Twelve South AirFly Pro

In principle, the problem Twelve South's AirFly Pro is trying to solve is extremely simple; how do you both receive and send audio wirelessly if there is only an analogue jack available? It's also a problem where there are plenty of cheap solutions, and airports, for example, are packed with small Bluetooth transmitters that allow you to use a wireless Bluetooth headset for in-flight entertainment.

AirFly Pro is a little more ambitious, and for the extra money you pay for a more established, luxurious product, you get a little more functionality and probably more reliability in the long run.

The AirFly Pro is a tiny dongle-like device with a protective cover for the jack plug and a small pouch that also protects the device on the go. The device itself has an internal battery that gives you just over 25 hours of use. That's quite excellent, and even on a long journey, it's plenty.

The usage scenario itself is also quite simple. You plug your AirFly Pro into the jack input, switch it on and you can now find a specific Bluetooth signal to connect to. It should be emphasised that we're talking about both AUX-IN and AUX-OUT - meaning the AirFly Pro can send the signal both ways. It can take audio from a jack and send it to a set of in-ears on an aeroplane, for example, or you can plug it into an old AUX port on a car and send music out into the stereo.

It's dexterous all on its own, but the party trick of the little device is undoubtedly that there are actually two separate Bluetooth signals active at once. This means that you can, for example, plug it into a laptop via the jack socket and send an audio signal to two separate headsets without delay at the same time.

It's all pretty nifty, no doubt about it, but then again, there are cheaper plastic alternatives, so Twelve South's idea isn't exactly innovative or isolated from the rest of the market. Therefore, the $55 you have to spend is a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

But aside from the high price tag, this is one of those gadgets that deftly solves a specific problem and does so seamlessly.