THE PORTABLE USB PLAYER THAT BRINGS SIMPLICITY -
A REVIEW OF THE LAPLOCK TECHNOLOGY BOOMBOX PLUS
JACKIE BROWN
My thanks go to British Wireless for the Blind Fund (BWBF) for allowing me the opportunity to take a look at this nifty little device.
For many, specialist DAISY players are expensive and prohibitive. RNIB has also stopped issuing machines with talking book subscriptions. So people are now on the lookout for something small, cheap and tactile that will allow them to listen to a range of audio or music content.
The Boombox Plus, made by LapLock Technology, might just be the perfect solution if all you want to do is listen to your talking newspapers, audio books or music content from a USB memory stick that plugs into the device.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
You receive the Laplock Boombox, standard USB to standard USB cable, and a wall plug.
ORIENTATION AND USE OF THE BOOMBOX
To charge the unit, plug one end of the USB cable into the socket on the mains plug, and the other end into the socket on the rear of the Boombox. The device is 125mm long, by 80mm deep, by 72mm high, and weighs 280g.
With the unit in front of you, there are three tactile oval-shaped buttons along the top. From left to right, these are Back, Play/Pause, and Forward. The USB socket for inserting your memory stick is directly behind the middle button of the three, and is convenient to locate.
On the front of the Boombox Plus is a round dial which can be turned up or down to increase or decrease volume. This knob and the three controls described above are all a high visibility yellow in colour against a brown contrast of the Boombox Plus. At each end of the unit is a small speaker.
At the rear of the unit is a neatly folded telescopic aerial which may be extended if you wish to listen to FM radio on the Boombox. below the aerial to the left is a switch. Move it to the left to turn on the Boombox. If there is no memory stick inserted, the FM radio will come on. If a memory stick is present in the USB socket on top of the Boombox, then the unit defaults to this mode. Press Play to begin listening to your audio or music content. Use the Back and Forward buttons to move through what you are listening to, or hold down either one of these keys to skip through content at a faster rate. When you next insert the USB stick and begin playing content, it will remember where you stopped listening by adding an automatic bookmark.
To the right of the on/off switch on the rear of the Boombox Plus is a 3.5mm socket for you to listen to the device using headphones (not supplied). And to the right of this is the other USB socket which is where you insert one end of the cable to charge the internal battery. The battery itself may be replaced. It is housed underneath the unit.
The FM radio is straightforward to work. Without a memory stick present, turn on the Boombox Plus and press and hold the middle button of the three for a few seconds the first time you use the radio. This will tune the radio to stations it can receive. To move through these stations, press the Back or Forward keys. For better reception, extend the telescopic aerial. There are no presets for you to store your favourite stations on this unit.
CONCLUSION AND PRICING
The Boombox Plus has been available for some months now, and is a very simple, tactile unit to operate. In addition to normal MP3 files, it will play DAISY books, but it is important to bear in mind that navigation features found on specialist machines such as BookSense, Milestone, Plextalk and Victor Reader products are not available. But if all you want is a simple device for playing content from a memory stick, then the £30 this device costs is value for money, and portable enough to take around with you.
It can be purchased from Calibre,
www.calibre.org.uk
or BWBF,
www.blind.org.uk.