An iPod speaker is just an iPod speaker isn't it? A box with a grill on it to cover the speakers, a place to plug in your iPod and if your lucky some blue, or maybe red lights to give it some excitement.

Well that's we thought until we opened the box on the Macally TunePro speakers. When I first opened this box, I loved the ergonomics of these speakers. They come as one unit and look really sleek.

It is wide but very narrow so although it takes up a lot of "across space", consumption of "depth space" is limited.

Gone are the speaker's grills instead replaced by a mirrored effect that thanks to NXT speaker technology hides them out of the way.

But sound has been compromised. The speakers are both in the front and back of the unit giving a superb sound quality.

We tested the speaker system with the iPod nano, but as standard you get a series of docks in the box.

For those looking to use this unit as an alarm clock to wake them in the morning there is a choice of two alarm times so that the clock can be used by two different people at the same time and three different settings to be woken up to; buzzer, radio or iPod.

I did have to consult the user guide to first set the alarm and functions. It's disappointing as we would have expected such a simply designed device to be obvious in its operation, but it was easy after that.

As for performance the speakers perform well with a good balance between bass and treble. When I turned the volume up to a very high level, there was no distortion at all with the sound, which I normally find with the smaller speaker systems. The bass quality was absolutely brilliant and stayed that way. The mirrored front of the speakers vibrated in time with the music at all volumes which I thought was great as the speakers were dancing along to my favourite tunes, but this may be more frustrating for those that like the speakers to stay looking sleek and solid.

Tags: Audio Speakers iPod speakers Macally Macally TunePro

Macally TunePro iPod speakers originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0000

The Qstik EVOQ has a bold claim - that it's the "world's most advanced Digital Signal Processor (DSP) Bluetooth headset", but is this just the chat of the company, or really the truth? We get making calls to find out.

If it wasn't satisfied with the claim of "Word's most advanced" the Qstik also says that its integrated military-grade, don't they always, bi-directional noise and echo cancellation technology into the design to give you high quality stereo music streaming, sophisticated speech enhancement and wireless VoIP capability. Wow.

In practice and we have to agree the sound quality is great and if you can get it set up properly, it can be used to control the music on a receptive MP3 player like the Samsung YP-T10 for example.

But...

Well that's the problems, it might sound great, but there are unfortunately plenty of buts.

First off there is the size and design. It looks like a huge circular UFO attached to a clumsy ear bracket.

If you're trying to shake that "Your just another Borg" image this isn't for you.

At times I felt like I had a car air filter stuck to the side of my head with a silly plastic ear hook.

When you first get it out of the box, you think it's like any other headset and just needs the wire plugging into its socket and, eureka, it's charging.

But, that socket doesn't match the plug so I looked into it further to find that you need to put the headset into a crib that the plug goes into to charge it - there's then a crib holder (the crib has a magnetic back) that you can sit the crib into to charge.

How many accessories for one headset do you need?

Then, once it was charged, I did the usual, setting my phone to search but nothing happened so then had to read the instruction manual (I would not expect this for such a simple device) and it said I had to put my phone into search mode and at the same time press the function and volume button of the headset.

Not having 3 hands, this did take some co-ordination but I did manage it and after several attempts, connected.

Tags: Phones Phone accessories Qstik Qstik EVOQ

Qstik EVOQ Bluetooth headset originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

Small and sleek the Samsung YP-T10 is the company's follow up its it T9 model last year and the new player comes in a variety of sizes including a 2GB, 4GB and 8GB versions, but can it offer you a decent alternative to Apple's iPod nano and Creative's Zen? We get listening to find out.

Get passed the small size and the range of colours including Midnight Black, Mystic Purple, Maple Red, Lime Yellow and White Cloud and you get a 2-inch colour LCD display (the same size as the iPod nano) the offer of 30 hours of music and 4 hours of movie from a single charge.

If that wasn't enough you'll also get Bluetooth 2.0 compatibility to connect to a set of wireless headphones and there's also a radio on board with presets so you can listen to other music once you get bored of your own collection of tunes.

The interface, which has been given an overhaul over the previous model, is incredibly easy and the menus are really simple to use.

Those looking to personalise their T10 further can even chose three different user display formats, each with three unique graphic equalisers and interfaces when the music is on (well actually each has five choices of display and for two of the user menu styles, those five are the same but it's still wow) and we especially liked the cartoon interface that was more MTV rather than boring menu interface that you seen variants of on other players.

Unlike the iPod when it comes to getting music on the device again everything is very simple. The interface with your computer for downloads is really easy although when you open two windows to manage this, one window is smaller than the other and you can't expand it to see further info. It's a tad more confusing that it should be, but its not the end of the world.

So what's the catch? Well I found the earphones that came in the box were uncomfortable (I do have small ears though) and after an hours viewing the screen couldn't get the wallpaper back until I switched it off and back on again.

Additionally the keypad is very sensitive and as it is touch sensitive, it can mean you move through menus to go to areas you don't want to before you know it. It's a problem that affects the company's phones and it seems here to.

As for the physical size, we found the 2GB model we reviewed to be adequate but it's not the model you want to go for. Those looking for the on the go movie experience, 2GB holds just one movie and about 300 songs.

As for the Bluetooth connectivity, again like the interface and pretty much all of the player it was incredibly easy to you with the pairing process simple to do. Sound over Bluetooth was comparable in performance to listening to the music via a wired connection and on our test tracks; Scouting for Girls and a range of Christmas Songs (well it is December) plus Amy Winehouse.

As for the sound, it was very good, with all our tracks, admittedly mainly pop tracks performing well.

Tags: Audio MP3 players Samsung Samsung YP-T10

Samsung YP-T10 MP3 player originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:00:00 +0000