Over the years, Sonos has become somewhat of a household name in the whole home audio market. Competition, however, has dramatically increased recently with new products from Amazon, Google, and now Apple. But if you ask Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, he sees the opportunity of competing with the tech heavyweights as a reward…
Sonos is kicking off a new Sonos One bundle tomorrow that matches the HomePod price but includes two speakers. The promotion is timed with the launch of HomePod which goes on sale tomorrow and ships two weeks later.
In a blog post today, Sonos announced the rollout of a new version of their Sonos Controller app for iOS and Android. The update intends to simplify navigation and refresh the app’s user interface.
Ikea is teasing a collaboration with Sonos, but without giving any details …
Pricey workarounds and complex utilities for making AirPlay work with Sonos have existed for a while, but neither solution has been as simple as just clicking a button. Now there’s a new Mac app that does exactly that and for less than $10.
Sonos has officially launched support for controlling Spotify music playback using Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant with the wireless speaker system. The partnership between the three companies brings voice control to the largest music streaming service on hi-fi wireless speakers ahead of Apple’s delayed HomePod smart speaker launch.
Pandora and Sonos today joined together to announce that you can now control your Sonos speakers directly through the Pandora app on iOS. The feature is available to all Pandora users, including those on the free tier and Pandora Premium.
Sonos One, the latest Sonos wireless speaker, matches the hi-fi audio of its predecessor, the Play:1, while adding a six far-field microphone array for built-in voice control using Amazon Alexa. All for the same $199 price.
Using a wireless speaker with a built-in voice assistant and high quality audio can be very natural and fun. Just say what you want to hear and Sonos One serves it up. What’s less simple is navigating through which music services work and with what method. There’s also the upcoming arrival of Apple’s HomePod which similarly promises to match hi-fi audio with an intelligent voice assistant.
So while Sonos One is a very impressive piece of technology on its own, there are a few things to consider first.
In addition to promising AirPlay 2 support next year, Sonos has unveiled its latest wireless speaker: the Sonos One. The new model replaces the Sonos Play:1 in the lineup at the $199 level with models available in both white and now black. Sonos One is the company’s first wireless speaker with built-in voice control.
Sonos officially announced plans to work with Apple’s new AirPlay 2 wireless music playback feature with Sonos wireless speakers. Apple unveiled AirPlay 2 back at WWDC in June as an iOS 11 feature that will work with the HomePod, new Beats speakers, and third-party products.
Amazon today has announced a new feature that allows users to play, synchronize, and control music playback across multiple Echo devices with support for voice commands. The news comes ahead of Apple’s HomePod launch in December and Sonos likely unveiling a new smart speaker in October. Amazon has also announced new tools for developers.
Update: The Verge reports that Sonos has now sent out invitations to a media event on October 4. The graphic shows a mouth, suggesting that it is for a voice-focused speaker.
When Apple previewed HomePod back in June, it positioned the $350 smart speaker as a cross between a Sonos wireless speaker and the Amazon Echo: hi-fi wireless music playback with a smart assistant built-in. Amazon has already been rumored to be working on a smart speaker with better audio quality, and now Sonos appears to be planning to make its hi-fi speakers smarter.
If you have a Sonos Playbar speaker, and haven’t yet updated to firmware version 7.4, you may want to hold off for a while. Users on the company’s support forums are reporting a variety of audio issues since the update, up to and including complete loss of audio on some channels …
Last month Sonos unveiled its new Playbase hi-fi speaker that fits under your TV, and now the premium TV and music speaker is available to purchase in white or black. Playbase is an interesting alternative to the typical sound bar form factor and has benefits like accommodating more living room setups. Check out our hands-on with the new Sonos Playbase for much more.
The Sonos family of hi-fi speakers is expanding this week with the introduction of Playbase, its new TV and music speaker. Playbase is the first new hardware product from Sonos since the second-gen Play:5 was unveiled in September 2015 (and it uses the new touch-style buttons).
If you’re a Sonos fan and want a more discreet alternative to the PlayBar TV speaker system, it looks like the company has you covered. Details and images of an under-TV speaker have leaked.
The latest Sonos ad – shown during last night’s Grammys, alongside one for Apple’s Carpool Karaoke – echoes Apple’s famous ‘1984’ commercial, the hammer thrown through a screen replaced by a speaker thrown through a window. The Verge isn’t a fan.
This is no critique of capitalism, or the American way, or even the dehumanizing effect of technology — she’s only complaining because the people she’s observing haven’t dropped hundreds of dollars on Sonos speakers.
You can judge for yourself below. But if the ad does inspire you to invest in some Sonos tech, Brits might want to buy sooner rather than later as the company has announced that it will shortly be raising its UK prices by up to 25% …
Sonos offers wireless speakers in its Play series in either black or white, but up until now, those wishing to add soul-shaking low end sound to their configuration could only buy a Sonos wireless Sub in one color: black. Today Sonos is making white Sub units available for preorder, with shipments set to begin on October 25th. If you own a white Play:1, 3, or 5, then it’s now possible to add deep low-end sound with a color-matched dedicated wireless Sonos subwoofer.
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Sonos wireless speakers have touted Apple Music compatibility in beta since last year and officially since this year, and now Apple is selling Sonos speakers for the first time. Apple’s online store will begin selling the Play:1 ($199) and Play:5 ($499, reviewed) later today, and Apple’s physical stores will carry the two speakers starting October 5.
Earlier this month we mentioned that Sonos is hosting a media event in NYC today, and now we’re hearing what the speaker company is announcing. It turns out it does have something to do with voice as I suspected: starting in 2017, Sonos speakers will work with Amazon Echo. Alexa voice control is gaining Sonos support to “play, pause, skip, or control the volume on any Sonos home sound system using the power of their voice.”
Sonos integrated Apple Music earlier this year
Almost a year ago Sonos introduced its latest flagship wireless speaker with the second-generation Play:5 (review), and now Sonos is preparing to make news again with a media event in New York City later this month.
Music streaming platform and speaker-maker Sonos today added support for the popular media server app Plex. That means that you’ll now be able to view your music library stored in Plex from within the Sonos apps.
Plex announced the new integration within the Sonos app today on its blog:
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Sonos has released a big update to its Controller app for iPhone and iPad that improves the experience on iOS in several ways. Because Sonos speakers stream music from services including Apple Music directly over the Internet and your iPhone or iPad is only used to tell it what to play, the lock screen has lacked playback controls; today’s update works around that on iOS 8 and later. Sonos Controller 6.3 for iOS adds lock screen controls that you can access from iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch for the first time. The new version includes some other new features for Apple’s latest hardware as well: