The BlackBerry Music Gateway is a dinky little black box adorned with a microUSB power port, 3.5mm headphone jack and a single LED. Oh, and a RIM BlackBerry logo that hides a Bluetooth pairing button. Tiny and lightweight, it's designed to step back and let the music do the talking while drawing as little attention to itself as possible.
It looks not unlike HTC's Media Link, although that device is designed for connection to modern TVs via HDMI. Basically, it's a one-trick pony that streams audio from your phone to your music player -- you can't use it for phone calls since it doesn't have a microphone, and it won't stream to other wireless devices such as Bluetooth headphones.
It connects to your system with a choice of two cables -- one that connects 3.5mm jack headphone-style sockets, and another that connects jack to RCA stereo inputs.
Once you're plugged in, and it's connected to the mains via the supplied USB lead, you pair it with your phone using Bluetooth. Since it uses old-school version one it will pair with just about any Bluetooth device available, whether it be BB, Android, Windows or Apple.
You hold down the pairing button until the LED flashes red and blue, then it's just a question of finding it with your Bluetooth phone, which worked seamlessly with the BlackBerry Curve 9320 we tried it with, as well as an iPhone, a Samsung Android handset and a Nokia Windows device. Once you're connected you can transmit your music from up to about 10 metres away, though this drops rapidly if there are walls in the way.
So far, so-so, but where the Music Gateway is a little bit different is that it incorporates NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, allowing you to tap your device on its surface to connect.
It's an intriguing idea, but to use it, you'll need to have both your NFC and Bluetooth activated on your handset, and hold down the logo button on the Music Gateway to activate the device's Bluetooth link. It only takes a few seconds, but in that time you could have flipped through to your phone's Bluetooth menu anyway.
Once you're connected though, using the Music Gateway was painless and easy, and it saves you plugging in your phone when you fancy some playback.
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