The Beolit 12 features a very compact form, designed by designer Cecilie Manz. It follows in the success of the BeoSound 8 system that offered docking for iPads, iPods, and iPhones along with premium sound, craftsmanship, and portability. With the Beolit 12, the company hopes to appeal to both its Bang & Olufsen following as well as to a wider audience with the system’s fashion-forward design, convenience, and price point.

The system supports Apple’s AirPlay technology, allowing users to wirelessly stream their iTunes music collections from their iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. It also has a built-in power supply, rechargeable battery, and easily tucked away power cord for portability. At normal sound levels, the rechargeable battery can charge another device, such as an iPhone, and play back music simultaneously for up to 8 hours.

The Beolit 12 is set to arrive in Bang & Olufsen showrooms, the company’s online store, and in Apple Stores later this month. It will be available initially in dark gray, with additional colors of yellow, blue, and light gray to arrive in spring.

[via B&O]

First out of the gate from the new B&O PLAY range is the Beolit 12, an AirPlay compatible portable speaker. That, as B&O is keen to point out, bears all the hallmarks of the company’s design language and obsessive attention to detail, like a precisely punctuated speaker grill and streamlined aesthetic, but at perhaps a tenth of the price of some of the other speakers produced.

Of course, when you’re dealing with B&O, “a tenth” is still a considerable amount. The Beolit 12, for instance, will be $799 when it hits the US next month. The company says it’s the first of several new products set to debut over the rest of 2012.

Inside is a 4 x 80W ICEpower amp for the midrange and 1 x 40W for the treble, along with an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness. Interestingly, there’s no other mounting option beyond on the wall: B&O has even integrated the mount into the plasma set itself.

As for the BeoLab 12 speakers, they use B&O’s own Acoustic Lens Technology to project sound 180-degrees. They use a 3/4-inch Acoustic Lens for the treble, a 2-inch midrange and two 6.5-inch flat CosCone woofers for the lower frequencies, angled in towardsthe wall. There’s also a 2-inch aluminum cone to help the Acoustic Lens system do its magic.

An ICEpower class D amp provides a total of 480W – twin 160W for the bass, 80W for the mids and 80W for the treble – and the system can adapt to the room, the wall and, indeed, whether you place the BeoLab 12′s with the cones at the top or the bottom.

No word on pricing, but the BeoVision 12-65 will arrive in March and the BeoLab 12 speakers in the spring. Expect them both to be expensive.

The BeoSound 5 Encore acts like a central control center for aggregating all the media in your home, including music from your local network as well as any USB-attachable media device such as iPods, networked NAS, and other external hard drives. It can also connect to Apple media devices via AirPlay. Internet radio is the primary appeal and it offers a highly curated selection to ensure optimal reliability and uptime.

The device itself, however, is a bit garish with a 10.4-inch color LCD display propped up but a cylindrical stand that sports a large aluminum control wheel. Users spin through albums, artists, and songs using this wheel, with album art displayed on the screen.

Up to eight Encore hubs can be placed throughout the house to stream different songs simultaneously from the same network. However, this certainly isn’t for everyone, since one BeoSound 5 Encore hub already costs $3,350.

[via Twice]

There’s also integration with B&O’s BeoLink home automation system, which allows all your A/V kit to be controlled by one or more Beo6 remotes. Like other B&O sets, there are electronic curtains, which open automatically when you power on the TV, while the Automatic Color Management system checks the screen after every 100hrs of use with a built-in camera, tweaking settings as appropriate.

The 3D system uses active shutter glasses. Bang & Olufsen aren’t talking pricing at this stage, though given the size of the set and the company’s track record, we’re not expecting the BeoVision 4-85 to be a budget option.

[Thanks Jon!]

Press Release:

Bang & Olufsen launches new elegant TV giant with 3D

Struer, April 2011 – The BeoVision 4 85-inch plasma TV is the latest member of Bang & Olufsen’s home cinema family and the first Full HD screen with 3D. It incorporates state-of-the-art performance within audio, video, magical moving mechanics and intelligent home integration, all completely controlled by the Beo6 remote control.

With the launch of the BeoVision 4 85-inch TV, Bang & Olufsen keeps their promise: to provide the best picture experience of any plasma screen. Not only does the BeoVision 4-85 plasma panel qualify as ‘Full HD’, which means razor sharp details, rich, lifelike colours and smooth movement of objects on the screen; it is also Bang & Olufsen’s first TV concept that includes 3D technology using active shutter glasses. In addition, with the help of Automatic Colour Management to counter the effects of age, it delivers exceptional picture quality, ensuring the same high level of performance year after year.

“BeoVision 4-85 is designed to give our customers the ultimate TV experience. Although it would appear to be mainly suited for home cinema viewing owing to its exceptional picture quality and its significant size, it encompasses a wide selection of picture improvement technologies such as anti-reflection coating that reduces annoying reflections from the screen and automatic picture control which adjusts the light output and makes BeoVision 4-85 well suited for daytime viewing as well,” says Product Manager, Ole Moltsen.

If you go for the 3D experience, though, you have to close the curtains completely. Given the ongoing advances in the industry, from recording and editing equipment to the products which transmit them, 3D types of experiences are on the verge of having an impact on the entertainment world at large. The new generation of 3D TV viewing is introduced in the BeoVision 4-85. So get ready to be utterly enthralled by a 3D sight and sound sensation from Bang & Olufsen. And watch your TV experience come alive.

Spectacular sound

With the dedicated centre loudspeaker BeoLab 10 utilising Acoustic Lens Technology, BeoVision 4-85 has an unmatched sound performance to accompany the high quality picture performance.

“BeoLab 10 is capable of handling the centre channel perfectly even when combined with our most powerful loudspeaker, BeoLab 5. With the patented Acoustic Lens Technology, sound from the centre channel is spread equally in the horizontal plane, allowing you to get all the nuances from e.g. film dialogue, regardless of where you sit in the room,” says Jens Rahbek, Acoustic Engineer at Bang & Olufsen.

Elegant giant

The new 85-inch member of the BeoVision 4 family is offered with a unique stand that elevates the screen at the touch of a button. When the TV is turned on, the screen will elegantly elevate itself to the optimal viewing position, and the seamlessly integrated BeoLab 10 centre loudspeaker will emerge underneath the screen. At the same time, the screen will turn and tilt according to the user’s preferences. When switched off again, the impressive screen moves down towards the floor in a powerful, sturdy fashion and is parked only inches above the floor, making it look less prominent in the room when not in use.

“Placed on a motorized stand, BeoVision 4 represents a whole new and unique approach to the placement of a giant flat screen TV,” says Product Manager Ole Moltsen. “Bang & Olufsen is among the few companies that are able to deliver a TV screen that size, and we are the only ones who can offer a stand that will actually lift the screen off the floor, and then turn and tilt it to your preferred viewing position.”

BeoVision 4-85 is also available as a screen-only solution, where the screen is mounted on a wall bracket as known from other BeoVision 4 family members.

The size of the carefully crafted 85” screen with its high-grade aluminium frame is impressive, but it becomes even more impressive when the screen starts to move. The movements of the screen and speaker are accelerated and decelerated in the process to underline the muscular progress, and the initial lift of the screen is timed with the start up time of the BeoSystem 3 picture and surround sound engine. The hallmark electronic curtains are then pulled aside while the BeoLab 10 centre loudspeaker is moving forward into position.

Centre of intelligent home

This new TV concept is the cornerstone in the intelligent home as it is a fantastic hub for combining audio and video experiences with other home automation systems. To many customers home automation is becoming more and more interesting, and due to increasingly sophisticated interfaces, Bang & Olufsen customers can actually control and operate all their A/V and home automation equipment from the programmable Beo6 remote control all over the house. Control of light settings plus access to security systems, ventilation, curtains, pool cover, burglar alarm etc. are only some of the countless possibilities.

Due to the extensive flexibility of BeoVision 4-85, its built-in competencies and high-end performance, the customer gets a unique Bang & Olufsen solution that can be customized according to individual preferences by the professional Bang & Olufsen retail organization and carefully selected specialist partners.

SonicMaster supposedly mixes together bigger speaker chambers, more powerful amps and cleverer software to offer better audio than we’ve come to expect from notebooks.  Meanwhile the N Series also get GeForce 325M and 400M GPUs with DirectX 11 support, LED backlit displays (1366 x 768 on the N53JN; 1600 x 900 on the N73JN) and Blu-ray combo drives.

Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, as well as a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0, an eSATA/USB combo, HDMI, gigabit ethernet and audio in/out.  The ASUS N53JN will retail for between £649.99 and £999 VAT included ($1,077 to $1,540) while the ASUS N73JN is £1,099 ($1,694).

Press Release:

The new ASUS N Series and SonicMaster propel laptop audio to a new level

Developed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®, the ASUS SonicMaster standard delivers the most advanced multimedia features available for laptop PCs

The new N Series from ASUS is the first ever range of laptops to address the problem of sub-standard audio on portable PCs. Two new Intel® Core™ i5 models are available, 15.6” and 17.3” screens, and both combine superior audio technology with eye-catching designs. Each new model also features the latest NVIDIA® GeForce 400M 3D chipset with Optimus™ technology for outstanding power source-optimised graphics performance.

A superlative Sound Standard

Realising that people spend up to a third of their day using multimedia devices of some description and that most laptops fall short in delivering high-quality audio, ASUS went back to the drawing board.

Working with its own ‘Golden Ear’ team and the acclaimed Bang & Olufsen ICEpower® innovations house, ASUS focused on ways to develop natural sound that wasn’t compromised by the constraints posed by laptop computers, but instead capitalised upon them. The result represents a new standard in laptop audio — ASUS SonicMaster.

SonicMaster isn’t a gimmick, but a new professional audio certification programme for portable computers. SonicMaster-compliant laptops like the new N Series incorporate large speaker chambers, more powerful amplifiers and extensive software processing to deliver breathtaking audio fidelity.

Multimedia mastery

Superlative audio is only one facet of the new N Series’ multimedia mastery. The NVIDIA GeForce 325M and 400M Fermi-based 3D graphics chipsets provide excellent DirectX 11 performance, complete with hardware-acceleration for silky smooth HD video playback.

ASUS Video Magic technology further enhances image quality by expertly upscaling SD content and automatically enhancing image quality.

Combined with LED-backlit screens with a zero dead pixel guarantee, the new N Series are laptops that are a feast for the eyes — and ears.

Win more music with ASUS SonicMaster!

To celebrate the launch of the new N Series, ASUS is planning a series of competitions for end-users. Prizes include concert tickets and HMV vouchers, and details will be announced over the coming weeks on the ASUS Tech in Style Twitter account — see www.twitter.com/techinstyle.

The competitions kick off with the chance to one of three pairs of tickets to experience the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring at The Royal Albert Hall. Entries must be made via ASUS Tech in Style at www.techinstyle.tv/sonicmaster and you can find full details at the site.

Pricing and availability

The ASUS N Series N53 and N73 will be available UK-wide from a number of retailers and etailers including Comet*, Micro Anvika, Selfridges and Amazon.co.uk. Prices start from £649.99 SRP inc VAT.

(*N53 will be available from Comet at http://www.comet.co.uk and in-store from early November – perfect timing for Christmas)

Product Specifications (Note – may differ slightly depending on retailer)
N53JN
Processor Intel® Core™ i5-520M (2.4GHz – 2.933GHz) or Core™ i3-370M (2.4GHz)
OS Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Display 15.6” HD TFT (1366 x 768, Color-Shine)
Graphic Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT325/415M, 1GB dedicated graphics memory with NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology for outstanding power source-optimised graphics performance
Storage 320GB/500GB (5400rpm)
Memory 4096MB (2048×2) DDRIII 1066 RAM
Optical Drive Blu-Ray Combo
Wireless 802.11 BGN
Webcam Yes
Numeric Keypad Yes
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Keyboard 19mm full size 88 Key with MS Windows function keys, Numeric Keyboard
Card Reader 7-in-1 (SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, XD, Smart Media, mini SD w/ adapter, MS-Duo)
Interface 1 x VGA port
1 x USB 3.0 and 2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x e-SATA/USB2.0 Combo
1 x LAN RJ-45 jack (10/100/1000MBit)
1 x HDMI (1080p support)
2 x Audio Jacks (Headphone, SPDIF/MIC-in)
Kensington Lock
Audio Audio designed by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®
Integrated microphone
ASUS SonicFocus audio technology
Battery Li-Polymer 48WH (6 cells: 4400mAh)
Dimensions & weight 391 x 266 x 30.5-40.5 mm; 2.9Kg
Warranty 2 year global collect & return
Price £649.99 – £999 (SRP inc VAT)

N73JN
Processor Intel® Core™ i5-520M (2.4GHz – 2.933GHz)
OS Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Display 17.3” HD+ TFT (1600 x 900, Color-Shine)
Graphic Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT325M, 1GB dedicated graphics memory with NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology for outstanding power source-optimised graphics performance
Storage 640GB (2 x 320GB, 5400rpm)
Memory 4096MB (2048×2) DDRIII 1066 RAM
Optical Drive Blu-Ray Combo
Wireless 802.11 BGN
Webcam Yes
Numeric Keypad Yes
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Keyboard 19mm full size 88 Key with MS Windows function keys, Numeric Keyboard
Card Reader 5-in-1 (SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, XD)
Interface 1 x VGA port
1 x USB 3.0 and 2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x e-SATA/USB2.0 Combo
1 x LAN RJ-45 jack (10/100/1000MBit)
1 x HDMI (1080p support)
2 x Audio Jacks (Headphone, SPDIF/MIC-in)
Kensington Lock
Audio Audio designed by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®
Integrated microphone
ASUS SonicFocus audio technology
Battery Li-Polymer 48WH (6 cells: 4400mAh)
Dimensions & weight 420 x 287 x 36.7-40.5 mm; 3.4Kg
Warranty 2 year global collect & return
Price £1,099 (SRP inc VAT)

About ASUS

ASUS, the world’s top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world’s best selling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era.

ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia, wireless solutions, networking devices and mobile phones.
Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,268 awards in 2009, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC™. With a global staff of more than ten thousand people and a world-class R&D team of 3,000 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2009 was US$7.5 billion.

Like all subwoofers, the BeoLab 11 is omnidirectional so you don’t have to position it at a certain point in the room in order to reap the benefits; unlike most, however, the Acoustic Balance Principle – basically the two cones firing at each other – means there are minimal vibrations, too.  Since the amp is onboard you don’t need a separate poweramp to drive it, either.

The Danes reckon the BeoLab 11 is so gorgeous that you’ll want to leave it out on show, and so it’s designed for both floor-standing or wall-mounting.  The B&O BeoLab 11 will arrive in May, initially available in silver anodized aluminum or white, and then with various color finishes – including black, dark grey, red, blue and golden – following on.

Press Release:

Beauty and The Bass

BeoLab 11 is a new elegant subwoofer from Bang & Olufsen which combines excellent bass performance, intriguing design and unorthodox placement possibilities.

BeoLab 11 is a new small subwoofer from Bang & Olufsen that delivers amazing bass quality for its size. With BeoLab 11, Bang & Olufsen has revolutionized the subwoofer category by creating a subwoofer with an entirely new look. Despite its strong sculptural presence, BeoLab 11 has a discreetness about it that makes it easy to integrate in a home environment without turning the room into a sound studio.

The unique acoustic design of BeoLab 11 allows it to be placed on the floor, in a corner, or mounted on the wall. In fact, due to its minimal vibrations, it is one of the very few subwoofers in the world that can be mounted on a wall. And with the sculptural design of BeoLab 11, you’ll want to put it on display, instead of hiding it behind a sofa.

Powerful bass wrapped in aesthetic elegance

Based on Bang & Olufsen’s world-renowned sound competences, BeoLab 11 offers enhanced sound experience and outstanding acoustic performance. BeoLab 11 provides a significant addition to the bass experience in any small to medium loudspeaker setup, adding low frequencies from 300 Hz and down.

BeoLab 11 is composed of two identical loudspeaker cabinets, with baffles facing each other. The outer shells are made of aluminium and are available in silver and white. The concept is based on two 6½” drivers with electronics making BeoLab 11 fully active and suited for both Bang & Olufsen and third party applications.

Utilizing the Acoustic Balance Principle for the first time in a Bang & Olufsen subwoofer, BeoLab 11 features uncompromising bass performance with minimal vibrations. It adds a presence to your surround sound system and also reveals the subtle nuances of your favourite tracks.

Placement flexibility

Due to the omni-directional properties of the bass, the performance is not dependent upon orientation; therefore the unit can be ‘rotated’ as desired when positioned on the floor.

“Thanks to its acoustic principle, which reduces to a minimum the vibrations normally experienced from a subwoofer, BeoLab 11 can be placed either on the floor or can be hung on a wall – and it will offer great performance in either position. Hanging a subwoofer on the wall is quite unorthodox. However, in many home environments this may be the preferred placement, as it will be possible to hide the cables and it will free up floor space,” states Michael Jensen, Product Manager Bang & Olufsen.

Rediscover your music collection

By adding a BeoLab 11 to a simple stereo setup, you will experience that you hear things on your CD collection you never knew were there. This is because many audio CDs contain bass information that is not possible to reproduce with smaller loudspeakers as they do not cover the entire frequency range.

With BeoLab 11 you get a richer sound not only in the bass area but also in the other frequency areas as it takes over smaller loudspeakers’ reproduction of the lower frequencies. This means that all capacity in the smaller speakers can be used to handle upper bass, midrange and treble.

Adding BeoLab 11 to your existing speaker set up will greatly improve your overall listening experience. You’ll feel as though you are in the studio with an orchestra, or in a jazz club in Manhattan. You’ll enjoy music as it was originally intended, authentic and as if the artist were right in front of you.

The BeoVision 10-46 will be expected to be based on a LCD panel with Edge LED-backlight, like its 40” couterpart.  An integrated 200 Hz refresh rate system will also be featured, as well as the gorgeously sleek brushed aluminum frame that oozes Danish modern luxury.

The BeoVision 1-046 will hit selected markets in April, pricing is yet unknown, but judging that the 40-incher arrived at right under $10,000, feel free to draw your own conclusions.  Of course, if 46 inches is too small for you, there’s always the Band & Olufsen BeoVision 4, and all of its 104 inches of screen.

There’s no doubting the NX90′s power – it scores an impressive 5.9 Windows 7 Experience Rating, helped by the 1.73GHz Core i7-8200QM processor and 8GB of RAM – and premium build.  The metal around the display will be available in both brushed and mirror finishes (the latter being the fingerprint glutton you’d expect) while the rest of the plastics are as decent as you’d hope for a $1,800+ machine.

We’re hard pressed to figure out exactly why you’d want dual touchpads in everyday use, however; the two touch-sensitive areas – which flank each side of the keyboard – generally replicate each others’ functionality, and only come into their own when you access ASUS’ custom Rotation Desktop Control app.  This allows you to control multimedia content with both hands, similar to a pair of DJ decks, but we quietly found ourselves wishing for just one trackpad and a regular numeric keypad (or even a touchscreen, Eee Keyboard style).  The keyboard, incidentally, was not so much cramped as lacking in key travel, surprising given the NX90′s overall bulk.

This is definitely a prototype unit, and ASUS have a little time to tweak things before the NX90 is expected to launch in March 2010.

While B&O would far prefer you to pair the BeoVision 10 with one of their similarly-pricey speaker setups, the HDTV does have a stereo speaker pair behind the lower mesh section.  It also offers direct surround sound outputs, a DVB-HD digital TV tuner and electronic curtains – since you need some drama in your life – as well as a hinge on the left or right hand side so that you can tilt the BeoVision 10 out from the wall.

Elsewhere it’s all brushed or polished aluminum, glass and “floating” fabric for the speaker cover, the latter of which is magnetically mounted so that B&O can sell you replacements in alternative colors.  The Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 10 is available now, priced at around 43,495 Danish Kroner ($8,750).

Press Release:

Bang & Olufsen launches 40-inch beauty with brains

Designed with the idea of adding life to your wallpaper, the new LED-based BeoVision 10 from Bang & Olufsen is a slim, fully integrated TV solution with a classic Bang & Olufsen identity developed specifically for wall placement. The elegant appearance mingles extremely well with the paintings and interior decoration of any home.

“BeoVision 10 is the Bang & Olufsen answer to a flat screen concept designed to be wall mounted. In every detail the design has been optimised for wall placement, at the same time it has been very important for us to secure an outstanding sound performance – also when it comes to an extremely flat TV like this one”, Product Manager Heidi Hausted Fredberg explains.

The 40-inch, full HD TV is a new exciting LED-based, 200/240 Hz LCD panel with impressive picture performance applying the latest picture improvements technologies. The 200/240 Hz technology combined with sophisticated motion compensation technologies take the motion performance of the LCD panel to a yet unseen level of smoothness. Besides a fantastic picture the slim beauty offers an impressive sound performance. BeoVision 10 has an integrated stereo speaker placed below the screen and covered by a fabric front. It offers integrated surround sound and DVB-HD module, electronic curtains and an extensive connection panel allowing you to add up to five extra speakers for a surround sound setup.

BeoVision 10 is discretely hinged in the left or right-hand side, allowing you to manually pull it out to an angle of 45 degrees from the wall which offers you extended viewing comfort.

Slim design thanks to LED-based LCD technology

The slim design of BeoVision 10 is obtained by applying a new LCD technology, where an edge-type LED backlight is used, and by placing the chassis and the loudspeakers below the LCD screen. The backlight unit consists of a large number of white LEDs positioned all around at the edge of the panel. The light from the LED’s is spread evenly across the panel by means of an optical light guide system.

The entire TV solution is covered by an elegant front glass with a sophisticated anti-reflection coating and framed by a high-gloss polished aluminium profile on both front and rear. The designer has been playing with both surface treatment and angles trying to get the maximum surface on the screen. The two aluminium profiles are angled which means they take up a minimum part of the total glass covered TV surface. This has resulted in one large piece of black glass in a square format which enhances the impression of the TV as an elegant wall decoration when switched off.

The slim look is further enhanced by the curved rear profile that reflects the colour of the wall and thereby gives optical impression of almost being part of the wall. The frame is split in a front and a rear part to make the TV look thinner. As a result, you can hardly see the rear frame, even when looking at the TV from an angle.

The combination of glass, high-gloss polished aluminium and a completely black screen makes BeoVision 10 an extremely elegant solution in any environment.

Genius acoustic solutions

Although BeoVision 10 is a flat screen TV, it offers anything but flat sound. It has a genuine active two-way stereo loudspeaker system with a centre bass. The bass system is ported while the treble and midrange are working in a closed cabinet. The acoustic engineers have met the challenge of the slim TV, by making a creative bass port design. By placing the port opening behind the screen you get a better bass performance as noise and turbulence from this port is masked by the screen.

Colour of your choice for the loudspeaker

The appearance of the black glass surface is broken by a rectangular fabric front cover for the speakers. The cover is surrounded by glass so it visually hovers above the glass surface. The cover will be available in black, white, silver, dark grey, blue and orange. The front is just clicked on with magnets so it is very easy to change colour whenever you wish.

There’s also a 2-inch LCD, aluminum scroll wheel (that doubles as a four-way D-pad with center-select) and plenty of metal and glass in the the construction.  It’s also possible to set the screen and keypad backlight to different tones, so as to differentiate between handsets – up to eight are supported simultaneously – or even match your decor (facetious, surely, since B&O kit only ever ends up in monochrome loft-style apartments).

No word on pricing as yet, but given this is B&O we wouldn’t expect it to be in the realms of affordability for most buyers.  Still, if you’ve already outfitted your home with Bang & Olufsen tech, the BeoCom 5 will slot neatly into the system.

Press Release:

BeoCom 5

A versatile and elegant phone for modern living

An individualised two-line handset for the household, BeoCom 5 supports IP telephony and includes a cordless speaker phone, built-in phonebook and full-graphic display.

BeoCom 5, the new cordless phone from Bang & Olufsen, is an invaluable and elegant companion that follows your lead when leisure time is in short supply. From its support of IP-telephony to its brilliant mobile speaker phone, BeoCom 5 includes the features you need, when and where you need them.

BeoCom 5 allows IP telephony, which allows you to send and receive telephone calls via your computer instead of an older landline connection. This gives you the data security and integration with other Internet services that characterizes IP-telephony. At the same time, BeoCom 5 is a two-line phone, making it possible for you to have dedicated home and office lines in the same phone system, which in turn can include up to eight handsets. This makes BeoCom 5 the ideal choice for modern homes.

The jet-black BeoCom 5 handset is stylish as well as easy to use, whether it’s lying on the table or mounted in its portable speaker phone. “BeoCom 5 combines utility, elegance and user-friendliness in a really unique way,” says Product Manager Rie Kold Pripsø. “The handset fits your hand extremely well, and with the full-graphic display and backlit keypad on the rear, facing away from you, the surface keeps its shine.”

With BeoCom 5, you can select colour patterns for display information to give each handset a unique appearance, perhaps matching the décor of each room. The handset can be placed in the speaker phone, but also in a charger you can place on a table or mount on a wall. A built-in magnet holds the handset in place.

In standby, the phone surface appears to be uniformly black and glasslike, but when BeoCom 5 is placed in the charger, the dimmed clock feature appears. The clock is visually captivating; you can choose between normal time indication with digits and a solution where the minute and the hour hands are replaced by circles which move gracefully, like planets orbiting each other. When you pick up or operate the handset, the backlight in the display and keypad activate smoothly, magically revealing the colour theme of the individual handset.

With the portable speaker phone – which doubles as a charger – you don’t need to stop in your tracks the moment you get a call. You simply take the speaker phone with you as you move from room to room. Continue the conversation – and include the rest of the family – without breaking your stride. “The real genius of BeoCom 5, the portable speaker phone, gives BeoCom 5 its unique identity in a world where so many people are walking around with phones seemingly glued to their heads,” states Rie Kold Pripsø.

BeoCom 5 brings user-friendliness to a new level, making the most of the 2-inch LCD display, 176 x 220 pixel resolution, and crystal-clear graphic rendition. This gives you as comprehensive an overview of call information as a mobile phone. In addition to the display, the aluminium navigation wheel makes browsing the phonebook, call lists and menus easier than ever. The wheel includes four push points at the edge and a selection button in the middle for activating the most frequently-used functions.

A DECT telephone, BeoCom 5 can be used with its dedicated two-line base, BeoLine 2, but can also be used as a one-line handset in existing BeoCom phone systems, such as BeoCom 6000. Up to 400 numbers can be stored in the Phonebook when BeoCom 5 is used with BeoLine 2.

Other defendants include Cowon, Philips, LG, Meizu and TrekStor, amounting to twenty in total.  However it’s Apple – as lead in the PMP segment – which Tsera view as the biggest cash-cow here, with claims that they notified the Cupertino company as far back as September 2004 as to the nature of the patent and accusing them of being “wanton” in continuing the “misuse”.

Tsera is seeking ongoing royalties from each of the companies, together with damages for prior infringement.  However from Apple they’re seeking “enhanced” damages, likely a result of all that “wanton” behavior.  A jury trial has been requested, which if granted will be held in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) District court.

[via Apple Insider]

Three small, square displays show the time, alarm time and which source will be used to rouse you.  Switching on or off the alarm is done by the trumpet-style button on one end, and tapping or touching the BeoTime activates the screen backlighting.  There’s also an optional wall-bracket, to which the BeoTime magnetically clips.

Picking it up, a tilt-sensor turns the BeoTime into a remote control, with the displays now switching to indicate which source is being managed.  It will function as a sleep timer, volume & channel control or lighting control, depending on what B&O kit you’ve invested in.

As you’d expect, there’s a serious sting in the tail and that’s the price.  When the Bang & Olufsen BeoTime is released in August 2009, it’ll have a an MRSP of $375.

Press Release:

Bang & Olufsen introduces BeoTime alarm clock complete with system integration capabilities

Bang & Olufsen, the Danish retailer of high-end audio and video products, launches the new BeoTime – an alarm clock that is equal parts stylish and functional. In addition to its time-telling operation, BeoTime also doubles as a control for Bang & Olufsen systems in the home.

“We are excited to introduce BeoTime to the Bang & Olufsen product porfolio,” said Zean Nielsen, President of Bang & Olufsen America. “We can offer high-end products at both ends of the price spectrum – from entry level to full home entertainment systerms.”

BeoTime features a built-in sleep timer which can switch all Bang & Olufsen equipment in the room to standby after a selected time interval of up to 120 minutes – a convenient feature for those who like to stay up watching television or fall asleep to the sound of a favorite CD without having to worry about turning the music off. In addition to the alarm and sleep timer functions, you can use BeoTime for basic operation of the bedroom television, loudspeakers, or light control. BeoTime also makes a unique desk clock, ideal for one’s work or home office.

BeoTime is characterized by a high degree of convenience and ease of use. It can be held in one hand and operated with one’s thumb. Through a built-in tilt sensor, display information and button functions change orientation in accordance with how BeoTime is held, left on the nightstand, or placed in its wall bracket.

Visual identity
The designer, Steffen Schmelling, was inspired by things that reminded him of a pleasant experience in waking up, and thus he thought of Mozart’s The Magic Flute – a story with wonderful music, in which light defeats dark, and there is an inherent mix between dream and fantasy. The “flute” was an obvious design choice to represent such surreal disposition.

BeoTime is a beautifully anodised and polished aluminium tube, with a trumpet-shaped button that protrudes from one end when the alarm is activated. The button clicks in and out when pressed (reminiscent of a classic alarm clock) and is used to switch the alarm on and off. At the other end of the tube, a cover conceals the battery compartment for three batteries with a life of approximately one-year. Two rubber feet, one at each end of the tube, keep BeoTime steady when placed on a table surface. For wall-mounting, BeoTime rests in an almost invisible magnetic wall bracket.

Menu navigation is done with the main square button in the center of the unit. Three separate square displays, which feature dark text on a bright background, show the present time, alarm time, and wake-up source (alarm chime versus audio system). The current time is always visible, and because of a built-in motion sensor, the display backlight is activated by a simple touch, e.g. to check the time during the night.

BeoTime will be available at all Bang & Olufsen showrooms August 2009. MSRP $375.00.

[Thanks Sarah!]

This 103-inch behemoth actually uses the same panel as the 103-inch Panasonic TH-103PF9. But that’s not to say this plasma screen doesn’t have something unique to offer. It most certainly does with a more elegant design and a stand that can rise and fall at the press of a button.

This model is also amped up with BeoSystem 3 and VisionClear, which makes colors pop automatically. As you might have guess, this B&O offering doesn’t come cheap with and expected price tag of the equivalent of $136,220. Since most of us will never have the luxury of spending that much on a TV in our lifetime, check out the video below. Live vicariously.

[via Electronic House]

The integrated speakers are mounted in a jutting chin section together with a down-facing bass speaker, in a setup Bang & Olufsen describe as like “an orchestra pit”.  There’ll be PAL, SECAM and NTSC versions, with DVB-HD digital tuners for those regions with suitable broadcasts.

No word on pricing as yet, but B&O’s talk of “entry-level” and “attractive price point” aren’t enough to convince us that this is an HDTV that most people would find affordable.  Considering it doesn’t even come with the company’s Beo4 remote, expect to put a fair few cents aside overall.

The only real slow-down we observed was when dragging out a widget from the TouchWiz sidebar to the desktop, when the sidebar took a while to refresh back down.  However this could be a side-effect of the internet-enabled widget attempting – and, since we were buried indoors and the UltraTOUCH lacks WiFi, failing - to grab a network connection.  Generally, though the display was bright and richly color saturated, with excellent viewing angles.  We’ll have to wait and see exactly how good the 8-megapixel camera is; we don’t hold out much hope for its dual-LED flash.  It’s set to go on sale in March 2009, price and carriers yet to be announced.

Less successful, unfortunately, was the Samsung BEAT DJ.  One half of the two BEAT Edition devices announced today, the music-centric device promises plenty with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower amplification and the same-sized 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen as the UltraTOUCH.  However it’s let down by being strangely more unresponsive than the screen on the other handset, being stubborn to respond and slow to react when it does register a touch.  That could be worked out in production firmware, certainly, but less convincing is the ethos of the device as a whole.

Samsung’s gimmick is that you can not only play tracks but tweak, filter and drop in samples on the fly.  While that’s an interesting concept – and the Pacemaker has carved out its own niche doing something similar – it comes across as being pretty pointless.  Samples sound cheesy, and there’s not enough granular control of any of the editing or filtering to make it a realistic standalone music device.  It’s a shame, as the hardware and GUI are nicely designed, with the two circular “decks” crossing well between touchscreen and casing, and a dedicated DJ mode switch to boot you straight into the media player.

As for the Omnia HD, the handset Samsung had on hand today was a pre-production unit and refused to hold a charge; we’re hoping to stop by and check out a working model of the S60 smartphone tomorrow.  As for the video of the handsets from today, we’re processing that and will add it in as soon as it’s done.

In addition, the Samsung M7600 has 3G HSDPA connectivity, GPS and a 3-megapixel camera with flash. Bang & Olufsen are believed to have added their amplification know-how, and there’s also DivX support for playing high-resolution video on what we’re predicting will be a great display.

It sounds as though Samsung have been eyeing up the Pacemaker PMP and borrowing some of the functionality that standalone DJ device offers – including on-the-fly filters and samples. The Samsung M7600 is expected in May 2009, no word on which carrier might support it or how much it’ll go for.

[via PHONE Magazine]

In the end, they settled on Italian manufacturer Silanco.  The covers have been tested at B&O’s in-house acoustic performance facility, as well as artificially aged to check that they’d still look crisp and white after 6-8 years of direct sunlight.  They’ve even splattered dirt onto them, to see what affect particles clinging to the covers might have on sound.

The new white speaker grills will be available this winter, on every fabric-covered speaker B&O produce.  It’s unclear what affect, if any, this will have on the price; similarly, it’s unknown whether B&O will be offering the covers as accessories for existing owners.

[via Born Rich]

Other interesting looking announcements include the Samsung Eternity on AT&T, LG Prada II, and the iRiver wave which, for the moment at least, is stuck in Korea.  Still, they’re trailing in the wake of Apple’s iPhone 3G, which finally edged ahead of the Motorola RAZR to become the best selling mobile handset.  Just the right time for rumors to begin that Costco are planning to sell the Apple device for $149.  Whether or not that pans out, if you plan on using your iPhone 3G as Apple intended it then you’ll be wanting to take a look at our Mophie Juice Pack review for the power-guzzling smartphone.

Slightly larger, but using that space to its best advantage – by packing in the connectivity – comes UMID’s Mobile Internet Device.  Blessed with WiBro, WiMAX, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 4.8-inch touchscreen, it leaves us in the bizarre situation of not only hoping it will make it to our shores, but that we’ll have the wireless networks to sate it.

All too often we see slick gadgets in Korea that we’ll never get a chance to play with ourselves; it was nice, then, to be able to exclusively confirm that Nanovision’s MIMO 7-inch USB LCD monitors are coming to the US, UK, Italy and Japan.  We’ve got review samples winging their way to us right now, so expect full coverage this coming week.

For once, netbooks took a backseat over the past seven days, with the only major news being Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 getting a confirmed price – from $549 – and release timetable.  You’ll be able to pick up the 12.1-inch budget ultraportable from the second week in December.  In gaming, meanwhile, we found out about Sports Active, EA’s upcoming challenge to the Wii Fit.

You’d think we were entirely unable to read a map here at SlashGear this week, with three separate PND devices in for review.  The Navigon 7200T, Mio’s Knight Rider GPS and Telenav’s Shotgun PND all took their turn ordering us about; thankfully we had the Flip MinoHD to document the ordeal.

Winner of the week has to be Bang & Olufsen, who have already whipped commenters into a frenzy by announcing the terribly expensive BeoSound 5 Digital Music System.  Par for the course for the Danish company, really.  Meanwhile loser of the week is Circuit City, who have voluntarily filed for bankruptcy.  The credit crunch claims another victim, but we suppose that means plenty of stock-clearance bargains this holiday season.

MOTS analyses tracks by rhythm, syncopation, key tonality and vocal harmonies, and creates automatic playlists that evolve as you choose music and add to the list.  It’s impossible to tell without experiencing the system how well this works, but B&O apparently have at least two patents pending. 

Music is stored in lossless formats, with connections on the BeoMaster including B&O MasterLink, IR input, analog line-out, S/PDIF output, DVI-I, DVI-D (for the controller), YPbPr, S-Video, Composite video, three USB 2.0 ports (one for the controller) and ethernet.  It runs Windows XP Embedded.  Meanwhile the BeoSound 5 controller itself has power, USB and HDMI/DVI connections.

Supported formats include WMA, WMA Lossless, MP3, WAV, ASF and AAC, together with internet radio streams in WMA, MP3, ASX and M3U.  It will also show video in MPEG, MPE, MPG, AVI, WMV and VFW formats.  500GB is enough room for over 28,000 songs stored losslessly.

The Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 5 system – including controller and server – will be available from March 2009, priced at around £3,500 ($5,377).

Both desk and wall-mounting appears to be an option, with stability ensured courtesy of the large (and, we’re told, weighty) “foot”.  Since the display is passive and not intended to be finger-prodded, that should reduce any chance of toppling also.

B&O have apparently also included an auto-playlist function, which those who have tried it are calling far more intelligent than Apple’s recent Genius system:

“MOTS is truly surprising (though awkwardly named) in that music comes down the axis that I truly would not have chosen myself, but which fits perfectly with the characteristics of the song I initially chose” BeoWorld comment

Of course, being Bang & Olufsen, the BeoSound 2 is likely to be very, very expensive.  Pricing and availability details, though, are currently unknown.

[via Engadget]

In a world where most manufacturers appear to leave their remote controls to the last minute, then simply heap a load of buttons onto a slab of grey plastic, B&O are overturning design convention and, well, normality with a construction that looks a bit like a stack of different licorice allsorts.  A full-colour touchscreen TFT crowns a half-sphere with volume and other controls, customised by your B&O network specialist (you don’t think you set these things up yourself, do you?) to cater to exactly your setup and exactly your needs.

B&O are proud of their dual-action buttons – called Sensi-Touch and Soft-Touch – which seemingly give an approximation of hover and click, and the whole thing uses a rechargeable battery and is made of luscious materials like stainless steel and a chemically-hardened touchscreen glass.

Priced at $560, the Beo5 should be available from authorised B&O retailers now.

B&O Beo5 Press Release (pdf)

This DVD player provides near-MCE level functionality. It has a DVD player and recorder, a TV tuner/recorder, and an integrated HDD for storage of media.

You can use the Guide Plus+ TV guide that is included to schedule recordings and simultaneously play them back. No price, or really even a definite word whether it’s been released yet, but generally when it comes to Bang & Olufsen, you better start saving now.

Bang and Olufsen DVD 2 high end DVD player and recorder [via newlaunches]

Since they are being made for Bang & Olufsen you can be sure of three things, first, they are going to look weird as hell, but have tons of functionality, second, they aren’t going to be cheap, and third, they are going to change the names. So fare the F330 has kept its name and gone untouched, the SGH-F310 has several potential names though, among them are, Serene II, Serenata, and then the least likely one, leaving it as it is.

The SGH-F310 has UMTS/EDGE/HSDPA@1.8Mbps and is purported to have a 240×240 touchscreen, 4GB of internal memory, MP3 player, and an MPEG 4 Player. The F330 is supposed to have EDGE/HSDPA@3.6Mbps, Bluetooth and USB connectivity all situated around a 240×320 display with a 2MP camera and a microSD card slot.

Samsung Bang & Olufsen Serene II and F330 music phone are ready [via Newlaunches]

Communicating with the hifi via infra-red, Beowatch was also waterproof to 30m (for those impromptu dips in the pool) and accurate to -0.3/+0.5 second every 24 hours.  Considering it was only a few years ago that B&O brought out their own keyring remote control, it just goes to show how forward-thinking Jensen’s designs were.

More photos of the watch after the cut.

Beoworld [via Cool Hunting]

So it’s great to see this video timeline of the company’s history, from the early days in ramshackle buildings to the modern experimental spaces where willing test subjects try out the latest in conceptual media design.  Well worth taking some time to look through.

Bang & Olufsen Virtual Factory Tour [via core77]

Bang & Olufsen [via Engadget Mobile]

Here’s another B&O mod, except this one is a bit more ambitious – taking a non-functioning Beocenter 4600, cutting down the chassis, mounting an 8 year old Apple Wallstreet PowerBook inside and designing a custom software interface that uses the hifi’s hardware controls to build and navigate playlists.  The end result is drool-worthy.

It’s definitely worth checking out the build-log.

MacMod [via MAKE:]