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BRAVEN 710: Water-resistant, wireless pairing through TrueWireless and more
I'm not usually one to get too excited about Bluetooth speakers; there are a lot of 'em out there, and by and large a lot of them are somewhat cookie-cutter duplicates of each other. But BRAVEN has always piqued my interest with its speaker line, simply because the aluminum cases look great and the sound of the speakers is impressive. Today, the company is unveiling the BRAVEN 710 (US$169.99) with some compelling new features. To begin with, the 710 receives an IPX5 water-resistance rating, so there's no need to worry about splashing this speaker with water from the hot tub. Battery life is an impressive 12-plus hours, and that battery can also be used to charge other devices. But the big difference is the integration of TrueWireless technology that allows wireless pairing with another BRAVEN 710 to create a right and left speaker set. The company uses custom HD audio drivers with aptX audio support, and the device is equipped with NFC for easy linking if your mobile device swings that way... The BRAVEN 710 comes in silver, graphite and blue, and can also be used as a speakerphone with your Bluetooth-linked iPhone. TUAW should have a BRAVEN 710 for testing soon, so keep an eye out for our review.
Antec to extend its Bluetooth product range with Pulse, SP1+, SP3 and SPzero (hands-on)
To most people, Antec's probably better known for its desktop-related products, but at Computex, the company made quite a big effort to pimp its A.M.P. (Antec Mobile Products) range of Bluetooth audio devices. You may have already come across the SP1 Bluetooth speaker (pictured above in several colors), but we've been told that an identical-looking SP1+ is coming this October. What's new? Well, the refresh will come with NFC-enabled Bluetooth pairing, as well as CSR's TrueWireless Stereo technology that will let you use one SP1+ as the left channel, and another SP1+ as the right channel (but both drivers in each SP1+ are still active in this case). Do read on to see what else Antec has up its sleeve later this year. %Gallery-191259%
Vertus adds stereo Bluetooth to any pair of powered speakers... if they have a 3.5mm jack
Nowadays we're spoiled with options in the Bluetooth speaker market, and many of the high-end ones -- especially those from Soundfreaq and Nokia -- even feature dual-system streaming (DSS) that lets one speaker pair with another to enable true stereo playback. But if you already have a pair of old but nice-sounding speakers with 3.5mm input on both, then here's a quick and easy way to add Bluetooth to them. Dubbed Vertus, this Kickstarter project features the above pair of receivers based on CSR's TrueWireless Stereo, a nifty technology that's been made available since early 2009. Similar to any DSS system, one of the Vertus dongles (the right channel, in this case) acts as the master to receive the stereo stream from a Bluetooth source, and then it'd throw the left-channel stream to the other dongle. So provided that your speakers have their own power source to amplify, it's just a matter of charging these aluminum dongles up (a single charge lasts up to 10 hours), plugging them in and then pairing the right receiver with your audio source. Simple! That said, at $120 this kit may struggle to gain traction in retail, so hopefully the audio quality will somewhat justify the price. Introductory video after the break.
