Tap and Go bluetooth pairing with JBL Speakers and Nokia phones

Finding out how to pair your phone with that bluetooth speaker can be a right pain in the bum, which button to press, how long to hold it, then search, click pair and you can wirelessly play music.  Nokia and JBL have teamed up to create an innovative yet simple solution to this problem.

I’m certainly not saying this is one of life’s biggest issues.  The biggest pain for me is normally which button on the speaker to press, or combination of buttons and then getting the phone to see the speaker and pair up.

Nokia has got NFC in its Lumia 520, 620, 720 and 920 phones so with any of those you can make use of this tap-and-go technology.  The problem is, there really aren’t too many applications just yet.

Enter JBL.  Great speakers, Great sound, Great design – and now, great technology.

JBL in partnership with Nokia have added NFC to a couple of their speakers which have Bluetooth capability to make pairing a breeze.

Firstly, the PlayUp.  This retails at $199.95 and is a simple little speaker which because of its top mounted and upward facing speaker gives you a great room filling sound despite its diminutive side.

The PlayUp comes in a range of bright colours, and has a rubberised surface around the outside making it almost slip proof and easy to grip when moving it about.

Unlike wireless speakers like the Braven’s we’ve looked at here before the PlayUP cannot be used to take calls if the phone rings while you’re enjoying your favourite tunes, but on the up side you don’t have to have a Nokia phone to use it.  Sacrificing the tap-and-go feature you can pair any bluetooth streaming music player with the JBL PlayUp.

Getting bigger, JBL has the PowerUp speaker – this one has a bigger impact on the wallet at $349.95 but has some bang for that buck.

Great bass and a powerful 100W speaker mean you won’t regret the purchase when it comes to sound quality.

The real party trick in this PowerUp is its link back to Nokia.  Like the PlayUp you can tap-to-pair, but as an advantage it also offers wireless charging.

Place your Nokia Lumia 720, 820 or 920 on top and your phone will charge.  Brilliant.

I just wish there was a smaller version so it would sit perfectly on a bedside table where I suspect the majority of charging occurs in the home.