G-Tech kicks out Bluetooth-enabled iPod backpack

Similar to another company we're familiar with, G-Tech has hit it big by slapping iPod-compatibility onto an otherwise drab offering, and now the company has upped the ante by tossing in Bluetooth. Unveiled at CES, the self-proclaimed Next-Generation Messenger Bags with Bluetooth feature the same Eleksen ElekTex smart fabric controls right on the strap, but these controls now control the track / volume functions of your dock-connecting iPod as well as the volume / mute of your phone. The Bluetooth functionality simply allows users to easily mute their iPod to take an incoming call, and the built-in speaker can also pump out the jams (rather meekly, we assume) with any audio device that connects via a 3.5-millimeter cable. There's no word on price or availability, but if you're really dead set on owning an iPod-controlling pack, might we suggest one that doesn't look like an early '90s experiment gone awry?

[Via Textually]

[PeteC @ Jan 8th 2007 7:44PM]

I do not wish to have to remember to recharge my backpack! Surely you could just have a dock for it built into the bag and then the rest wired in so the bag was powered from your ipod, that would be cheaper and negate having to charge it up!

[Rock Stone @ Jan 8th 2007 8:33PM]

It may be obvious but help me out here - I understand that control is had through BT and there are built in speakers but...

Does this backpack actually broadcast music via Bluetooth FROM the iPod or other mini-jack audio device?

[Leon @ Jan 9th 2007 9:07PM]

Gtech actually does a bag that has a dock. I have one and don't recommend it to anyone. It has the same touchthingy as on this model and I don't think they could have made the "UI" (for lack of a better word, I just mean the buttons and how they are meant to be used) any worse.