Stefan Mileschin

Another day, another speaker dock. We initially dismissed Gear4's latest accessory at Google I/O 2012 until we noticed that the attached Nexus 7 was playing audio digitally via the USB port instead of simply through the headphone jack (or wirelessly over Bluetooth for that matter). It turns out that Jelly Bean supports USB audio, a software feature that's bound to spearhead a whole new generation of accessories for Android devices. Gear4's universal speaker dock with alarm clock radio is the first to handle USB audio. While the sound for any app can be routed to the USB port in Jelly Bean, the functionality is missing from older versions of Android. Thankfully, Gear4 includes an app with its accessory that can be used to set alarms, sync time, tune the radio and play media over the USB port on legacy versions of Android. Want to know more? You'll find our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/30/g...n-at-google-i/