Mobile friendly clothing comes to Europe

By Iain Thomson on Feb 15, 2007 9:50 AM
Filed under Oddware

Yet another reason to hate snowboarders.

Motorola has teamed up with American clothing manufacturer Burton to create a winter sports jacket that comes with built-in speakers and a controller for mobile phones or iPods.

The 'Active Lifestyle' jackets have speakers built into the collar and a digital controller on the right sleeve so that those on the slopes can play music from their phones and answer calls. With an additional cable an iPod can also be used.

"It is the next generation of clothing," a Motorola spokeswoman told vnunet.com at the 3GSM show in Barcelona.

"We worked with Burton to develop it and I have seen people using them on the slopes. As far as noise pollution goes it is not intrusive."

The jacket comes with a battery pack that is designed to give enough life for a full day on the mountain. All the electronics can be removed so that the jacket can be washed and the internal wiring is sealed to remain waterproof.

The jackets are already available in the US, and will be going on sale in Europe this summer. Pricing has yet to be confirmed but is expected to be around €500.

€1 = AU$1.67