MS500 Wireless Speaker Blasts Your Tunes in the Great Outdoors

The 2009 equivalent of a boombox clips on to anything you want and uses Bluetooth to stream tunes off a cell phone or PMP.

For those moments when your cell phone’s wimpy built-in speaker doesn’t quite cut it for blaring your choice of music on a bus or subway car full of annoyed commuters, Sony Ericsson has an upgrade. On Tuesday, the company launched its Outdoor Wireless Speaker MS500, an egg-shaped speaker designed to go anywhere.

The palm-sized unit uses Bluetooth (and the high-quality A2DP profile) to play audio from your phone or personal media player without wires from the speaker beneath its grille. It even includes a caribiner for latching onto an article of clothing and dangling along with you. According to Sony Ericsson, it will run for five hours on the power from two AA batteries. And for bringing it to the beach, or tableside at beer pong tournament, it’s also “splashproof.”

As for sound quality from the tiny two-watt speaker, the company clearly has high hopes. “Clear treble, rich bass – superior audio,” the ad copy reads. “People on the street won’t believe their ears when you walk by.”

Sony Ericsson hasn’t announced a price for the wireless speaker yet, but it will be available within three months.