Bose wants you to ditch your uncomfortable earbuds and over-ear headphones that cut you off from your surroundings for their SoundWear Companion Speaker. The SoundWear wearable speaker features a unique hands-free and ears-free design that allows it to fit comfortably on your shoulders for all day music enjoyment.
The speaker is water and sweat resistant and provides up to 12 hours of playback time on a full charge. A quick 15-minute charging session will add 3 hours of playback time so you’ll always be able to enjoy your tunes.
You can also use the SoundWear Companion Speaker for calls, or to talk to Siri and Google.
What do you think of this design? Would you use a wearable speaker? I’d love to try this.
The Bose SoundWear Companion Speaker is available now for $299. You can read all the details at bose.com and order from Amazon.
Filed in categories: News
Tagged: Bluetooth speaker
Wear your music around your neck with the Bose SoundWear Companion Speaker originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 4, 2017 at 9:00 am.
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As with many of us Gadgeteers, most especially our fearless Gadgeteer-in-Chief, Julie, I like writing implements of all kinds, but I really like pens. Something about a well designed and built pen elevates the experience of handwriting, which feels increasingly like a lost art, to a higher plane of enjoyment. That said, I’ve been a big fan of Baron Fig for several years, now, having reviewed both their 
Of note is that the Squire began life as a very successful crowdfunded Kickstarter campaign. I believe that those pens shipped with a square box, but this cylindrical box seems more suited to the shape of the object inside it.
I’d also point out that the Squire’s package was quite protective, as seen above. It was basically encased in a block of foam within a semi-rigid cardboard cylinder. In fact, the bottom portion of the box can be used as an upright pen stand.
Baron Fig’s products are all designed to be minimalist in style, and the Squire fits into that philosophy perfectly. Only two logos are present on it, “BARON FIG” and a sword emblem.
The sword emblem, as seen above, comes from Baron Fig’s tagline for the Squire, which is, “The pen is a mighty sword.”
The Baron Fig logo and the sword appear to be laser-etched into the aluminum body and backfilled with paint or some type of pigment. Bottom line is that they look and feel like they will last a long time without wearing off, if ever.
The shape of the Squire tapers from wider near the writing tip to narrower at the logo end, similar to the sword logo depicted on it.
Above is an exploded view of the components of the Squire. It consisted of four parts, the main body, the twist top, the ink cartridge and a spring. Accessing the cartridge is simple: just twist the top far to the left and unscrew it, then remove the cartridge and spring. Reverse the order to replace the cartridge, which are available in black, blue, red and green ink colors. The refills are sold by Baron Fig in a 3-pack for $12. (FYI NOTE: Doing a bit of research, it appears likely that the Squire uses the Schmidt P8126 0.6mm Short Capless Rollerball ink refill.)
Above, you can see the tapered shape of the Squire, which is very ergonomic. This subtly tapered shape prevents your fingers from sliding down toward the tip while you are writing.
Even the length of the Squire has been carefully considered. It is shorter than the average pen but longer than the average “pocket” pen, so it fits into a perfect spot for either using it at the office all day or tossing it into your pocket as part of your mobile EDC. Plus, since it is twist-to-open and not push-button, you don’t have to worry about it opening accidentally and inking your britches.
First impressions: High quality, great leather. You know how you can pick up and handle something and you can feel the quality in it? This wallet did that for me.
Clean design, both front and back.
The stitching around the perimeter was flawless and secure.
The embossed American Flag looked great. Very understated yet dignified, fitting of Old Glory.
Inside, there are two pockets on either side. I found it interesting that the pockets have slightly different shapes. On the left the pockets have cutout notches to aid in removing cards. On the right, the pockets have more of a curved shape.
Closed and unloaded, the wallet is fairly thin, though with a total of six layovers of leather stacked up, its a bit too thick for me to call it a “minimal” wallet.
While the thickness of the wallet doesn’t necessarily lend itself to being called minimal, its footprint is fairly small, which lends itself a bit to being used as a front-pocket-carry wallet.
Above, I’ve loaded the wallet with a total of 6 cards and three once-folded bills.
Above, you can see that the loaded wallet does grow a bit in thickness, expanding to almost 2x its unloaded thickness.
As mentioned above, this Dark Brown stitching looks great all around, and I found myself wondering what the Natural Tan thread would look like on this wallet.
Above, the stitching along the back.
As mentioned above, this wallet has a fairly slim footprint, which helps keep its overall size down.