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My long tradition of getting behind with work covering new product launches ahead of the holiday season — and therefore not finishing my holiday gift guide until the last possible moment — continues. The guide is up over at techpinions.com.
Avi’s Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide 2013 Read MoreSonos sent over a pair of Play:1 speakers for review. In my review of the Sonos PLAYBAR I found too many setup limitations, but I absolutely love the Play:1's. A single Play:1 fills any small or medium sized room with rich, clear sound, and it serves as a perfect entry point to building a full multi-room, multi-source music system. My full report for Current Analysis clients is up; here's an excerpt: Sonos notes that multi-room audio sales have been rising 80% year-over-year, fueled by streaming music. With most consumer electronics categories losing ground as consumers put more of their money into …
Sonos Play:1 – Hands On Read MoreIt's up over at techpinions.com
Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide 2012 Read MoreThere is no indication of price or availability, so this "announcement" is almost comically vague, but it is interesting nonetheless. For the uninitiated, MHL is a standard that aims to simplify getting content from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) while keeping the devices charged. The MHL folks were smart enough not to come up with their own unique connector/cable; instead it uses the HDMI or microHDMI connectors, and includes HDMI backwards compatibility. It looks like Onkyo's reciever will pop up windows showing you what content is available on the device, allowing you to easily push that content on to the …
Onkyo Announces First MHL A/V Receiver Read MoreMy Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide is now up over at Slashgear.com. Happy Holidays, -avi
My Holiday Gift Guide is Up Read MoreIt certainly took them long enough, but Roku is finally graduating from online-only sales to retail. It wasn't doing too badly in the old business model – Roku's status as the least expensive and easiest streaming media box allowed it to rack up over a million units sold. Still, Roku always seemed something like a secret that only technically savvy people knew about – and that is not the target demographic for a product designed for simplicity. No, the ideal retail channel ought to be something like Target. Or Best Buy: Roku XD player is available for purchase at Best …
Roku Goes Retail Read MoreMy Last Minute, Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide 2010 has been posted over at Slashgear.com and includes a Home Entertainment section.
Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide Read MoreFirst a bit of background: Kaleidescape is a high end media server vendor. They make boxes you have a custom installer put in one spot, which connect over a wired network to smaller boxes your installer connects to each TV and projector in your home. You – or your installer – copies all your DVDs onto the big box, and then you can watch all your movies anywhere in your home. Basically, it's Sonos for movies for rich people. How rich? Kaleidescape was actually the reason I instituted a policy not to review anything I could not reasonably afford. Years …
Kaleidescape Ships Blu-ray Server (Sort of) Read MorePhilip Berne's latest Slashgear column provides a well argued view for buying a Blu-ray player despite the rise of downloadable and streaming content. Full disclosure: I also write columns for Slashgear. If you click on the link, I get… nothing. So I guess that's more of a plug than a disclosure.
Buy a Blu-ray Player. Now. Read MoreAs if the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad family wasn't already encroaching on distributed audio and home automation control systems, Onkyo announced that its future A/V receivers will come with free iOS remote control apps. This is a good idea for Onkyo on several levels: it allows Onkyo to tap into Apple's marketing momentum, and gives it the ability to market a rich touchscreen remote control without having to add anything to the bill of materials for the receiver. Of course, using a phone as a remote can be problematic – what happens when someone wants to use the system and you're on …
Onkyo <3 Apple Read More