My sister gave me the BoostPlus Near Field Audio speaker for Christmas. I was happy for the kind thought, but since I already have three or four Bluetooth speakers, I wasn't overly excited about getting another one.
But when I used it I learned that it is not like a Bluetooth speaker. It doesn't need to be paired via Bluetooth. You just set your phone on it and it starts playing. This feature makes it a great kitchen gadget. When I'm cooking or washing the dishes, I use it to listen to podcasts and to Spike Priggen's excellent Pop-Psych, Garage & Freakbeat playlist on Spotify. When it's my wife's turn for KP duty, she listens to her podcasts on her phone (she can't be bothered with Bluetooth pairing and so before we got this thing she would just crack up the volume on the phone and listen via the built-in speaker).
The downside is that the audio quality is not as good as a Bluetooth-paired amplified speaker, but for podcast and garage music, I don't care – the convenience factor makes up for the low-fi sound.
iFrogz IF-BSP-GRN BoostPlus Near Field Audio Speaker for Smartphones and Digital Music Players ($(removed))
