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Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
I’m a sucker for anything custom. One of my favorite early iPhone cases was emblazoned with a photo of my very own kids. And Motorola’s Moto X smartphone with all those nifty you-pick design options? It was almost enough to get me to switch to Android. ( Almost.)
You can get a lot of cool custom stuff nowadays, but I didn’t know speakers were among the options. Turns out: they are!
For a limited time, you can get a Boombotix Build-A-Bot portable Bluetooth speaker for $55.99 shipped. That’s after applying coupon cheapskate at checkout. (As you may have guessed: Cheapskate exclusive!)
Boombotix
The Build-A-Bot is the company’s customizable version of its Boombot Rex, which I mention (and link to) because there are no specs listed elsewhere. In other words, everything you want to know about the Build-A-Bot can be found on the Boombot Rex page.
But it’s the “building” part that makes this deal such fun. You get to choose individual colors for the speaker’s bezel, body and clip. It’s that clip that makes the Boombot Rex more portable than the average portable speaker. It measures roughly 3.3 inches square and and 2.1 inches deep, so you can easily attach it to, say, your belt, a backpack strap or the handlebars of your bike.
Cooler still, you can upload any image (so long as it’s not copyrighted) and Boombotix will spray it right onto the front grill! Talk about a cool Mother’s Day gift: a little speaker with your smiling mug for Mom to see every time she listens to her favorite playlists.
The ruggedized, water-resistant Rex sports four physical buttons that let you adjust volume, play/pause the music, and so on. It has a line-in jack for connecting non-Bluetooth sources, a built-in microphone for hands-free calls and a rechargeable battery that’s good for about 8 hours of play time, according to Boombotix.
In other words, the usual Bluetooth-speaker specs, but this time in a compact, wearable and customizable package. Although $79.99 is definitely on the pricey side for a speaker of this size, $55.99 feels better, especially considering the customization options. And talk about a sweet gift.
Your thoughts?
Bonus deal: Speaking of gifts, it’s hard to beat a digital photo frame, especially one that connects to the Interwebs for a constantly updated collection of snapshots from friends and family. Nixplay makes a very nice assortment of such frames, and for a limited time, you can save 20 percent on any Nixplay Cloud Frame when you apply coupon code MDAY15 at checkout.
