The iShower from iDevices US$99.99, is an almost perfect Bluetooth speaker for the shower or anywhere that might get wet. The engineering and design on the iShower is wonderfully thorough. iDevices seems to have thought about just about everything and come up with a very useful design and a wonderful feature set.
iShower with a bit of the stand showing in the rear
Understand that the iShower is not waterproof, but water-resistant, so you do have to make sure that you don't turn a shower directly on it or drop it in a swimming pool. iDevices made a good choice by putting the speaker on the back, so that water doesn't get in. They made an even better choice by by designing the optional mount that gives you the ability to keep it on your shower wall, about an inch and a half recessed from the shower wall so that the sound can reverberate. This sort of attention to detail is found throughout the iShower.
Features of the iShower
The iShower has a rectangular pivoting back that serves two purposes. It can be opened to provide around a 45 degree angle which makes a triangle with the unit in the front and the stand in the back. This lets the iShower stand upright on most anything. I just wish the hinge were a bit more rigid because, infrequently, the iShower fell over. I also wish the rectangular back were able to be removed, at least on one side. My shower head is much larger than the opening provided and being able to snap it open and snap it shut would allow me to connect the unit further up the shower pipe past the shower head and snap it back together. The limitation of the stand/holder is the only thing I would change.
The iShower is very easy to set up and allows five Bluetooth devices to be used. Pair the first one, touch a button and it's ready to pair with number two, three, four and five. This is very convenient for the use of a family with a number of iPhones, iPads or other Bluetooth devices.
Buttons are well marked and there are no extra buttons to confuse you. One button is volume up, another is volume down. A power button is on the bottom left. Since the unit uses three supplied batteries, turning it off after your shower should provide a very long battery life.
There is a clock that can be manually set and displayed with the push of a clock button, a useful addition. One button lets you choose paired device 1-5, another is for start and stop and two more let you go forward and backward in a playlist or on an album. I can't think of any other buttons that would be needed. The design is perfect.
When you get into the shower, another Bluetooth device is already using the signal, a brilliant feature grabs the signal and transfers the sound to the iShower. This may not sound like the biggest of deals, but when you're wet and in the shower, this capability is wonderfully useful. Another nicety is if you forget to turn turn on the music on your player, the iShower does it for you, and when you turn it off, just hit the play button on your sending device and the music, podcast or whatever, picks up right where it left off on the iShower. I use it for podcasts and news and have never lost my place.
Range and Sound
Through some proprietary magic, the Bluetooth signal has a range of 200 feet. I didn't believe it when I first read it, but darn if it isn't true. So unless you live in a mansion, you can take it all over your house, or leave your iPhone inside while you listen to it outside.
The sound quality is fine for the purpose. In the shower the reverberation makes the speaker sound better than it really is, and it sounds as good as most radios. This is not advertised to be the best sounding speaker on the block and it isn't, but it's not bad at all.
Do I Recommend it?
Yes. I recommend it quite strongly. I think for the $100 price tag, you get more than what you pay for. The ability to do your entire morning routine without missing a beat (literally and figuratively) makes it so convenient and welcome that getting ready to leave the house is a much more pleasant experience. I feel that this is not a gimmick, but something that can, if you're anything like me, improve the quality of your audio life.