Despite the off-putting product shots and video, the SoundJam looks like a great fix for the iPad's crappy speaker
SoundJaw is a small plastic widget that fixes one of the worst things about the iPad 2 — its stupid, tinny backwards-facing speaker. It clips onto the bottom of the iPad 2 (and also the iPad 1) and bounces the sound back towards you, greatly increasing its volume.
The original iPad sounded pretty great for something so small. The curved back and decent amount of space inside probably accounted for the surprisingly bassy output, and the good-enough volume. The iPad 2 has a speaker grille so ugly I still can't believe it was designed by Apple, and so easy to cover with your hands (or a folded-back Smart Cover) that it can be all but muted at any time.
Matthew McLachlan's SoundJaw fixes this by scooping up the sound and sending it towards you and your ears, and not letting it get muffled in your lap. The clip-on plastic scoop can be seen in action here in his otherwise obnoxious video (Trains! Shaky camera! We're so cool!), and appears to make quite a difference. You can actually test this yourself by cupping a palm over the speaker and redirecting the sound waves. Try it.
Pretty effective, right?
The SoundJaw is yet another Kickstarter project, and a $20 pledge will get you one of them if the $7,000 target is reached. If you pledge $225, McLachlan will meet you for lunch and bring along 8 SoundJaws, and if you pledge $750 you'll get an iPad 2 and ten SoundJaws "to pass out to your friends."
Or you could make your own. I'm currently experimenting with household junk and will report back if I have any success.
SoundJaw – iPad 1 and 2 Sound Booster [Kickstarter via Brownlee]
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