Searching for the Best Portable Rechargeable BlueTooth Speaker

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One of the hottest gadget niches right now is the Portable Rechargeable BlueTooth Speaker.

You might think to yourself “Why would I need one of these?” Imagine you’re sitting outside – at the beach or the pool – and you want to listen to music with friends. The old school option was the boom box. Hard to find one of those these days. Until recently, the options were very limited and expensive, but now a simple Google search yields about a dozen relatively inexpensive, user friendly, portable speakers that connect without any wires to your iPhone or smartphone.

I chose the UE Boom. Logitech makes it. It costs about $200 and is at the upper end of the Portable Rechargeable BlueTooth Speakers, but what makes it fantastic is its small size, portability, ease of use, and sound. It also has some additional features that are very cool:

  • If you buy a second UE Boom, you can pair the two together for BlueTooth stereo sound;
  • If you press the + and – together, a voice will tell you how much battery time is left;
  • It is water-resistant;
  • There’s a smart phone app with an EQ that lets you select from a variety of equalizer settings

They come in a variety of colors and the accompanying marketing material even suggests that you might put it in your bottle cage when you go for a bike ride…might have to try that myself.

The iPad: Should You Get One?

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The iPad is a gorgeous electronic device. I’ve been tinkering with the iPad II and using it for Connect4 Consulting work for several months now and have come to several conclusions.

  • The iPad is not a desktop or laptop replacement.
  • If you don’t already have an iPhone, get an iPhone instead of an iPad. The iPhone has greater utility and value.
  • You can do productive work on an iPad, but you have to buy accessories and also adapt to the limitations of the device.
By itself, without any accessories, the iPad is great for:
  • Viewing digital photographs
  • Watching a movie or TV show by yourself
  • Toddlers – my 22-month-old boys love the interactive learning apps
  • Video conferencing using Facetime or Skype
  • Email
  • Reviewing documents (PDFs, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, presentations)
  • Teaching – innovative schools and teachers are using the iPad to engage with students and subjects in new ways.
  • Cooking – if you are considering setting up a computer in your kitchen for recipes, TV, and radio, go out and buy an iPad immediately.
Unless you’re using the iPad as a laptop replacement, buy the least expensive 16GB WiFi-only iPad.