LIAM “AWESOME” MCNULTY — What you’re looking at is a demonstration model of Panasonic’s Bluetooth MP3/CD player, shown at this year’s “A&V Festa” in Tokyo “A&V Festa.” Announced specifications are quite sparse, but what we do know is that it features “Adaptive Frequency Hopping” support to ward off any wireless LAN interference.
Perhaps more interesting than the boring old MP3/CD player itself is the Bluetooth supporting remote/other stuff attached to the headphones. Obviously, the necklace acts as a remote for the CD player, complete with LCD display and normal CD playing buttons. Wirelessly, I might add. Because that’s the point of Bluetooth, I think.
Anyway, Panasonic has gone on to add “answer” and “hang up” buttons to the remote, as well as a microphone. So with your Bluetooth enabled phone, the remote can act as a headset. If you happen to own a stereo system (or something else) that uses Bluetooth, you can even use the headphones wirelessly when just sitting around the house drinking a Corona. The battery life for the headphone unit is supposedly around 5-10 hours.
Read – 2004 A&V Festa Event Report #3 [AV Watch]
