Apple Music is now a supported music streaming service on Amazon Echo speakers, joining Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, and other competing services. The new support is rolling out to the Alexa mobile apps, giving users the option of enabling Apple Music as a music service. Once linked, Echo owners can ask Alexa to play their favorite tunes from Apple Music.
Pandora has pushed out updates for its Android and iOS apps to bring personalized podcast recommendations. The company first revealed plans to offer the feature earlier this year, later deploying it as a beta to a limited number of users. As with its music service, the podcast discovery feature helps users find new podcasts that they're likely to enjoy based on what they already listen to.
Skullcandy has revealed its first truly wireless earbuds, the Skullcandy Push. This model offers the same Bluetooth connectively as wireless earbuds, only without the cable, offering yet another alternative to Apple's AirPods. The new Push model offers 12 hours of overall playback, if you include the six hours' worth of power provided by the charging case.
This December an Android app called Sounds (by Google) will make the audio cues on your smartphone very, very simple to modify. Not that the process was too complicated to figure out before, but never before has Google made the modification of all sounds on any given Android so simple. With the release of Google's "Sounds" app, users will be able to "choose [their] favorite sounds for alarms, ringtones, and notifications."
Satellite radio company SiriusXM is targeting Amazon customers again, this time with free Christmas music. Starting now and running through Christmas, Alexa device owners can access SiriusXM's Christmas radio content for free. In addition to the Christmas content, SiriusXM is also offering other holiday radio content for free on Echo, including Radio Hanukkah, Jazz Holidays, and more.
Amazon's own streaming music service, Amazon Music, will soon be available on Android TV. The new support, which is currently open for pre-registration, will enable Android TV users to directly access the service using their entertainment device, bringing streaming music to the speakers or surround sound system connected to their television.
In the history of smartphones, never before had such a tone been heard at such a volume. In Android, specifically on Google-made smartphones, there's a sound that's played at the end of any phone call. This is the "end call tone" and it is very loud. Good news for those users that do not love loud noises: Google's found a fix - for the most part.
Google has bestowed its personal assistant with new abilities, including a change that rewards users for saying "please" and "thank you," visual lyrics for singing along to songs, and more. The new features span both Google Assistant on mobile devices and Smart Displays, roping in the Nest Hello video doorbell and even bringing a couple fun features for the holidays.
V-MODA has launched its new SpeakEasy DAC/AMP Lightning cable, a cord featuring a built-in amplifier and digital-to-analog converter technology, offering users access to top tier audio quality over a wired connection. Apple notoriously removed the iPhone headphone jack in the relatively recent past, leaving users with Bluetooth or a Lightning audio cable as their only options.
Optoma has launched a new pair of wireless earbuds, an inexpensive model featuring a premium design and the promise of high-quality audio. As with the company's previous BE2 earbuds, the new BE Live2 cost $49 USD, packing a more attractive design coupled with support for AAC audio, ultra-long battery life, and more.
Google has updated Chromecast with the ability to sync to Google Home audio groups. The new functionality enables users to tie together both televisions and speakers in their home, expanding the number of devices that can be used to play audio. When synced to a speaker group, a television with Chromecast will play the same audio as the speakers.
Pandora's subscription service Pandora Premium is now supported by Amazon's Echo devices. The new support expands the already available Pandora streaming option available to Echo owners, enabling them to access playlists, specific songs, full albums, and more. Users can choose to make Pandora their default music streaming service accessible through Alexa.