Gadgets keep gettin' smaller, which means all of their components need to get smaller as well. The speaker has gotten shrunk down like the rest of 'em, but how small can you make a speaker and still have decent sound quality? Pretty damned small, apparently.

Panasonic has created the Panasonic Electronic Device (PED), an absolutely tiny speaker with the dimensions of 2 x 1 cm, and is only 1.5mm thick. How'd they get it so small? "Its diaphragm is inserted on the top and bottom of its magnet, rather than making the magnet smaller." Oh, of course! Why didn't I think of that?

Look for tiny yet decent speakers such as the PED to find their way into more music phones and portable music players with external speakers, such as the Samsung K5. We're not sure if there's a huge market out there begging for devices with little speakers, but we're gonna find out soon enough. — Adam Frucci

Gear Live, via Oh Gizmo!