Although Bose has been using Bluetooth in its Aviation headsets, SoundLink portable speakers and earpieces for cellphones, wireless headphones have been lacking from the company's roster. That's changing today, with the company email-blasting US customers about its just-released AE2w Bluetooth headphones. Think of these as a pair of AE2 (roughly $150) over-ear cans with an A2DP-enabled Bluetooth dongle tacked on. This protrusion (which is removeable) provides access to a multi-function button, volume controls, power switch and micro-USB port for charging. Battery life is seven hours, with 200-hours of standby, which is about the norm for this type of kit. The Bluetooth unit enables actively-equalized audio, but can be swapped for a 3.5mm cable (included) -- this is ideal for long trips away from power. If you're interested, the AE2w are available in the US directly from Bose today for $250 -- pinning it as a competitor to cans like the apt-X-enabled Klipsch Image One Bluetooth. Our EU-based readers will also be pleased to know that sites like Tom's Hardware Guide (Italian) have them pegged to arrive May 14th for 250 euros.
[Thanks, Motty]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Wearables
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Source: Bose
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A man accused of being one of the "most prolific sellers" of counterfeit electronics in the UK has just been sent down for two and a half years. Over 4,000 KiRFs, mainly consisting of knock-off Sennheiser and Monster headphones, were found at Michael Reeder's address, with a value of around £250,000 ($400,000). However, Sennheiser claims this is just 1 percent of $40 million worth of items Reeder has sold online, which is why the German manufacturer has taken a keen interest in his prosecution. Last year, Sennheiser introduced a series of authentication technologies to prevent counterfeiting that was mainly originating in China -- including QR codes on product packaging that customers can verify online. If Sennheiser's estimate of 400,000 fake items is accurate, then it makes the UK's recent Microsoft Windows scandal look almost like small fry.
Update: Apologies for the earlier stumble with missing zeroes on this post.
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video
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Bang & Olufsen already offers headphones, and it has the B&O Play line to serve a mobile-oriented world. Wouldn't it be nice if the two categories mixed? As of today, they do. The B&O Play H3 in-ears and H6 over-ears apply that Danish love of aluminum and leather to the kind of headphones you'd want to pack with your MP3 player or smartphone. The H3 carries 10.8mm drivers, a mini bass port and a 20Hz to 16kHz range in a unibody shape that should hold up to exercise; the slightly more stationary H6 over-ears sport 40mm drivers and a wider 20Hz to 22kHz range. Both have primarily iOS-oriented in-line mics and remotes, although the H6 alone has Monster-sourced daisy chaining support to share tunes with others. Don't expect a significant break in B&O's premium pricing just because they're B&O Play-branded headsets, however. The H3 and H6 will respectively cost €249 and €399 when they hit some retail stores in May, and US pricing isn't likely to be much cheaper.
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video
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Source: B&O Play
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We've seen plenty of Beats-focused KIRFs in our time, some better than others. Few, however, play quite so directly on the name as OrigAudio's Beets. For $25, adopters get a set of headphones that bear little direct resemblance to Dr. Dre's audio gear of choice, but are no doubt bound to impress friends -- at least, up until they see a root vegetable logo instead of a lower-case B. Thankfully, there's more to it than just amusing and confusing peers. Every purchase will lead to a donation of canned beets (what else?) to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. For us, that's reason enough to hope that Beats doesn't put the kibosh on OrigAudio's effort. Besides, we could use some accompaniment for our BeetBox.
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio/Video
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Source: OrigAudio
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