Bluetooth adaptors are pretty commonplace these days, but Tattu Mobile reckons it has come up with something a bit different in the Octopus; a hands-free solution that offers wireless access to music in a range of locations.

Sadly it's not as innovatively designed as it sounds, and comprises a small box about half the size of a matchbox with play/pause, track-skip, volume and hold controls, a microphone and 3.5mm headphones port, plus DC-in for charging it from the mains.

The name is also a little misleading, since it's there to suggest that you can use the adaptor for a wide range of different applications when in fact it simply supports any devices that are compatible with the AD2P Bluetooth profile (and we're still struggling to think of eight distinct types).

This of course includes streaming directly from a mobile phone and in this situation you'll find that incoming calls pause the playing track and a dedicated button on the device allows you to pick up and hang up. To use it in this light you can either plug in the supplied earphone/microphone set or use a pair of your own earphones along with the microphone built into the top of the device, provided of course it is close enough to your mouth.

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We tested this in both guises and initially had it clipped in ‘lapel' position a few inches from the face to test the built-in microphone. Call quality on the receiver end was pretty good, but the caller will notice a constant buzzing, distinct echoing and a delay of around half a second.

Things get better when using the headset that offers a built-in mic, but only in terms of improving the situation rather than eliminating these issues. The problem with the latter setup is that the earphones supplied are unlikely to do justice to your music and audio is overly tinny with a serious lack of bass.

In terms of a hands-free situation for a mobile phone then, the best option would be to buy a decent pair of earphones that include a built-in microphone. In this case you'll get optimum performance from the Octopus, but it's worth mentioning that compared to simply plugging a hands-free set into a mobile directly, you're still going to be worse off.

Thankfully there's a bit more to the Octopus, as it can also be used to stream music between two devices. One innovation we were quite pleased to see is the presence of an iPod-dock port at the bottom so that you can plug the device directly into some iPod speakers and use these for playback. However, since most such devices include an auxiliary input that you could connect the Octopus to via the 3.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor cable provided anyway, it's really of limited appeal.

Sound quality in this environment was better and, while in the case of the iPod-dock connection audio was a little tinny, the aux-input worked very well and is the most effective way in which the Octopus could be used in terms of performance.

Finally we noted that the typical ‘ten metre range' for Bluetooth devices wasn't really realistic here, and you can halve this figure in terms of establishing a consistent connection with the Octopus. The lack of a USB-charging option may also be a pain for those on the commute and although six hours of playback is reasonable for a device this size, this will be cut considerably if you're planning on making a lot of calls.

The Octopus is a tidy little device that's easy to set up and use but didn't perform as well as we'd hoped, particularly in the case of hands-free operation with a mobile phone. It's still usable in this light and there are other distinctly useful applications in terms of streaming music, but then the same could be said for any other AD2P-compatible product with the right connections. The iPod-dock may be useful for some, but as its only truly redeeming feature, this is a distinctly average solution.