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Logitech To Join The Apple AirPlay Fray

Within the next few weeks, Logitech intends to join the AirPlay fray with their aerodynamic Air Speaker.

At its most basic, when talking audio, Apple’s wireless streaming protocol is conceptually similar conceptually to Bluetooth — beam your music from one device to another. However, as AirPlay rides ones wireless network, it’s not limited to the same short distances as Bluetooth (~30 feet) and more complex interactions are supported. From Apple:

AirPlay does more than just stream your music to external speakers. It streams information about your music, too. Song titles, artists, album names, elapsed and remaining time, and album artwork all appear on AirPlay-enabled speakers with graphical displays. For the ultimate sonic panorama, you can stream your tunes to more than one room simultaneously, so you’ll never lose the beat, no matter where you are in the house.

We anticipate the Logitech Air Speaker will land at a similar price point as the recently released iHome iW1 ($300, reviewed here). Unfortunately, Logitech’s solution requires the speaker to be tethered to power at all times with no indication of a rechargeable battery. For those streaming and/or controlling AirPlay audio via an iPhone or iPad, Logitech kindly provides a “hideaway” dock for Speaker configuration… and iOS device charging.

Logitech has yet to release pricing or itemize the Speaker’s sonic capabilities, but their Amazon listing provides a few more nuggets of info:

UK and Ireland Get the Netflix Love

Netflix announced this morning that it’s ready to share the streaming love with consumers in the UK and Ireland starting in early 2012. Like the company’s other international launches, this expansion doesn’t appear to include the DVD-by-mail service, but for the moment, further details on Netflix’s first excursion across the pond are scarce. The company … Read more

New DirecTV HD UI Nearly Ready

Rumor has it DirecTV’s high definition interface will land on their satellite set-top boxes (HR20 or H21 and up) beginning November 1 (Get it here: http://www.bestsatellite.tv/). As you can see from the video above, the new design is at once both modernized and simplified with what appears to be quite sprightly interaction. DirecTV breaks it down: … Read more

Verizon Consolidates Mobile FiOS Apps

Looks like Verizon has finally taken my advice and has begun consolidating their disparate FiOS-related apps into a unified control panel. Instead of say launching an individual mobile program to change channels on our Verizon DVR and then launching another to manage recordings, those formerly distinct functions are now logically accessed and controlled via the … Read more

A Google TV 2.0 Sneak Peak

After reading my Google TV 2.0 lament, our friend Scott Greczkowski of Satellite Guys wanted us to share action shots of the upcoming lean back experience.

The original Google TV initiative, comprised of Sony and Logitech hardware, wasn’t exactly well received in the marketplace. In fact, disastrous sales led Logitech to knock $200 off their set-top box… about the same time they sacked the CEO. So to improve upon the experience, Google is modernizing the interface and bringing the familiar Android Market of Honeycomb to the table – with both Google and Logitech indicating release is mere weeks away. And I expect we’ll see both software updates made available for existing devices plus a variety of new hardware vessels. Which one hopes is more in line with Roku and Apple TV pricing this time around.

As we were previously exposed to many elements of the new Honeycomb 3.1 UI last last spring, I wanted to highlight Scott’s Google TV 2.0 app store experience. And my first “Android Market” observation is the thought that perhaps Google should have gone with “Android TV” given the underpinnings of Google TV and their success in the smartphone arena. That ship has sailed, so I’m left wondering why the Android Market is branded as such when Google TV Market would work just as well. Beyond labels, the app store mimics the mobile experience. Browse, download, and rate apps with users being alerted as to the data the app can access. Thanks to reader Khalid, we can even currently browse the small but growing selection of Google TV 2.0 apps via desktop web browser ahead of launch. Based on the screengrabs and marketplace browsing, I suspect some early favorites might be Pandora, Twitter, and the WSJ.

Slacker Now Powers AOL Radio, More Deals Coming

Slacker’s got a channel strategy. Yesterday, the streaming music company announced it’s made good on a deal with AOL to replace CBS Radio as the engine behind AOL Radio. On the face of it, the deal may not sound like much, but according to VP Jonathan Sasse, the new agreement could double the amount of content Slacker serves to its listeners. In addition, AOL is not likely to be a “one-off” deal. Sasse hints that we’ll probably see other, similar agreements in the coming months.

The partnership program is an interesting one because of how Slacker structures its relationships. Slacker technology is the engine behind all of its partners’ apps (the company struck a deal with AARP this summer too), but partners can bring their own targeted content with curated stations produced by their own DJs. In the case of AOL, there’s a mix of Slacker stations and AOL ones. Partners can also bundle the service in different ways. AOL is sticking with the Slacker model of offering one free version and two premium tiers (coming in November), but other partners may package their services differently.

I had a brief moment of panic thinking Slacker might be ending its own, beloved, direct-to-consumer business in favor of partner distribution, but Sasse assures me that’s not the case. The channel program is a complement to Slacker’s direct retail business, not a replacement. (Phew.)

Apple TV 4.4 Jailbreak Now Available

Just a few short days after Apple TV was upgraded to 4.4 (and then 4.4.1), the user friendly Seas0nPass jailbreak utility has now likewise been updated to free you from the stock confines of Apple’s diminutive media streamer. Sort of.

Unfortunately, this initial 4.4 Apple TV jailbreak requires the aTV be tethered to a computer at boot. An annoyance, yes. But not a deal breaker. Which brings us to the fairly critical plugins which fail to work under the update… including XBMC.

Considering a majority of jailbreakers do so to harness the more extensive local media playback capabilities of XBMC, this limitation could be a non-starter for many. So it’s probably good news that for the time being it’s possible to abstain from upgrading your hacked 4.3 Apple TV. By the time Apple removes 4.3 code signing and forces an upgrade, one hopes these early jailbreak issues will have been resolved.

Itemized plugin status follows:

Google TV 2.0 Still Missing In Action

With the introduction of Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich Android software less than 12 hours away, I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to the prior Honeycomb edition destined for Google TV. Back in May, we were promised a summer Google TV 2.0 reboot. And the struggling platform could certainly use a lift. The new app-centric approach … Read more