Adding Wireless To Your MP3 Player

Timid First Steps To Add Bluetooth To Your iPod

Jabra announced a pair of Bluetooth transmitters last week at the CeBit conference. This manufacturer is better known for cell phone wireless headsets, than in music circles. It is great to see wireless capabilities moving into this class of devices.
The first is the A120s Bluetooth Music Adaptor. It is compatible with every music player because it plugs into the headphone jack out. It then sends the music to a set of Bluetooth wireless headphones which are not included. I would recommend a dedicated solution that includes the receiver and the headphones in one package, such as the Logitech Bluetooth headphones over this type of product. When it doesn't work, I can imagine tech support pointing the finger to the other product "It must be a headset issue, we only sold you the transceiver..." The other downside to this is that it is an additional item to keep charged.

On the other hand, the A125s Bluetooth Adaptor for iPod intrigues me more. It is compatible with most iPods, including the mini, photo, and nano (why do I think the shuffle got left out of this). It attaches to the bottom of the iPod, and sends a Bluetooth wireless signal to the headphones (also not included). This A125s needs to be charged as well, and only has a 10 hour run time between charges.

While I think both products are attempts to integrate wireless into the iPod experience, both fall short. I wait for the day that Apple can integrate it into the iPod directly. This would eliminate the need to charge a separate Bluetooth device. Also, the headphones should work without any issues. This would also open up other possibilites such as wireless uploading of songs to the device which would really be the ultimate killer app of a Bluetooth iPod.

In the meantime, we have these surrogates. What do you think? Will the next iPod have Bluetooth built in? Should it? Do you want Apple white Bluetooth headphones?

--Jonas



From MobileWhack.

Original Press Release.