iLounge

Welcome to our new, continuously-updated First Looks - a collection of previews showing brand new iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories that we’re currently in the process of testing. Here’s what’s hot right now:

From the outside, Ice Diamond’s body looks exactly like that of Black Diamond 3, with one big exception: the color scheme has been switched from black to white. The solid-colored underside is now white, and the previously smoke-colored translucent faceted top has become clear. This is the first time the company has branched out from its typical dark design for a Diamond series lamp, coming closer to the look of its Jellywake series products. The size and shape are exactly the same as before, though, including a 1” speaker driver on each side, a set of two small holes on the top, and a single Mini-USB port on the back. Ice Diamond is about an ounce heavier than Black Diamond 3.

Yantouch has added and updated several features with this edition of the speaker. One of the most important is the inclusion of an internal battery with a promised four to five hours of portable listening, accounting for the weight gain. The Mini-USB cable and wall charger are still included for charging and can be used for stationary music playback or lighting. In terms of audio performance, the company claims the bass has been boosted by 50%—while the change doesn’t radically improve the audio quality, there is a small difference. Audio connectivity is still achieved via a Bluetooth wireless connection to your iOS device and relatively painless pairing.

The lighting itself has also been updated, both in terms of brightness and color variations. Ice Diamond will be able to light up an entire wall, something Black Diamond 3 couldn’t do, thanks to dedicated white LEDs that will enhance white light by 300%. That feature isn’t present in the model we received for evaluation, but Yantouch says that it will be specifically helpful for using the lamp for reading.

Like Black Diamond 3, Ice Diamond requires a remote control and has no physical controls on its body. The included remote has been updated with the goal of a more intuitive button layout. Although it looks pretty similar to the previous version, many functions now only require one button press instead of two, including toggling between multiple music-synchronized lighting modes. The remote is also available digitally in the company’s new BedTimeSocial app, with the same layout. Either way, you’re provided with music playback and volume controls, and multiple ways to adjust the light. We do wish that Yantouch had taken advantage of the app to break away from the fixed-button paradigm of the remote; it could’ve potentially done some really cool and intuitive things.

Still in early stages, Yantouch’s BedTimeSocial app includes three other features, each indicated by a tab along the bottom of the app. There’s a sleep timer and an alarm clock; both rely on skeuomorphic controls rather than practical ones—for example, to set your wake up time, you have to physically spin the hands on the alarm clock. The final tab is “Music,” which allows you to set playlists for wake and sleep, as well as record messages which can be sent to other users’ Ice Diamonds. For example, you can record a birthday greeting for a loved one and have it play on his or speaker upon waking, an interesting feature—assuming that the app is somehow left running to play the greeting through a properly connected speaker. The social integration wasn’t in place during our testing, but then, there aren’t a lot of Ice Diamonds out there yet.

Once we’ve received a final version of Ice Diamond, we’ll update this piece with a full review and rating.