Parrot have announced their latest head-unit, the iPhone-compatible RKi8400, which eschews a dull old CD player for Bluetooth A2DP streaming, an SD card slot, iPod/iPhone connectivity, USB PMP support and standard line-in ports. It also works as a Bluetooth hands-free kit, with the Parrot RKi8400 having a 2.4-inch color LCD display text-to-speech support and a 7-band equalizer.
Kenwood have announced [via] a set of new in-dash touchscreen navigation and media players, all but one of which include Parrot Bluetooth functionality for using the system as a hands-free kit. The range kicks off with the eXcelon DNX9140, Kenwood’s new flagship, with a DVD player, 6.95-inch WVGA display, integrated Garmin navigation, and voice control. It’s also capable of 5.1 surround sound, via an onboard decoder, and can link to and control your iPod, iPhone or mass storage device.
Parrot have teamed up with designer Philippe Starck to create a new set of wireless speakers. Called Zikmu, the speakers incorporate an iPod/iPhone dock together with WiFi and Bluetooth; the latter is used both to stream audio from mobile devices such as cellphones using A2DP, and to connect the two speaker columns themselves together.
When we first saw Parrot’s Specchio digital photo frame, designed by Martin Szekely, it looked to be a promising concept: wireless image transfer, slick appearance, what’s not to like, eh? But this live image of the Specchio in action throws it into a whole new light – or, more accurately, it reflects a whole lot of light from the semi-mirrored glass front-panel and completely washes out the image.
The T-Mobile cameo might have featured big in the carrier’s holiday announcement yesterday, but it’s actually been a long time coming. Originally announced as the Parrot DF7700 back in October 2007, the 7-inch, 720 x 480 digital photo frame allows you to load images not only via a memory card but from MMS and email messages thanks to its integrated cellular modem. Yahoo! Tech have been putting the $100 frame through its paces.
T-Mobile USA have announced four new devices as part of their holiday lineup, the Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5, Samsung Behold, T-Mobile cameo and Samsung Gravity. The MOTOZINE ZN5 is a 5-megapixel Kodak-powered digital camera with autofocus and a Xenon flash, including one-touch uploads to the Kodak online gallery. Meanwhile the Samsung Behold – leaked earlier today - is the T-Mobile version of the Samsung Tocco, with a large touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and haptic feedback.
More T-Mobile details on the new devices after the cut
Everyday it seems a new digital picture frame is released. Some are just gimmicks while others are actually pretty nice and useful. This one falls under the useful category, though we do have a few quibbles.
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I saw some of these speakers at the Parrot booth at CES and they were pretty amazing and managed to overpower the hundreds of people that were crowded into what was a fairly small room. However the ones I saw didn’t use NFC to negotiate the Bluetooth connection between your device and the speakers, they did it the old fashioned way.
When they’re not trying to put Bluetooth into your car or your helmet, Parrot are attempting to get it onto your desk. Their new DS1120 Bluetooth Stereo Speakers use the wireless stereo A2DP profile to play back audio from your cellphone, laptop or PMP, with a Class-D digital amp in each unit adding up to a 30W RMS total power output.
So Parrot is so innovative that they have decided to go ahead and ditch the optical media formats, which is a smart move on their part since I have more music on my phone than I do on all of the CDs both burned and bought that I have. But, in place of the optical media, they have given you so many more ways to connect what you do store your music on.
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