After seeing this seemingly cheap piece of plastic on an episode of The Shark Tank, I was curious if the SoundBender really worked. The claim is that it can redirect and “amplify” the sound of the speaker on the back of your iPad toward the front where you will most likely have your face. I get around the speaker-on-the-back issue all the time by angling my iPad against a wall or cupping my hand on the edge. The fact that I even do these sorts of things demonstrates that Apple has a serious engineering flaw with the iPad.
I was lucky to catch SoundBender on sale for $12.99.
The thing is unimpressive in its appearance. It is simply plastic with a magnet in it.
Unfortunately, when they make these things, they have no clue which side of the magnet is which. I had to pop mine out and replace it facing the opposing direction in order to get it to magnetize with my iPad. The makers of SoundBender are aware of this flaw and even provide instructions to do it on the packaging.
All of that aside, it hooks on my iPad with ease and it is just strong enough not to fall off.
The result has been great, as there is a clear difference in sound when I use it. Here is a video demonstrating the difference.
Overall, I am impressed. I will use the SoundBender regularly and I recommend it to anyone who uses their iPad speakers.
By Scott Manning
Online Learning Tips, Student Contributor
Comments are closed.