A friend has just asked me to recommend  something ‘interesting, new and techy’ that could go in a VIP goody bag for an upcoming conference.

My response, after a lot of umming and ahhing, kept coming back to something I acquired a couple of years ago – a piece of tech that after my iDevices I really wouldn’t want to do without –  Jambox – a bluetooth speaker designed and produced by Jawbone.

There have been lots new products launched in the field of small portable speakers but having seen and heard most of them the Jambox is still streets ahead.

Why?

It has fantastic sound.

It has great battery life.

It has some cool add-on’s.

It looks great.

The regular sound is wonderful… rich, enough bass and plenty of volume for even quite a large room. It’s little bit of magic is something called Live Audio. A feature that when activated gives the sound a 3D like quality. When I first engaged it during a podcast about flamenco with a mix of spoken word, singing and guitar I was spooked by the ‘in the room with you’ surround sound that it produced.

Battery life is I reckon about 6 hrs per charge. It charges via an iPhone USB plug so only the little connect cable needs to be carried if you plan some heavy use.

When you sync the speaker to the Jambox website you’re able to download some interesting ‘voices’ that embed into the speaker and let you know status of things like when the battery is running low. ‘I’m on and ready to go’ has become part of our family lexicon.

Yves Behar the designer made the whole package look beautiful, tactile and functional. It comes in lots of cool colours and has a beautifully made and functioning carry case.

Jawbone have just announced a new mini version – with some upgraded connectivity and a controlling App.

The key thing about the new model is that it is a total re-design and re-engineer. I think the reason Jambox had managed to stay ahead of the competition was not just function but the overall integrity of the whole piece.

Behar is a clever designer/engineer and if nothing else I love the fact that he’s man who loves a Moleskine for initial design concepts. Or at least the Jawbone PR department would like to believe he’s a Moleskine kinda guy.

At £130 for the original Jambox or £150 for the new mini it’s not cheap but worth every penny.