Audio - Page 14

CES 2015 - Audio company A-Audio has unveiled its Prodigy Bluetooth Speaker, a unique wireless product that is able to transform into two different speakers. Prodigy has magnetic locators in the center of the unit, so they can be pulled apart - and located anywhere within Bluetooth range.

Using the Three-Stage Listening Technology, music listeners can choose between Audio, Base Enhancer and SurroundEffect modes. Prodity supports Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC, includes a micro-USB charging port for mobile devices, and has up to 12 hours of battery life. The A-Audio Prodigy will be available in April or May this year, with a $199 MSRP.

"With A-Audio's focus on delivering premium construction and innovative sound technology, it was only fitting to incorporate a transforming element and our award-winning Three-Stage Listening Technology into a premium portable Bluetooth Speaker," said Christian Iacovelli, president of A-Audio, in a statement. "The Prodigy Bluetooth Speaker marks the growth of A-Audio, expanding our line and offering our customers only the best quality audio products that combine both style and sound."

CES 2015 - Featuring a sleek matte black finish, the Sony Walkman ZX2 is a very real and very cool looking device. Said to be developed with audiophiles in mind, this new offering has been quoted by Sony themselves as "the fruit of continuous refinement in high audio quality technologies."

Running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean from 2012, this product can actually support apps downloaded from Google Play - although this isn't its original purpose, so don't expect it to run them like any latest phone release would. As we explained earlier, Sony have developed this device for those who are lovers of sound, supporting a wide range of files including DSD, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless and more.

The ZX2 also includes support for Bluetooth streaming and NFC, enabling various connections to work with ease. If you stop and think for a second, Sony has actually beaten Apple in the NFC race through an 'MP3 player' type device - that's a little sad, isn't it?

CES 2015 - Braven has announced its Balance Bluetooth speaker, a product designed for consumers with active lifestyles. Ideally, the wireless speaker can be used while exercising and surviving while out in the world.

Balance has an anti-slip exterior and can be used indoors or outdoors, as it has an IPX5 waterproof rating - meaning it should survive splashed water, but don't throw it into the pool. The speaker has an internal 4400mAh battery able to charge mobile devices, along with a hands-free speakerphone featuring a built-in, noise-cancelling microphone.

The speaker will be available in the following colors: Raven, Alpine, Raspberry, Electric, Sunset, and Periwinkle. The Braven Balance will be released during Q2 2015, and will have a $149.99 MSRP.

CES 2015 - Logitech has one of the best portable speakers on the market with its UE BOOM, but it has just expanded this range with the announcement of the new UE MEGABOOM.

Logitech's newest portable speaker is IPX7 certified waterproof, featuring a stain-resistant acoustic skin, weighs less than two pounds, features a 20-hour battery life, and 100-foot wireless Bluetooth range. Logitech has a great 'Double Up' feature that allows you to team another UE MEGABOOM (or UE BOOM) for double speaker action, which is really quite impressive when you hear it.

The new UE MEGABOOM will reach the US, and select countries within Europe and Asia sometime this month for a suggested retail price of $299.99.

Remember when the iPod Classic was quietly assassinated and taken down from Apple's e-shelves late in 2014? We reported recently that these products are becoming somewhat of a collectors item, drumming up large prices through online mediums such as eBay - seeing prices like $350 being commonplace for second-hand offerings.

Designer Claudio Gomboli wants to bring the Classic back to reality, releasing a nifty new concept design. As we've discovered, this design is purely just a concept, with no current means for funding or implementation into the market - but it's certainly not out of the equation for this to happen in the future.

Thanks to the click-wheel making long song list scrolling an easy task, this design is basically a simple cover for an existing iPhone or iPod touch. This means that if Gomboli is to make this as a 3rd-party add on for existing products, expect Apple to not play nice. However if you're already running or are planning to run a jail-broken phone, you should have no issues.

CES 2015 - Peripheral maker NYNE launched the Edge, Verge and Rock water-resistant Bluetooth speakers, designed to be used while exploring the outdoors.

All three speakers support Bluetooth 4.0 for streaming and NFC for one-tap connections. A built-in microphone allows for hands-free calling, along with a USB power bank, 3.55mm aux input and up to 12 hours of battery life.

The Verge, Edge and Rock speakers will be available during Q2 of 2015, with the Verge sporting a $119.95 MSRP, Edge will cost $159.95, and Rock will be available for $299.95.

I sat reading through a press release thinking to myself, "wow these Samsung WAM6500 and WAM7500 speakers look awfully familiar." After a short while I noticed the connection between Samsung's latest creations and the much-loved Portal gun.

Providing a 360-degree path of audio, this new product is said to be able to fill up a room completely with sound using their "ring radiator" technology - helping combat the issue of a speaker almost always projecting its output in a cone-like fashion. Samsung Electronics' Senior Vice President, Jurack Chae, stated in their press release that "with the new WAM7500/6500 people can enjoy a vibrant sound wherever they are, while our new Curved Soundbars perfectly complement the TV viewing experience."

There hasn't been an announced release date or price as of yet, but if you're looking to create a modern style living space and are quite possibly a fan of the award-wining title Portal - this product might just be for you.

Remember how we told you to hang onto your iPod classic for a little longer as they're discontinued and selling for a mint? Well, if you're looking for a house deposit or a fancy new imported car - now might be the time to auction off your limited edition iPod classic.

Spotted recently on eBay thanks to Mashable, this special edition U2 iPod was auctioned off for a cool $90,000. Factory sealed and engraved with the autographs of U2's band members, this UK edition has surely helped boost some lucky fans bank accounts - and drained another.

There's also been a $180,000 iPod classic offering pop up on the popular auction and trade website, seeing investors jump at the chance to bolster their income for the year. We've also seen reports that sealed first-generation iPods are now going for a cool $20,000.

After being ripped from Apple Store shelves not too long ago, Bose audio products are rumored to be making a return. iGen.fr, a French Apple website, has a source that said some Apple retail stores have been receiving shipments of Bose products, with orders from management to get them onto the shelves next week.

We still don't know why Apple removed Bose products from their shelves in the first place, but it most likely has something to do with its acquisition of Beats Electronics. Not only that, but the patent infringement that Bose pulled on Beats back in July, which would now obviously affect Apple.

After Apple acquired Beats, Beats and Bose decided to settle the patent dispute between them. This could have filtered down enough that Bose is now on talking terms with Apple once again, maybe.

Logitech has just unveiled the latest member in its ever-growing UE BOOM range of portable speakers, the new Graffiti Fetish Edition UE BOOM. This is the fifth version of the UE BOOM where Logitech has collaborated with artists for a custom-look on its speaker.

The new speaker is now celebrating "the fusion of two art forms" with music, and graffiti gifs. Logitech explains the new speaker as "art, graffiti, fetishism, and desire collide in the Graffiti Fetish edition UE BOOM, a vivid and vibrant print by London street artist Insa". The new Graffiti Fetish Edition UE BOOM can be purchased directly from Logitech's UE BOOM website for $199.99 sometime later this month.

A few months ago, Apple had sneakily removed their Apple iPod Classic devices off their online stores - bringing a silent end to its longstanding history and reign as the first legitimately useful flash portable music listening device.

This came about with their site upgrade thanks to the iPhone 6 release, with speculation stating that the old iPod's are no longer needed in today's market - mobile phones are becoming larger and larger in capacity, people are adding massive SD cards to their Android devices and much of our music is now streamed online. All of these factors start to render our old favorite a little bit useless.

Confirmed by CEO Steve Cook as "a declining business" the iPod Classic saw a swift removal from all online portals. But now they're becoming a bit of a rarity, seeing fans paying up to four times the originally listed price. This is said to be not only just due to their limited nature, but the capacity that they hold.

Audiophiles, rejoice! Windows 10 Project Manager Gabriel Aul has announced via Twitter that Microsoft will offer native FLAC support in their latest operating system. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a commonly used lossless audio format that provides a more accurate reproduction of recordings. In other words, it sounds better than other formats, such as MP3, which compress recordings down to a more manageable size but lose quality in the process.

FLAC audio files are very large, but the audio quality is superb. Windows has long forced users to turn to downloadable third-party audio codec packs to support FLAC, along with several other codecs. Microsoft has finally seen the light and is integrating FLAC directly into Windows Media Player 12 and the music app. Microsoft has also pleased the world at large by finally supporting MKV as well, so perhaps there will be less third-party codec downloads with insidious bloatware installers in our future.

Discerning ears want to know what took Microsoft so long to support the popular FLAC codec, but in some ways it makes sense. MP3, while of inferior quality, creates files that are small and can be flung out to mobile devices which have limited capacity. MP3 also produces 'good enough' quality for the majority of users. FLAC files are absolutely huge, as anyone who has downloaded them (legally, of course) is well aware of. As new dense storage technologies are working their way to market, such as 3D NAND, we will begin to see portable devices with enough capacity to easily store our precious FLAC files. In the interim, storage on PC's is plentiful and cheap. Prices are hovering around 2.5c per GB, and users can easily store tens of thousands of recordings relatively cheaply.

"Snap" is a directional sound system, utilizing ultrasonic sound to carry waves in a straight path toward the listener meaning that any others not standing in the exact direction of this speaker will not be affected.

Regular speakers distribute sound in a cone shape and alongside bouncing off objects in a room, allowing multiple users to listen to the same sounds in unison - you know, like a party. What we've got here is a parametric speaker, which through the methods displayed above, allow just one user to easily listen to sounds without disturbing others.

Think about it this way. Forget your headphones on the bus, plane trip or library study visit? Not to worry, set up your parametric speaker (or laptop with them already installed) and blast your hardstlye or death-metal away without getting in trouble from those around you. Developers have claimed that Snap is not their first directional speaker, saying that other models have been developed coming in at around $275 US retail price. Also due to Snap coming as a bunch of accessories, the users must assemble their own device.

Logitech has announced its latest addition to the UE Boom lineup, with the company teaming up with six-time Grammy Award-winning electronic dance music producer Skrillex for the Skrillex Edition UE Boom.

Skrillex has provided a unique visual style to the Skrillex Edition UE Boom, with his own hand-drawn work splashed onto the already slick-looking mobile speaker. Skrillex said: "UE BOOM is awesome because it's small, portable and powerful. They get so loud! I listen to them all the time on tour - from the bus to backstage. They're the best little speakers you can get, which is why I'm pumped to have my own artwork covering a custom edition".

The Logitech UE Boom is a great speaker, with my very positive review on it right here, but this new Skrillex Edition UE Boom is definitely for fans of Skrillex. General Manager of Ultimate Ears, Rory Dooley, said: "Skrillex has been a disruptive force in the EDM evolution, changing people's expectations of and experiences with music. UE is thrilled to work with an artist as notable as Skrillex to bring people their music in an exciting - and expressive - package. Skrillex finds inspiration in the combination of music, people and technology, and this collaboration is a natural fit for our brand".

Amazon has just unveiled somewhat of a surprise to the world, in the form of an always-listening, waiting-for-your-command portable speaker: Echo. Amazon's Echo has a built-in virtual assistant, with Siri and Google Now-like abilities, which can help you out wherever your Echo is sitting.

Inside of the slick-looking black tube, we have a 360-degree-firing speaker, with a 2.5-inch subwoofer and 2-inch tweeter, capable of playing your music from a smartphone or tablet through Bluetooth. Echo is also able to play music online through your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn and iHeartRadio.

Echo has seven microphones that feature far-field technology, so it can hear you from virtually anywhere in your room. It can use voice commands to do a variety of tasks, such as playing your music (the most obvious one), get the news for you, answer your questions, create to-do lists, set timers and alarms, tell jokes and much more. You can access Echo from anywhere, thanks to its companion app, too. In order to wake it up, you just use a "wake word" that you've set it up with: for example, "OK, Jarvis" would work nicely.

Taylor Swift has decided to pull her music catalog from popular online music service Spotify, and never allowed her latest album, 1989, to be available online. Spotify has created a new playlist dubbed "What to Play While Taylor's Away," featuring music from Katy Perry, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, and Leagues.

More than 16 million Spotify listeners have played Swift's tracks in the past month, with Swift appearing in more than 19 million playlists. Here is what Spotify said in a blog post: "We hope she'll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone."

Earlier in the year, Swift said "music should not be free," while also stating "piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically," in an op-ed published on the Wall Street Journal.

Gaming peripheral maker Razer has just announced its first surround sound bar, the Leviathan. Razer's Leviathan is a virtual 5.1 surround sound gaming and music bar, that streams your audio through Bluetooth 4.0 aptX, with a price tag of $199.99. Here's what we can expect inside of the Leviathan:

Razer's co-founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan said: "The opportunity to produce a precision-engineered surround sound solution for high-performance gaming, movie watching and music listening, and make it versatile to use in any setting, was a very exciting proposition for us. The Razer Leviathan delivers what music aficionados, movie buffs and gamers alike are looking for to improve their entertainment setup".

Apple has decided to pull Bose headphones and audio products from its online store, with the QuietComfort headphones series and SoundLink Mini and SoundLink III speakers being removed. It seems likely Apple will begin pulling Bose from retail stores - if they haven't quietly disappeared from shelves already - after the Beats headphones acquisition.

The decision was first rumored earlier this month, so it's not a surprise to see Apple reportedly following through with the decision.

Despite the snub from Apple, Bose still has a large marketing and sales presence anyway, including professional sports partnerships. However, the Beats brand still has gained some free publicity along the way, especially with NFL players wearing Beats headphones even though it is against NFL policy.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had to pay a $10,000 fine for wearing his Beats headphones, but found a way to avoid another fine: just put tape over the Beats logo. Bose is the official audio partner of the NFL, and athletes are not allowed to wear non-Bose audio products during broadcasts - and that makes Beats founder Jimmy Iovine feel "lucky."

"We didn't do anything, and now the players are going out and putting black tape on our logo," Iovine recently said. "It's like, I can't believe I am this lucky. I feel like sending them the tape."

Iovine also added: "What happened there, you have a tech company that's culturally inept. There's no one at the company that said, 'If you ban these guys, you're going to look bad to the young people, and they're going to look like superheroes even though they're just pure capitalists - well they're not pure capitalists, but they're real capitalists and [they] sold that company to Apple - but you're going to make them look like the underdog."

When Apple coughed up $3 billion to acquire Beats Electronics, I'm sure the executives over at Bose were wondering what would happen to their products once the acquisition was all said and done. Now that Apple has launched two new iPhones, and is preparing to launch a new iPad, iMac, and much more, the latest rumors are pegging the Cupertino iGiant to remove all of Bose's audio products from its retail stores.

A "reliable source" talked with MacRumors, who said that the removal of Bose products is most likely due to the recent Beats acquisition. Then we have the fact that Bose's new sponsorship deal with the National Football League, which has seen the league prohibiting players from wearing Beats headphones while anywhere near a TV camera, be it practice or on game days.

It was only a week ago that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick defied the ban, wearing his bright pink Beats for all to see, having him slapped with a $10,000 fine. Bose and Beats are also in a patent dispute, which has seen Bose filing suits against Beats, claiming the infringement of five patents related to noise cancellation technology.