BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

From Kickstarter To MoMA, Amplifiear iPad Speaker Enters The Canon Of Cool Design

This article is more than 10 years old.

It's one thing to run a successful Kickstarter campaign and raise a multiple of your goal to fund your project. It's quite another to get the resulting product into the MoMA Design Store. This is just what Brooklyn designer Evan Clabots of Nonlinear Studio has done with his Amplifiear.

A deceptively simple solution to the iPad's rear-facing speaker. The ABS plastic disk comes in six colors (the red, green and blue are color matched to the Apple Smart Case) three of which are available from MoMA and all from Amplifiear's own store. It fits all three generations of full-size iPad (with or without a Smart Case) through attachable foam pads. I have queried Nonlinear about if it can be adapted to the iPad Mini, but I imagine doubling up on some combination of the included pads woud work.

The Amplifiear works by redirecting the sound from the back to the front while also boosting the higher frequencies. Not only are higher frequencies responsible for the crispness of sound and for being able to cut through background noise, but the comprehension of spoken language relies heavily on vowel sounds in these higher registers. So although the disk, likened to a cartoon bubble or Mickey Mouse ear, only amplifies sound by a maximum of 10 decibels, the intelligibility of that sound is enhanced.

I wrote about the Amplifiear's Kickstarter project back in April of last year, saying that it was a product that Apple itself should buy because it matched their simplicity and clarity of design. I was heartened to read the story in this week's New Yorker about the selection process for the MoMA Store to see that its judges agreed with me. Of course being featured in the MoMA Store is not the same as being selected for the museum's permanent collection and shown in MoMA's galleries, but even the Eames' had to start somewhere.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

To keep up with Quantum of Content, please subscribe to my updates on Facebook, follow me on Twitter or add me on Google+.