It comes perhaps as a surprise, given YouView is arguably the closest in principle of the UK TV services to Microsoft’s interpretation of live and on-demand content. Launched a year ago, YouView pairs Freeview+HD service – free-to-air digital television in up to HD quality – with on-demand shows streamed from services like BBC iPlayer, Channel 4′s 4oD, and Now TV over the user’s internet connection.

The Xbox One will integrate some of those services itself, in addition to relying on external hardware. The console has an HDMI input as well as an HDMI output, meaning a cable, satellite, or other set-top box can be piped through; an IR blaster handles controlling the channels, with Xbox One users able to search by voice for specific shows or channels and have the console change to them automatically.

“Microsoft is committed to bringing live TV through various solutions to all the markets where Xbox One will be available” Microsoft

What YouView’s decision not to support Xbox One – at least for the moment – means is not entirely clear, though it could lead to the console being unable to incorporate YouView boxes’ channels into its own program guide.

In fact, Microsoft has already confirmed that live TV functionality on the Xbox One will be limited to North America initially. “Live TV with Kinect navigation, Live TV with OneGuide, Trending, and NFL on Xbox available in US at launch” Microsoft said of the console, adding that it was “anticipating global scale over time.”

Exactly how well Xbox One will work with DVRs remains a lingering question, given the rudimentary control system – relying on an IR blaster – is one-way only, and the console has no way of knowing what’s actually recorded on the set-top box. One possibility is that Microsoft could offer its own recording system, extending the Game DVR feature which can be used to capture and share gameplay, and making it work on live TV. However, Microsoft has refused to be drawn on whether that will be the case.

The two-part series will be presented by Laura Jackson, EDGE reports. Meanwhile, former Libertines co-frontman Carl Barat will appear as a special guest, and Everything Everything, Don Broco, and Swim Deep will perform.

Unlike traditional television, however, The Music Room will support interactivity with viewers. Xbox LIVE Gold viewers will be able to “determine the show’s finale in real-time” Microsoft says, with live polls used to guide the outcome.

That’s an oft-referred-to feature of IPTV, but we’re yet to see it comprehensively break through into the mass market. Audiences are already familiar with voting for reality TV shows, though that generally takes place via SMS text message or by calling a premium rate phoneline.

Microsoft’s approach, however, will rely on Xbox LIVE, and opens the door to a far greater emphasis on digital TV content, particularly in the next-generation Xbox. That is expected to feature a number elements designed to emphasize multimedia consumption, though the rumor-mill has proved indecisive on which, exactly, will make the final cut.

For instance, there has been talk of a pass-through HD video input, which would allow the new Xbox to sit in-line with your cable/satellite receiver and your TV. Then, if friends on Xbox LIVE invited you to join a multiplayer game, the message could be flashed up on top of whatever TV show was currently playing.

Another possibility Microsoft supposedly considered was DVR functionality, turning the Xbox 720 into a TV recorder. However, insiders claimed that concerns about prompting dissatisfaction among content owners means that’s unlikely to show up in the final console.

Whatever the final functionality, Microsoft is clearly putting Xbox at the heart of its digital TV content strategy. The company sold off its Mediaroom business back in April, saying it wanted to focus on services as part of the Xbox brand.

The Music Room will start on Wednesday, May 29, at 3:30pm ET (8:30pm BST).

As well as being available on Spotify’s own site, the two new charts will be offered as embeddable widgets for third-parties to use. Those widgets will basically be mini Spotify music players, with each of the fifty tracks available to listen to without having to register first.

Other tweaks to Spotify’s service include greater transparency about total play count, with the company planning to reveal how many times – since October 2008 – each track in its catalog has been listened to. That, the company says, will be of particular interest to artists and record labels, as well as hopefully luring new talent in to share its content on Spotify too.

Spotify has made a big push into social in its last few iterations, focusing almost as much on connecting with friends and celebrities as it does on music itself. Back in December, the company launched Spotify Music Graph, playlists that could be guided by famous listeners, and Spotify Collections, shaped by a user’s friends on social networks like Facebook.

It’s in for some competition, however. Google announced its much-rumored streaming service, Google Play Music All Access, last week at I/O, and while the name may be unwieldy, the premise of a large catalog of tracks and tight Android integration is likely to be popular. All Access also addresses one of the common criticisms of cloud jukebox systems – that of track choice overload – with dynamically-created playlists automatically selecting themed music with unlimited skip potential.

Meanwhile, Apple is tipped to be finally intending to launch a subscription-based unlimited access service of its own this year, dubbed by some “iRadio”, and which could easily bite into Spotify’s iOS user-base.

VIA: WSJ

The Samsung Chord SDK is one of the modifications the company made to Android for the S4, aiming to make information sharing between nearby devices more straightforward. Much as DLNA and UPnP have attempted to do with media streaming, the Chord SDK opens impromptu networking up to apps, games, and more.

That way, multiplayer games can be started simply by bringing multiple Samsung products nearby, or group photo albums viewed and organized from several phones in proximity. The technology does not require a connection to a central server or the cloud, instead using peer-to-peer (P2P) links which means even without cellular data a group of S4 phones could still chat between themselves.

Samsung’s goal appears to be pushing Chord until it’s the de-facto standard, and using its not-inconsiderable budget to drive that adoption. “Chord will extend Samsung’s sharing presence beyond our own proprietary platform into the developer ecosystem” the company said of the SDK. “Samsung is fully committed to making Chord the top sharing protocol for app developers.”

Using the lure of cash rewards to encourage developers to code for new platforms and features isn’t new for Samsung. Back in 2010, the company paid out $2.7m as part of the Samsung bada Developer Challenge, quietly pushing its budget-smartphone platform to a surprisingly large chunk of marketshare (relatively speaking) considering most of the company’s focus has been on Android devices. 2013 is the second year of the Smart App Challenge for Android titles.

This time around, ten winners will share the bounty, with the first prize amounting to $200,000. Three second-place winners will take $100,000 each, and finally six third-place entrants with $50,000 each. Apps will be judged on uniqueness, functionality, usability, design, and commercial potential, and Samsung’s venture capital arm may decide to swing in and invest in the winners.

Interestingly, Samsung says that all submitted entries must be for free, not paid, apps. However, they can use in-app purchasing and advertising, though if they do they must use Samsung’s IAP and AdHub versions of both.

Unfortunately there are no test photos, so we don’t know what the Google H840 looks like. The report suggests it was tested with a USB-connected Dell monitor, though that’s presumably to access either the LCD’s USB hub or its memory card slot, since that particular model doesn’t support video input over USB.

Anything else is, at this stage, speculative, though given the launch of Google Play Music All Access this past week at I/O, some sort of Sonos-style streaming box would seem an obvious guess. That could be hooked up to a set of external speakers or alternatively have onboard speakers and amplification.

Google isn’t the only company tipped to be working on a streaming media device. Earlier this month, it was rumored that Amazon’s hardware lab is developing a wireless audio adapter which could be used with its own cloud music locker service.

The Google H840 would presumably be a more focused device than the Nexus Q, which was unveiled at I/O in 2012 and then swiftly killed off as market feedback proved uncertain. The orb-shaped streamer was intended to funnel YouTube videos, music, and other content direct to a TV, with communal playlist control from multiple Android-powered phones and tablets.

However, a combination of high price – partly because Google intended it to be manufactured in the US – and confusing purpose meant the Nexus Q project was axed. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Google would not be officially supporting the streamer with the All Access subscription music jukebox service.

The H840 (its H2G2-42 product code a combination of the fan abbreviation for Hitchhiker’s Guide and the “meaning of life”: the number 42) looks to be the second attempt at the market, though when Google will actually unveil it officially remains to be seen.

VIA: TabletGuide

Fans of darker shows that follow vampires also flock to this network to watch The Vampire Diaries. In the realm of secondary TV networks, The CW is quite popular. CW has announced that it has started a new deal to bring its content to Apple TV. The content will come to Apple TV via the CW TV now application.

That application has previously been available only on the Xbox 360 and Windows 8 devices. CW says that it’s trying to reach more viewers on more platforms and the deal with Apple TV is one of the methods it’s using. The interesting thing about this app is that while The CW network is only available on cable, you don’t have to have a cable subscription to watch streaming content via its app.

That makes this app one of the first true attempts at unbundling by a television network. What’s even more impressive about this application is that it’s not only past season episodes that you can check out. The company puts new episodes of every one of its series on the app the day after they air on the TV network.

The CW network promises that the application on the Apple TV will work and function similarly to how the app works on the Xbox 360. The TV shows available on the streaming application on all platforms are supported by ads. That means you will have to sit through commercials, but if you don’t have cable, or your cable company doesn’t offer The CW, I think watching a few commercials is probably a good trade-off. The one caveat to this announcement is that there is no specific timeframe offered for the application to hit the Apple TV.

SOURCE: MacRumors

Among the shows that Amazon will add as part of its agreement are shows from USA Network including Covert Affairs and Suits. The agreement will also see the new SyFy show Defiance and two NBC programs, including Grimm and Hannibal, are coming to the streaming service. The shows won’t all show up at the same time.

Grimm, which is based on the collection of Grimm Fairy Tales, is available as of today. Both of the USA Network shows, Suits and Covert Affairs, are available today as well. NBC’s new show Hannibal will be available later this year. Syfy channel’s Defiance won’t show up until early next year.

Amazon says shows that are exclusive to its streaming service will offer access to prior season episodes. That would seem to indicate new episodes won’t be coming straightway. Along with the programs already mentioned, the deal also brings access to several other popular series.

Syfy’s Alphas, Eureka, and Warehouse 13 are also coming to Prime Instant Video. The service will also gets a new children’s shows including Curious George and The Land Before. Both of the children’s programs will be available in the Kindle FreeTime Unlimited content service.

SOURCE: Amazon

Arrested Development aired on the Fox network from 2003 through 2006. The show was so popular that fans have been clamoring for a return of the series or a big-screen movie for years. Neither of those ever happened until Netflix stepped in and announced in 2011 that it would be bringing Arrested Development back to television.

Of course, the caveat was that the new episodes will be available only for Netflix subscribers. Netflix has now put the Arrested Development season four trailer online and it appears that the show picks up pretty much where it left off when it was canceled in 2006. New episodes of Arrested Development are returning with the complete original cast reprising their roles.

One of the best things about Netflix’s original programs is that the streaming company puts every episode online at the same time. That means you can watch the first episode and if you’re interested the entire remainder of the season is available for you to watch all in a row. Netflix says that all 15 episodes of the series that have been made will be available as of May 26.

Each of the episodes runs 30 minutes long and will presumably be commercial free like all of the other content on the streaming network. It’s interesting to see the show return after a seven-year hiatus. I had a few shows from the past that I really liked to watch that were canceled that I’ve wished would return. I know I’m not the only one who has long hoped that Firefly would return to the air. I don’t see that whenever happening with the success of Castle for Nathan Fillion.

SOURCE: Mashable

Simply put, while this is limited in the amount of channels, there does appear to be a decent variety to get started with. Some of the other channels include PGA Digital Golf Academy, Pets.TV, National Geographic Kids, Comedy.TV and Fix My Hog which is a Harley channel. The full list of paid channels can be found at youtube.com/channels/paid_channels. Sesame Street will also be coming to the program and they will be offering full episodes.

Each channel will offer a 14-day free trial and subscription fees will begin at $0.99 per month. There will also be options to subscribe in an annual basis. Keep in mind though, prices will vary. For example, the National Geographic Kids channel is $3.99 on a monthly basis and $29.99 on an annual basis. And in this case, it was specifically noted there will be no advertising.

Otherwise, those subscribing to a channel will be able to watch on the computer as well as on a phone, tablet or television. The one catch at the moment, the actual subscribing needs to be done from the computer. With that in mind, Google hasn’t offered a timeline as to when, but they have said that “soon” you will be able to subscribe on more devices.

[via YouTube Blog]

“Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles” the insiders claim. “Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes.”

That’s only one of a number of smartphones Amazon is working on, with at least two tipped to reach the market. Fewer details are known about the second phone, which is known – alongside the other hardware – as Project A, B, C, and D within Lab126. The clandestine development is internally referred to as the “Alphabet Projects” its said.

As for the the media-streamer, that’s said to be an audio-only product, and could potentially be similar to a Sonos. Interestingly, despite previous rumors in April about Amazon working on a set-top box through which it would deliver streaming media such as on-demand Amazon Prime video, this musical product is said to be a different project.

In fact, Amazon is apparently looking to hardware on a grand scale, though the sources did also suggest that any or all of the projects could be axed before they actually reach the marketplace. That could be down to financial or other concerns, they suggest, or simply deciding that the smartphones and other devices aren’t ready for prime-time.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise to hear that Amazon is flirting with new products, particularly in mobility. The company’s ambitions in the smartphone space have been widely-rumored since before even the Kindle Fire tablets were released, with Amazon expected to use a heavily-customized version of Android tailored to suit its digital media sales ambitions.

As for the media streamer possibility, with Amazon already having an MP3 download store, and the Amazon Cloud Player service streaming content from the online locker to users’ smartphones, funneling it instead to home audio equipment doesn’t seem too far fetched. In that case, Amazon’s tablets and potential smartphone could then become a touchscreen remote, navigating through playlists.

Of course, glasses-free 3D has been met with mixed – though generally negative – reactions from the public when companies have tried to use it in mobile devices. The Nintendo 3DS, for instance, has struggled to carve a niche out, despite its relatively unique feature of 3D gameplay, while LG’s attempts to put glasses-free 3D in phones in the shape of the Optimus 3D also failred to spawn a sequel.

One possibility is that by using an eye-tracking system, the 3D effect could be considerably more impressive. Currently glasses-free systems lack precision, and can appear more like layers of stacked images than true 3D. Factoring in more accurate gaze-tracking, however, could improve on that, making a true 3D interface more usable.

Users can now rewind live broadcasts no matter when they started watching. That means you can always go back to the beginning of a live video even if you only show up a few minutes before it ends. Another update Google has added is the ability to access recordings immediately after your broadcast. A as soon as your video wraps, recording will be waiting for you on YouTube.

Google has also enabled the ability to watch higher-quality On Air video on mobile devices. The higher-quality video is designed to make viewing Hangouts On Air video from your mobile device more enjoyable. Another nice new feature that Google has added is the ability to start your live broadcast without having to refresh.

This feature allows the video to start playing automatically when the show starts rather than users having to refresh. One potential downside to these new features is that it could take longer to set up your Hangout On Air video. Google says that the Start broadcasting button can be grayed out for a bit before turns red and is ready to use, as things are readied in the background.

[via Google Plus]

A new report has surfaced that indicates Google is now getting close to unveiling a video subscription service for some of YouTube’s special video channels. The report indicates that the goal of the subscription channels is to help finance a new range of content and give YouTube a second revenue stream. The role out of this subscription service has reportedly been in the works for months.

Google could announced the new subscription plans as early as this week. Subscriptions may be rolled out to as many as 50 YouTube channels according to people claiming to be familiar with plans. Viewers will be allowed to subscribe to each individual channel they choose for as little as $1.99 per month.

YouTube has offered no official comment on its subscription service other than saying that it was looking to create a subscription platform. While it’s unclear at this point which of YouTube channel partners will be participating in the subscription service, some possible partners include WWE, Howcast, The Onion, and others. Another person claiming to be familiar with the project stated that traditional cable and satellite channels were considering YouTube’s subscription service is way to generate revenue from older shows and new programming.

[via CNN]

As it is now, most pizza restaurants, such as Domino’s Pizza, hide much of the pizza making process in a part of the store where consumers can’t see. If you order your pie for delivery, it doesn’t matter where they make it you’ll never get to see what’s going on. It could be interesting if pizza restaurants had cameras so you can see your pizza being made from home.

Domino’s has announced something new, and more than a little strange, called Domino’s Live. You aren’t likely to see your own pizza being made the using this new live camera system because the cameras are only placed in a restaurant in Salt Lake City. However, if you’re hungry you can watch somebody else’s pizza being made.

The cameras will be showing live footage during the restaurants lunch or dinner rush. The footage will be live and uncut patched together from five cameras installed in the restaurant. The program is a pilot that will run throughout the month of May. I can see the service potentially being a problem if the people on camera aren’t the cleanest of pizza makers.

[via Domino's Live]

Although watchlist functionality has been present for Netflix US on-demand subscribers for some time, the ability to create a playlist has been largely absent outside of that country. In the UK, for instance, Netflix lacks the ability to create a “My Queue” list, despite regular requests from users.

Now, though, LOVEFiLM users in the UK and Germany will be able to line up a number of shows to watch, with the list synchronized across all apps and sites that are logged into the same account. There’s also a new homepage layout, which includes a “last viewed” widget with details on what was last played, what device played it, and what viewing point was reached, making it easier to resume.

Otherwise, there’s new search functionality and an updated recommendation engine, and LOVEFiLM has tweaked the UI in general to make things easier to navigate. The new PS3 app is available now, though LOVEFiLM hasn’t said when exactly those with other internet-connected devices will get it.

News of the incoming closures was tipped by emails sent to Italian subscribers, Telefonio reports, warning them that the store would no longer be available after May 15. Existing purchases would still be available to watch and re-download, according to the message.

HTC confirmed the part-shuttering in an official statement. “As we continue to deliver new content for HTC Watch, we’ve made the decision to focus our efforts on markets with the highest engagement” a company spokesperson told us. “After May 31, we’ll discontinue support for HTC Watch in countries with less application traffic.”

Those countries consist of Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. According to HTC, access to Watch will no longer be possible in those locations after May 31.

Of course, Watch isn’t the only media download option HTC device users have to choose from. Google’s own Play store has a video section, where movies can be purchased and downloaded, for instance.

If you’re a Windows 8 user, or a Windows Phone user for that matter, you’ll be able to receive and view video messages but not actually create them. That will be added in “soon” Skype says, though is no more specific than that.

The new functionality basically switches Skype from a real-time communication platform to one more akin to email. Users record a brief video using their webcam and, upon selecting a recipient, it’s shuttled off to that contact’s inbox ready for when they’re next online.

Each message can be up to three minutes in length, and you get to send up to twenty of them for free; after that, you’ll need to cough up $4.99 per month for a Skype Premium account. The new beta also addresses some calling bugs in previous Windows versions, particularly when there’s no webcam plugged in.

The new locations will have access to the service by the end of May. The LG Cloud service is a content streaming service that allows users to stream various content directly to their LG Cinema 3-D Smart TV. The LG Cloud service also provides a place for LG smart TV owners to store entertainment content that can be automatically synchronized between various devices they own such as computers, smartphones, and TVs.

The new service offers users access to multiple content types including video, photos, and music once the user uploads content to their account. The service allows users to upload content one time and then access it on multiple devices. The LG Cloud service offers users up to 5 GB of content storage at no cost.

LG offers access to the content stored on its Cloud using a PC client, website, or smart device. LG also says that in the future, smart home appliances will be able to access the shared content stored on the LG Cloud. If you’re wondering what sorts of smart appliances LG may be talking about, we’ve seen refrigerators that have integrated TV screens in the past. The LG Cloud service also allows users to pause content on one device, and resume watching from that exact spot on another device.

[via LG]

Among the changes are a new navigation system, which relies on more straightforward gestures to navigate between stations, and better notifications thanks to integration with the Android drop-down menu. Android’s sharing system is taken advantage of too, with the iPlayer Radio app more readily swapping links to programs, artists, and tracks with other apps. The alarm clock also works even if the app isn’t running in the foreground.

The BBC team also jumped on board the HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) protocol to actually deliver content to Android devices, something that’s said to improve multitasking performance. Unfortunately, it also means you’ll need to be running Android 4.0 or above, and the BBC warns that, due to a firmware glitch that only certain carriers have addressed, some Samsung Galaxy S III owners might not find the app plays nicely with their handset. Broader availability of the fix is expected across UK carriers in the next month or so.

With the release of the Android version, it’s also the first time that iPlayer Radio has a layout specifically for tablets. So far, there’s no iPad counterpart, though of course iPad owners can still load the iOS version and use Apple’s screen-doubling to view it blown up for their display. The BBC says it will be looking at how it can bring the UI enhancements from the Android app to its iPhone counterpart in due course.

[via Guardian]

The XBMC Media Center software the TV stick runs is a free and open source software media player platform and entertainment hub that specifically designed for use in the living room. The user interface of the software is designed to be controlled from 10 feet away. The Nighthawk TV stick itself uses the same SoC is found inside the Raspberry Pi.

That means you can run open-source software that is supported by the Raspberry Pi in a smaller package specifically designed for the TV. The device doesn’t have any internal storage of its own relying on microSD cards of up to 32 GB in capacity. The Nighthawk has integrated Wi-Fi and features a powered USB hub allowing for the connection of external hard drives or other accessories.

Hardware inside the Nighthawk includes the Broadcom BCM2835 SoC. It also has a 700 MHz processor, Broadcom Video Core IV GPU, and 512 MB of memory. It supports the upper the full HD resolution video. The device can be controlled using a wireless mouse, smartphone, or tablet. It also supports DLNA and AirPlay. The project is seeking $40,000 and has 55 days to go. So far, it has only raised $80, but it has just launched. A pledge of $80 will get you a Nighthawk TV stick with a 4 GB memory card.

[via indiegogo]

Amazon says that it’s Originals programs made up 8 out of 10 of the most streamed episodes across the entire video service following their Friday debut. Amazon says that customers have been rating the original programs very highly with 80% of all reviews ratings shows at four and five stars. That 80% four and five star review is after “thousands of customer reviews” according to Amazon.

Amazon is asking subscribers to continue submitting feedback because the feedback will help them determine which of these pilot episodes to turn into full series. Amazon hasn’t offered up any details on exactly how many people streamed their Originals pilots. There is also no word so far on which of the pilots are in contention for being picked up as a series.

“For the past year the Amazon Studios team has collaborated with some of the best actors and writers in Hollywood to produce top-quality shows. Now we’ve handed the remote to our customers to hear what they think,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “In just a few days the pilots have received thousands of helpful and sometimes hilarious reviews. Keep the feedback coming—and help us decide which pilots will be turned into full series.”

One thing I’ve never seen Amazon mention is how many of these programs than it might pickup to be turned into a full series. It’s unclear if Amazon is only looking for one show or if several or even all of them have a chance if viewers really like them. I’d wager with the expense of putting together these pilot episodes, every show that proves popular enough will be picked up.

[via Amazon]

Along with racking up very impressive quarterly profits, Netflix also added a significant amount of new subscribers putting the company on target to reach 30 million subscribers in the United States this quarter. Netflix also announced a new option for users who have multiple people in the home who like to watch Netflix at the same time. Netflix announced that is also going to be instituting a new $12 per month family plan.

The new streaming family plan will allow users to stream Netflix to up to four devices at the same time within the same home. Currently the standard eight dollar per month plan for Netflix allows two simultaneous streams. However, in my own house of been able to stream to three devices at the same time on occasion without issues. Netflix doesn’t expect a lot of people to jump on the new family plan stating that it expects less than 1% of its members to opt for that plan.

Some analysts have been calling for Netflix to crack down on account sharing. Reports indicate that as many as 10 million people are watching Netflix without paying for it by getting the password from friends or family members. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn’t worried about password sharing, he says that Netflix doesn’t believe there is much of that going on. However, Hastings does say that sharing passwords with extended family “[is] not what we would consider appropriate.”

I think there will be a lot of families who will take advantage of the new family streaming plan, particularly since it’s said to use personalized profiles. My daughter loves to watch Netflix and when she watches it’s always movies about dogs or horses. That means when I log on to watch Netflix every single recommendation for me is a kid’s movie based on what she watches. I would pay a few extra dollars per month to be able to watch what I want and get recommendations that are actually geared towards my tastes.

[via Gigaom and PaidContent]

A company called Edimax has an interesting new solution to providing you with more bandwidth for your wireless network called the AC1200 Router + AC 1200 USB 3.0 Adapter Dual Pack. This system comes with an 802.11ac wireless router and an USB 3.0 802.11ac USB 3.0 adapter for your computer. 802.11ac protocol wireless networking promises as much is three times the speed of 802.11n wireless networks.

Whereas the data throughput of 802.11n wireless network tops out at about 300 Mbps, the802.11ac wireless protocol allows for speeds of up to 867 Mbps, at least those speeds are available theoretically. The router and USB 3.0 adapter support dual concurrent bandwidths of 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. The higher 5 GHz bandwidth is used for interference free streaming of video games and high-definition movies.

The 2.4 GHz connectivity is used for services that don’t require as much bandwidth such as chatting, surfing the web, or downloading small files. According to the manufacturer, using the USB 3.0 port for the wireless adapter is required to get the full bandwidth. Bandwidth on the USB 2.0 port tops out at 480 Mbps, whereas the USB 3.0 port is good for up to 5 Gbps. In real world use Edimax says that its router and adapter combo is good for speeds of up to 360 Mbps. The router and USB 3.0 adapter combination pack are available online for $149.99.

[via Edimax]

The track eclipsed records in both the US and the UK. In the UK, the record was previously held by the track Pompeii by Bastille. In the US the record was previously held by Macklemore’s Thrift Shop. The Daft Punk track also surpassed Justin Timberlake’s first-day numbers for his track called Pusher Love Girl.

Get Lucky is the first single from the coming Daft Punk album Random Access Memories. That album is the duo’s first in eight years. The track also topped the iTunes charts when it was released.

It’s unclear exactly how many times the new track was streamed on Spotify. If you’re a fan of Daft Punk, you can check out the official video for the song below. Vocalist on this particular track is Pharrell Williams.

[via Entertainment Wise]

Television network CBS has also announced that it will consider pulling its programming from over the airwaves if Aereo continues to broadcast its signals to customers. CBS says that it would consider moving to a subscription only model in the New York area. If CBS made good on the threat it would mean that no one in the New York area would be able to access CBS programming using an antenna over the air.

Many see this as an empty threat because if Fox and CBS stock over the air broadcasts, it would mean that they would lose some viewers who don’t subscribe to cable and access programming exclusively over the air. A Fox executive previously claimed that the network needed to build a revenue stream model of retransmission fees and advertising to sustain its business.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves stated this week that he “wholeheartedly” supported Fox’s statements and that CBS had been in talks with cable operators about taking its broadcast signal off the air. The latest row in the Aereo saga came after a federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the Aereo service. The service uses a network of small antennas to pick up over the air broadcast signals that it streams over the Internet to subscribers making the content viewable on just about any Internet connected device.

[via CNET]

Chase Carey, Chief Operating Officer of News Corp, stated,

Aereo is stealing our signal. We believe in our legal rights. We’re going to pursue those legal rights fully and completely, and we believe we’ll prevail. But we want to be clear. If we can’t have our rights properly protected through legal and political avenues, we will pursue business solutions. One such business solution would be to take the network and turn it into a subscription service.

Carey also stated,

“One option could be converting the Fox broadcast network to a pay channel, which we would do in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates.”

Because Aereo has individual antennas picking up the broadcast signals, the court ruled that Aereo wasn’t retransmitting signals. It stated that Aereo was merely offering subscribers an option that they could already do with their own antennas. If the court did rule that Aereo was retransmitting the broadcast signals, it would most likely have to pay a fee to the TV networks.

Retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars in total each year, and are usually paid by companies that want to redistribute the networks’ programming to their subscribers. The court says that like Cablevision’s web-based RS-DVR, Aereo isn’t a video-on-demand service and isn’t retransmitting signals. It is merely storing individual copies of TV shows and providing them to the user who had requested them.

If Fox is converted to a subscription-based network, many popular TV shows, like American Idol, Glee, Family Guy, and X-Factor, will see a drastic hit in viewers. All of those shows are what made Fox so popular, so limiting the number of viewers who have access to them may backfire on Fox. Aereo charges a fee for its services. Fees range from $8-$12 monthly, and $80 for the entire year. We’ll keep you posted on how this case turns out.

[via Fox News]

Fans are getting more Arrested Development than they were expecting, too, with Netflix upping the episode count from the last announcement. Back in January, the on-demand media company said there’d be fourteen in this fourth season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the new season will be a prequel to the Arrested Development movie, and will see one character take center-stage in each episode. A preliminary list of guest stars has also been confirmed, including Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, and Kristen Wiig.

However, beyond season four the future looks dim for the hit show. Netflix has already said that there are no plans for a fifth season, partly because, according to CEO Reed Hastings, it is “extremely difficult to get the cast together.”

Arrested Development originally aired on Fox between 2003 and 2006, but was cancelled after poor ratings. Netflix stepped in instead in 2011.

To be able to use the Epix application on your PS3, consumers have to be an authenticated subscriber to a participating cable or satellite company. However, the streaming application is offering a two week free trial to get people try the app and the network now and weekly free preview movie titles. That means if you download the app, even if you don’t have a cable subscription to Epix, you will be able to watch some content.

Cable subscribers who have access to the network and authenticate will be able watch over 3000 movies including some new releases. Those new releases include some very popular films such as The Avengers, Skyfall, The Hunger Games, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and more. The streaming application will also offer access to exclusive and original content from the television network.

The original content that will be offered via the app includes the network’s Original Concert events, documentaries, comedy specials, and championship boxing events. Epix says that in the future will also be offering a free movie or special event each week to PlayStation Plus members who download the app. Cable subscribers who do have the network as part of their subscription package can use the application at no additional cost.

[via Epix]

Popcornflix has announced that its application is now available on the Xbox 360. Xbox 360 users do have to have an Xbox LIVE membership to be able to stream movies from the platform. Popcornflix is a free movie streaming platform with content supported by ads.

The streaming movie service has full-length movies, but almost all of those films are what most would consider “B” grade or independent. The company does have films with some popular actors available for streaming including Brad Pitt, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie, and Ryan Reynolds. The streaming movie company also promises to add 30 to 40 new feature-length films to the channel each month.

Popcornflix also notes that it will be launching exclusive movies specifically for Xbox viewers. Xbox 360 users that have a Kinect motion control sensor connected to the console can also navigate the movie service application using the sound of their voice and gestures. Xbox 360 users can download the app for the new movie service right now.

[via Popcornflix]

The device is designed to play music from CDs, download a digital track, online content, Internet radio, and supports your home entertainment content as well. The device will make sound from your movies, video games, or TV sound better. The Sneaky DSM is designed for you to connect your pair of speakers directly to it and then connect the device to your home network.

The audio streaming devices designed to work in conjunction with an application that runs on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop allowing you digital content to be accessed and controlled from your smart device. The streaming box has a built-in Ethernet port, RCA analog phono input, one S/PDIF RCA phono input, three HDMI inputs, and a single TOSLINK input.

Audio output can be via one of the three HDMI ports or two high quality four-pole Neutrik Speakon speaker connections. The device supports the audio format you prefer including FLAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, MP3, WMA (except lossless), AIFF, AAC, and OOG. The device has two channels with 33 W of power in stereo or four channels with 33 W of power when bi-amped. The Sneaky DSM is available in black, silver, or white for £1,750.

[via LINN]

That had been the subject of a lawsuit – and subsequent appeal – by copyright holders angry that Cablevision was hosting a copy of their movies and TV shows in the cloud without separate licensing. Cablevision argued (and won on the argument that) it was not a video-on-demand service, given it was recording individual copies of broadcasts for each user, and only if they had initially requested that recording.

Aereo’s system, the appeals court decided [pdf link], works in the same fundamental way. A copy per user is stored, rather than a single master from which all broadcasts are shown, and it is not a public broadcast.

“When an Aereo customer elects to watch or record a program using either the “Watch” or “Record” features, Aereo’s system creates a unique copy of that program on a portion of a hard drive assigned only to that Aereo user. And when an Aereo user chooses to watch the recorded program, whether (nearly) live or days after the program has aired, the transmission sent by Aereo and received by that user is generated from that unique copy. No other Aereo user can ever receive a transmission from that copy. Thus, just as in Cablevision, the potential audience of each Aereo transmission is the single user who requested that a program be recorded”

In fact, the appeals court compares the Aereo system and the precedent set by the Cablevision ruling in-depth, with particular emphasis on the fact that each user has dedicated access to a specific Aereo antenna. The minutiae of the 1976 copyright act – and the fact that the current media technology landscape differs significantly from the “environment of 1976″ – also gets investigated.

One member of the appeals court, Judge Chin, disagrees with the overall ruling, describing Aereo’s system as “a sham” and arguing that the antenna array is “a Rube Goldberg-like
contrivance, over-engineered in an attempt to avoid the reach of the Copyright Act and to take advantage of a perceived loophole in the law.” However, his opinion won’t provide much solace to the broadcasters, who now face a supreme court battle if they want to stop Aereo’s service.

That service could well get a kick thanks to today’s appeal court ruling. The cloud of litigation had reportedly been a thorn in Aereo’s expansion plans, which include chatter of a deal with AT&T and/or DISH. That could see Aereo service bundled with AT&T broadband plans, insiders claim.

[via The Verge]

Launched a little over a year ago, Aereo basically takes free-to-air TV content and rebroadcasts it as an internet stream. Subscribers are charged a fee – from $1 a day, for the commitment-averse, or through monthly or annual plans – for DVR functionality as well as access to two tuners for simultaneously watching and recording content.

However, even before it launched, Aereo was in the broadcasters’ legal sights. An initial lawsuit claiming the service broke laws by re-encoding content using its tiny antenna clusters was seen off, but the war is by no means over. A ruling in the appeals court is expected imminently, though a final settling of the arguments could be years off.

That uncertainty is apparently giving some potential partners pause for thought. According to the insiders, DirecTV considered partnering with Aereo, but opted not to after reviewing the legal situation. Dish Network, meanwhile, is another potential suitor, having already denied plans to buy Aereo, but conceded that it is following the service with interest.

As for AT&T, no confirmation was given, but sources say the talks are around AT&T selling broadband and/or mobile broadband that would be paired with Aereo service. Meanwhile, Aereo has supposedly approached a number of cable channel providers – at least two others, the sources say – in order to pay for access to select content, though no deals beyond the initial Bloomberg TV agreement have been inked.

The comedy pilot is called Betas and the show will follow four computer geeks from Silicon Valley who are working to “crack the ultimate code.” The new pilot has been added to the lineup of other pilots currently in production for Amazon’s video service. Betas is the eight comedy pilot added to the pilot lineup that will be made available to subscribers, giving subscribers the opportunity to choose which of the shows goes into production.

Betas is written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard. The pilot features Ed Begley Jr., Jon Daly, Joe Dinicol, Margo Harshman, Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni. The pilot is being directed by Michael Lehmann, who is well-known for his work with True Blood, Dexter, and American Horror Story.

Amazon has previously announced seven other comedy pilots that viewers will be able to vote on. Those other pilots include Alpha House, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural , Those Who Can’t, and Zombieland.

[via Amazon]

Rumors have swirled for a long time that HBO was considering offering access to its Go service without customers needing a cable subscription. Many fans of HBO have been clamoring for this feature as well. The CEO of HBO, Richard Plepler, recently stated that the premium movie channel was considering teaming with broadband Internet providers to offer HBO Go to customers that don’t have cable TV.

Both standard and premium cable TV networks have considered this over the years, but have been worried about offering their services without a subscription for several reasons. Those reasons include cannibalizing traditional profits from cable TV services by enticing viewers to switch to the Internet. Plepler recently stated that HBO Go could be packaged with a monthly Internet service in partnership with broadband providers to reduce the cost.

Customers would pay $50 a month for broadband Internet and an extra $10 or $15 monthly the package HBO Go with the service. Pepper noted that “we would have to make the math work.” Whether or not HBO Go will be offered as a broadband only service remains to be seen. Increasing pressure from Netflix and other providers of online streaming content will certainly place additional pressure on HBO to make a decision.

[via Reuters]

The updated Hopper sports app now has a Game Finder feature that displays all of the tournament games in one easy to navigate location. The app also allows fans to tune in to or record upcoming games directly from the app. The app enhancements include faster navigation and access to scores.

The enhancements also features the ability to sort games by conference and the option remove games that are blacked out in your area. Dish has also updated its Explorer app for the iPad with an NCAA Tournament tab on the main screen. That tab allows viewers to instantly find upcoming games, times, and channels.

Games can also be easily recorded from that tab and fans can talk about the coming games via twitter directly from within the app. Explorer also allows the fan to find their favorite teams and receive real-time on-screen updates about which games are the most exciting and to view scores. The Dish Anywhere app also allows users to watch live and recorded. Games from anywhere with an Internet connection via a tablet, smartphone, or PC.

[via Dish]

One of those streaming applications that can be downloaded is a free offering called Popcornflix. Many of the streaming offerings that Roku offers require a monthly subscription and rental fees, but Popcornflix offers content for free. Last summer we talked about the service and the fact that it hit 400,000 users via Roku.

Now approximately 9 months later the streaming movie service has announced that it has reached 1 million downloads on the Roku platform in the US. The service is also available in the UK and Canada via Roku devices in those countries. Popcornflix promises access to hundreds of films including theatrically released titles and independent films with top Hollywood actors.

The service has movies available with actors such as Brad Pitt and many others. Users of the service can search for films by title, actor, director, or browse movies in genres. Popcornflix is an ad supported film network so viewers will have to view some ads.

[via Popcornflix]

“When we began planning the SUB product, our estimates showed that the Matte SUB would cost less to produce than the gloss SUB” a company representative said today. “During the manufacturing process, we determined that this was not the case. In addition, the gloss finish has been well-received by our customers and continues to be in high-demand.”

So as to keep to its original commitment to owners, however, Sonos will offer a “very limited quantity” of the matte-finish version over the next two weeks. On sale until supplies run out, or April 2, whichever comes first, the $599 subwoofer is functionally identical to the glossy SUB only with the different finish.

Sonos is already selling the SUB through its own store, priced at $599/€599/£499, but says that Amazon and Best Buy will also be offering it in the US and Canada eventually. Local dealers may also have “limited stock” too.

The Intel MSRD is a partner project to Intel’s own Web TV plans, detailed earlier this year, which will see the company launch its own on-demand streaming service later in 2013. That system is expected to use viewer-tracking as well as other, more traditional control systems; an onboard webcam will monitor the general demographics of the current viewer – age bracket, gender, etc. – and tailor advertising content and suggestions based on that data. SlashGear saw a demonstration of the technology back at Mobile World Congress.

It’s unclear if the MSRD will include the same camera technology out of the box. Intel has so far confirmed that it will include the Atom CE5300 dualcore SoC, complete with hyperthreading and virtualization, 3D/2D graphics encoding, an H.264 B-picture hardware encoder, and integrated power management, along with DBV-T2/T/C broadcast and media sharing stacks, and the aVia media player, already available for Android.

Intel’s own system will likely be built on the same technology, though with the company’s own tailoring to suit its Web TV intentions. The firm hopes to license out the MSRD reference design as a software and hardware shortcut for cable, home entertainment, and other providers hoping to enable things like second-screen interaction with tablets and smartphones, pay-TV, and media streaming.

TiVo has been talking about the idea for some time now, even announcing the Mini – albeit as the IP-SBT – back in mid-2012. As well as pushing live and recorded TV around the home, the Mini also supports Pandora and Spotify for streaming audio, and allows for recordings to be scheduled (including Season Pass).

You can also pause playback on one TiVo and resume it on another, handy if you’re moving around the house and want to keep watching the same show.

Over at Zatz Not Funny they’ve already been getting to grips with the TiVo Mini, and while it earns an eventual recommendation – if you’re a quad-tuner Premiere owner already – it’s not a completely clean sweep. Coming in for the biggest criticism is the extra service fee TiVo levies: if you buy the Mini for $99.99, you’re also looking at $5.99 per month to actually keep it working.

TiVo does offer a “lifetime service” deal, but that pushes the extender to $149.99 (we’d still opt for that ourselves, given you’d be saving money after the ninth month). Meanwhile, there’s no Netflix streaming, something you get even on a fifty-buck Roku box; TiVo would rather you use YouTube, Hulu Plus, or XFINITY On Demand (if you get it where you live).

The absence of wireless streaming is likely to be the biggest fly in the ointment at this stage, with rival placeshifting boxes using 802.11n to push up to HD content around. Even the original Premiere has to be hooked up over ethernet, not wirelessly. If that fits with your home entertainment installation, you can buy the TiVo Mini from today.

Hardware

There are a couple of key form-factor elements you know you’re getting with a speaker-bar, though Sonos does try to put its own spin on the concept. They’re generally long and narrow, intended to go under or above your TV, and to separate the left and right speakers by as much as possible to broaden the sound stage.

So, the PLAYBAR Is a reasonably handsome slab of matte silver aluminum and black fabric, fairly heavy at 11.9lbs (though a single person can still lift it and move it around), and with holes on the back integrated into rubber feet for either wall or table positioning. It’s not as long as some speaker-bars we’ve seen, at 35.43 inches across, but it’s fairly broad at 3.35 x 5.51 inches. Physical controls are limited to the familiar cluster of Sonos buttons – mute, volume up, volume down; all flanking a white status LED – on one end of the bar.

On the back, in a recessed panel, are the ports: two ethernet connections, an optical audio input, and a power socket. Conspicuous by its absence is HDMI – Sonos tells us it views the TV itself as the hub for multimedia control, and so the PLAYBAR Is intended to focus solely on audio not source switching duties – as well as the aux-in analog input you get on the PLAY:5 speaker. In the box, Sonos includes a power cable, a flat ethernet cable, and an optical audio cable. All remote duties are handled by the usual Sonos apps.

Inside, there are a total of nine speakers, each with its own Class-D digital amplifier. Three 1-inch titanium dome tweeters are spread between the outer edges and the center, while six 3.15-inch aluminum cone midrange speakers fill the remaining space; there’s no onboard subwoofer, though you can wireless connect a Sonos SUB if you want more low-end.

That’s not the only cleverness inside, however. Sonos has fitted the PLAYBAR with an accelerometer so that it knows which way up it’s placed: that means it can automatically figure out if it’s on the wall – with the “top” facing out – or sitting flat, and adjust the equaliser settings automatically. There’s also a pass-through IR system, which repeats your TV remote’s commands in case the TV’s own IR receiver is blocked in some way. The PLAYBAR can also learn the volume commands from your existing remote, so that you don’t have to dig into the app just to tweak the audio when you’re in the middle of a film.

Setup and Use

Sonos has built a reputation around not only great audio quality but ease of setup, and the PLAYBAR is no different. You’ll need to be using the latest versions of the apps for iOS or Android since they add support for the PLAYBAR’s unique features, but otherwise adding it – whether to a new or an existing Sonos system – is a matter of hitting the mute and volume up buttons on the bar itself and waiting for the app to recognize it. That can be done over a WiFi connection (as straightforward as plugging in power and the TV audio cable, though you’ll need to have at least one Sonos speaker or BRIDGE hooked up to your router via ethernet) or with a wired connection to your router. The second ethernet port can be used to pass through the internet connection to another device.

Like a regular Sonos speaker, you can assign a name (such as “TV Room”) to the zone; however, there are also some new steps to the setup. Starting with the TV turned off, you can first optionally add a SUB to the PLAYBAR, and/or a pair of PLAY:3 units for use as rear surround speakers. If you choose to, they’ll still be available for regular music duty, only they’ll also be preset as the default home cinema set too.

After that it’s a case of turning on the TV and waiting for the PLAYBAR to start piping the audio through. Sonos recommends digging into your TV’s settings to disable its onboard speakers, and then guides you through registering the remote you’ll be using to adjust volume – probably the TV remote, but it could be for your Blu-ray player or cable box. In our test system, that was as simple as pressing the volume up button on the remote, and the PLAYBAR automatically recognized its volume and mute controls from that point on.

If your remote isn’t recognized, however, Sonos guides you through teaching the commands to the PLAYBAR, a process which takes about nine button presses. Cleverly, the speaker-bar’s new found skills aren’t kept to itself: it sends the new settings back to Sonos’ servers, where they’re bundled into the firmware catalog for future PLAYBAR units to choose from. That all happens transparently to the user, of course.

Just as setup is different, so there are some new options in the settings page once you’ve got your PLAYBAR hooked up. There are still bass and treble adjustment sliders, and a “loudness” switch, in the equalization page, but not the balance control you have on standalone PLAY zones; however, you do get a new audio delay control, which helps match up lip-syncing. We didn’t have to make any adjustments to that ourselves.

You can turn off the IR signal light and the IR repeater, if you prefer, as well as run through the remote control setup again. There’s also the autoplay options: whether the PLAYBAR will automatically switch over to the optical audio input when the TV starts making sounds (rather than continuing to play music) and, separately, whether the PLAYBAR automatically leaves whatever group you have it set to when autoplay happens.

Sonos has been clever with how it manages connectivity and shared use, given that the PLAYBAR will likely be relied upon both as a TV speaker but also as a music system. Inside, there’s not one but two wireless chips: one 2.4GHz chip for hooking up to the regular SONOSNet 2.0 peer-to-peer network joining all PLAY units together, and a second 5GHz radio for directly connecting with a SUB and/or PLAY:3 pair for home cinema duties (though not PLAY:5 speakers, since they lack the 5GHz support).

By including this second chip, Sonos avoids any latency introduced by piping rear audio or bass track data through your home network, as would normally be the case for multiple PLAY speakers. It’s vital when you’re dealing with multiple speakers playing the same content, since any lag will be instantly noticeable. We set up a pair of PLAY:3 speakers for use as the rear surround set, and could observe no delays in the soundtrack.

As long as autoplay is turned on, when you turn on your TV the PLAYBAR automatically switches over to that source. That includes leaving any group you have it currently playing music in. If you subsequently try to add the PLAYBAR to a PLAY speaker group, or add tracks to its playlist via the app, it will pop up a message warning that doing so will stop the TV audio in that zone, and ask if you actually want to do that. One small frustration was that the PLAYBAR didn’t subsequently rejoin the music group once we stopped using it with the TV; we had to manually add it back in.

Performance

Simple setup would be for naught if the PLAYBAR didn’t sound any good, but happily that’s not the case. Sonos has tuned the speaker-bar in two distinct ways, it says, for music and for TV/movies, and we were impressed by performance in both.

For music, the PLAYBAR offers much of the experience we’re familiar with from the PLAY:3 and PLAY:5, only with added grunt. The natural balance of treble and bass are very similar to those of the smaller PLAY units, which helps it slot neatly into a multi-speaker system, but there’s a healthy bump in power that meant the PLAYBAR could easily match a PLAY:3 set to roughly half volume, while the bar was dawdling down at less than 25-percent.

Midrange sounds have the warmth and breadth that we’re used to from the company’s kit, while trebles have an eager sparkle that makes vocal tracks shine. Complex instrumentals didn’t get lost, with the PLAYBAR’s dynamic EQ automatically keeping things spread across the bar in a way belies the all-in-one nature of the system. Even at high volume levels, there was no buzzing or rattling from the PLAYBAR itself, and there’s a welcome absence of distortion even up to neighbor-infuriating levels.

If there’s any criticism to be made, it’s one that most speaker-bars share: bass tends to come in third compared to treble and mids. That’s definitely not to say the PLAYBAR disappoints in the low-end – it’s tight and aggressive, and probably more than sufficient if you’re living in an apartment – but those looking for the full audio experience will probably be tempted to throw in a SUB, whereupon they’ll find great lashings of bass that manages both precision and exuberance.

It’s movies where that could be most useful, though the PLAYBAR does very well on its own for TV sound. The stereo separation and the 45-degree angle of the speakers means left and right audio is clearly distinguished, the PLAYBAR using a combination of positioning and EQ to bounce audio from the walls. In fact, the onboard computer is crunching 24m calculations a second, Sonos says, to figure out how each sound wave created by each of the nine cones interacts, adding and subtracting those waves to emphasize explosions, make musical soundtracks more enveloping, and allow speech to pierce through everything.

Throw in a couple of rear PLAY:3 speakers, meanwhile, and the experience is all the more impressive. The PLAYBAR is tremendously capable, turning its hand to a variety of movie styles. The rumbles and ominous groans of Prometheus were rich and hauntingly sonorous, while The Dark Knight and Transformers put the surround system through its paces and showed how precise the rear set could be. We noticed no issues with lag or delay.

All that DSP means Sonos can add a couple of new features you wouldn’t normally get on a PLAY speaker: Night Sound and Speech Enhancement. Toggled on or off through new buttons in the “Now Playing” section of the controller app, Night Sound aims to make the PLAYBAR more accommodating to those who like to watch movies while everyone else is asleep. In short, it compresses the audio, dampening louder sounds like explosions and gunfire, and enhancing quieter sounds like speech, so that all can be heard without forcing you to hover over the volume control like a hawk.

It works surprisingly well, though you’ll obviously miss out on some of the original zeal of the soundtrack. As for Speech Enhancement, that operates in a similar way, though leaves the louder sounds untouched. Instead, it simply emphasizes the frequency range of the human voice, lifting speech out of the rest of the audio.

Since it’s a Sonos system, there are some less obvious, but no less neat, things you can do. By grouping the PLAYBAR with one or more other PLAY speakers, for instance, you can pipe your TV’s audio around the home: useful if you want to keep an ear on the news or a concert you’ve been watching. Alternatively, you could start a slideshow on the TV, and accompany it with a playlist of Sonos-streamed audio, whether from your own collection, from internet radio stations, or from on-demand services like Spotify and Pandora.

Wrap-Up

Sonos took its time creating the PLAYBAR, and that consideration shows both in how it sounds and how easy it is to setup and use. Certainly, at $699/£599/€699 it’s expensive when compared to a regular speaker-bar. You can find those for a couple of hundred, after all, though their audio performance may not match up to the PLAYBAR’s beautifully balanced sound. Still, you’re not just getting one product, but two: a speaker-bar for your TV and another zone in your Sonos system, certainly more than equivalent to a $399 PLAY:5.

The magic of the PLAYBAR is how straightforward it is, and how few compromises it demands. You don’t need to be familiar with Sonos to actually use it: in fact, once you’ve set it up, you could feasibly never turn on the Sonos app again, and merely use your regular TV remote. The only messages in the app are concerned with pairing the PLAYBAR back in with music groups; TV playback takes priority. That makes it highly family-friendly, essential if you don’t want a less-technical partner to get frustrated.

Still, our own experience with Sonos is that its simplicity means that even the most gadget-averse soon come to recognize its charms, and the PLAYBAR has that appeal in spades. The audio performance for both music and movies is excellent, and even if you don’t pair it up with rear PLAY:3 speakers and a SUB (which can certainly get expensive, at nearly $2k to outfit a room with the whole set) you’re still getting excellent sound. Superlative performance, ease of use, and multi-room flexibility? Even at $699 it’s enough to make us fall in love with the Sonos PLAYBAR.

You might think that your Ford will play any song in your playlist, assuming your Ford is equipped with Sync. The catch with the Ford system and the other systems on other vehicles is that you have to have the music stored on the cars internal drive or on your iPod or other device attached the infotainment system. According to Musk, the Model S will reach out onto the Internet and get any song available without you having to connect an iPod.

Musk doesn’t go into details of how the system works other than saying the car goes on the Internet and finds the music. That means it’s unclear whether the car has its own internal Internet connection, or if it’s connecting to a Wi-Fi connection inside the building, or if it’s connecting to the Internet via a smartphone. One thing that is impressive about the system is that it appears to be very fast.

The delay between asking for song and the song being retrieved and played appears to be no longer than the delay on other systems finding a specific track on your iPod playlist. This is a really cool feature, it’s too bad you have to spend hundred thousand dollars on a car to get it.

[via Bloomberg]