Griffin Technology on Wednesday continued its stream of Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco news with the announcement of two more products: BlueTrip, a Bluetooth device for transmitting iPod music to a home stereo, and FireWave, a FireWire peripheral that enables 5.1 Surround Sound audio on a Mac. The former will ship this quarter for US$149 while the latter will be available next quarter for $99.99.
BlueTrip comes in two parts: a receiver that plugs into your stereo and features RCA, optical and headphone jacks; and a transmitter that hooks to your iPod and draws power from it. Because it operates with Bluetooth, BlueTrip can send music up to 30 feet away from the stereo, with no need to keep the transmitter in the receiver’s line of sight.
FireWave’s Dolby Digital processors turn your Mac’s speakers into a 5.1 Surround Sound system. It plugs into your Mac’s FireWire port and features a second input for chaining other devices through it. It’s also bus-powered, so it doesn’t require a power supply, and it supports OpenAL, the 3D audio standard found in many popular games.