Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just received this from Gamestop (online) yesterday. Amazon has this as out of stock currently, and Costco is only carrying the non-Bluetooth Ion Block Rocker. As an owner of the previous Ion Tailgater (bought from Costco), there are some major differences between the older IPA17 (I'll call this the 17 from now on) and the new IPA57 (The 57 from now on). First, the 57 has Bluetooth. Finally! The Bluetooth connectivity is easy. You turn on the unit, check your device (I have a Samsung Focus Windows Phone) and seconds later it appears as on option to pair. More differences. The 57 no longer has the Apple proprietary dock connector. Replacing that area, is a grooved channel to prop up your device or tablet. Note, your device is not secured. Also, just above and to the left of this channel is a USB port for charging your device. The controls of the 57 look much different than the 17. The 57 only has two knobs now, one for Mic volume, and one for Master Volume. The 17 had an additional knob for Aux Volume, but this is pointless because your device has its own volume control, and this means one less knob to worry about. The 57 now only has one mic input, where the 17 had 2. Additionally, the included Microphone does not feel as heavy or sturdy as the one included in the 17. In fact, the old Mic allowed you to unplug the cable to the Mic, where now, the Mic and cable are one piece. The 17 had a different Aux input setup, with Red/White audio connections on the front, now, the only input is just a single standard 3.5mm jack (Size of a standard headphone jack). A 3.5mm input was on the top of the 17, but with the 57, it's on the front panel. The 57 also now includes a telescoping FM antenna, which the 17 didn't have, but still picked up reasonably good FM signals without it. Also, one added new feature that I immediately noticed, is that the 57 now saves the last channel you were on upon shutdown. The previous 17 would forget your last radio station, and go back to 88.5 each time you powered down the unit. This was surprisingly annoying. I was considering either this new Tailgater Bluetooth, or the Jawbone Big Jambox. I have the smaller Jambox which is great for indoors and camping, but just isn't loud enough for an actual noisy tailgate. The Big Jambox probably would be (I cranked it at an AT&T store indoors), but it's twice the cost of the Tailgater Bluetooth. The Ion Tailgater is very loud. It features quite a bit of bass, and is built like a tank. It basically has what must amount to a car/marine battery inside the thing, so it weighs about 25 pounds and the battery lasts several hours. You will impress those around you. You can also use it as a loudspeaker at an event, it even looks like a small PA system or a guitar amp. This Saturday is our first tailgate with this new beast, I'll update my review over time.