Normally a switch in speaker grill color wouldn’t be enough to make something news-worthy, but when it’s Bang & Olufsen making the changes then you know it’s not just a case of a ordering up a new bolt of material. Intended to accompany the firm’s existing white A/V equipment, the new white speaker-covers have been put through the paces for longevity and sound performance, with B&O even traipsing to Milan fashion fairs to see what fabrics are on offer.
In the end, they settled on Italian manufacturer Silanco. The covers have been tested at B&O’s in-house acoustic performance facility, as well as artificially aged to check that they’d still look crisp and white after 6-8 years of direct sunlight. They’ve even splattered dirt onto them, to see what affect particles clinging to the covers might have on sound.
The new white speaker grills will be available this winter, on every fabric-covered speaker B&O produce. It’s unclear what affect, if any, this will have on the price; similarly, it’s unknown whether B&O will be offering the covers as accessories for existing owners.
[via Born Rich]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Bang amp Olufsen and Speakers and archive and design and luxury.
It’s been a mobile device bonanza this week, with the AT&T Fuze landing at SlashGear and promptly getting hauled over to the Sprint HTC Touch Pro for a damned good comparing. Meanwhile HTC have set tongues wagging by fettling a version of the Touch HD for a Russian WiMAX carrier: they assure us that the HTC MAX 4G won’t be showing up anywhere else, but forgive us if we’re natural sceptics. Meanwhile Verizon finally confirmed that the BlackBerry Storm 9530 would hit stores on November 24th, priced from $199.99, AT&T released the QuickFire, and Nokia confirmed the open-secret that is the E63 smartphone.
Other interesting looking announcements include the Samsung Eternity on AT&T, LG Prada II, and the iRiver wave which, for the moment at least, is stuck in Korea. Still, they’re trailing in the wake of Apple’s iPhone 3G, which finally edged ahead of the Motorola RAZR to become the best selling mobile handset. Just the right time for rumors to begin that Costco are planning to sell the Apple device for $149. Whether or not that pans out, if you plan on using your iPhone 3G as Apple intended it then you’ll be wanting to take a look at our Mophie Juice Pack review for the power-guzzling smartphone.
Slightly larger, but using that space to its best advantage - by packing in the connectivity - comes UMID’s Mobile Internet Device. Blessed with WiBro, WiMAX, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 4.8-inch touchscreen, it leaves us in the bizarre situation of not only hoping it will make it to our shores, but that we’ll have the wireless networks to sate it.
All too often we see slick gadgets in Korea that we’ll never get a chance to play with ourselves; it was nice, then, to be able to exclusively confirm that Nanovision’s MIMO 7-inch USB LCD monitors are coming to the US, UK, Italy and Japan. We’ve got review samples winging their way to us right now, so expect full coverage this coming week.
For once, netbooks took a backseat over the past seven days, with the only major news being Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 getting a confirmed price - from $549 - and release timetable. You’ll be able to pick up the 12.1-inch budget ultraportable from the second week in December. In gaming, meanwhile, we found out about Sports Active, EA’s upcoming challenge to the Wii Fit.
You’d think we were entirely unable to read a map here at SlashGear this week, with three separate PND devices in for review. The Navigon 7200T, Mio’s Knight Rider GPS and Telenav’s Shotgun PND all took their turn ordering us about; thankfully we had the Flip MinoHD to document the ordeal.
Winner of the week has to be Bang & Olufsen, who have already whipped commenters into a frenzy by announcing the terribly expensive BeoSound 5 Digital Music System. Par for the course for the Danish company, really. Meanwhile loser of the week is Circuit City, who have voluntarily filed for bankruptcy. The credit crunch claims another victim, but we suppose that means plenty of stock-clearance bargains this holiday season.
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Written by Chris Davies on November 16th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on AT&T and Apple and Bang amp Olufsen and BlackBerry and Dell and Feature and HTC and LG and Motorola and Nokia and Samsung and Sprint and Verizon and Week in Review and WiMAX and archive and carriers and flip and iphone 3G and iriver and nanovision and navigon and telenav.
Bang & Olufsen have officially announced the BeoSound 5, a digital music system intended to bridge the gap between the company’s high-end hifi systems and music stored digitally. The main interface is the BeoSound 5 controller, a 2.65kg table-top or wall-mounted remote dominated by a 10.4-inch 1024 x 768 LCD and an aluminium scroll wheel. Providing the power is the BeoControl 5, a 500GB music server with internet connections. The whole system runs MOTS (More Of The Same), B&O’s new intelligent playlist system.
MOTS analyses tracks by rhythm, syncopation, key tonality and vocal harmonies, and creates automatic playlists that evolve as you choose music and add to the list. It’s impossible to tell without experiencing the system how well this works, but B&O apparently have at least two patents pending.
Music is stored in lossless formats, with connections on the BeoMaster including B&O MasterLink, IR input, analog line-out, S/PDIF output, DVI-I, DVI-D (for the controller), YPbPr, S-Video, Composite video, three USB 2.0 ports (one for the controller) and ethernet. It runs Windows XP Embedded. Meanwhile the BeoSound 5 controller itself has power, USB and HDMI/DVI connections.
Supported formats include WMA, WMA Lossless, MP3, WAV, ASF and AAC, together with internet radio streams in WMA, MP3, ASX and M3U. It will also show video in MPEG, MPE, MPG, AVI, WMV and VFW formats. 500GB is enough room for over 28,000 songs stored losslessly.
The Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 5 system - including controller and server - will be available from March 2009, priced at around £3,500 ($5,377).
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Written by Chris Davies on November 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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Shots of Bang & Olufsen’s long-awaited BeoSound 5 controller have leaked to the BeoWorld forums, and with them suggestions that the company is preparing to officially launch and release the device. Featuring a large (non-touchscreen) display with multiple scroll-wheel controls, the BeoSound 5 is apparently B&O’s intended way to bridge digital music and traditional systems.
Both desk and wall-mounting appears to be an option, with stability ensured courtesy of the large (and, we’re told, weighty) “foot”. Since the display is passive and not intended to be finger-prodded, that should reduce any chance of toppling also.
B&O have apparently also included an auto-playlist function, which those who have tried it are calling far more intelligent than Apple’s recent Genius system:
“MOTS is truly surprising (though awkwardly named) in that music comes down the axis that I truly would not have chosen myself, but which fits perfectly with the characteristics of the song I initially chose” BeoWorld comment
Of course, being Bang & Olufsen, the BeoSound 2 is likely to be very, very expensive. Pricing and availability details, though, are currently unknown.
[via Engadget]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Bang amp Olufsen and PMP and archive and mediaplayer and remote control.
