Sonos is closing its New York retail store and will shed around 12-percent of its staff, the company has confirmed today, as it aims to offset the impact of COVID-19 on its multi-room speaker business. The news comes after Sonos warned investors back in March that it was hunting ways to save cash, including trimming marketing and better managing inventory.
Sonos has launched a new finish for its portable speaker, with the Sonos Move Lunar White switching things up later this month. Joining the existing Shadow Black Move that launched last year, the new Move also benefits from a new software update from Sonos, which the company says will add an extra hour of playback time when it's being used wirelessly.
Google Assistant is available on a wide variety of smart devices, not just those with Google's name on them. Unfortunately, the reality is that Google's own devices naturally get some preferential treatment in getting features before others. Sometimes those features never come but sometimes they do just take their time rolling out to others. Fortunately for owners of third-party smart speakers, that day is close and soon they'll be able to enjoy some of the latest features Google Assistant has to offer.
![Google just sued Sonos as speaker tech war escalates [Updated]](https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/google-home-1-1280x720.jpg)
Google has counter-sued Sonos, a slow reaction to the multi-room speaker company accusing its former partner of stealing its tech. Back in January, Sonos cited five patents it argued Google had infringed, after being given privileged access to technologies in the name of better integrating Google Play Music, the Google Assistant, and more.
Sonos has released its new controller app and Sonos S2, the new OS for its multi-room speaker system, complete with new features and a decision for the very earliest-adopters. Sonos S2 introduces support for higher-resolution audio - something the company takes advantage of for its new Dolby Atmos compatible Arc soundbar - though it also sees Sonos leave some old hardware behind.
The problem with making things look easy, Sonos has discovered, is that peoples' wish-lists only ever get longer. The new Sonos Arc is a textbook example: on the face of it a simple response to the question "Where's the Sonos Dolby Atmos soundbar?" it nonetheless required a whole new platform and, as a side-effect, leaving some of the company's earliest adopters peeved. When you're responsible for that sort of disruption, you have to live up to the hype.
Sonos has revealed the big day it'll be releasing its next-gen S2 software, and with the new Arc soundbar on the scene we're finally seeing why this big change is so important. It's been a tough few months for Sonos, facing criticism from some of its most loyal users over the transition from the S1 software to this new S2 release on June 8.
Say hello to Sonos Arc, the company's new soundbar and its first to offer Dolby Atmos. Replacing the Sonos Playbar, the Arc squeezes eleven speakers into its long, minimalistic chassis, along with four microphones to work as a Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa smart speaker.
Sonos has updated its flagship speaker, with the new Sonos Five replacing the old Play:5. Now effectively the third-generation of the multi-room speaker, the new Five focuses on music rather than TV audio like the new Arc soundbar, though the changes are more for your eyes than your ears.
The Sonos Playbar is long overdue a successor but it might not get one at all, at least not in the strict sense of the word. The connected speaker manufacturer does have a new soundbar ready to debut but it won't be taking anything from the 2013 accessory, not even its name. It turns out, it will be a completely new soundbar inside and out and it will be called with the rather odd and slightly unrelated name of Sonos Arc.
Sonos is a name that's come up quite a bit lately, but not necessarily for reasons the company may like. Following reports last week that detailed a pair of new speakers and an incoming soundbar, that rumored soundbar was leaked over the weekend. Now it's the speakers' turn, as images of both have made their way to the internet - seemingly a day before they'll be revealed to the world.
It's not unusual for companies to silently drop products without further notice or succession and, for a time, it seemed that the Sonos Playbar was exactly that. Now it seems that Sonos has finally decided it is high time for a Playbar 2. But from the few leaked product photos, Sonos' next soundbar might not exactly be what many hoped it would, least not in terms of the functionality that the first Playbar offered.