It’s not just a pink T-Mobile Sidekick II.
It’s a pink T-Mobile Sidekick II by designers Pam and Gela, better known as Juicy Couture.
And for the guys, it’s not just a black T-Mobile Sidekick II. It’s a black T-Mobile Sidekick II by street designer Mister Cartoon.
The colorated cell phones were unveiled last week in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.
We like the sleek Sidekick II with its easy-to-text-with QWERTY keyboard and useful navigation buttons. Being old fogies, though, we’ll stick to standard silver.
Boost your mobile music
The $80 Boostaroo Revolution high-definition headphone amplifier is the size of a pack of gum, and it’s powered by two AAAA batteries. Plug it into your MP3 player’s headphone socket, then plug your headphone into the Revolution, and the noise will be brought. The high-def Revolution pumps up the volume by a factor of four across all frequencies and splits the MP3 signal into its component parts for clarity’s sake. (The older $30 model only doubles the output and does not demultiplex.) Bass is much more defined, and highs are clear. Using a range of headphones, we detected no distortion and no coloring of tone using the high-def model.
If you’re considering the Revolution, a few words of advice: Don’t use it with in-ear earphones, as your surroundings will be utterly blotted out and your hearing could be damaged; set your music player’s EQ to “normal” or off; because the Revolution is just one more thing to carry, we recommend choosing your favorite playlist, hitting the play button and storing your audio player and the Revolution in your bag.
The Revolution comes with two stereo out mini-jacks so two people can listen on separate headphones, or two mini-speakers could be connected.
Other portable amps include the $250 Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5Pro (ultimateears.com) and the $299 Headroom Micro Amp (headphone.com), each of which is bigger than the Revolution. While some might balk at the $80 price tag, the unit makes bus and train noise disappear on the morning commute.
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AP-NY-11-09-05 1502EST
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