iLuv serves up palm-size iPod/iPhone speaker
Hot on the heels of Altec Lansing's new Orbit, iLuv has announced a mini portable speaker as well. The offical name of the product is the iSP100 Mini Portable Stereo Speaker for iPod, iPhone 3G, 2G and MP3 Players and it will be available "worldwide" in the next few weeks and will carry a list price of $34.99.
The isP100 is a budget mini stereo speaker powered by three AAA batteries.
(Credit: iLuv)Like Altec Lansing, iLuv is touting the mini speaker's "big" sound and something it calls 720? Surround Sound. It, too, features a retractable cable with a 3.5mm jack that connects to the headphone jack or audio output of any MP3 player, laptop, or portable DVD player. The speaker is powered by three AAA batteries and comes with a carrying pouch.
It's hard to imagine that this tiny speaker would sound all that good--most tiny speakers just don't deliver impressive sound. But we suspect that like the Orbit, it will sound OK for casual listening. The whole surround thing seems a little ridiculous, but we'll reserve final judgment until we get our hands on a review sample.
Sound quality aside, the budget mini portable speaker category appears to be hot. We expect to see even more products like this come out in time for the holiday buying season since this has stocking-stuffer written all over it.
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Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
