It’s an easy, but not satisfying way to attach your iPod. In its shipping configuration, a headphone jack cable comes out of the dock’s bottom, extending to your choice of lengths, and plugs into your iPod’s top. The knob lets you adjust the intensity of the unit’s LED lights from “off/lo” to “hi.” There’s a port for wall power input (provided by an included black, clear, and silver power adapter), another port for audio input from an external device, and an output labeled “sub,” just in case you want to buy a separate subwoofer($99.95, or $69.95 when ordered with iPulse).Īs with iSphere, the docking area is sort of odd. IPulse’s rear has a knob, two input ports, and an output port. This ring has three buttons – volume up, power, and volume down – as well as a blue light that shines through plastic between them when the power’s on. There’s a large gray plastic back that juts out of the circle’s top docking area, and a volume and power control ring below it on iPulse’s center.
SHARPER IMAGE IPULSE MODEL SL1325 DRIVERS
Holes in the clear plastic expose two small speaker drivers on iPulse’s left and right sides, each silver-centered with a black outer ring. The body – a half circle of frosted clear and white plastic with two gray elements at its center – is most appropriate for younger iPod users. Measuring 8” x 10” x 4”, it weighs 3 pounds.
IPulse is the nichier of the two products: it’s a 2.0 (subwoofer-less) speaker system that has one major claim to fame: it includes an array of LED lights that flash in a manner generally corresponding to the music you’re playing. These ZipConnects now sell separately for $9.95 a piece, down from a more objectionable $19.95, and should be considered mandatory if you want to charge your iPod and pull music from its bottom rather than its top. If you want a better experience, you have to buy an optional ZipConnect accessory – either Dock Connector (iPod/iPod mini/iPod nano) or USB (iPod shuffle). Like iSphere, it comes with the company’s only universal “ZipConnect” unit, a detachable white box with a retractable headphone jack plug – this is a less than optimal way to connect an iPod for listening. Though marketed primarily to iPod owners, iPulse is sold by default as cross-compatible with virtually any small music player. This review covers iPulse, while a separate review covers iSphere. Now the iPod gets two such exclusives – speaker systems called iPulse ZipConnect Speakers with ColorSync LEDs ($129.95) and the iSphere ZipConnect Speaker System ($149.95). But Sharper Image stuck with its pricing and selection formula, and expanded it to include exclusive “Sharper Image Design” items you can’t buy anywhere else.
The prices were high, but the industrial design of the products was generally impeccable, and readers had every reason to believe that someone smart was selecting each catalog’s offerings.īy the mid-1990’s, catalog and Internet mail-order business was common, and prices became increasingly competitive. Its mail order catalogs were always packed with photographs of high-tech gadgets – generally touted as hand-selected, and best of breed. Sharper Image had a good thing going in the 1980s and early 1990s.