There are three hardware parts to the Jongo system, kicking off with the Pure Jongo S340B speaker with an RRP of $229. It includes both WiFi and Bluetooth – for whole-home streaming – as well as more direct playback from a nearby phone or tablet, and surround audio with five speakers and individual amps spread around the body of the speaker.

Pure Jongo official video:

Multiple audio profiles can be toggled through with a dedicated button on the back, and there’s a choice of mono or stereo playback. Unlike Sonos’ PLAY range, the Jongo S340B can be used away from a power socket, thanks to a rechargeable battery pack good for up to 10hrs use.

The Pure Jongo T640B is a more beefy version, with 100W pushed through 5-inch full-range drive units and dual-concentric tweeters. It can be fitted on a stand in portrait or landscape orientation, or wall mounted, though doesn’t have a battery. No word on pricing at this stage.

Pure Jongo live:

Finally, there’s the $129 Jongo A140B, a HiFi adapter with no onboard speaker, to bridge the Jongo system to an existing stereo. It has both WiFi and Bluetooth like the others, plus a 24-bit DAC, optical and coaxial digital outputs, and dual phono analog outputs. Again, no word on pricing.

For software, Pure uses its new Pure Connected app, available for Android and iOS. It streams from Pure Music, the company’s own Spotify rival, and can send different music to each Jongo speaker, or synchronize to all of the speakers. It also features an Explorer section for finding new content.

The Pure Jongo S340B will arrive in Q1 2013, with a choice of optional speaker grills at $29.99 apiece. The other components will land in the first half of 2013. The new Pure Connect app will arrive in Q1 2013.

Connectivity includes both WiFi and ethernet, and there’s a digital audio output socket to hook up a separate amp system along with an analog input for non-Apple PMPs. On the front is an iPhone/iPod touch/iPod dock for local playback, or alternatively you can stream using AirPlay from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or iTunes on a PC or Mac.

Two way sync means you can use the volume controls on the Contour 200i Air itself to adjust the settings on your Apple device, and Pure throws in a remote control as well. The company also offers the Pure Lounge app, to tune in to internet radio through your iOS device, as a free download from the App Store.

The Pure Contour 200i Air will go on sale in March 2012 for $329.

First off is the relatively limited access. Spotify has been pushing integration into standalone HiFi, STB and other hardware, whereas to begin with PURE Music will only play on the company’s own eight-strong streaming radio range, plus the iPhone and Android apps. There’s no iPad app, though that will follow on in 2012, and neither is there local caching, allowing you to store copies of songs locally so as to play them back even when you don’t have a data connection.

Still, PURE tells us that the local caching is on the roadmap to be addressed, while the company also says its open to third-party integration so as to make PURE Music a really cross-platform service. The browser-based PC/Mac interface has also been designed with tablet browsers in mind, and so while there’s no iPad or Honeycomb app at present, you shouldn’t have any issues accessing the web-based interface instead. That’s handy for platforms – like webOS on the TouchPad or QNX on the BlackBerry PlayBook – which are very unlikely to see dedicated apps anytime soon.

From the browser UI, once you’ve registered each PURE radio, you can control the playlist remotely. Alternatively, all the playlist and catalog access, search and other tools are available directly from the radios themselves, which have had a firmware update to handle PURE Music this week. Unlimited clients using the same IP address can access the service simultaneously – so you can have multiple listeners at home, all playing different tracks – though currently there’s no synchronized playback as on Sonos.

Of the more than 15m tracks available – all up for purchase at 320kbps from PURE’s media partner, 7Digital – more than 95-percent are apparently ready to stream, each at 128kbps. PURE tells us it’s working on the hold-out labels currently. One advantage over Spotify is the PURE Tag service (now free for all users, rather than a £2.99 monthly subscription) that allows you to use your phone or PURE radio to identify music playing on the radio and then either buy the track individually or access it through your PURE Music subscription.

We’ll be putting PURE Music through its paces for a full review soon, but first impressions are reasonably positive. PURE is targeting a user-base that’s perhaps looking for less complexity than Spotify, instead after a relatively plug-and-play system; the risk with that is you can end up alienating early-adopters who are more tech-minded and miss the advanced features. Still, for a subscription price just half of what Spotify Premium costs, we can see plenty of people giving PURE Music a second glance.

The Twilight has a USB port that you can sue to charge your phone or other device. You can connect your MP3 player or iPod to the thing easily for playback. The lights are supposed to help you fall asleep and the clock has a timer that will turn them of altogether when you want them to.

It can be used for kids with built-in lullabies like twinkle, twinkle, little star’ and ‘rock-a-bye baby’ and it has natural sounds like waves to help you fall asleep. Pricing is unknown at this time.

Here’s the strange part. Windows Mobile 7. That’s what the author of the video calls the Operating System on the device, which they say that runs very smoothly. And it’s also very responsive. And, from what we can tell, that’s a good thing for any phone on the market. Unfortunately, the photo taker wasn’t able to get any video, or take any more photos than the ones you see in the slideshow, but this is better than nothing, right?

What do you think of the way it looks? It’s definitely round, no questioning that. And, depending on how the slide activates, this might be something that the teen demographic definitely takes hold of. On a personal note, though, we’re more interested in seeing the Pure in action. Just three days to wait. Consider our interest piqued, Microsoft.

[via YouTube]

So, what’s Project Pink? Well, so far, it’s two handsets: Pure and Turtle. We know that these handsets aren’t Windows Phone 7-based, but something different. However, we do know that, from screenshots we’ve seen, that they do use the same tiled interface that we’ve seen before. Secondly, we know that Microsoft is pinning these handsets, which we assume are the two we’ve seen before, as social networking oriented handsets. Texting, messaging, and social networking sites being the main focus.

We’ll have to wait to get any more details until Monday. It’s not long to wait. Just a weekend. But, thanks to SanDisk, we know that the handsets will at least support MicroSD card slots, and they will be compatible with SanDisk’s variations. So, that’s good news. Anyone out there looking forward to seeing more Turtle and Pure action?

[via PhoneScoop]

The Best of R3 Media:

The MyTouch Slide Shows Up in RadioShack: No, no. Not in stores. Well, not where you can get to them as a consumer, anyway. It looks like the MyTouch Slide has popped into a RadioShack inventory list. Unfortunately, the internal list doesn’t have a picture (because we’re hoping it doesn’t look like this), and it’s listed as coming soon. That soon seems pretty . . . Soon, especially if those rumors of a May 17th launch date turn out to be true. [via Android Community]

Apple’s iPad Gets Reviewed: The iPad is one of those devices that’s going to keep getting scrutinized for quite some time. If the iPhone is any indicator, it will keep getting scrutinized up until about the next one comes out, and maybe even past that. But, that’s not stopping the glowing reviews from being issued. Everything iPad reviewed the tablet from Apple, and while there might be some snags (that may get cleared up tomorrow), the overall assessment is that the new gadget from Cupertino is a nice addition to their line-up. [via Everything iPad]

Verizon Wireless Has New Phones Coming Soon: Who would’ve thought! Sure enough, there seems to be enough rumors floating around (or swirling around in a gigantic storm, if you prefer) that Verizon Wireless executives needed to push out a message to employees that they do, in fact, have some new handsets planned for release soon. There’s even more rumors about what the devices may be, and let’s face it: there’s good reason for those rumors. From the Android side of things, it could be an internal message saying that the HTC Incredible is set to launch soon. Or, if you want to remember Microsoft’s got something planned on April 12th, we could very well be seeing the Turtle and Pure hitting shelves soon. Your guess is as good as ours. [via SlashPhone]

The Dredge Net:

Amazon Kindle Hitting Target Stores April 25th: We wouldn’t be going out on too far a limb here if we were going to assume that Amazon, the house that built the Kindle, is a bit worried about the iPad. Yes, the Kindle may still be one of the best, if not the best singular eReader device on the market, but with the launch of the iBookstore and iBooks, the Kindle has some major competition. So, what’s the next step (besides launching a new device)? You start selling your product in brick-and-mortar stores. According to a snapshot of a Target inventory device, there’s a 6-inch Amazon Kindle device listed for purchase. The price? $259 (still). Rumor has it that the device will hit stores on April 25th. [via Engadget]

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime Says the iPad Isn’t a Threat: First, this: “Clearly, it doesn’t look like their platform is a viable profit platform…” That’s the start of a very interesting quote from the President of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime. The rest goes on to say that, because there’s more free downloads than paid ones, the iPad (and iPhone/iPod Touch by default) isn’t a threat to Nintendo, or any of its mobile gaming platforms. We’d have to second guess that a bit, considering reports from companies like Flurry, which tracks sales from Apple’s mobile devices, estimated that there were 30,000 games available in the App Store, and that all of those games bring in an estimated $500 million. Perhaps to Nintendo that’s a low number, but we don’t imagine that Apple, or Steve Jobs for that matter, is wondering if their platforms are gaming worthy. [via Kotaku]

Lightsaber Nightlight Will Keep You Safe From Shifty Sith: Are you a fan of Star Wars? No, a real fan. Because this nightlight is even worse than the bookends we’ve seen in previous editions of the Daily Slash. Well, perhaps worse isn’t the right word, but we will say that this is definitely a product for the hardcore. (Though, we could be wrong.) This lightsaber nightlight actually has seven different color modes, and you can change the color just from a button on a separate remote. The lightsaber light itself hangs on the wall, wherever you want to put it, and it looks like it might do a pretty good job of actually discarding some of those shadows. [via DVICE]

This Cellphone is Made of Marble. Really: There’s nothing much else to add here. This is a cellphone, made of marble. And yes, it’s going to be expensive. And yes, you’ll be stared at by pretty much everyone if you actually even think about getting this. A cellphone. Made from marble.  What’s next? We’re almost afraid to ask. [via Gizmodo]

Egg-shaped, the Sensia is reminiscent of a grown-up Chumby, with two 15W RMS 3-inch speakers flanging the full-color LCD touchscreen.  The display runs at 640 x 480 resolution and uses a capacitive touch-layer; in practise it’s responsive, bright and easy to use.  Pure also include an RF remote control in the box, which doesn’t require line-of-sight in order to work.

30W couldn’t do much to dominate the CES Unveiled show floor, given the background noise, so we’ll wait until we get a review unit in to judge audio quality.  Where the Euro version gets DAB digital radio, the US Sensia doesn’t get the rough equivalent – HD Radio – though you do still get FM RDS support along with room for 40 FM presets and unlimited internet radio presets.

It’s bigger in the plastic than the press shots might suggest, measuring a full 11-inches across (almost as much as a rugby ball, in fact) and is pretty distinctive with its high-gloss finish; Pure offer black, white, red or yellow variants.  Access to websites like Facebook and Twitter is handy, but we’re not entirely convinced that they’re more usable in this form – despite the larger display – than a similar interface you’d see on a cellphone or smartphone.

The Pure Sensia will arrive in the US later in 2010, priced at $349.

The radio ReVu for pausing and rewinding of DAB radio. The thing looks like some sort of radio from the 1970′s, but is packed with modern tech and can be fitted with an optional ChargePAK battery. Standard power comes from C-cell batteries. The radio features DAB+ and FM with RDS tuner.

The ReVu feature allows the pause and rewinding of live radio for up to 15 minutes. The radio is also upgradable via USB and has adjustable bass and treble settings. Frequency range for the device is DAB band III 174-240Mhz and FM from 87.5 to 108MHz. The power output is 2.5W RMS per channel and the radio has two full range 3-inch drivers. The thing sells for £99.99, but it’s only good in the UK thanks to no DAB in America.

The Pure offers a 3.2-inch WVGA restive touchscreen, only now it’s clad in a shiny dark-blue plastic body rather than the metal-edged casing of the Diamond2. What you lose in tactile feel, you gain in a display that feels less recessed than we found the original handset’s to be. Physical controls are limited to a touch-sensitive zoom slider sandwiched between the display and four hardware buttons – call, Windows, back and end – together with volume keys on the top right-hand side and a power/lock button up top. On the base there’s HTC’s usual ExtUSB port (which is compatible with miniUSB) and which – with a frustrating dongle – offers a 3.5mm headphone socket. Like the Diamond2, there’s no way to plug in a standard set of headphones.

Wireless connectivity, meanwhile, includes HSDPA 7.2, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0, together with GPS, meaning there’s no shortage of ways to get online. A microSD card slot is hidden under the battery cover. HTC’s choice of display is just as bright and vibrant as we remember from the Diamond2, and shows off the latest version of TouchFLO 3D. The company’s own finger-friendly UI sits on top of Windows Mobile 6.5, and works well to keep the stylus in its silo most of the time. For all the details – and opinion – on Microsoft’s new smartphone platform, check out our Windows Mobile 6.5 review. That covers the underlying OS, the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store – paid downloads from which AT&T subscribers can charge straight to their monthly bill – MyPhone backup and all of Microsoft’s other tweaks and amendments to its Windows Phone platform.

What’s less impressive six months down the line is the performance, especially in the wake of the iPhone 3GS. We found the on-screen keyboard – though well spaced, sensibly laid-out and with decent auto-correction – to be sluggish, especially when typing URLs in either of the Pure’s preinstalled browsers. The Windows Phone has both Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and Opera Mobile, and of the two we prefer Opera’s attempt. While IE Mobile 6 has certainly improved over its deeply disappointing predecessor, and now supports Flash Lite, its rendering abilities fall short; CSS proved particularly tricky for the browser, where Opera Mobile had no problems with the same sites.

The Pure’s camera is the same 5-megapixel autofocus unit as on the Diamond2, offering a digital zoom and touch-autofocus. Picture quality falls short of the advanced optics on recent Samsung and Sony Ericsson devices, but is still reasonable. There’s a minor lag between tapping the display (to take the photo – unfortunately there’s no dedicated camera key), the focus locking and the image being snapped. While the digital zoom is fast, it can’t be used during video recording; however, you can pre-zoom before starting to record a clip.

Battery life is a reasonable two days with moderate use, though if you leave ActiveSync turned on for push-email you may find, like we did, that you need to recharge midway through the second day. As for call quality, the Pure is fair but we missed the particularly clear speakerphone from the Pro2. Given the lack of 3.5mm headphones jack, we found it made more sense using a stereo Bluetooth headset than the awkward adapter dongle (that’s included in the box; HTC and AT&T also provide an ExtUSB stereo headset with microphone). Still, media playback isn’t the Pure’s forte, and neither the Windows Mobile Media Player app nor TouchFLO 3D’s mediaplayer can hold a candle to the iPhone 3GS’s version.

The smartphone space is perhaps one of the fastest evolving in tech right now, and the different landscape in which the AT&T Pure finds itself compared to its Diamond2 sibling is a good example of that. Rival handsets such as the HTC Hero and the iPhone 3GS outclass the Pure’s resistive touchscreen, occasionally laggy keyboard and half-hearted PMP functionality, while the Verizon HTC Imagio offers a bigger display and a standard 3.5mm jack. At $149.99 (following a $50 rebate and assuming a new, two-year contract) the Pure is cheaper than the Imagio, but if Windows Mobile is a must-have we’d plump for the Verizon device.

HTC Pure Demo:

Windows Mobile 6.5 Demo:

The radio itself has integrated stereo speakers each with 15W RMS, a 3.5mm headphone socket and an RF remote control.  Connectivity includes WiFi b/g, DAB and DAB+ support, as well as FM radio, a 3.5mm input for hooking up an external audio source, and a USB port for firmware updates (though PURE will also distribute them for wireless installation over WiFi).  While it’s natively AC powered, the Sensia also has an optional internal battery pack good for up to ten hours of use.

As you’d expect from any radio there are favorites – 30 DAB, 10 FM and unlimited internet radio – and podcast support, however the Sensia can also show slide-shows from radio stations, album art from locally-streamed media, and more.  An online portal allows you to easily find new stations, manage favorites, and view recommended content, all of which is wirelessly synchronized with the Sensia.

Meanwhile the widgets allow for news feeds, weather updates and more to be delivered to the Sensia’s touchscreen, together with access to Facebook, Picasa and Twitter.  There’s even an on-screen keyboard for searching and adding comments.  The PURE Sensia radio will be on sale by Christmas in Europe, priced at £249.99 (including VAT; $406).

Press Release:

PURE brings radio to the Facebook generation

PURE Sensia: A new way of looking at radio
The world’s first visual radio with large colour touchscreen and advanced user-interface
London, UK 17th September 2009: PURE, the world’s leading radio maker presents Sensia, the world’s first high resolution DAB digital and internet-connected radio with a unique, large colour touchscreen which delivers a state-of-the-art and intuitive user-interface. Incorporating PURE’s award-winning ‘Flow’ technology, Sensia is a revolutionary radio with a large 5.7” 640 x 480 high resolution colour touchscreen. Sensia gives users a unique way of interacting with internet and radio content including: podcasts and listen again services; DAB/DAB+* and FM; a growing set of custom PURE ‘Apps’ such as weather, news, Picasa, Facebook or Twitter; and new broadcast material such as station slideshows**. Sensia is also a media streamer enabling users to listen to music stored on a home computer or network storage device via Wi-Fi technology.
Paul Smith, PURE’s general manager says: “PURE made its name as the company behind the success of DAB. We’ve since created a market leading and multi award-winning, internet-connected product range with our Flow series. Sensia is the next major innovation from PURE, which I am confident will bring radio to a whole new ‘Facebook’ generation while still inspiring our traditional customer base. Radio will never be the same again.”
Sensia has an extremely sophisticated touchscreen interface which allows users to view and interact with the radio like never before: scrolling and spinning lists, tapping to select, sliding controls and swiping to change views. Users can choose between a multi-panel and a full screen view. The screen consists of a visual panel for viewing Apps, station slideshows or album artwork; a list panel for scrolling through lists of radio stations or music stored on a PC; a now playing panel and a control bar for operating Sensia.
Sensia is destined to be the centre piece of any room with a distinctive, elliptical shape and four striking colour choices: Bright red, vivid yellow, sleek black and cool white. A moulded stand is supplied, which allows the user to angle the radio to an optimum viewing position and a matching remote control completes the look.
A bespoke microsite has been created for Sensia at www.touchmyradio.com which includes a 3D interactive overview of Sensia as well as a virtual guide with a voiceover by Christian O’Connell, Absolute Radio’s breakfast DJ.
As with the award-winning Flow range, Sensia connects to The PURE Lounge, our own radio and media portal (www.thelounge.com) which acts as the index to the best of internet audio content and where users can register their radio as well as save and organise favourites. Also available from The Lounge and via Sensia is a unique selection of PURE Sounds to relax you to sleep or wake you in a positive frame of mind.
Sensia also features PURE Clearsound technology for 30W RMS of impressive stereo sound; an input for an iPod/MP3 player; an alarm; countdown timer; sleep timer and a headphone socket. Add the optional rechargeable PURE ChargePAK to listen to internet content anywhere within range of the Wi-Fi network or to DAB and FM radio when further afield. Sensia also comes with a clever RF remote control which allows users to control the device from up to 10m away without direct line-of-sight.
Sensia will be available in time for Christmas at just £249.99 (SRP inc. VAT) from all good stockists. For more information, please visit www.touchmyradio.com, www.pure.com, www.thelounge.com or call 0845 1489001.
Editor’s Notes: *DAB+ is a new and enhanced version of DAB and is now being adopted by many countries as their platform choice for digital radio. It’s likely that it will be a few years before UK broadcasters take up DAB+, but the majority of PURE products are already ‘DAB+ ready’. **Where supplied by the broadcaster
About PURE PURE is the world’s leading maker of broadcast and Internet-connected digital radios, the number one supplier of digital radios in Europe and the creator of the world’s most popular and iconic digital radios.
PURE radios increasingly support all the broadcast standards in the DAB family used across Europe and beyond. PURE leads the way in Internet-connected radios with its Flow technology and the PURE Lounge portal (www.thelounge.com). Designed and engineered in the UK, all of PURE’s products are manufactured with the environment in mind and at ethically audited facilities. PURE is a division of Imagination Technologies Group plc. See www.pure.com.

As well as funnelling your music through to the amplifier, the i-10 Dock will charge your iPod or iPhone.  A USB connection lets it function as a regular dock, too, for synchronizing with iTunes on a PC or Mac.  The included infrared remote allows access to all music playback functionality.

No mains supply is seemingly needed for the i-10 to merely act as an audio bridge between your stereo and your iPod, however in that situation the PMP will not be simultaneously recharged.  It will ship in October, with nine dock adapters, priced at £29.99 ($53).

[via Gear Live]

PURE has just announced that they’ll be releasing an Internet radio device that makes listening to your favorite stations a breeze. And get this: you don’t have to be near a computer to enjoy them.

The Pure Evoke Flow radio will be released in the UK next month. The radio works by connecting wirelessly to a website that was just created specifically for the device called Pure Lounge. Once connected, you can stream a variety of stations. FM stations are also available for streaming on either traditional FM or digital audio broadcasts. This is not available in all areas, however.

You can make a list of your favorite stations on your computer and the radio. All in all, pretty neat device. However, I don’t know if the asking price is worth it. At £150 which equals $277 in the US, I’d expect a bit more than an Internet radio streamer. But maybe that’s just me.

[via OhGizmo!]

In fact, with the Pure ChargePAK you can have up to 20hrs of standalone music.  The Mini has the usual headphone socket, but also features an input socket so you can route your iPod (or other generic PMP, naturally) through the speaker.  A mini-USB socket lets you update the firmware.

The Pure One Mini DAB radio is available in the UK now, priced at £40.  Color choices are black, white and pink.

[via Electricpig]