We have seen a few different options to get the sound from the back of our iPads to the front… where our ears are. A nice variety of speakers connecting via the iPad’s audio out plug, some great bluetooth options and even a few plastic physical tabs to clamp over the speaker area. While speakers don’t normally take a lot of power, if they require batteries or a wall outlet it is one more thing to worry about. The several wrap around plastic devices have been nice… nothing wrong with them… but they have been ‘unexciting’. If you want to get a view of a few of those later options, buzz over to Shapeways.com and search for iPad.
In a couple hallway chats last Friday, we were finding that a lot of us had seen the Amplifiear project and for some reason found it memorable. At it’s core, it is a wrap around plastic sound redirection device. It is even much bigger than most we have previously seen. The Amplifiear will be available in White, Black, Red, Blue, Green and Orange. It even comes in packaging made of biodegradable recycled card stock.
With the help of the Amplifiear, not only is the sound of your iPad speaker brought around to the front, it sounds a bit louder. The large Mouse ear looking device appears to snap on easily, and thus removed quickly when needing to grab your iPad and run. The price of the Amplifiear through the Kickstarter project is so much lower than other currently available options, we are looking at multiples to there is no need to carry… one for the office desk, one for the home desk, one for the kitchen, two for the kids room (they will love the family iPad looking like their favorite Mouse entertainer), and the living room… the purchase options for multiple Amplifiears means we have more sound love to share.
We’ll give the devices a ‘day-in-the-life’ review when they arrive.
