Sonos is a wireless audio company that makes solid – albeit comparatively expensive – audio hardware. Setup is drop dead simple – to add a component you simply press one or two buttons on the new device and everything “just works” and the remote control UI, refined over most of the past decade, has a cult-like following. You can create different audio zones around your room and play different… → Read More
The Playbar (or PLAYBAR, in Sonos’ inimitable all-caps style) is a nine-speaker soundbar that can be placed above or below your TV and connects to your in-home Sonos network as well as your television. The device connects to your TV or receiver via an optical cable and can also stream music through the standard Sonos system for playback of local music, Pandora, Rdio, and other music services. → Read More
If there’s been one feature missing on the Sonos whole-home music system: Airplay. There were workarounds and hacks, but nothing quite let you stream your iOS music to devices in the home. Now, praise be the Gods of CE, Sonos has added onboard music and podcast streaming to their controller app. → Read More
One pet peeve I had with the Sonos system was the quality of the UI on high-res screens. While it is, after all, just a remote control, the app was Sonos’ outward-facing experience and needed to be flawless. Now it is.
The company just updated its iPad app to support Retina screens (no similar update for Retina MacBooks, sadly) and you can also change the Sonos volume by clicking the volume… → Read More
The Sonos Sub, not to be confused with the Five-Dollar Footlong, is a subwoofer that works wirelessly with the Sonos family of devices and adds considerable bass to any Sonos CONNECT:AMP, PLAY:5, or PLAY:3 device. It is a substantial device with two force-canceling speakers that outputs down to 25 Hz.
At $699 this isn’t your run-of-the-mill audio purchase. However, the difference in sound… → Read More
Sonos, the developers of a sexy, high-end wireless home audio system, has raised $135 million in funding led by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Previous investors Redpoint Ventures and Elevation Partners also contributed to the round, bringing the company’s total funding to just under $200 million.
As part of the round, KKR’s David Kerko, Elevation Managing Director Fred Anderson… → Read More
Sonos has just gotten really deep (get it?) with their new Sonos Sub, a wireless subwoofer that connects to any Sonos system and adds just a bit more oomph to the musical proceedings. The sub costs $699 and offers (according to the press release) “thick layers of bottomless sound that let you hear and feel the weight of every chord, kick, splash and roll.” → Read More
Sonos has just announced an update to their Sonos Controller software, specifically for Mac and PC. The app, which runs on Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android, now comes in 12 different languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish. And that’s only the beginning.
Sonos this morning sent out an email to users advising them to immediately update their wireless music system software with a security “enhancement” in order to plug a hole that “in rare cases” could have been exploited by malicious people to gain access to sensitive, personal customer data.
In the message, which was also posted on its forum, Sonos says it is not aware of any breaches so far: → Read More
An update to the Sonos firmware and controller now allows Android users to manage their devices on a Honeycomb tablet in a native slate format, eschewing the original portrait-only Android phone app. The new version supports the Kindle Fire as well.
Users can also now Tweet the titles of music they’re listening to right from the app. → Read More
Robbie Bach, 22 year veteran of Microsoft and most recently the company’s Xbox division, has moved to Sonos. Sonos head John MacFarlane pulled Bach out of semi-retirement in order to help with their retail presence.
Sonos makes audio sharing devices for the home, creating seamless soundscapes in multiple rooms using hardware that, for the most part, surpasses a standard set of bookshelf… → Read More
If you’re looking for a high-class all-in-one streaming music system, Sonos has you covered. The company today announced the Play:3, a Sonos music player that gives the user access to Sonos’ complete library of streaming music services. Users can control the Play:3 through their Sonos Controller app, available for Android, iPhone and iPad, and the whole thing just costs $299. → Read More
Not to flog a spotted horse, Spotify is now available on your Sonos devices. To add the service to your devices follow these instructions. → Read More
BlablabLab and 3D Systems (along with some help from Sonos) set up an amazing exhibit at Techcrunch Disrupt. Essentially, it’s a 3D scanner/printer that grabs a 3D copy of your body and then prints it out into a 3-inch high figurine. It is, in short, magical. → Read More
If you’re a Sonos fan you’ll be happy to know that MOG, the music streaming service that competes with sites like Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora, has just hit the list of Sonos sources. It is, in short, a double rainbow of music goodness. They’re offering all Sonos users 14-day free trial and new users can get 20% off Sonos bundles with MOG access. You can check it out here.
The service is available… → Read More
You’ve been waiting and now it’s here: Sonos has just announced the availability of the free Controller on the Android platform. It is compatible with almost all Android phones and tablets and supports the standard Sonos feature set (music assignment, browsing, search) as well as a few interesting additions. The app takes advantage of Android’s native speech recognition to offer… → Read More
Got some bad news bears this morning for the dozen or so Sonos owners looking forward to the Android app. (I kid, I kid) The company is not going to make their original “end of March” launch date. Apparently the app isn’t ready yet as the testing took a bit longer than expected. The free app’s launch date is now next month.
The company just sent over a short statement from the VP of Quality… → Read More
Finally! Sonos To Release Android Controller App In March, exclaimed an understandably excited Michael Arrington back in February. Alas, bad news has just come in for my boss and many other Android handset owning Sonos users.
According to the company, testing of the Sonos Controller for Android is taking a bit longer than they’d anticipated, which means they will not make that March deadline… → Read More
Are you a MOG user in proud possession of a Sonos Multi-Room Music System? Let me make you a happy man or woman: US-based MOG users will have access to the company’s on-demand music service through Sonos later this spring, the companies jointly announced this morning.
With the addition of MOG, and recently Rdio and Spotify, the list of available music services is beginning to look like a very… → Read More
The following probably speaks to Sirius XM silliness more than anything else, but what are you gonna do? Sonos’ Multi-Room Music System is now fully compatible with the “new and improved” Sirius XM stream. The system had worked on the Sirius side of things just fine, but now it works on the XM side of things, too. → Read More
Everyone’s favorite home music streamer, Sonos, just announced the availability of the Sonos Controller for Android, a free program for managing your Sonos receiver from the comfort of your cellphone. The controller is long overdue as iOS users have had a version of the Sonos system for well over a year.
The app will be available in the Android Market in March and will be officially unveiled at… → Read More
Ah, Sonos. Once you’ve tried it you never go back. The trouble was that it used to cost thousands of dollars to get your home set up to stream music from any wifi connected hard drive to the Sonos speakers. Here’s my Sonos review from way back in 2006.
Then things started to happen. Most notably they released the Sonos ZonePlayer S5, a lower cost Sonos device that could be controlled via an… → Read More
Pretty sure 99.9% of you won’t care one bit, but this fills me with joy: Rdio, the music service I was most happy to have discovered in 2010, will soon be available on Sonos, the awesome wireless sound system I was most happy to have discovered in 2010.
Scheduled for release ‘later in Q1 2011′, Rdio Unlimited subscibers (that’s me!) in the United States and Canada will be able to listen to the… → Read More
Spotify, the European streaming music service (that’s awesome), recently inked a deal with Sonos to allow the service to work on Sonos’ home devices. Here we have a brief demo of the magic in action. → Read More
The European music streaming service Spotify has partnered with Sonos, the Californian maker of Wireless Multi-Room Music Systems. This will mean that by the end of this month, Spotify Premium subscribers – the same tariff that enables mobile access – will be able to stream Spotify’s music catalog around the home to a networked Sonos box (or multiple boxes), which is a nice additional option for… → Read More
Great news for Europeans and those few U.S. users of music streaming service Spotify. Sonos, creator of the super cool (my descripton) S5 music player, is announcing today that users will soon be able to listen to streaming Spotify music through their Sonos devices. That means users will now be able to listen to music files stored on any computer in their home as well as Spotify, Rhapsody… → Read More
I’ve always had a soft spot in my necrotic heart for Sonos. In the face if iPods, Zunes, mobile phones, and everything else, they’ve kept pumping out great, compact products for folks with big houses. They’ve never pretended to be too high-class for the rest of us yet you basically use their products to create soundscapes, just like Disney World, Vegas, and the haunted house I made in my basement… → Read More
Sonos stopped by our office in San Francisco today to show off their newest toy: the iPad controller app. Those familiar with the iPhone/iPod touch version of the controller will feel at home here, though obviously the larger screen allows Sonos to do some more creative music management things with the UI. It looks to be a pretty killer way to manage multiple Sonos systems throughout your home (it… → Read More
Just a quick FYI: The Sonos S5 is now available in both white and black. It’s still the same $399 price and loaded with all the wireless music goodies. → Read More
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