Summer means inflatable: inflatable beach chairs, rafts, inner tubes, even the occasional giant blue banana. Now that Ellula HotAir has come to the United States, you can add speakers to that list.
Ellula’s inflatable speakers (www.audiovideoman.com and http://budshop.com) shrink into easily portable 6-inch-wide discs when not in use and inflate in no time. You have the option of plugging them in, but with six AA batteries, they can do without a wall socket for as long as 18 hours.
Beneath the clever design, science is at work: special transducers (the sound-generating part of speakers) are glued to a corrugated plastic board pointing up into the inflatable body. The plastic skin makes the sound resonate the way a traditional speaker’s horn, or diaphragm, would.
For $49, the sound quality is surprisingly high. Also in the works: an inflatable radio that serenades you as it floats in the pool.
NAVMAN USA
Amelia Earhart could have used this
For those packing Palm or iPaq Pocket PC organizers on their next trip to unfamiliar territory, Navman USA makes a series of global positioning system receivers that can turn a simple hand-held computer into a navigation aid that receives real-time location updates every two seconds.
The Navman GPS unit clips onto the back of the organizer, and its thick antenna connects to satellites that zero in on the user’s position anywhere on the globe.
The package includes a bracket to mount the device on a car dashboard, and it comes with the Rand McNally Streetfinder Deluxe Travel Navigation software to install on a desktop PC so that users can download street maps and travel information to their organizers.
Navman GPS units are already available for the Palm m100 and m500 series and the older Palm III, V and VII organizers. A version for the Compaq iPaq Pocket PC was to be released Monday. Technical specifications are available at www.navmanusa.com.
The devices cost about $200 for Palm organizers and $300 for the iPaq–a small price for never getting lost again.
