Broadcast your MP3s with i2i Stream
These cool little dongles let you share your tunes, or listen to a friend’s iPod up to 30 feet away, with no wires.
These cool little dongles let you share your tunes, or listen to a friend’s iPod up to 30 feet away, with no wires.
You may not be old enough to remember the dawn of the portable audio age, which happened in the early 80s (1979 to be totally accurate) with Sony’s original Walkman. It was an exciting time let me tell you. Everyone was walking around with headphones on, listening to their favourite tunes – albeit one cassette tape at a time – while tuning out the rest of their environments. Pumping your tunes to the whole world with a ghetto blaster was suddenly very uncool, unless you were hell-bent on making people angry, or into break-dancing.
The solitary nature of the walkman hasn’t changed much even though the device itself has undergone the most important evolution in consumer electronics. People are still wandering around, usually with little white earbuds, privately enjoying their music. If you’ve ever wanted to break down that virtual wall, your choices have been limited: the good ol’ headphone jack splitter, an iPod-compatible boom box, or jamming as many friends as you could fit into a car. Talk about 1980.
Almost 30 years after the first Walkman hit the store shelves, we’ve finally got a music sharing solution worthy of the social networking era. The i2i Stream is a simple device designed to do two things really well: share your tunes from any audio source wirelessly with friends, and listen to those who are doing the same.
The i2i Stream is a 2.4Ghz transceiver, which means it can operate in two modes: Transmit and Receive. It can do that transmitting and receiving on 7 different channels, which means that if you and six friends were all hanging out together, each with your own iPod (or Walkman, FM Radio, satellite radio etc.) you could take turns playing DJ. While listening to the first person’s music, the next person in your round-robin could be cueing up the next track. When the first song ends, everyone switches to the next channel and the session moves on. And since the "streamer", as i2i likes to call it, is powered by a built-in rechargeable battery, you can listen in for up to 5 hours before calling it quits. Of course there are other creative ways to use a streamer, since it can be hooked up to a pair of powered external speakers (patio party anyone?).
The unit is dead-easy to use. To charge it, simply plug it into any powered USB port on a PC, Mac, or wall-outlet based adapter. Don’t use a non-powered hub like your keyboard. Once charged, disconnect it. Plug your iPod or other audio source into one end using the included cable, and your headphones into the other end. Then choose to use the included neck-lanyard or fabric-clip to carry it around.
The volume and power switches are combined into a single clickable "rocker". Push it to cycle the power, rock it up or down to control the volume. The round button in the middle lets you select the channel you want (it even glows in 7 different colours to let you know which one you’re on), while buttons on either side let you choose between transmit and receive modes.
Frankly I’m not sure why these needed to be two separate buttons, but maybe the folks at i2i thought having one button would be too confusing.
My only other criticism is that you can’t leave the streamer plugged into USB power and use it to transmit, although it will still "pass through" your tunes to your headphones if they’re connected.
You can pick up the i2i stream as a pair for $99 USD.
Oh, and – to quote Steve Jobs – one more thing…
The folks at Arielle kindly provided us two pairs of streamers to give away. Nice, huh?
If you want to be the first on your block with a set of i2i streams, drop in a comment below telling us why you need one. Make us laugh, make us cry, heck – make us worry for your social life. The two most creative responses (as judged by us of course), received over the next 9 days will win. Just make sure you use a valid email address when you post, or we won’t be able to contact you. Please don’t put any personal info in your comment (email etc.), we wouldn’t want you to get spammed. Good luck, and just in case you’re curious, here are the official rules.
Update 1: Thanks for all the comments(entries)! On the off-chance that you entered, don’t get picked, and live in the U.S., check out the random3ss blog for another chance to win a pair of i2i’s.
Update 2: The contest entry period is now over. Winners will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond, otherwise we’ll choose another commentor. Thanks everyone!
Update 3: Congrats to Yin and Shelley Gross, our winners. To everyone else, thanks for entering. We’ll be trying to do more giveaways in the weeks ahead, so keep us bookmarked or subscribed. Rick, I’m sorry about the banana – I really am – I don’t like them either.
Oh the old Walkman! Those were the days when fast forwarding between songs was quite a task in itself. No digital screen to display the track number but only song titles printed on the audio cassette itself and your ear to guide you. Everyone has used a pencil to reel the tape back after it all got tangled at least once in their life. It would be awesome this winter to share music with my friends while skiing in Whistler. Heck, we could even find each other in the fog perhaps (more than 30 feet away you lose the signal). My 2 cents. Cool gadget and cool article.
Cheers,
Pat, BC
Given the proprietary nature of I-Pods this is a cool little gadget. What I do like is the ability to broadcast the I-pod/mp3 player through a set of powered speakers. My Mom loves to listen to old time radio plays and this would be an awesome way to share the plays without having to burn them to disk first. It even sounds like it would be easy enough for her to use too!
I too am a child of the Walkman generation and have many memories of hauling my brick around from place to place. I marvel at how technology has changed so that players are now smaller that the batteries used to power the bricks!
The walkman was my best friend 20 years ago as I trained for track meets in highschool. Now the IPOD I just purchased is the only thing keeping me going as I try to find the form, and shape of years past. I could really use a i2i Stream to torture my son with my 80's classics as he runs with me.
First there was the walkman, then the discman & now the ipod, question is what's next? I think this is the best gadget I've heard of in a while. I could use it while running with friends, skiing & even while bbq'ing with the help of some speakers, good times! Not only I could use it to scope out a friends new tunes but I could also use it to torture family members at Thanksgiving & Xmas. Nothing says 'I love you' quite like subjecting the clan to the latest noise. Isn't technology grand?
Boy ! oh ! Boy ! The famous walkman , by today standards this was a huge brick strapped to my waist , I kind ah walk with a limp now and I trace it back to those days when I had it , if a could get this new stream device along with my current mp3 player strap it onto the opposite side of my waist maybe a could correct my limp
Thanks !!!
Awsome product / idea !!! I listen to my mp3 all the time but unfortunately geographically I can not get high speed internet. This makes the traditional online dowload/purchase of music very slow for me. A device like this is perfect for me as I can listen to my friends music when we are together. If the manufacturer would like another suggestion … make a blue tooth adapter for the same unit allowing it to share mp3's wireless and listen to wireless ( Really starting to hate hard wired anything)
Oh how I always wanted to listen to what my friends are listening to!…maybe if I get one, my dreams can come true! But where can i score myself a set? I wonder…:)
I NEED THIS MAAAN!
ALL I GOT IS A OOOLD OOLD ( older than me) MP3 PLAYER!
i beg uuuu!
i neeeeed ittttt!
this thing would be so crazy to have and the best part is no need to download!
I WANT ITT!
PLEAAAAASE!
all my friends got ipods, mp4,s blah blah blah. pisses me off.
i wanna make em jealoussss!
i neeeeed ittt!
pleaseee?
thanks:)
Sweet. Now as consumers we can all broadcast quazi-socialist propaganda mp3's to everyone. A world where 1 year of clown school would be mandatory upon high school graduation and everyone would have to car pool to work with 20 other clowns in Cooper Minis. Ok maybe not but what a cool concept. Underground radio stations everywhere!!! Could this be the death of commercial filled radio stations broadcasting?
This is something I really need.
My neighbors are tired of hearing my muffled music through the walls of the building. With this at least I could hook it up to their stereo and they could hear it properly.
Gotta have it!
The headphone jack splitter, talk about a major pain…. Practically having to sit in someone's lap to hear what they are listening to? It shames me to say I use that thing….. This sounds like a handy little device to have on your person, because it sure beats being on another. Not only can you listen to someone else's music but you can have up to seven choices? Seems too good to be true, it's amazing technology has advanced that much in under 30 years.
I'm definitely going to have to get one for my dad. That way he won't have to steal my iPod anymore….
The reason I think I should win is I have two teenage children who always think they have one up on me when it comes to the IPODS as we all own one. I would love to show off the lastest way of listening to the IPOD showing them I have one up on them and can listen to their IPODS at the same time or force them to listen to my music yeah I'm sure they would love the 80's music.lol This sounds like a great invention.
I'm an old folkie/hippie from the sixties and my daughters (26 and 12 years of age) are more into the comtemporary and hip hop scene. It would be fun playing deuling I-pods(does anyone hear banjo music playing…..?????), while technophobe (and earbudless) Mom wonders, "What the heck is going on?". Just imagine us three doing kariokee in perfect harmony (me off key of course), while mom wonders,"Where's the music?????"
The folks at Arielle kindly provided us two pairs of streamers to give away. Nice, huh?
As much as I love to enjoy my music,my greatest pleasure comes when I can share music with others.Music is like the elixer of life,it has the ability to make us laugh ,cry, feel angry,thoughtful and in my case the need to share this wonderful gift with others.Good luck to everyone and please keep sharing your music with others.
I'm a 47 year old single mother of 4 and to be the first to get one of these i2i would really surprise my kids, as they think that I still listen to my cassette tapes (which I do) and still brag about my records (lps and 45s)..lol. I do not own an ipod, mp3, nor a digital camera, because to be honest.. i have no idea how to operate them. I do have music on my cellphone (with the help of my youngest daughter), but for once I would like to experience the latest electronic model of choice. Please enter me in this contest just to spice up my life a bit. Thank you
um.. I need one because I just lost my dog.. and its realy really really boring wandering through the park looking for my dog and listening to my music when HECK I could be listening to other peoples music well roaming the park aimlessly looking for my dog :(
so I beg of thee! please please.. I want to be a winner!! :P
I really need this because I don't own an Ipod. If I win this I might get an IPod for Christmas from my husband!
WHEN IT COMES TO NEW TECHOLOGY AS A 57 YEARS OLD MOM OF 5 AND GRANDMOTHER OF 7, I AM JUST PLAIN DUMB WITH A CAPITAL D, MY 14 YEARS OLD HAS TO DOWNLOAD MY MUSIC FOR ME ON MY IPOD, I STILL CAN NOT EVEN TURN ON HIS PLAYSTATION 3 OR TURN ON THE DVD PLAYER WHEN HE IS AWAY, HELP!!!!! IF I HAD ONE OF THE I2I STREAMERS I WOULD BE ABLE TO SHOW MY SON THAT I KNOW HOW TO CREATE WAYS TO USE IT AND SHOW HIM THAT HIS OLD MOM IS NOT SO DUMB AFTER ALL.
As the mother of 2 teenage boys that feel what is mine is also their's including my i-pod, the new I2I streamers would be perfect for me and them. They would be able to share their same heavy metal music taste without erasing my geeky music and not killing my eardrums when I feel I should take a quiet moment for myself listening to the music I like.