Kanex is well-known for their cable solutions; items like the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable are great for pumping video from Macs to HDTVs. Now the company has come out with the AirBlue Portable Bluetooth Music Receiver(US$49) -- a small device that you plug into speakers, AV receivers, automobile AUX ports, and other common audio inputs -- and then beam music to from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Kanex provided one of these small black disc-like receivers for testing purposes, and it's a handy little device for getting rid of a few more cables in your life ... although you will need a cable to connect it to your audio input.

Kanex AirBlue

Setup of the AirBlue is a piece of cake. For a cord-cutting solution, the AirBlue comes with a lot of little cables (below). One of these is a standard USB to Mini-USB cable that's used to charge the unit. Charging the AirBlue will take about 4 - 5 hours, and once it is fully charged it will work for up to 20 hours.

When the Airblue is full of power, you can then take the little 2" diameter flat black disc and plug one of the included cables into it -- a standard 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm audio cable or a 3.5 mm to RL audio cable for speakers.

Pairing the unit is also quite easy. Dead center in the top of the disc is a small button with a built-in blue LED light. Pressing it for 6 seconds puts it into discovery mode, indicated by the LED flashing about 4 times per second. At this point I picked up my iPhone, went to Settings > General > Bluetooth, and saw the Kanex AirBlue show up in the list of Bluetooth devices (below). With a single tap, the iPhone and AirBlue were paired.