at a list price of $299. Yeah, it’s basically a standard-issue Squeezebox with a built-in amp and speakers, but that’s a pretty solid idea, especially since we’re guessing the 24-bit Burr Brown D/A converter and bi-amped 3-inch woofers and 3/4-inch tweeters will offer up some decent sound. Everything else is regular Squeezebox kit — 802.11g WiFi, SqueezeNetwork, optical and S/PDIF out, VFD display, 10/100Base-T Ethernet — so if you’re looking to expand your system, this is probably a pretty solid way of getting it done. Expect to see this one on shelves next month. One more pic after the break.

Continue reading Logitech Squeezebox Boom hits the stage

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