Sonos have pushed out a new ZonePlayer in their distributed home audio system, and in doing so drops the entry price by a (relatively) high amount. The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 packages together a receiver and an amplified 5-driver speaker into a single unit, which for $399 (or €350 in Europe) undercuts the previous entry-level ZonePlayer 90 which demanded a separate set of powered speakers on top of its $349 sticker price.
Video demo after the cut
Whether you’re an iPod owner or wouldn’t be seen dead near one of Apple’s PMPs, you can’t argue the fact that the distinctive mediaplayers have had a huge impact on how rival devices are designed. That’s why we’re glad to see the Lisse Q10, a pleasingly retro PMP with a rather tactile looking control dial.
LG have announced a new home cinema system, and if you’re a fan of globular satellite speakers and have an iPod then this might be worth a look. The LG HB954SP Blu-ray HCS packs a Full HD 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound audio system into a compact, blue-tinged box, with 1,000W of audio tuned by ear-wizard Mr Mark Levinson.
Details of two new iriver PMPs have emerged, courtesy of a post on the iriver forums (currently offline), including a compact MP3 player and a WiFi-toting iPod touch rival. The iriver N20, shown here, is expected to debut imminently with a 4-line 120 x 56 OLED display and FM radio.
One of our key criticisms of the Zune HD was that Microsoft don’t offer a version of their desktop management software for Mac, thus giving Apple users another good reason to stick with the iPod. That might change, though, says Mary-Jo Foley, who has been talking to Microsoft’s director of communications for the TV, Video and Music Business, Jose Pinero. According to Pinero, Microsoft are considering porting the Zune software and services to various non-Windows platforms, one of which would be OS X.
Having seen its packaging making the rounds, it was only a matter of time until Qualcomm made their FLO TV Personal Television official. The palm-sized touchscreen mediaplayer has a 3.5-inch display and is 0.5-inches thick; FLO TV offers wireless live and time-shifted TV that up until now you’d have needed to have a compatible smartphone from Verizon or other carriers in order to view. Unfortunately, the monthly subscription fee those carriers levied is still in place: as well as the $249.99 of the FLO TV device itself, you’re looking at the equivalent of $8.99 or more for each month.
UK radio manufacturer Revo have announced their latest model, the DOMINO D3, a DAB/DAB+ digital radio with integrated iPod/iPhone dock and internet radio streaming. The DOMINO D3 also supports Last.fm streaming, and the whole thing has a soft rubber coating that, while stopping short of making it waterproof, at least does make it fetishistically touchable.
Yes, it’s just a box, and yes, we realise someone – some very dull, poorly-occupied person – could have knocked it up themselves and be laughing at us from behind their camera, but we’ll take the simple route and say this is the first sighting of Qualcomm’s FLO TV Personal TV packaging. The upcoming device is tipped to be Qualcomm’s attempt to drive adoption of their terrestrial digital TV service, a compact touchscreen slate with integrated speakers.
ASUS’ diminutive O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player has finally gone on sale, with the 1080p-capable box priced at $99.99. Announced back in June, the O!Play offers playback of local, network or internet content, via various USB 2.0, eSATA or wired ethernet ports.
Cowon have outed their latest PMP, the iAudio 9, complete with a 2-inch QVGA display and voice-recorder functionality. While it may not have the outright style of some rival devices, one thing Cowon have always impressed with is codec support and the iAudio 9 is looking like it’ll be no different.
SlashGear JP
