Sonos ZonePlayer S5 now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Household, Music

Just a heads up to any of you who want to add the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 to your current Sonos setup, or those of you who want to jump into Sonos for the first time for the lowest cost possible - the S5 is now shipping, and can be had for $399. We have one set to arrive later today, so we will hit you with a review after we play with it a bit.

Read More | Sonos ZonePlayer S5

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Sonos ZonePlayer S5 wireless music system, $399

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment, Music, Wireless / WiFi

Sonos is looking to market to the iPhone and iPod touch crowd with their new ZonePlayer S5 wireless music system. If you’re familiar with Sonos, you know that the price of entry has always been a bit high historically. The ZonePlayer S5 brings that price down to about $400. You plug it in to a router, and you are good to go with the ability to play your entire music library, as well as music from services like Rhapsody, Napster, Last.fm, and others, by using your iPhone as the remote control.

The price rises if you don’t have an Ethernet port handy for the S5, as you would then also need to buy a ZoneBridge, which allows you to connect the ZonePlayer S5 (as well as any other ZonePlayers you have) to your network wirelessly. We definitely think this is a positive step in the right direction for Sonos. By adding an all-on-one ZonePlayer/speaker to their line-up at this much lower price point, they’ve made it enticing to check them out to see what all the fuss is about. We’d pick up a ZonePlayer S5 over a Bose Sounddock any day of the week.

Read More | Sonos ZonePlayer S5 Demo

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Bleeding Edge TV 313: Sonos Controller 200 CR200

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Accessories, Features, Home Entertainment, Music, Podcasts, Product Reviews, Videocasts, Videos, Wireless / WiFi

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Tom Cullen of Sonos stopped by to give us a first-hand look at the new Sonos Controller 200 CR200 remote control. A marked improvement over the original Sonos Controller 100, the CR200 is a full touchscreen device that allows you to interact with music from a vast amount of sources and services, both on your network and from the Internet, with relative ease. We give you a look at how it all comes together in this episode.

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Bleeding Edge TV 295: Sonos iPhone app, Sonos 2.7 features

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Apple, Cell Phones, Features, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Music, Podcasts, Videocasts, Videos, Wireless / WiFi

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So this morning we gave you the scoop on the new Sonos 2.7 features, along with the news of the new (and free) Sonos Controller for iPhone and iPod touch, but we figured you’d be interested in seeing how all this worked. Luckily, Sonos CEO John MacFarlane was able to stop by to give us a first look at all the announcements. In this episode, John walks us through all the new hotness that Sonos announced this morning. That includes a walkthrough of the new iPhone app, which incorporates and supports all those slick new Sonos 2.7 features that we’ve been raving about so early in the morning over here. If you are a music fan, you owe it to yourself to look into Sonos, if you haven’t already.

Oh, and be sure to check our Sonos for iPhone gallery if you wanna see some screenshots of the app in high resolution.

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Sonos Controller for iPhone hits App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals, Music, Software

If you thought we were done with today’s Sonos news, think again - they’re on a roll, having just announced the availability of Sonos Controller for iPhone and iPod touch, for free. If you’re a Sonos fan, then you immediately understand what this means. If you own an iPhone or iPod touch, you get a touchscreen Sonos controller, at no extra cost. Seriously, that rocks. The new app gives you access to all the new Sonos 2.7 features we told you about earlier as well, like Rhapsody, Sirius, Last.fm, and tons of radio from across the globe. In fact, with the Sonos Controller for iPhone, you can access music from any computer on your network, a NAS drive, or even a Time Capsule. When you realize that one of the standard Sonos Controller remote costs $400, you begin to see how big a deal this is. Releasing this as a free download makes Sonos instantly easier to use, especially in a multi-zone, multi-iPhone household, like mine.

Be sure to check out our Sonos Controller for iPhone gallery for some high resolution stills of the app, which is available now on the App Store.

Click to continue reading Sonos Controller for iPhone hits App Store

Gallery: Sonos Controller for iPhone hits App Store

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Napster to Dispense With Software Download

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Music, Software

Napster has decided to change their service to a web-based platform so users will no longer be required to download its software. Napster’s current subscription service is offered for $10.00 to $20.00 per month for unlimited usage, but they don’t seem to be able to keep up with the iTunes store which has a flat fee of 99 cents per tune. Christopher Allen of Napster feels that the move will be easier to integrate than their present method and foresees the end of DRM with major music companies by the end of 2008. If this idea becomes reality and other companies follow suit, we may soon see the end of small music shops the way that neighborhood video stores have gone now that downloading is easily and readily available.

Read More | Reuters

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UMG Jumps to the Beat of SpiralFrog

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Music

New company SpiralFrog has just signed an agreement with UMG (Universal Music Group) to include them in their catalogue. SpiralFrog’s service is a no-cost alternative on the net that allows users to legally download music. Included in this service are quick-loading legal digital files with no worry of spyware or viruses.

Robin Kent, SpiralFrog’s CEO claims, “SpiralFrog will offer those (young) consumers a better experience and environment than they can get from any pirate site.”

How can they do this? SpiralFrog is ad-supported and you have to log in to their service at least once a month, or your music files cease and desist. Scheduled for a December beta launch, the company is currently talking to other major record labels for inclusion. Their target audience is the 16-34 crowd, but that’s good news for all of us former Napsterites. We really dig the logo, too.

Read More | SpiralFrog Press Release

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