You better not pout, you better not cry - today is Day 6 in Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets! A tech-gift goodie daily, under $100.
Today: A speaker pillow.
The Sound Oasis Sound Therapy Pillow ($50 list, $38 at target.com) is just what it sounds like: A regular, 20-by-26-inch, washable pillow (“soft brushed cover and hypoallergenic polyester fiberfillâ€), with two compact speakers inside. And a very long cord.
When the speakers are in the pillow, you don't feel them. The idea, of course, is that you can drift to sleep with music playing. (You plug the cord into your phone or music player.) The other idea is that you can listen to music or podcasts in bed, without disturbing whoever is trying to sleep next to you.
The audio is not what you would call Bose quality. The power won't exactly damage anyone's hearing, either; you are, after all, listening through a pillow. And there are, to be sure, thicker pillows on the market.
But there is something to be said for the clever design of this deal: You can easily remove the speakers from the pillow when you want to wash it or when you want to use the speakers as emergency booster speakers for your phone or laptop.
You can bet that this is the sort of pillow Santa himself would want at the end of another year's exhausting worldwide course. He would put on his fluffy jammies, lay his head down on his music pillow, plug in his phone, and play - anything but Christmas carols.
