flOw wireless speaker concept flips jams based on your handling

She's but a concept at the moment, but David Boyce's flOw mockup certainly has legs. The five-speaker set can be arranged in a fanciful iPod docking station for in-home use, and on a whim, any of the speaker balls can be grabbed and taken elsewhere, all while the music follows via a touch of wireless magic. But that's hardly the kicker -- each ball has integrated gesture sensors and accelerometers, enabling the user to quiet the volume by turning it over or switch from "Smooth Operator" to "Master of Puppets" by simply jostling the speaker with an intense level of force. Talk about revolutionizing a played market sector.

[Thanks, Paul]

[nicholasphan Posted May 23rd 2010 8:18AM]

flOw... the name is the same as the psn game!

[Vincent Posted May 23rd 2010 8:52AM]

@nicholasphan Not, it's fl0w.

[Darkshneider Posted May 23rd 2010 9:10AM]

@Vincent What is? The game is called flOw.

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted May 23rd 2010 10:13AM]

Flow . . . for use with your iPad.

[Technologeee Posted May 23rd 2010 7:11PM]

@nicholasphan

I will buy this so that when I havwe a chick over I can be like, "babe, grab my balls"

And when she makes a move on me, "WOW there, I meant my flOw speaker balls, not my balls.., weirdo"

Its perfect :)

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted May 23rd 2010 8:03PM]

@Technologeee

You made a typo.

"I will buy this so that *if* I havwe a chick over . . ."

Fixed it for you.

[kingofwale Posted May 23rd 2010 8:18AM]

the question is.... does it have to be so ugly?

[Jordo1234 Posted May 23rd 2010 8:27AM]

@kingofwale
yeeaah i agree with that
I seriously wouldnt have this in my house.

[ThundaChunky Posted May 23rd 2010 9:50AM]

@kingofwale

I look at it and all I hear is my mom calling it stupid. Bad sign.

[bolezhinkov Posted May 23rd 2010 12:30PM]

@kingofwale

ugly sells . . . how much will thing cost if it ever makes it to market is my question

[Technologeee Posted May 23rd 2010 7:14PM]

@bolezhinkov

Theyre already available @ the source here in cambridge for $79.99

[Wierde2003 Posted May 23rd 2010 8:22AM]

Very cool concept. All I ask is that there is actually some quality to the speakers themselves. Too many manufacturers focus on design and forget about what the speaker (or speakers, in this case) sound like.

[juanvaldez Posted May 23rd 2010 8:40AM]

@Wierde2003 I'm also curious about if there would be a (considerable) performance increase when the speaker is docked vs. wireless. If these make for an adequate speaker when wireless, but do not get a bump in performance when docked then it's a concept that is somewhat lost on me.

I probably didn't explain myself well, but maybe what I've said makes some sense.

[Wierde2003 Posted May 23rd 2010 9:14AM]

@juanvaldez I know what you're saying. I've seen a lot of speakers that are "novelty" speakers (shaped like a basketball, etc.), that sound really tinny and have no low end. I hope this speaker doesn't cross the line between legitimate product and novelty toy.

[dez Posted May 23rd 2010 10:32AM]

@Wierde2003

I think we're screwed on this one, guys. For them to make it a legit product, it'll probably cost quite a bit, especially if they give it a more reasonable look. I mean, really? How about some piano black, or at least skip the lime green...

[bebop Posted May 23rd 2010 10:37AM]

We're talking about five battery-powered, tennis-ball-sized satellite speakers. Sound quality? You have got to be kidding...

[HAWKZ Posted May 23rd 2010 8:35AM]

good idea but make it look good

[NeatOman Posted May 23rd 2010 8:59AM]

That speaker has balls ;) sounds ballsy would you say lol... and so on

[Kill The Whales Posted May 23rd 2010 12:58PM]

@NeatOman I have two balls in my living room... Planing on moving them to my bed room.

[rmetz Posted May 23rd 2010 9:46AM]

The idea is cool... the looks, not so much

[VAreAct Posted May 23rd 2010 9:47AM]

Great idea, poor execution though. Who would honestly display this in a house or anywhere for that matter?

[Alv Posted May 23rd 2010 9:52AM]

Looks cool, but the base would look ugly if you take the speakers, it would look like a bathtub

[dipesh2301 Posted May 23rd 2010 10:31AM]

This is utter rubbish, who will spend money on something like this maybe they should try making a speaker system with good sound quality for a reasonable price maybe then people would actually buy it.

[JBaker Posted May 23rd 2010 3:09PM]

@dipesh2301

You lose. People will spend hundreds on iPod docks with relatively poor sound quality and this is no different. From the style of it, colour, the five separate speakers, and interactive and playful nature of it, I'd say it was intended to be a child friendly product and to be used in a family environment. It is clearly not intended to be a high end audio product.

I am on the same course at the same Uni as the designer of this but 2 years behind. I saw it about a year ago at the graduation show, very weird to see it on Engadget but extremely cool.

[rockanon Posted May 23rd 2010 11:26AM]

Big deal...

This is a knock-off of the Say What? game anyway.

http://www.toysrus.co.uk/medias/sys_master/8609840311664256.jpg

[seven5suited Posted May 23rd 2010 11:34AM]

Do not want. Nice Metallica reference, however.

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted May 23rd 2010 12:50PM]

@seven5suited

That's not a Metallica reference. "Master of Puppets" is a legitimate dynamic marking in classical music, one level louder than "fortissississississississmo."

As a tuba player, that's my favorite volume level.

[pretol Posted May 23rd 2010 9:28PM]

All the stupid "user-friendly" controls... I can just see people shaking the stupid things to turn the volume down, or to skip a song... It sounds "hella awesome" on paper, but a simple set of 5 buttons (up/down/FF/REV/pause) will ALWAYS work better.

For the love of god, do NOT put voice recognition in them either... People sound like morons when they try to "talk" to electronics... and it gets comical when electronics do not "get it"...

Awesome technology gone stupid...