Just when I thought that speakers are turning more and more serious - not necessarily the high-end or audiophile way - weird or even silly things show up (about silly crap you can read more here). And about weird speakers I will tell you in the following lines!

OK, cube-shaped speakers have been made since the 60's and 70's (remember the "design frenzy") and the first loudspeakers were wooden, so nothing weird so far. But when one decides to build a tiny cubic wooden speaker something is amiss; and when I say "tiny" I really mean it: the speaker is no bigger than 19x26x30mm and can throw 1.5W.

This amount of power should actually cut for good the "loud" in "loudspeakers" if you'd ask me; anyway, these 1.5 Watts are more than enough to be very-very well heard and even annoy the ones around you!

The Korean producer of the i.Dear (another "i", for crying out loud!) claims the speaker runs on energy provided by the built-in rechargeable Li-Ion Battery which will provide power for 5 hours of operation. Since no-one can be that wacko as to listen to this speaker for 5 hours, I guess this spec can't be quite demoed.

Being nothing more than a fairly good cellphone speaker inside a cute wooden box, the i.Dear was clearly designed for mobile phones use, but it can be easily utilized with any sound-generating device, be that a laptop, MP3 player or DiscMan by means of a mini-jack connector. As far as everybody has managed to suppose, the battery is recharged via the USB connection: imagine how weird a laptop looks with a wooden block attached to its side!

Now, what can I say? The i.Dear is a nice technological endeavor or experiment if you want, or maybe a design exercise, but as far as actually using it thoroughly, its utility is in serious doubt, at least from my point of view. I mean, why using an additional speaker for the (almost all the time, lately) silly ringtones? Or is it that the already loud and annoying cellphones aren't enough? Use the $25 you'd have to pay for the i.Dear to buy a set of good heaphones instead...

Pictures credited to i.Dear.