TC/Gadgets Webcast: CTIA, The Samsung Galaxy S III, And Jawbone’s Big Jambox

We’re back and ready to attack with another episode of our TechCrunch/Gadgets Weekly webcast. Matt, unfortunately, could not make any time for us as he was in the happiest place on Earth with his family, but we still managed to cover a range of topics including CTIA, the freshly announced Samsung Galaxy S III, and Jawbone’s Big Jambox Bluetooth speaker.

As far as CTIA is concerned, we came to the consensus that it is a snoozefest undeserving of most people’s time and attention. The Wi-Fi Alliance came up with some cool new technology to let you automatically connect to various hotspots around town sans the migraine of repetitive set-up, and of course there were a few new phones to chat about, including the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE and the Samsung Focus II.

But when matched up against the Galaxy S III, we care very little about these other devices. Samsung’s Galaxy S line is the reason why it’s beat out Apple as smartphone king, and this third iteration is something we’ve been waiting for for a while now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the hardware has improved all that much, especially if the jump from a 4.3-inch display to a 4.8-inch display discourages you as much as it does me. The phone is still plastic, which I’m pretty much sick to death of, but we are somewhat excited by the pop-up play feature.

In other news, Jawbone recently released its Big Jambox, a 2.7lb Bluetooth speaker that can remember up to eight devices (not ten, like I said in the video), and actively pair with two at the same time. The big feature is supposed to be something called “Live Audio,” which basically takes a flat sound and gives it some extra dimension. You can’t really tell the difference unless you’re directly in front of it, but it’s certainly a step up from the usual tinny, Bluetooth sound we’re accustomed to. It costs $299 and is available May 15.