Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

It may be way, way outdated tech nowadays, but most cars still have tape decks in them. Most cars I drive, that is. New cars that only have CD players (also outdated tech, for what it’s worth) are damn annoying because there’s no good way to get your iPod (or whatever) to work with them. Don’t even get me started on how awful those AM/FM transmitters are. Anyway, tape adapters are the way to go, since they’re easy and cheap and work flawlessly. You can get them with built-in MP3 players, and now they also come with Bluetooth.

The Flexii Bluetooth Cassette Adapter works just like a standard tape adapter, except for the whole Bluetooth instead of wires part. It comes with an internal lithium-ion battery good for about 5 hours, a car charger, and a USB cable good for I know not what. It’s a mildly neat little gadget, but for $46 shipped, I might just stick with good old fashioned wires.

[ Flexii Bluetooth Cassette Adapter ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Luke Anderson

I’m not much of a biker, or one that does a lot of sports really. I’m in good shape (I’d have to be to lug this backpack around the entire show floor for three days) and don’t really have the desire to spend hours out of my day just exercising. However, those of you that do may be interested in these Bluetooth Sunglasses from Inter Brands.

These work just like any other Bluetooth headset, only the receiver is build into the side of th glasses with the earpiece coming out to either the nearest ear, or both of them depending on your preference. The glasses come in three different styles and the receiver can be changed into five different colors.

You’ll get around 5 hours of talk time and 100 on standby. Recharging the unit will take only about 2 hours. No word on pricing or availability.

By Evan Ackerman

Remember this tiny little Bluetooth headset? Compared to the Bluetooth toothset (?) it’s ginormous. Now, I should point out that I’m writing about this on the March 31, but until told otherwise, I’m going to assume it’s legit… It is, after all, from China. The Dentacom Bluetooth “dental insert” includes a tiny microphone, tiny transmitter (10m range), tiny battery, and tiny solar panel (!) to run it all. It supposedly transmits very clear sound, although you’ll have to use a regular earpiece to hear anything. The kit comes with “installation tools,” and I should point out that this is not something you put in your mouth, it’s something you install in your tooth, permanently. And when I say you, I mean your dentist, whether or not the installation tools are included. Pricing info not yet available.

Oh, and Bluetooth? It’s named after Harald Bluetooth, a 10th century king of Jutland (Denmark+Germany). The Bluetooth logo are the merged Germanic runes for H and B, Harald’s initials. Now you know.

[ Chinavision ] VIA [ Geek Alerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Most bluetooth car kits are designed to let you operate your cellphone without having to use your hands, but the BLUETOUCH also provides the option of using a large touch screen instead. While it might seem a bit redundant, the touch screen buttons on the BLUETOUCH display are considerably larger than what you’ll find on a phone, including the iPhone. So finding and hitting the correct one while behind the wheel is a bit easier.

And even though it includes a touch screen, the BLUETOUCH also has full voice control when it comes to the telephone functionality, whether you speak English, German or French. But that’s not all. Besides making calls, the BLUETOUCH also allows you to stream MP3s from your phone or iPod (with the appropriate accessory) to your car’s stereo including track info and playback control. However if your phone only has enough memory to hold a handful of MP3s, the device can also load music from an SD/MMC card or a USB flash drive.

At $399 it’s definitely not the cheapest option if you’re only looking for a hands-free calling solution, but if you want to add MP3 support to your car it’s somewhat reasonable given the large touch screen.

[ BLUETOUCH ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Luke Anderson

I have a habit of losing small things. Keys, flash drives, you name it. Unfortunately that makes being a tech geek so much harder because everything is just getting smaller. Take this new USB Bluetooth Dongle, which has to be the smallest I’ve ever seen.

It is being touted as the World’s slimmest USB Bluetooth Dongle, and I’d believe it. Aside from being tiny, it’s just your average ordinary Bluetooth adapter. My advice is to plug this thing into your PC and don’t take it out again. You won’t even notice it is there. Pick one up for just $14.99.

[ USBFever ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides the sleek aluminum finish, the LINX B-Tube speaker should appeal to the design conscious because you can place it anywhere in your home and not have to worry about unsightly wires. That’s because the speaker uses Bluetooth A2DP to stream stereo music from a cellphone, MP3 player or even your computer. It has a range of about 32 feet and can even be used to receive calls from a Bluetooth equipped phone thanks to a built-in microphone.

As for power, the B-Tube uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that provides about 6 hours of playback time, so you will occasionally need to connect the included AC adapter. And if you none of your devices have bluetooth, the speaker also includes a standard 3.5mm jack for connecting your equipment the old fashioned way.

You can get it from Amazon.co.uk for about $80.

[ LINX B-Tube Speaker ] VIA [ Shiny Shiny ]

By Evan Ackerman

You can never, ever have enough portable USB storage. Especially if that storage is in the form of upgradeable MicroSD cards, and especially if the storage vehicle performs some other useful function. In this case, the other useful function is a bluetooth headset for your cellphone. The Bluetrek BIZZ is a fully functional bluetooth headset, featuring 7 hours talk time, 10 days on standby, and customizable faceplates. Pull it apart to reveal a USB connector (which also charges the headset) and a MicroSD slot. The MicroSD slot is especially useful since you can use the headset as a card reader, or, if your phone also accepts MicroSD cards, transfer pics and video directly to the storage on the headset. The BIZZ accepts MicroSD cards up to 8gb (yay!), weighs 10oz, and should be available soon for somewhere around $80.

[ Bluetrek BIZZ ] VIA [ Pocket-Lint ]

By Andrew Liszewski

First off, let me say I really hate this trend of including 2.5mm headphone jacks in phones. I know it’s smaller and makes for a thinner device, but having to carry an adapter so you can use a standard pair of headphones is a pain. And I won’t even get into having to use proprietary connections like Nokia’s Pop port either. So as an alternative I’ve been hunting for a simple bluetooth A2DP adapter that would allow me to use a standard pair of headphones and keep my phone buried in my pocket.

Unfortunately finding such a device hasn’t been easy. I’ve managed to stumble across a few, but the headphones are usually built-in meaning I can’t just plug in my own pair. However the JAYS BlueStreamer2 looks to be exactly what I’m after. Not only is it small (it weights just 12g) but the rechargeable battery works for up to 5 hours while listening to music. It’s also able to remotely control your phone’s music player including volume, next track, skip forward etc. as long as the phone supports that functionality. It can even be used to answer those annoying phone calls that come in when you’re trying to enjoy your music.

At around $80 the BlueStreamer2 is far more expensive than a 2.5mm to 3.5mm headphone adapter, but the added functionality and convenience might be worth the cost.

[ JAYS BlueStreamer2 ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Luke Anderson

SD cards are becoming more and more useful every day. I loved them back in the day because I could swap out cards between my camera and PDA (yes, I carried a PDA). Later my phone used a miniSD card, which with an adapter also worked with my (newer) camera. Not too long ago we saw the release of the Eye-Fi, which was an SD card that gave your digital camera a wireless connection which you could use to transfer images. Now we have the miniSD Bluetooth GPS unit.

I never really thought that an SD card could pack in a Bluetooth and GPS chip, but Spectec has gone a step further and crammed it all into a miniSD card. This little adapter can plug into your handheld device, which will then use a certain set of drivers to communicate with the GPS. If your device doesn’t happen to have those drivers, you’re still in luck. The card will use its Bluetooth connection to talk to your device and transmit the GPS signal. No word yet on pricing or availability.

[ Spectec ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Nokia appears to be the latest company jumping into the digital pen market with their new SU-27W model. It actually bears a striking resemblance to the FLY Fusion Pen, but Nokia’s offering sets itself apart with the addition of bluetooth. Not only does this mean you can wirelessly connect the pen to a bluetooth-equipped PC, but it also means hand-written notes or drawings can be uploaded to a bluetooth-equipped cellphone.

The pen has a paltry 1.3MB of storage on-board, but that equates to around 100 pages of A5 sized paper. When fully charged you can write for about 3 hours, but the battery should survive nearly 20 hours with the pen in standby mode. If you don’t have any bluetooth-friendly devices the pen can still connect to a PC and transfer notes via a USB cable, and like the FLY Fusion it does require special dot-pattern paper in order to work.

Nokia is apparently planning to launch the pen on December 20 for about $240 from their online store. If you’re not a fan of typing out text messages or emails on a numeric keypad, this sounds like a good use for the digital pen technology.

[ Nokia SU-27W (Google Translated) ] VIA [ Mobile Whack ]