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Provides: Portable speaker system for dockable iPods
Developer: Vestalife
Minimum Requirements: Dockable iPod or other audio device with 1/8” stereo mini output
Price: $109.99 ($124.95 for limited edition models)
Availability: Out now

Know what I enjoy? The pleasant surprise. Having totally embraced my newfound pessimism (which I actually believe is realism, but calling it that makes me a pessimist, don’t you think?), I’m always ready to be disappointed. A perfect example is the movie Role Models. What a horrible premise for a movie, right? And yet, it ended up being one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in the past ten years. Pleasant surprise.

Another example, and one certainly more relevant to Appletell, is Vestalife’s Ladybug Portable Speaker Dock for iPod. Yes, it’s shiny and spherical and fashionable, but I really just wasn’t expecting it to sound good at all. Perhaps it was the name: Ladybug. Know what doesn’t make me think of rich, full sound? The ladybug. Or insects in general. Crickets, maybe, or cicada, but even those produce too much highs. They’re all tweeter, the insects.

Speakers + Bugs = Cute Speakers

But Vestalife’s Ladybug does alright, provided your expectations are realistic for a speaker system called the Ladybug. I’m guessing it took its name from the design, but I feel it’s actually more reminiscent of a robot head, particularly the silver model or the red one with the black speaker grill (my personal favorite). Can’t very well call a speaker the Pleasant Robot Head, however.

When closed, the Ladybug stands about 5-1/2 inches high. The spherical design rests comfortably on a flattened area at the battery compartment, in which you can place four AA batteries for around 8 to 10 hours of listening enjoyment. If batteries were the only way to listen to the Ladybug (as with Altec Lansing’s Orbit MP3), I wouldn’t mind being forced to use standard alkaline batteries. But considering you can also plug the Ladybug in with included AC adapter or via USB, I’d prefer the batteries be rechargeable lithium ion. Perhaps that’s impractical, but regardless, you’ll want to buy a set of rechargeable batteries if you plan on taking advantage of the Ladybug’s portability. In Vestalife’s defense, they did include an auto-off feature to preserve the battery in the event you leave it on with nothing playing. It’s a nice feature that a surprising number of speaker developers ignore.

Speakers + Bugs = Functional iPod Dock

The Ladybug works with all dockable iPods via the included dock (it comes with dock connectors for the iPod mini, 1st and 2nd gen iPod nano, and iPod with color display) and the auxiliary input means it’ll also work with pretty much anything you want to plug into it. The benefit to docking your iPod is that the Ladybug will charge it if it’s plugged via the AC adapter, and you can sync up with iTunes if connected via USB. To control your music when the iPod is docked, Vestalife included a fairly basic but functional remote control.

When the Ladybug is not in use, you can close up the speakers to form a ball, as pictured above. To use the iPod dock, the speakers open, creating the Ladybug “wing” effect, as seen below. In front of the iPod dock are LED lights to indicate the volume level, which is a great addition considering that the volume controls are push buttons (in front, below the speakers) that can’t display the audio level. The flip-down speakers create a cool looking effect that turns the Ladybug into quite a conversation piece.

Another cool feature that you wouldn’t expect is video pass-through. When you have a video capable iPod docked with the Ladybug, it can pass the signal through to your TV or monitor. Oddly, though, no video cable is included. If you’re not paying attention, you wouldn’t even know the Ladybug could do it.

Speakers + Bugs = Ironic Bugs

Now, what about the audio? It’s good. Certainly fine for an office setting, but you won’t be using the Ladybug at parties. The included subwoofer (which takes up most of the back half of the sphere) provides a richer listening experience than you’d expect, but the lack of bass/treble controls hampers that somewhat. You can work around this by creating an EQ setting in iTunes and assigning it as the default for your iPod, but that’ll interfere when using the iPod outside of the Ladybug. Even with software EQ, you won’t be able to fully compensate for the lack of separate tweeters. The Ladybug will get you good mid- to low-range audio (with some bass distortion when played back at higher levels), but the lack of quality highs is somewhat ironic considering the insect analogy built into the name.

The fact that Vestalife doesn’t list the audio specs anywhere on their site makes it obvious that they’re not selling this device to audiophiles, anyway. The design and color choices are clear indications that the Ladybug is being sold to people who want an attractive device sitting on their shelf or desk, and the Ladybug accomplishes that. Its standard colors are only metallic red or silver, but there are limited edition colors/designs available (many are sold out, but more are planned) that are quite sharp looking. And for those of you worried that a cute speaker system named the Ladybug just isn’t manly enough for you, don’t fear; many of the limited edition designs are quite aggressive.

Speakers + Bugs = Pleasant Surprise

Yeah, the Ladybug surprised me in quite the opposite way that most speaker systems do. When I expect great sound, I can often be surprised by how good a speaker system looks. Here, I already knew it looked great, but was surprised by the sound quality. I mean, yeah, at over $100, you should get good sound, but that doesn’t mean you always will. Vestalife may lean more heavily towards fashion than some of you will want, but the balance skews closer to the center than you’d think.

Looks, portability, functionality and audio quality all rolled up into a 6” ball. Maybe there’s no reason for the pessimism after all.