The wireless industry has nearly taken over the gadget world these days. Buzzwords like “Apps” and “Smart Phones” have taken over the popular media (this site too to some degree). It’s no wonder why! Americans are awake longer hours, and home fewer hours. We want to consume our favorite games, movies, music and other web based media more than ever before… but we have to do it on the go.
Not Too Many Years Ago Our Mobile Options Were Few…
When I was your age we had a big grey Gameboy with 2-bits and 4 shades of grey. Lots of grey I tell you. These days’ consumers have choices: 3DS, PSP, Android or iOS. Pick your favorite platform, you can consume media and play games until your fingertips go numb.
Development for these devices has skyrocketed with the ability of developers to deliver software via different marketplaces and app stores directly to the device. (Gone sadly are the chunky grey cartridges of yore).
This Poses a Slight Problem
With increased functions comes a need for increased functionality. Software and hardware are always testing one another to see who can push the other to the limits. A new rash of popular applications for mobile devices has popped up which uniquely utilize hardware previously under-tapped by developers. Something so seemingly insignificant that it was overlooked for nearly 3 years of iPhone development: The headphone jack.
Products like Square, Backbeater, and iRig utilize this long looked over port like never before.
So What’s The Big Deal?
The big deal is that the iPhone headphone jack has bands for stereo audio, and a band for the microphone. However, most splitters on the market only have 2 bands on them… which means audio only.
That’s cool if you’re covertly trying to listen to music in class with a friend, or just sharing the audio of your favorite movie with the passenger next to you on a plane (anything to avoid another in flight screening of “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2”). But what about other applications where a split with audio-in becomes more necessary? Or, maybe you wish to use one of the previously mentioned accessories AND you’d like to use your headphones too? Now you see the problem.
The Solution
Enter two products from one California inventor which fill a void in the marketplace you only recently knew existed. The Rockit, and the Wiretap.
The wiretap is black. One of the sockets of the Wiretap is audio in +audio out (so you can use a microphone, headset, or whatever) while the other side is audio out exclusively. It splits the signal from your phone or other smart device. It’s designed to work with microphones/headsets designed to work with phones.
The Rockit is red. It looks just like the wiretap, but is functionally different. One of the sockets of the Rockit is audio in only. The other is stereo out. It splits the audio signal from your phone or other smart device. It’s designed to work with 2-conductor (mono) microphones or line-level instruments, like lapel mics and keyboards.
Since this product uses a standard size combo microphone/headphone jack, it has a LOT of potential applications. I searched Amazon, RadioShack and several other websites and only found one discontinued model that matched the functionality of the Wiretap (and none that match the Rockit)
So whether you’re a budding Android guitarist, iPhone Karaoke junkie or you just like to T-Pain yourself… check out these handy little accessories by Extrasensory Devices. Rockit and Wiretap can be found by clicking here.
