Ultimate Ears UE Boom Wireless Portable Speaker Has It All

Can't get enough of these portable Bluetooth speakers? You're in for quite a treat if you're shopping around for that awesome package of portable audio goodness because Ultimate Ears has recently come out with the UE Boom, a powerful wireless Bluetooth speaker capable of pushing out loud 360-degree sound to liven up your boring party wherever it may be. Marketed as a versatile speaker with speakerphone features and oversized on-board volume controls, the UE Boom is also built to withstand a splash of water thanks to its unique acoustic protective skin that makes it water and stain-resistant.

Its got dual 1.5-inch performance audio drivers as well as two 2-inch passive radiators to help separate bass from mids and highs, which we think is going to make the UE Boom a very compelling portable speaker at its $200 price. Other features include NFC for easy touch pairing with Android NFC enabled devices, ability to join a second UE Boom to a single audio source for a stereo sound using an iOS or Android device, and last but not least the UE Boom packs a 15-hour rechargeable battery housed inside an attractively designed body no less. You can pick one up now in 6 different colors.

Used Xbox One Games Cannot Be Played Unless You Pay A Fee

Planning on saving money by buying used Xbox One games? Think again. If not being able to play your Xbox 360 games on the new Xbox One didn't infuriate you enough, Microsoft hasn't confirmed this yet, but there are strong rumors that selling and purchasing used Xbox One games will cost you more than you've bargained for. How much exactly? Any Xbox One user who has purchased a pre-owned game no matter how or from where, will have to pay the full retail cost of that certain game thru activation in order to play and download the game under that person's account. Each disc would have to be tied to a single Xbox Live account, restricting it from being used under a different owner.

Essentially what this means is that you'll always pay full retail price for new game titles, but games that were never used could still be purchased at any given price set by a retail store or an individual. How will rental services like Gamefly work around this if ever, is still a question left unasnwered, but we hope Microsoft has a game plan for rental services.

Xbox One, The New Next-Gen Entertainment Console

Microsoft seized today with its special unveiling event where the company announced its impressive next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One. A redesigned "all-in-one" living room entertainment console meets set-top box built from the ground up, packing a slot-loading blu-ray drive you'll only need to be using once to play games. The Xbox One downloads the game data automatically while you play onto its non-replaceable 500GB hard drive (expandable using external storage) the first time you insert a disc so it'll be playable without it from there on.

Powering it is an AMD and Microsoft developed 8-core processor with an on-board GPU chip and 8GB of RAM. The One's Windows operating system is a combination of three OSs engineered to respond intuitively and powerful enough to run apps alongside a game simultaneously without loss in performance. The Xbox One instantly powers up with a Windows 8-like home screen interface ladened with TV, movie, music and app integration with instant switching from one place to another.

Microsoft has also designed a new Kinect 2 motion sensor that'll accompany the new Xbox One which boasts a 1080p wide-angle camera with heart rate monitoring capability, gesture recognition and voice recognition so you can interact with it thru various voice commands like powering the console on just by saying "Xbox on", which will also turn on your TV. Voice commands are snappy to deliver instant results even when wanting to bring up a certain channel without having to use your TV remote.

Switching between inputs is a thing of the past now that the One features several USB 3.0 ports and HDMI pass-thru which enables you to watch live TV right on your Xbox while your TV, TV provider box and Xbox are interconnected. Built-in WiFi naturally of course. And yes you can game without being online.

With a new sleek console comes an improved wireless controller that utilizes Kinect to automatically recognize which individual has picked up the controller to bring up a personalized player experience on-screen. The new Xbox One controller sports a more ergonomic shape and is fitted with newly designed thumbstick shape and grip texture as well as vibrating impulse triggers with force feedback, and several more improvements - notably a built-in rechargeable battery. The new impulse triggers are perhaps the most impressive new feature to come with the new controller where you'll be able to feel the tightness of a car breaking and the vibration of a motor thru increasing throttle.

The best gaming controller just got better with over 40 technology innovations. New Impulse Triggers deliver precise fingertip feedback for more realistic experiences. We have streamlined the thumbsticks, D-pad, and contours for improved precision and comfort in your hands. Simply put, it is the best controller we've ever made.

The Xbox One runs four times quieter than its predecessor thanks to its redesigned cooling system. Microsoft confirmed that it will not run Xbox 360 game discs. 15 new game titles were also announced including an exclusive launch of Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Forza Motorsport 5, Fifa 12, NBA Live 14, Madden NFL 25, EA UFC and more.

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a-Jays Five By JAYS Announced, In-Ears Designed Right

Renowned Swedish audio brand, JAYS, is finally back with a sequel to our much beloved a-Jays Four that we've reviewed back in 2011. The a-Jays Five are a totally new pair of in-ear headphones that have a durable one-piece rubberized construction that prevents cable strain, and which is also ergonomically shaped to fit the geometry of your ear canals. What's more, JAYS has improved its already incredible flat tangle-free audio cable which launched with the a-Jays series years ago with even more durability. And of course, the a-Jays Five feature redesigned custom JAYS drivers similar to those found in the a-Jays Four but "with powerful and precise bass but with even more dynamics and improved details in the midrange and highs".

Using a high performance MEMS technology, the microphone consists of an acoustic sensor, a low noise input buffer, and an output amplifier. The built-in echo cancellation makes the audio perfect in nearly all situations. It reduces surrounding noise and, best of all, unlike many other microphones, this one won’t degrade during time as it recharges the mic-magnets each time you connect your earphones to your phone.

JAYS wanted to bring compatibility of its award-winning, fully featured 3-button remote and mic with MEMS technology module to all popular smartphones and not just the iPhone this time. The a-Jays Five will be available in three models, each with its own custom 3-button remote and mic module designed to work specifically with either iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8. JAYS also improved upon its a-Jays Four remote which we thought was one of the best control and mic combination ever put on a pair of headphones. The a-Jays Five's in-line remote module is now slimmer by 20%. JAYS has yet to announced an availability date, but one thing we now for sure is that the a-Jays Five will retail for $100/€90 in matte black and white. 

You Can Now Design Your Own Jawbone Big Jambox

Jawbone has introduced a way that you can color-customize your very own $300 Big Jambox wireless speaker in over 100 color combinations directly online. So if you've never took a liking to Jawbone's color picking skills, it's now your chance to prove yourself that you have better taste in design. Right?

Mophie Juice Pack Plus, An iPhone 5 Battery Case With More Power & Protection

If you're a power user, chances are your iPhone 5 is in dire need of an energy supplement. The kind that actually works. Mophie is your dealer, and now it has a third battery case to fill its lineup and it's called the Juice Pack Plus. Unlike the company's previous released Juice Pack Helium and Juice Pack Air iPhone 5 battery cases, the Juice Pack Plus is a $120 case with a huge emphasis on drop protection thanks to its rubberized shock-absorbing band that acts as a protective bumper. Of course the Plus moniker is for added power, which means the Juice Pack Plus features a respectfully decent sized battery capacity of 2100mAh, that's an extra 400mAh compared to the $100 Juice Pack Air.

Mophie is claiming that the Juice Pack Plus will more than double the battery life of the iPhone 5 by up to 120% for all-day usage, but we'll reserve judgement until we get our hands on it to test that claim for ourselves though. The Juice Pack Plus for the iPhone 5 is the thickest of Mophie's battery cases coming in at 0.70" thick. The case features integrated buttons including a silent/mute switch for easy operation, and is available now in matte black, red and glossy white color options for $120.

A near-identical Juice Pack Plus battery case rival - the Atomic Plus by Maxboost, offers a massive 3000mAh internal battery capacity while sharing the same exact thickness at a more reasonable $70 price point. We're disappointed that Mophie isn't stepping it up in the performance to price ratio department, because clearly it can be done.

iOS 7: What It Might Look Like

Do you smell that? It's the smell of a new iOS brewing. Now that Jony Ive is in charged of redesigning iPhone's OS interface, rumors spread that Apple's upcoming iOS 7 will feature Ive's brilliance in design and of a revamped 'very flat' user interface free of gloss and those iconic rounded corners. All we have now are concepts of what we expect out of this flat new design, and this particular iOS 7 concept made by Simply Zesty is breathtakingly beautiful. Slick app animation, a clean fresh look with an informative lock screen and Notification Center, Android-inspired widgets and a clean interface partly borrowed from Windows Phone 8. It's all there, and it feels right.

This vision for what iOS 7 could be like we think is stunning enough to land its designer a dream job at Apple HQ. We've seen it happen in the past. Let's say no more to leather and wood trim, here's to a truly up-to-date iOS! Head past the break to see this iOS 7 concept in action.

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