Iqua Snake 2: Hands-Free Bluetooth Weirdness

While I’m on the subject of companies at the Sands during CES, check out this device from mobile-communications manufacturer Iqua (the company’ll be at the Sands if you’re Vegas bound). With an MSRP of $179, the Snake 2 hands-free Bluetooth headset attaches to the headrest of a car seat (almost all car makes and models according to Iqua) and lets you talk for up to eight hours on your Bluetooth-enabled device.

Speakers are located on each side of your head and the neck is flexible, so you can adjust it according to the height of the user. However, if you were to use it in a convertible as the photo suggests, I doubt you could hear a damn thing. Looks like call-answer and -end buttons are on top of the mouthpiece making them easy to acccess without taking your eyes off the road.

What would be fun is pretending no one else is in the car with you and getting the person on the other end of the call to say something completely horrible. But maybe that’s just me.

(c) www.crunchgear.com

Alvarion launches WiFi / WiMAX-enabled BreezeMAX lineup

Being that Intel's gone and released WiMAX / WiFi hybrid chips, it's only right that we start seeing a few svelte pieces of kit hit the mainstream in order to take full advantage. For those of us not lucky enough to board British trains loaded with such niceties, Alvarion is launching a new branch of BreezeMAX products to take advantage of WiMAX where available. Marketed specifically towards carriers looking to "capture additional revenues while moving towards advanced personal broadband services," the BreezeMAX WI2 (along with the BreezeACCESS WI2) purportedly provide a "powerful converged network" that combines the lovability of WiFi with the novelty of WiMAX. Each WI2 setup consists of an outdoor WiFi access point with an integrated power module capable of connecting to various commercial power sources, as well as the ability to sync with the company's backhaul units for "network management" tasks. We're not certain how much coinage Alvarion plans on charging for these integrated units, but each step we take towards worldwide wireless coverage is worth every red cent.

(c) www.engadget.com

Wave Bubble: the portable, undercover FM jammer

There's no better way to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of broadcast radio -- or to completely enrage your sibling by rendering that brand new cellphone useless -- than to craft your very own FM jammer. Branching out from the many other jammers we've already seen, the Wave Bubble touts itself as being a "self-tuning, wide-bandwidth" rig that doesn't require a spectrum analyzer, and can "jam many different frequency bands" all in a pocket-friendly enclosure. Powered by an internal Li-ion cell, this bad boy provides self-tuning via "dual PLL," and you can manually enter new frequencies to vex by simply plugging it into your PC's USB port and inputting the data when prompted. It can purportedly provide up to two hours of jamming on dual bands (such as "cellphones") or four hours on single bands such as "cordless phones, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc." Additionally, the output power ranges from 0.1-watts (high bands) to 0.3-watts (low bands), and the handy device sports an approximate range of about 20 feet with "well-tuned antennas." Of course, you aren't apt to find this for sale anywhere considering the fit the FCC would undoubtedly throw, but if you consider yourself a master of the DIY craft, be sure to tag the read link for some in-depth pedagogy.

(c) www.engadget.com