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Gear4 spreads Lightning connector love with $129 alarm clock, $79 portable speaker dock
Looking to build up a collection of accessories for that newfangled Lightning connector on your iPhone 5? Well, Gear4 is hoping that you'll start off with an alarm clock (and in the process, forget about iHome's duo of bedside companions, which will soon hit the market). Vying for your attention is the AlarmDock Halo 3, which retails for $129.99 and is on sale as of today. The system includes a companion app called SmartLink that lets users choose from a variety of music sources -- iTunes, Spotify and networked tunes all qualify -- and the app also ensures that any alarms you set on the Halo 3 will be synced to the iPhone, and vice versa. The AlarmDock Halo 3 also offers FM radio, line-in audio, a dimming LCD display, customizable alarm sounds (for when your iPhone is lost in the couch cushions) and, thankfully, a snooze button. Also shipping from Gear4 today is the StreetParty 5, a portable, Lightning-loving speaker dock that's powered by four AA batteries. Sadly, there's no line-in audio support here, but if you're properly equipped, the $79.99 system will have you disturbing the peace in no time. Hop the break for a peek, won'tcha?
Gear4 speaker dock supports USB audio for Jelly Bean at Google I/O 2012 (hands-on video)
Another day, another speaker dock. We initially dismissed Gear4's latest accessory at Google I/O 2012 until we noticed that the attached Nexus 7 was playing audio digitally via the USB port instead of simply through the headphone jack (or wirelessly over Bluetooth for that matter). It turns out that Jelly Bean supports USB audio, a software feature that's bound to spearhead a whole new generation of accessories for Android devices. Gear4's universal speaker dock with alarm clock radio is the first to handle USB audio. While the sound for any app can be routed to the USB port in Jelly Bean, the functionality is missing from older versions of Android. Thankfully, Gear4 includes an app with its accessory that can be used to set alarms, sync time, tune the radio and play media over the USB port on legacy versions of Android. Want to know more? You'll find our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.%Gallery-159523%
UnityRemote: another iOS universal remote worth checking out
We first spied the UnityRemote from Gear4 at CES in January. Gear4 has decided to go with a very simple device and app, and that's a good thing. Frankly, I don't get having social features in my TV remote (and yet I take Instagram photos of meals) or needing twenty different ways to visualize the TV guide, so UnityRemote leaves that cruft out. Unfortunately, UnityRemote leaves a couple of other things out as well, but that doesn't mean the remote isn't capable of meeting the needs of most users. Read on for full details. %Gallery-128362% Hardware The UnityRemote is a cylinder smaller than half a can of soda, largely made of black plastic with a small ring of chrome at the bottom. Unlike the Peel you do not have to point this in a specific direction, as Gear4 put the LEDs all around the unit. Three AA batteries fill up the majority of the UnityRemote hardware, with the weighted cover removable with a twist. While I don't like the odd arrangement of the batteries (it can be hard to get the final battery out), I'll give props to Gear4 for designing a compact and unobtrusive IR blaster. There's a power button just above a micro-USB port. The port is supposed to be for firmware updates, although there's part of me which wishes it was to recharge internal rechargeable batteries (but you use standard alkaline batteries). The UnityRemote power button (circle) and USB port The one gripe I have about the hardware is that the power button is a bit small, and sometimes it can be tricky to turn on the UnityRemote. I don't know if it was just my demo unit, but I had to press the power button for a second or two, then quickly launch the app to ensure the two were communicating. Not only that, but the button is small and can be hard to find if the room is dark. Another issue is that the LED to indicate the unit is powered on is opposite the power button, which means you have to pick it up and look at it to turn it on. It may seem like a little thing, but it would have been better if the power on were more visible (perhaps a blue LED instead) and the button to power on was on top of the unit and larger. After all, this will probably be sitting on your coffee table. The hardware also blinks the LED when it receives commands from the app. UnityRemote uses Bluetooth to connect to your iOS device, which means it'll power down after 2 hours by default. You can change this, but the app warns you not to tinker with some settings unless being advised by tech support. More on that in a bit. Let's look at the app itself. Software in use It's clear the people on the design team who designed the UnityRemote app are AV geeks. While the app eschews bells and whistles like social features and open-ended UI configuration, it does an incredibly good job of setting up the IR blaster and providing you with the controls you need for controlling your AV gear. The default configuration of buttons on the remote are a 3x3 grid, with additional buttons available on subsequent pages by swiping. There's also smaller buttons on top and bottom of this grid, help on the bottom and an on/off switch up top. These buttons are available on every 3x3 grid of buttons, which is great. The buttons included are completely logical, although you're able to add, delete and rearrange the buttons as you wish. You can't break out of the grid as you can with Griffin Technology's Beacon, but I found the 3x3 grid to be a great balance between size (on the iPhone) and number of functions on the screen. Gear4 made a great decision when they chose to make iPhone and iPad versions of the app. The iPad version isn't just a scaled-up app; it's actually got some improvements over the iPhone version thanks to the added real estate. For example, the Devices screen, which allows you to change which device you're controlling, appears as a small nav bar item on the iPhone but is a much larger button directly on the button grid screen. Plus, this larger button has easy access to preferences and other helpful tools which require a few more clicks on the smaller screen. The app even readjusts nicely when in portrait mode, a lovely touch. Speaking of touches, if you tap repeatedly on volume or channel buttons, a warning will pop up to tell you it's possible to hold the buttons down instead. You can turn this off immediately after seeing the dialog, or you can turn off all help dialogs in the settings. The UI isn't perfect, as backing up a screen requires the traditional tiny target of a menu item up top. There are "actions" you can set up, similar to macros, which can trigger a series of events. You may wish to turn the TV and Blu-ray on at once, and switch inputs. Of course, beyond the control of any remote hardware is the ability to communicate both ways with a component. So Unity makes its best guess based on your setup (some TVs have discrete codes for input, but my Sony did not, so I chose not to switch inputs). The UnityRemote does a good job during setup to compensate for the limitations of IR technology, but it isn't magical. Another way to control the remote is via gestures, largely limited to swiping up, down, to the sides or tapping the center of the screen. As with everything else, you can assign these as you wish from all supported commands for your component. I didn't really like the gestures, but after my experience with the Peel, I can see how they might appeal to those who don't want to tap buttons on their remote while watching TV. The defaults made sense, with up/down being volume, and left/right being changing channels (for a TV, obviously). I encountered what could be a bug, however, when I tried to mute my TV by tapping in the center and my TV didn't mute. I found very few bugs in the app overall, however, with one glaring issue of a debug menu that came up during Setup Assistant (see it in the gallery). Weird, but not a showstopper. In any event, Mute works fine in button mode. Overall I found the experience of using the UnityRemote quite excellent. It successfully mimicked a physical remote while providing gestures and customization one might only find in a software-driven remote like those from Harmony. Perhaps the biggest glitch is in pairing the remote with your iOS device. To switch between devices (be it iPod touch, iPhone or iPad) you'll have to basically turn off Bluetooth on one device, then connect from another. The app doesn't handle this gracefully at all -- you'll have to drop into your device's settings and do this manually. Still, it's unlikely you'll switch device control frequently. If you aren't paired with the hardware, you can enter demo mode and either pretend to use the app, or learn where things are and customize to your heart's delight. The software supports multiple hardware units, but you'll again have to go through the clunky Bluetooth association process. Setup and settings There's an outstanding setup process for the UnityRemote, Bluetooth notwithstanding. You can activate the setup assistant at any time, but on first run you'll walk through setup anyway. First you'll choose a brand, then the type of component, then answer a series of yes/no questions. When you set up a component you're given 6 buttons to test -- and these happen to be the most frequently used functions for your component. After adding the component to your list it adds a default layout for that component and proceeds to see if that component has distinct codes for things that could toggle. On and off buttons, you see, could either be one code or two -- this makes it much easier to run those actions (macros) I mentioned earlier. To determine whether items like on/off are distinct codes, the setup walks you through toggling the switch (in first run it'll be on/off) several times and asking whether it is in one condition or another. This was where I encountered a debugging dialog about an unhanded exception, but I was able to click Continue and didn't worry about it. No doubt it's a minor bug, but one that would probably confuse the average user on first run. You can then add more devices, going through the same process many times until you run out of things to control. Once you've added a few devices you will answer more yes/no questions to setup some basic actions, like powering up your DVR and TV when you want to "watch TV." As for further settings, in the Configuration menu there's an Advanced section which allows you to trigger sounds during taps, set up auto-connect (which makes the UnityRemote automatically turn itself on during certain hours -- a handy touch for frequent couch potatoes), toggle help, show errors, prevent the iPhone from locking, and share your setup with other iOS devices. That last one is great because once you setup one device, you can easily transfer those settings to another iOS device using Wi-Fi. Under an About menu you'll find version numbers for the app, application library, all the hardware details (firmware, etc.), the battery status of the IR blaster (which worked well, unlike the Peel) and a fantastic Admin panel with dozens of tweaks the app warns you are ill advised without a tech support person's help. In this screen, however, you're able to change battery consumption and tweak bursts for proper operation. This is also the panel where you can tell the hardware how long it waits to shut itself off, and as previously mentioned it is set to 2 hours by default. The extensive admin panel From configuration you can also open a support ticket with Gear4 or view the full manual, a welcome touch in any app. Conclusion If you want a largely no muss, no fuss straightforward iOS-controlled IR remote for your components, the UnityRemote is exactly that. It costs just under 100 dollars, (you can buy it on Apple's store here), which makes it competitive with physical universal remotes from makers like Harmony. While it isn't perfect, it certainly does the job and does it well. There are lots of customization options, provided you're OK with a basic grid layout, but there are also gestures you can use. With the one caveat of turning the unit on being somewhat of a pain, I would say this is a great universal remote for the casual user as well as hardcore couch potatoes (also known as home entertainment enthusiasts). Tomorrow I'll take a look at Griffin's Beacon, a device that attempts to go head-to-head with the UnityRemote as a dedicated universal remote.
iPad 2 case and stand roundup
Last year at the launch of the iPad, there were very few accessories available. Sure, you could pick up an Apple Case for the iPad, and I think there were a handful of third-party cases, but the variety wasn't exactly overwhelming. After the wildly successful first year of the iPad, everyone in the accessory business is going out of their way to make sure you have a choice of goodies at launch or shortly thereafter. In this article, I'll tell you about some of the cases and stands we've heard about so far. Targus 360° Rotating Stand / Case for iPad 2 This is the first iPad 2-specific product that I've actually received, and it's a beauty. The Targus 360° Rotating Stand / Case (US$59.99) features a unique design with a 360° swivel that allows the iPad 2 to be displayed in portrait or landscape orientations. Unlike other swiveling stands and cases, the Targus 360° is remarkably thin. The center of the swivel mechanism is open so that the Apple logo is clearly visible, there's a soft velour lining to gently caress your iPad 2 screen, and the exterior is a very attractive black faux leather. To hold the case closed while in transit, there's a wide elastic band similar to that used on Moleskine notebooks. The plastic "tray" that holds the iPad 2 has a hole in the proper spot for the rear-facing camera, although the device has to be swiveled into portrait mode for the camera to be able to "see." You can buy one now through Amazon, and Best Buy stores will have the cases available on March 11. Targus will also have the thin Protective TPU Skin for iPad 2 ($29.99) and Vuscape Cover and Stand ($39.99) available to protect that new iPad 2. Click the read more link to see more upcoming iPad 2 products.
Gear4's Pocket Loops keyboard creates music with your iPhone or iPod touch
Gear4, maker of the Unity Remote we saw at CES last week, also designed the Pocket Loops keyboard, which represents something I think we'll see a lot more of: devices designed to work only when paired with a smartphone or tablet device. iPhones and iPads are leading the way into a new era of mobile devices, and many future toys and products will do what the Pocket Loops keyboard does: offload the heavy lifting of processing to a mobile device, and instead focus on bringing an interface into play. As you can see above, the keyboard has a dock that an iPhone or iPod touch can plug right into. From there, the device works with a free app that will be released in about three months, which is basically a MIDI recorder and sampler with up to 16 loops running from 29 different keyboard sounds. The app will also enable you to record, remix and even share tracks through the device's email system. Choosing a set of voices gives you various sounds to play on the keyboard; you can play and record loops as you wish, even editing in echo and chorus effects with the touchscreen interface. It works fairly well so far. There were a few software bugs while we demoed the device, but I was told those would be ironed out by release. The whole idea is interesting, because the keyboard doesn't have its own screen or even a battery. Instead, everything comes from the iPhone. Gear4's rep said the device would have been over US$200 if the iPhone hadn't been utilized to do most of the work. Instead, the Pocket Loops keyboard is due in a few months for a retail price of $69.99.
UnityRemote brings a universal, customizable remote to iOS devices
Ever since Apple killed the Griffin IR remote on the original iPod I've been wanting to consolidate my iPod with a home theater remote. The iPhone seems perfect for this; with an infinitely variable canvas available, you could theoretically do anything with your remote. The trouble is getting an IR signal to your components. The UnityRemote from Gear4 solves this problem by connecting your iPhone to a small cylindrical IR beamer via Bluetooth. We didn't get much of a chance to try it ourselves, but the demo was mighty impressive. I should note that Gear4 is not new to this game -- they created an RF-based remote for iPods several years ago but it never took off. iOS devices, however, are much better suited to remotes. While you have the usual raft of buttons and shortcuts (you can add buttons to your favorite stations with station icons) plus the ability to teach the device your oddball remote codes, the really compelling piece in my mind was the ability to use gestures. You can flick your finger up in the gestures screen to increase volume, much like FlickTunes does on your iPhone or iPod touch. The UnityRemote works on iPad as well, which means you can have a really big remote in your living room. The app is free, but the UnityRemote hardware will set you back $99. Considering Harmony remotes can cost $200 or more, that's still a pretty good deal if you have a lot of components or you're a control freak.
Gear4 ups the iPhone alarm clock ante with SmartDock
These things are a dime a dozen, sure, but you can't fault Gear4 for trying. In fact, it has managed to create something that's marginally unique in a world full of me-toos, as the SmartDock relies on hardware and software aspects in order to shine. At first blush, the actual dock isn't much to look at, but the bundled app enables you to search through stations using the iPhone's touchscreen and pause / rewind at will. You can also sync the alarm clock to play through the dock's speakers, and it'll work just fine on the iPod touch. We certainly wish a remote would've been thrown in for good measure, but hopefully the whole package will be cheap enough to make us overlook the omission. Wink, wink.
GEAR4 BlackBox micro uses your table to enrich bass notes
GEAR4's BlackBox Bluetooth speaker is splendid for those with ample room in their abode, but where will you turn for lavish sound when space is an issue? Bose? Pish posh. The newly introduced BlackBox micro (sadly) ditches Bluetooth in exchange for a sole 3.5-millimeter auxiliary port, but it does include an integrated SFX gel base in order to use any flat surface to "provide rich bass sounds." Beyond all that fanciful stuff, you'll find another traditional driver kicking out mids and highs, and there's even a USB port for powering it with whatever computer you've got nearby. Look for this one to sneak into stores this August for £20 ($40).[Via Pocket-lint]
Gear4's BlackBox Bluetooth speaker makes our geek-loin ache
See that? That's glossy black sex in stereo. The BlackBox and BlackBox mini Bluetooth speaker systems from Gear4 pump 24W and 4W from 2x speakers, respectively, with a front-facing red LED panel and blue capacitive touch-panel controls up top. Gear4 assures compatibility with your cellphone via its firmware upgrade feature -- link back to your computer via USB to download the "right profile for your mobile." Odd, since the Bluetooth profiles are supposed to be standard, eh Bluetooth SIG? Priced at £100/£50 (about $202/$101) when released in the next few weeks. %Gallery-7079%[Via AudioJunkies]
GEAR4's HouseParty Blu system handles iPods and A2DP streaming
There's iPod sound systems, and then there's Bluetooth streaming music stations, but GEAR4 is looking to meld both worlds together with its new HouseParty Blu. The multifaceted speaker station allows dock-connecting iPods to flank the top and recharge its battery while cranking out the jams, and moreover, it doesn't shun the elegant A2DP audio streaming capabilities of your BT-enabled music phone in the process. As with most portable sound systems, this one also includes a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary input for every other music source in the world, and specs wise, you'll find a pair of stereo drivers, 30-watts of amplification, touch-sensitive backlit buttons, and a wireless remote. So if you've been keeping an eye for a noise maker that would natively play nice with your Pod and mobile, you can snap up GEAR4's latest for a reasonable £79.99 ($159) right now.
