Sonos has quietly added a US product page for its SYMFONISK remote, a handy - and inexpensive - controller for its Sonos-powered speakers, ahead of its expected launch next month. The gadget will give Sonos speaker owners a way to remotely control their music, without having to pull out a phone and load the Sonos app, or speak to an assistant like Amazon Alexa.
Two of Sonos' newest whole-home audio products are arriving on shelves, with the Sonos One SL and Sonos Port both available from today. Announced last week alongside the new Sonos Move - the company's first battery-powered and Bluetooth-compatible speaker - the two new models eschew integrated assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Pretty much from day one, Sonos customers have been asking for a portable speaker and one which can be taken outside: the new Sonos Move delivers both. As you might expect from the company pioneering streaming audio long before Spotify and Apple Music were even born, though, the Move is no ordinary wireless speaker. Yes, Sonos has made a Bluetooth speaker, and an expensive one at that, but it did so as only it could.
Sonos' big news today may be Move, the company's first portable speaker, but it also has two other products to help build out your whole-home streaming audio system. The Sonos One SL offers another option for those looking for an affordable speaker but without integrated assistant support, while the Sonos Port is a nod to the audiophile crowd with some special features to make their installations more effective.
Last week, a leak claimed that audio company Sonos is planning to release its first portable Bluetooth speaker at an event in the near future. A new leak over the weekend has shed light on that product, claiming it will be called the Sonos Move. Among other things, the new leak includes what are claimed to be official product images of the alleged upcoming speaker model.
At one point in time, Sonos was the household name in wireless connected speakers. It has since lost its distinction to other connected speakers and especially to smart speakers. While it does have a loyal following, Sonos speakers lag behind the competition in one crucial thing: Bluetooth streaming. That may soon be a thing of the past with Sonos gearing up for a large event that, if rumors are correct, will see the launch of its first Bluetooth speaker.
Sonos is readying something new, with the company sending out press invites to discuss what seems to be a 2019 update to the range. The smart speaker company is tight-lipped on what's on the roadmap for this year, but we should be getting a closer look at its fall range with a preview in New York City soon.
I confess, I was skeptical about the IKEA SYMFONISK speakers, the Swedish retail behemoth's first collaboration with multi-room audio specialists Sonos. IKEA has always been about affordability, building products to a strict price tag. In contrast, Sonos represented a more polished - and more expensive - experience.
IKEA and Sonos are the WiFi speaker partnership we never knew we needed, but SYMFONISK could well propel the category into the mainstream. Combining the focus of the price-obsessed Swedish retailer with the increasingly-capable connected speaker specialist, the result is a pair of streaming speakers that are not only affordable but don't sacrifice performance and quality in the process. Frankly, it all sounded too good to be true.
Premium audio company Sonos is bringing Google Assistant to its Sonos One and Sonos Beam speakers in another six countries. The rollout follows Google Assistant's initial arrival on these speaker models in the United States in mid-May, enabling device owners to utilize Google's personal assistant in the same way they would use one of the company's Home speakers.
IKEA doesn't just have affordable Sonos-powered speakers in the pipeline, but a simple remote control to liberate users from the Sonos app or talking to a smart assistant. The IKEA Symfonisk speakers are set to launch in August, and in the process become the most affordable Sonos-compatible models around. However it's an accessory that fans of the platform may be more excited about.
Sonos' Google Assistant support is finally launching today, joining Alexa on the smart speakers. It's been a long time coming, too, Sonos electing to miss its original 2018 release in favor of spending more time making sure its two voice assistants would happily co-exist on the same hardware. Now, courtesy of a free software update, we can see how that works for ourselves.