bluetooth

Why wear a smartwatch? You might have said the same thing about carrying a smartphone before those got smart enough to be truly useful. Smartwatches are a sort of mini tech trend of the moment, but here's the brutal truth: we wouldn't recommend that our friends buy any of these, unless they're early-adopter watch fetishists. The smartwatches of today have a muddy mix of good, bad, and flat-out ugly features. At best, they're quirky and stylish. At worst, they're hobbled with short battery life or don't work at all.

None of the smartwatches we'… Read more

You may eventually be able to transfer files between a computer and mobile device just by placing the two near each other.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent application known as "Apparatus and method for interacting with handheld carrier hosting media content," describes a file transfer technology that automatically kicks in when two devices are positioned next to each other. One device would sense when the other is nearby and then send or receive a certain document, picture, song, or other item.

As one example, you may be creating an e-mail … Read more

The BlackBerry Mini Stereo Speaker doesn't look like your average Bluetooth wireless speaker. Crafted in the shape of a U, this tiny Bluetooth smartphone accessory can be pinned to shirts, bag straps, and other articles of clothing so you can enjoy phone audio out loud and with your hands free. The gadget also functions as a speakerphone for hands-free calls. At $99.99, however, the speaker isn't exactly an impulse buy. Also, other portable speaker systems such as JBL's Flip deliver much better sound for the same price.

Design and features I can't deny that this … Read more

So many deals, so little time!

1. Mo' terabytes, mo' savings. If your PC doubles as a media center, especially one that pulls DVR duty, you can't have too much storage. Likewise, if you work with a lot of video, you can't have too much storage.

While supplies last, TigerDirect has the Western Digital Elements 3TB USB hard drive for $99.99, plus $3.80 for shipping. That's after redeeming a $20 mail-in rebate (PDF), which makes this the least expensive 3TB external drive I've ever seen.

It's a USB 2.0 drive, alas, but … Read more

Back in the days of the Car Tech Live podcast, I was often (ahem, every week) asked, "What's the best way to add a lot of tech to my car without spending a lot of money?"

The answer I most often gave was, "Check out Sony's MEX line of single-DIN car stereos. For about two Benjamins, you'll add Bluetooth hands-free calling, wireless audio streaming, and USB and auxiliary inputs, and upgrade the audio quality of your car's wimpy car stereo."

The Sony MEX-GS600BT is one of the latest units in the MEX … Read more

I love a good Bluetooth speaker, especially one that's battery-powered and portable. Mine goes everywhere with me: to the bathroom for shower tunes, to the garage for honey-do-project tunes, even on trips for hotel-room tunes.

Today only, and while supplies last, TigerDirect has the ChilBox Wireless Speaker for $49.99, plus around $3 for shipping. It sells for exactly twice as much if purchased directly from Chil, Inc.

The nicely rounded, brick-shaped ChilBox measures 6 inches by 2.5 inches by 2 inches and weighs around 14 ounces. Its built-in rechargeable battery is good for up to 12 hours … Read more

You've played that "no phones at dinner" game and lost. You can't bear ignoring your messages. Well, this bit of bling could be your new best friend.

LinkMe is a digital bracelet that displays the messages, Facebook updates, and tweets that you need most.

Billed as a world first on its Kickstarter page, LinkMe will "display the messages and alerts you choose, making your entire social life available to you with just a glance at your wrist." … Read more

I've lived with a smartwatch, in one form or another, for several periods over the past few years. Recently, with the Martian Passport. Further back, with the iPod Nano and a Hex wristband. Before that, a SPOT watch.

I love the idea of a smartwatch. Certainly, so does the media as of late. Bloomberg reports and iWatch rumors galore, plus various wearable watch-type items at January's CES, have started to give this territory the sense of a category.

Between the Martian and the Nano watch, I loved aspects of each -- and also found them both lacking. There'… Read more

In my kitchen I have this great Fluance speaker dock -- well, great except that it doesn't have Bluetooth. If I want to listen to music, I have to plop my iPhone onto its 30-pin connector.

Or not, if I plop an Auris onto it instead. This Kickstarter-spawned gizmo can turn that dock into a Bluetooth speaker, able to play wireless audio from my iPhone, iPad, Android device, Windows phone, or anything else capable of Bluetooth streaming.

Neat, huh? No wonder this Kickstarter campaign earned more than three times its funding goal. I received a sample Auris from BiteMyApple.co (… Read more