speaker

One of my bug bears is having plugin my phone into a cable to listen to music. With a cable plugged in to the phone, it becomes "tethered" to my desk and therefore don't have quite the same freedoms to use it as a phone.

The Avantree Roxa Bluetooth Receiver works brilliantly if you have a set of wired speakers or perhaps a hifi system which is set up on the opposite side of the room from where you happen to be sitting.

The Avantree is so easy to setup with only two very logical steps:

1. Plug the Avantree into a wall socket.

2. Pair your bluetooth capable device with the Avantree. 

and that's it!

The Avantree also has a USB socket which provides sufficient power (1 Amp) for charging iPhones, iPads and any other device that can be charged over USB.

This really is a very capable device and one that would be at home in any home or office.

I got this from MobileFun where there are lots more smartphone accessories.

As many of you know, I often retreat to the sanctuary of my allotment and greenhouse at every opportunity. I love its peacefulness and love the social nature of meeting like-minded gardeners. However, there are times when I miss listening to a radio station, or music and whilst some use small portable radios, I've opted for a portable Bluetooth speaker which interfaces with my iPod or iPhone. It's small, compact and has an inbuilt rechargeable battery which makes powering it so convenient and easy to keep powered.

One major weakness of small speaker systems is the lack of bass and this isn't completely solved by the Veho. Its small size makes it almost impossible to overcome the problem of producing deep, rich bass notes, however, it makes a very respectable attempt at trying to.

The Veho speaker system is very well equipped:

• rechargeable battery pack (built in)
• micro USB for charging
• audio in jack socket (3.5)
• Bluetooth connectivity
• micro SD card slot for playing music directly from memory storage

The controls on top of this unit are also well designed, with volume, skip forward / back, and power (both stop and on/off.)