B&W Zeppelin Mini
Bowers & Wilkins' Zeppelin is the most iconic of iPod speaker docks, but it's a bit of a beast, especially if you want a compact speaker to perch on a shelf. Enter B&W's Zeppelin Mini, which, we can attest, delivers the same high sound quality as its big brother, just in a smaller box. Excellent 18W tweeters and a rear-facing bass port - it needs to go near a wall - give it a crisp yet beefy sound, though you'll need to position it carefully to get the best sound. It can pump out plenty of volume to fill all but the largest of rooms, and it sports a neat swivel dock to make it easy to flip through your music in CoverFlow. Nice.
Reg Rating 90%
Price £299
More Info Bowers & Wilkins
Klipsch Image S4i
World+Dog will tell you that Apple's iPhone earphones aren't up to much. We don't agree, but we do think there are better earphones out there and - crucially - ones more suited to noisy environments like the underground and aircraft. Enter, Klipsch's new Image S4i set, a rather nice set complete with iPhone-friendly mic/remote module. The remote hangs centrally, so its small weight is evenly distributed between earpieces, so one side won't get tugged out. And with a good selection of earpiece fittings, you'll be pleasantly isolated from the outside world and able to enjoy your tunes and the S4i's excellent sound quality.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £90
More Info Klipsch
COMMENTS
Hey Poindexter
..wanna buy a bridge, and some snake oil to go with that iPhone valve amp?
eh?
"World+Dog will tell you that Apple's iPhone earphones aren't up to much. We don't agree"
April the first was a while ago. The crappy space fillers that ship with the iPod roll off like hell around 150Hz, and are flaccid all over the range- and more importantly, they leak like hell, and make your fellow travellers want to kill you.
How anyone (other than someone with a curious low frequency hearing impairment) could seriously claim that these headphones are any good is beyond me.
To some people, maybe
Well my wife has "the internet" turned on all of the time on her iPhone and she only charges it every two-three days. Guess what? Not everyone gets awful battery life out of every phone.
I'd also say that a tech journalists idea of "essential" is not necessarily the same as the average person, so simply because there are three may just be an indication of the choice available rather than the reflection of an actual concern.
So, no, I wouldn't say it was a concern any more than two or three carry cases in an 'essentials' list means something is difficult to carry.
And I don't see why a spare battery is a better solution than a battery jacket for anyone who wants a longer battery life. In fact, having had no less than three battery doors for my N95, I'd say the spare battery is not without it's pitfalls.
How much use is a spare battery in a phone that can't keep it in because of a broken compartment?
So, when you get to the end of the second day and have two flat batteries so you might manage to put the phone on charge overnight. With two batteries you can only charge one of them at a time, meaning you either need to get up in the middle of the night to charge the second one, do without one of them or buy a charger that can charge the other battery outside of the phone. On top of that you rarely encounter phones that are designed to have the battery compartment opened regularly, often making the act of changing batteries awkward at best and damaging in other cases (N95).
With the battery jacket, you plug the phone in and charge both.
*That's* why I call the "spare battery solution" inelegant
Sure, being able to swap the battery would give you better flexibility, but if I had to pick one I know which one my phone did. Of course, that assumes a phone that doesn't need the battery removing on a regular basis because it crashes. Unlike my N97.
£25 for a stand for a phone?
Indeed. Cable conduit? surely you can build one out of a business card. Works perfectly acceptably with an iphone w/o any case.
(yeah, and I always have a business card + a knife of some description).
http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-business-card-iPhone--iPod-stand/
re: eh?
Not to mention that they fall apart at the drop of a hat, any hat.
