CES 2015

NYNE is making it harder and harder to find an excuse not to get outside and ride your bike, or taking your kids out for a stroll. They’re showing off three new IPX-rated outdoor speakers, all with Bluetooth and all ready to roll.

Two of the new speakers are designed for cyclists or strollers, and come with handlebar attachments. The larger Edge will retail for $160 and the Verge is a more affordable $120. The Edge has about 12 hours of playback, and the Verge a still-substantial 10 hours. Those will outlast most of my bike rides. More than just speakers, they have an LED strobe that acts like a small headlight. They’re more the “be seen” types of lights - they won’t light up the road enough to be used alone without supplemental street lights or brighter onboard lights, but they certainly help drivers spot you at twilight.

The IPX3-rated Rock is much larger and rocks a 50-watt amplifier - perfect for beach bonfires or anywhere else where that much power is necessary. It’s a five-speaker beast, with two tweeters, two full-range drivers and an active subwoofer. The Rock will retail for $300.

All three speakers use Bluetooth 4.0 or a 3.5mm AUX input, connect quickly with NFC pairing, and they all have built-in microphones for hands-free phone calls. All three are also USB power banks - they can charge a portable device via their USB port. For the bike versions, they can be used to power your bike computer or some of the newer USB-rechargeable bike lights. Battery life is claimed to be up to 12 hours. They should hit the market early second quarter of 2015.

NYNE made a splash last year at the show with a range of IPX-rated devices and it’s nice to see them expand the range with more focused products for outdoor pursuits.