Pretty much every cool home party today ends up facing the same problem: everybody wants to be the DJ. This can result in passive aggressive snatching of the aux cable by those genuinely convinced of their superior iTunes/YouTube/Spotify catalog. That is now history, if it were up to the Jookbox, a new gadget that describes itself as being the world’s first ‘social speaker’.
The Jookbox, created by tech company BSX Electronics, is a WiFi & app-enabled speaker that lets friends add music to a group playlist. It also comes with its own, one-of-a-kind app that allows multiple users to contribute their own music to a singular playlist that can then be streamed through multiple speakers at once. What this means is that the guests at your party, dinner, or home-based hangout now all have to neatly await their turn to play their favourite song to everybody – a much better solution than the dreadful remark “Hey, is it okay if I unplug you, I really want you guys to hear this!”
Aside from the fact that we’re just a little disappointed by its bland design – as it pretty much looks like every other portable speaker out there – we do think this is a great innovation in wireless audio gadgetry. The Kickstarter campaign for Jookbox ended successfully, with over 90 backers pledging $5000 over its initial goal of $35k. The Jookbox can be ordered here.