Sony Takes On Turtle Beach Wireless Headsets


With all of Sony’s recent security troubles, it’s easy to forget they produce quality consumer electronic gear. Which is probably why they’ve spilled the beans on their upcoming wireless PS3 headset. The $99 accessory, available in September, will beam game audio and provide in-game chat capabilities via a retractable mic. Unlike most PS3 gear, the headset doesn’t look to utilize the console’s integrated Bluetooth – shipping, instead, with a USB adapter to handle the wireless link. While Sony bills it as the “PS3 Wireless Stereo Headset” the cans feature virtual 7.1 surround sound. While it’s too early to comment on quality or comfort, they’ve got audio peripheral company Turtle Beach beat on price and style.

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New Age in Digital Music – Cloud, Radio, & More

In the last decade we’ve seen the launch of the iPod, satellite radio, and streaming music services on the Internet. But as great as those innovations have been, they haven’t always made life easy for consumers. iPods brought with them the inflexible iTunes marketplace and DRM lock-in, satellite radio added in another monthly fee with no music ownership option, and Internet radio requires (shockingly) an Internet connection. The result is that most of us cobble together our own listening system – part CD, MP3, and radio, and entirely dependent on where we are, and what service or hardware we have access to.

Thanks to the cloud, that’s all about to change. In theory, we’ll soon all have access to everything, everywhere we go. And in practice, the shift has already started to take place. Here’s a look at where music is headed.

To the Cloud

It’s been an interesting few months for cloud music services. First, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive service, offering users a space to store digital music files and play them back on the web or Android devices. Then came Google Music, a very similar offering, though one still in invitation-only beta at the moment.  And finally, word has circulated in the last week that Apple is set to launch its own music service – with the one critical difference that it’s sewing up licencing deals with the major labels first. With licensing agreements in place, Apple will be able to help users avoid uploading an entire library of music, and instead scan and match any owned titles with copies already available in the cloud.

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New Slacker On-Demand Service Worth the Wait

Slacker WebPlayer-BrowseStation-TopSongs

I’ve been itching for the new Slacker on-demand music service to launch since last fall, and today the new app is (finally!) ready to go on the web, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices. The whole Slacker experience has been overhauled, but the biggest change comes in the new Premium service tier. For $9.99 a month (or FREE for a limited time at www.facebook.com/SlackerRadio), Slacker Premium customers can now access individual songs and albums on demand. While this may not sound revolutionary, it is when you consider how Slacker implements its on-demand service. With a radio front end, users can find artists and songs simply by tuning to a station and either saving favorite selections as they play, or filtering through station content to find music worth storing. Naturally you can also search for any specific song and play it immediately, but the bigger benefit comes from station-based music discovery. Ask me what song I want to hear, and I may stumble over an answer. But play something I like, and I’ll add it to my personal playlist in a heartbeat.

After using Slacker Premium in beta for the last few weeks, I can happily say that the new service was worth the wait. I’ve only tested it on a computer so far, but I’ll be trialling it further on mobile devices in the near future, and the iPad video demo looks promising. From my own experience, the app is easy to use, and the ability to play favorite songs ad nauseum is addictive. I’ve never been one to collect music, so just being able to access songs when I want without having to make a commitment to buy is compelling. Even better, I don’t have to go out and search for music. If there’s a radio station I like, I can see the top 50 artists and songs on that station and jump around or create my own playlists at will. Stations, albums, and individual songs are also all cacheable for offline playback.

I spoke with Slacker CEO Jim Cady last week, who had a few things to say about where Slacker has been, and where it’s headed.

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Hands On: Sony HD Radio in the Car

Until recently, the stereo in my car was so old it still had a tape deck in it, but I’ve finally upgraded the audio system with a new HD radio, the Sony CDX-GT700HD Xplod. And after about a week, my initial evaluation is a big thumbs up. I love the new spectrum of stations available. It’s not Internet radio, but it is a whole lot more content than I was getting before. For example, as an NPR fanatic, I’ve long rued the Saturday morning drives with only cooking and gardening shows available on my public radio station. Now I can switch to HD2 and catch up on Studio 360 for pop culture and arts news.

For actual Internet content, I can also connect my phone or Slacker music player through the Sony radio’s line-in jack, or USB port. This is the biggest reason I jumped on an upgrade. I’m tired of having the car be the only place I can’t access the music and podcasts I want. And since I won’t be getting a new, tricked-out vehicle any time soon, an after-market solution was definitely the way to go.

Other benefits of the new system include scrolling metadata, a huge number of channel pre-sets, and the ability to tag songs for later look-up on iTunes. (Tagging only works if you have an iPod.) I also love the hidden CD dock, which opens like a secret compartment, but is still dead simple to access. I’m not a sound geek, but Amazon reviewers also praise the radio’s sound quality and flexible EQ system.

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Fun with the New Squeezebox Remote Android App

What happens when you install the new Logitech Squeezebox Remote app from the Android Marketplace and proceed to play around with the interface from a remote location? You scare the pants off anybody who’s still at home and wondering why the little radio box is suddenly playing music all by itself*. That’s what happened this afternoon when I decided to test out the new Android app despite not being anywhere near my Squeezebox. The app loaded beautifully, and apparently it had no trouble communicating with my player. Here’s the text message I received from home shortly afterward: “Your squeezebox just came on by itself. #afraidtogodownstairs”

I can’t speak to the in-home experience yet, as I’m still on the road, but the Squeezebox Remote interface on my phone is a joy. The Home screen gives me access to a full menu of Internet radio stations, apps, my music library, search, and Squeezebox settings. Through my apps I can get directly to Slacker (my preferred Internet radio service), and instantly into my saved stations and songs. The songs don’t play on my phone – the app’s not designed for that – but they do apparently play without problem from the Squeezebox.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t see the purpose of using a secondary phone remote to control one of my devices, but this one has an interface that not only beats my existing remote, but beats the interface on the Squeezebox display itself. After all, my beloved Squeezebox Classic is from 2006, which means it doesn’t have the visual bells and whistles present on some of the newer products in the Squeezebox line. And that brings me to another point. The new Logitech app works on a piece of hardware I’ve had for more than four years. Given how rapidly smartphone companies give up on supporting their handsets with new upgrades, I find myself continually amazed to see this little Internet-radio-streamer-that-could still getting feature updates. Kudos to the product team for that one.

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Sonos Controller for Android Slated For March

My favorite home music server is getting better. Today Sonos released this teaser video showing off their new Android Controller (much like their very popular iOS Controller) for the Sonos music system. Like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad apps this one will be free. According to the Sonos Twitter feed, the Android app will be available … Read more

XM Radio Online Comes To Sonos

Everybody’s favorite connected audio solution got a little bit better this week. Heck, from where you’re sitting, the latest Sonos music service might even represent a dramatic upgrade… as I know XM Radio Online has been one of their most requested channels. While Sonos has streamed Sirius forever, XM Online just never made an appearance – … Read more

Slacker Radio For Android Turns It Up To 4G

Slacker has released an updated version of the Slacker Radio app for Google Android. The key change is support for higher bit rate audio files and larger album art when you’re connected to a 4G network. There are also a number of bug fixes, and Slacker 2.x includes a free trial of offline station caching, … Read more