NFC Speakers, touch and hear it’s that easy

NFC Speakers are available today and they are starting to show how far NFC can change our worlds. Near Field Communication applications and possibilities extend far beyond the mobile wallet and SmartPosters, and one of those areas is within our home electronics to enable immediate connections and actions with everyday items we interact with. NFC Speakers are an obvious use for a technology that acts as a gateway connection for WiFi and Bluetooth signals.

Nokia’s Play 360 Bluetooth NFC Speakers uses NFC for Bluetooth pairing

The other day we posted about the Nokia N9 with MeeGo, but didn’t mention the accompanying Nokia Play 360 NFC Speakers. These omnidirectional NFC Speakers stream music from your phone via Bluetooth but can connect using NFC with a simple tap of your NFC phone to the top of the device. That’s right, tap the top and you create an instant connection that hands off to bluetooth and you are ready to rock. The Nokia Play 360 NFC Speakers will happily play your tunes for up to 20 hours on a single charge and recharge via a micro USB port at the back of the speaker. The speaker pumps out omnidirectional mono, but if you are of the mind, and have been saving your pennies you can simply purchase a second Nokia Play 360 Speaker and it will immediately be recognized by the first speaker and convert the sound to stereo. Not expected to be available until the third quarter of this year the Nokia Play 360 NFC Speakers are expected to retail for $199 each or €149 in Europe. We will be sure to let you know when we have a firm release date for these snazzy little boxes of sound.

Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310 turns any HiFi or speaker system into NFC Speakers

Not satisfied with a killer new MeeGo phone or a pair of NFC Speakers, Nokia also announced the Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310 which enables any tune playing device with a 3.5mm jack or with the included RCA adapter to use the same NFC Speaker connection technology that the Nokia Play 360 uses. So it doesn’t matter whether you want to pair your phone with your prized separates HiFi system, your home media system or with your computer, you will now have the ability to stream tunes from any NFC-enabled smartphone. The Nokia Wireless Music Receiver MD-310 looks as if it was contoured and designed at Apple with glossy white and black color options, the aesthetics of the disc shaped device won’t mess with that feng shui thing you have going on. Price wise it is expected to roll in at a surprisingly affordable $85 or €59 and are also expected to be available in the third quarter of this year.

Parrot Party Black Edition NFC Speakers

We can’t wait to get our hands on the Nokia NFC Speakers or to try out the MD-310, but Nokia are not the only game in town, and in fact, Parrot USA released its own NFC Speakers way back in 2008. The Parrot Party Black Edition NFC Speakers also hand off to Bluetooth, but they do it in stereo from the get go. They also work with any device that outputs to a 3.5mm jack, but are more than happy pumping out their 6 Watts RMS over Bluetooth that connects via either NFC or Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR. The rechargeable 2100 mAh battery lasts 8 hours which is not as long as the massive 20 hours that the Nokia’s will last you, but the Parrot NFC Speakers have a mains lead that accepts both 110 and 240 volt flavors of electricity so will work most places in the world and can simply be plugged in if you are running a little low on juice.  As well as having a super long name, the Parrot Party Black Edition have two wide band drivers and you can even play around with the sound using the built in audio effects that come in the form of Stereo Widening and Virtual SuperBass. They even have a low power feature to help you eek out a little extra from the battery, and have an indicator to let you know when you are running low so they don’t rock out of charge. Aesthetically, they look a little less refined than the MD-310 but are certainly on par with the Nokia Play 360 Bluetooth NFC Speakers. The page on the company’s website errors when you go to purchase these speakers but we have seen them being sold by other online retailers for $100 or less and at that price, they represent a decent savings over the Nokia route. We have reached out to Parrot to find out if they have anything else coming our way and if they are still manufacturing the Parrot Party Black Edition speakers, and will update you when they get back with us.

We expect to see lots more NFC Speakers available within the next few months and probably some high-end speaker manufacturers dabbling with NFC Speaker technology, but for now there are NFC Speakers available and some on route.