Skip to main content

Kube is a boozy boombox you can store your brews in at the beach

The Kube enters into the relatively untapped realm of cooler-speaker hybrids. Yes, that’s a speaker with built-in space for you to store your cold brews. In Kube’s case, you get a whopping 20 hours of playback and a paltry 8¼-gallon interior. Farfetched? Sure. But Kube combines the best of both worlds, letting us easily tote music along to the beach, BBQ, and anywhere else where binge drinking might be involved.

Made of aluminum and a coated polymer, the modern cooler is anchored in three Polk Audio marine-certified speakers. It allows you to pump up the jams to 110 dB with minimal distortion from up to 50 feet away via Bluetooth, while cooling your libations in the meantime.

Photo credit: Digital Trends / Brandon Widder
Photo credit: Digital Trends / Brandon Widder

A battery of internal LED lights help illuminate the storage apartment when you lift the curved device’s curved top, while five buttons let you control playback. The 20-pound Kube is also water-resistant, features a convenient drainage system, and boasts a discrete USB input for quickly charging your mobile device in the backwoods.

However, premium sound and build quality doesn’t come cheap. The Kube is currently available for pre-order at a staggering $1,100, with a tentative release scheduled for May 2015. A smaller version of the high-end cooler is also in the works and expected at a later date.

Editors' Recommendations

Brandon Widder
Brandon Widder is a multimedia journalist and a staff writer for Digital Trends where he covers technology news, how-to…
There’s a rare deal on the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones today
Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones seen in black.

The massively popular Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones rarely appear in headphone deals, so if you've had your eye on them for quite a while, you're in luck because they're currently $51 off on Walmart. From their original price of $400, you'll only have to pay $349, but only if you hurry because we don't expect stocks to last long. You're going to miss out on the offer if you take too long, so don't hesitate -- add the wireless headphones to your cart and check out as fast as you can.

Why you should buy the Sony WH-1000XM5
The best headphones that you can buy right now are the Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones, and it's not even close. At the heart is their outstanding wireless sound, supported by top-quality active noise cancellation that uses two processors and eight microphones to block all unwanted sound, as well as crystal-clear hands-free calling using four beamforming microphones and advanced audio signal processing. The wireless headphones also offer Bluetooth multipoint connection so that you can quickly switch between different devices, touch controls for functions like adjusting volume and calling your digital assistant, and Speak-to-Chat and Quick Attention features to stop your music and let ambient sound in without having to take them off.

Read more
Sony’s premium soundbars will finally get support for VRR, ALLM
Sony HT-A7000 Dolby Atmos soundbar close-up of top panel.

It's been a long time coming, but the wait is almost over. Sony's premium home theater soundbars are set to receive a software update that will add support for variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low-latency mode (ALLM), two HDMI 2.1 gaming features that have been absent since these products launched.

The soundbars in question are the Sony HT-A5000, HT-A7000, and the multi-wireless speaker HT-A9 system. All three are scheduled to receive the update this fall, but Sony has declined to share specific timing, saying only that there will be more information closer to the rollout date.

Read more
What is Roku? The streaming platform explained
A roku powered TV hanging on a wall running Roku OS 12.

How do you get your Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, or Prime Video fix? Chances are it's through a streaming device or smart TV, and there's a good chance that it's through a Roku device or one running its pioneering streaming operating system. At this point, cord-cutting is old news, and Roku was one of the earliest companies to drive the adoption of web-based streaming with its self-contained, app-driven devices.

Today, watching something "on Roku" is standard parlance and the company's popular platform can be found baked into some of the biggest TV brands in the world as well as in its own lineup of streaming devices sticks, and set-top boxes. Even so, that doesn't mean you totally get what a Roku actually is. What is Roku? How does Roku work? Do you need a subscription to use it? Is it just a device you buy, or is it software?

Read more