Bose does the same thing with one of their home systems (yes, i watch infomercials when I can't sleep...which is often). I used to do the same thing with headphones and paper cups.

But I think the design is really elegant and classy. I can see the reason for wanting a small, portable, cordless "device" to amplify a small, portable, cordless device. see what i did there? neat, huh?

wizardofpants

What's an iPhone?

Con Seannery

Yeah, came across this from ilounge last night I think, and I did notice you could charge it w/ their proprietary cable?

Personally though, I think this is great! For those that want to listen to music and NOT constantly charge up their battery...if it works as well as they're presenting it to, I'd probably buy more than one.

MrFalcon

It is pretty wild how directional the speakers are on the iPhone, I've found that just cupping my hand the right way when holding it, points the sound right at my ears, and can get loud!

mdoublej

@dirigoDIGITAL: Griffin were following you around on your golf game?

Sockatume

I actually came up with something very similar to this about a year ago. Bastards stole my idea... It IS a great idea, whether or not some of you can see the usefulness.

The idea came to me when playing golf, riding around in the golf cart we wanted some tunes, so I used my iPhone and just turned it up so we could hear it... but we could barely hear it, esp. when driving. When it was my turn to t-off, I put the phone in the cup holder (speaker pointed down), it fit well, and to my surprise amplified the music a whole lot, to the point I had to turn it down because it was too loud.

It basically redirects / concentrates the sound-waves, kind of how the Bose wave radio works. Only this was a thin plastic cup holder, with a small hole in the bottom. It worked great, I wanted to patent the idea or something, but never got around to it... damn it.

You can easily construct something like this for yourself at home, it's very handy for camping, or just on the go stuff.... you don't have to be constantly charging your phone you know...

dirigoDIGITAL

I just put my iPhone in a shoe when I use the speaker for music... seriously.

swansong

@Gibberish: Good find, fix the article please Giz :D

Jon B.

WAIT, it *CAN* charge and sync!
[www.griffintechnology.com]

Gibberish

I got the BOSE sounddock portable for my iPhone, and it charges the phone even when it's on the Battery!!

I'm really impressed with it so far.. it's also 15x as much as this plastic option

Wegmans

you can make these out of paper... I think I saw it on daring fireball once. Yeah, just paper and tape, and you have an amplifier. It works pretty well actually.

EventHorizon

How strange is it that it cannot charge. Simple case of a company run by engineers without doing any market research.

Gibberish

it really, REALLY needs to have just one thing - a USB port on the back. That way you CAN charge with it, otherwise it's kind of a waste of space when you're not say, chillin on the beach.

lpranal

@dc-united: The Bose alarm radio is actually filled with the souls of tortured leprechauns.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

New threaded comments 404'd! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Xavoc

Sounds a lot like the internal design of the Bose alarm radio. (Says he with absolutely zero technical knowledge of that product)

dc-united

Can't charge the phone? What's the point of this again?

OGHowie

@Con Seannery: Cisco Systems' telephone machine. Where you been at foo'?

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

@Gibberish:
Hum...cable sold separately...

JEmlay

***Correction**

Looking at the item description it does mention the following:

"Allows syncing/charging using Griffin Dock Cable"

So it does appear that it will sync/charge when your phone is docked but you need a special cable from griffin which is probably sold separatly.

Thillbilli

@dirigoDIGITAL: I think that this is basically a variation of a transmission line speaker, where a folded duct is used to assist in transmitting the acoustic energy in a certain way. It is exactly how a Bose speaker works.

ludwigk

@OGHowie: To play music louder, you spanner.

Collins1

@Sockatume: Yes.. and they kept throwing my balls into the bunkers....

dirigoDIGITAL

@OGHowie: if you've ever used the iphone's built in speakers you'll know they're more than just a little lacking. anything this sucker can do is a plus.

Paradise

@Collins1: You spanner? How novel!

5cents

@jopari: Whelp I'm not sure how I managed to reply to two people... bug perhaps?

jopari

@Collins1: @OGHowie: It does have a port, so you can plug in your cord and charge it that way. It's basically a replacement for the dock that comes with the phone that has the added bonus of charging it.

jopari

Actually, this is PRECISELY what I want. I have an app called Ambiance, that makes all kinds of nice rain and white noise sounds for sleeping, and of course great Alarm options to wake up to are also on the phone. The speaker is surprisingly good as it is, but having a nice stand that also boosts the sound, even better. And cheap!

I want.

ohjohnsmall

Just found out you dont need their cable,
read about it on their website and you can use
the cable that came with your iphone.
I'm Definitely getting me one, mostly cause I like to
listen to music while in the shower =D

[www.griffintechnology.com]

joeya7x

I was at their headquarters in Nashville over the summer and they showed this to me -- believe it or not it actually works!

Zincyo

based upon the original phonograph---excellent!

brutek

@5cents: It's a British thing.

Collins1