Tag: streaming

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Cell Phone Accessories Connected Objects Music Tablet Accessories

CuBund bridges your smartphone to home receivers

Taking music from portable players and phones to cars and home audio systems usually requires specific hardware or lots of messy, tangled cables.

Cubund is a simple USB device that plugs into a car or home audio system’s USB port and receives high-quality Bluetooth audio streams from phones, laptops, or tablets. It allows for complete control using the remotes or onboard controls of the larger device. This allows for quick installation and even faster access to music when moving from public to private areas or from the home to car and vice versa.

Cubund can also handle incoming or outgoing calls from a phone and push them through to the car’s audio or home stereo, allowing for safer, hands-free communication even in the middle of blasting the volume on a favorite song. An additional USB port is added to Cubund to allow the charging of other devices. Cubund needs $20,000 for materials, assembly, and licenses, and can be purchased for delivery in February for $89.

The right kind of equipment or settings handles pretty much everything Cubund does already, but in lieu of buying new phones, new audio equipment, or even a new car, this is a simple, cheap way to bring older equipment into the present.

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Music Technology

Prizm teaches speakers to be in tune with your mood and your friends

The world of streaming music over the past decade has exploded, with dozens of companies offering competing services that all want to be your one and only source for tunes. But with the increase in all this choice, the process of figuring out what to listen to can be an unnecessary obstacle to our enjoyment.

A Parisian company created Prizm to facilitate the process of personalized music curation. The slick product connects to existing speakers through Bluetooth, optical, or a 3.5mm wire, and provides an interface to not only discover new music, but instantly sync your favorites to your playlists with a simple press of a button.

Prizm is clever, too: its contextual approach adapts to not only who is in the room, but the kind of atmosphere as well. If there are just two people present, it combines their tastes and plays a song they both enjoy. If there are 15 people present, the acoustic sensor will recognize the ambient noise and play something more suitable. Compatibility with Spotify, Deezer, and Soundcloud will ensure all users are represented with more services on the way. Interested backers can grab their very own device $129. These ideas have pushed the company towards their $70,000 goal.

The product that most closely resembles Prizm is the Aether Cone, but upon comparison the differences are stark. While the $399 Cone boasts a decent speaker to directly play the music you want, it is more of a streaming radio device. On the other hand, Prizm contains many more features allowing users a lot of personalization– even a friend’s Prizm will recognize who you are and adapt to your taste! This level of personalization and interconnectedness is impressive, even if it may tread very closely to the many privacy concerns up in the air these days.

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Television

4se lets you watch, stream four TV shows at once

Readers old enough to remember the advent of picture-in-picture windows on TV will recall that the commercials were always framed the same way. A popular drama or movie was displayed up on the big screen, while the die-hard sports fan was relegated to the tiny picture at the bottom.

Not being able to watch sports is only slightly worse than not being able to watch enough sports, something rectified by 4SeTV. 4SeTV is a set-top box that connects to the TV through the HDTV antenna, as well as an ethernet cable. Once the device is powered on, the box allows the TV to display four equally-sized windows of different programming, whether it’s multiple games on Sundays, or just enough programs to make everyone in the room happy. Using the 4SeTV app, users can decide which program broadcasts audio, change channels in each of the windows, or zoom in to catch a critical moment as it develops.

Additionally, 4SeTV is great for families with diverse viewing habits because it allows HD content to be streamed wirelessly through the house from the main television. This way, while the game’s on, the kids can watch cartoons on the computer, and non-sports fans can catch a movie or show using a tablet. 4SeTV is asking backers to provide $50,000 of funding to bring the device to mass production. The 4SeTV is going out in November 2014 to those that pledge $99.

If it were maybe a decade earlier, this device would be a must-have for sports fans with families to share TV space with or interest in multiple teams and sports. With broadcasters providing split-screen content already and everyone having enough mobile devices to keep track of their viewing needs, the market for this is relatively small, not to mention the curious inclusion to only have an HDTV antenna port.

 

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Connected Objects Maker/Development Video

Slice looks to stay a cut above other living room media players

The Premise. Internet streaming devices such as Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV offer convenient streaming of movies and music on demand to your living room. Some streaming devices can play back media on a hard drive, but they’re not optimized for large personal libraries of video files and other media.

The Product. Slice is a hard drive-based media player designed to be snappy and easy to use. It’s a minimally designed black box outfitted with an array of usual ports along with a customizable LED ring that changes color depending on its current action. This adds a unique aesthetic twist to an otherwise unassuming design. It also ships with a custom-made RF remote, giving you the flexibility to be anywhere in your home and still command Slice.

The Pitch. The team behind Slice, Five Ninjas, does a great job concisely explaining such a versatile product. The campaign features a general overview video and a video walkthrough of Slice’s interface. Easy-to-digest lists and diagrams explain the nuances of the product, and there’s a pretty robust FAQ section that actually answers many common questions. Stretch goals have included Wi-Fi, an app to control the LEDs, a bigger hard drive, a thinner design with an extra USB port, and color options.

The Perks. Slice comes in two flavors. A diskless version is expected to ship in November 2014 with a contribution of £129 . A fully loaded version requires a contribution of £169 and should ship in December.

The Potential. The market has voted in favor of less expensive media streamers that deliver movies from services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Indeed Five Ninjas’ Web site laments the loss of the original Apple TV, which stored movies on a hard drive. Western Digital has probably had the most success with its hard drive-focused living room media player since then — including one that had a built-in hard drive —  but that hasn’t seen an update for a while. One of the the product’s biggest draws besides its simplicity is its openness. Since it’s built atop a Raspberry Pi and uses the XMBC software, Slice is open and hackable, allowing more creative technical individuals to do pretty much whatever they’d like that’s within the device’s capabilities. Slice will have the most appeal to those who have large collections of movies that lack copy protection or who like a bit of a light show with their home video entertainment.

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Connected Objects Lighting Music

Whome sets the mood with lighting and streamed audio

The Premise.  The primary necessity for any home situation is adequate lighting. Plain light bulbs are so 20th century. Why not have customizable, smart light bulbs that can stream audio throughout the home?

The Product. Whome is a Wi-fi enabled system of LED light bulbs that can be controlled using a proprietary app. Designed for customization and sharing, each Whome supports 256 LED bulbs to fine-tune the color and intensity of the light to fit any room, mood, or social situation. Additionally, each bulb also comes with a built-in speaker, and audio can be streamed to the Whome to provide a whole-home output for party music or ambient backgrounds for relaxing in bed. The app allows users to set timers that will change the bulb’s settings for different times of day and allow easy management of all networked lights in the home, no matter which room.

The Pitch.  Whome is a trendy idea, and so Whome developer WaveBomb has framed its product as young and fashionable in its campaign video. Viewers get a glimpse of the product in action from friends watching a soccer match in proper team lighting to a suggestive bedroom encounter complete with mood lighting and appropriate soundtrack. The Whome’s ease of use in on full display, with simple examples of controlling the light in real-time through the app and connected the bulbs to streaming audio featured. With a goal of £20,000 in place, WaveBomb is hoping to raise the funds necessary to begin mass production and get all the necessary certifications.

The Perks. A single Whome is available for £60, set to launch October 2014. Those who want more than just black or white can get a two-pack in any color for £155. Additional tiers offer quantities of five or seven bulbs.

The Potential. Similar products have been introduced already, either taking the smart light bulb route or the music-powered light approach. Whome feels less like a novelty because it tackles both of these concepts in one device. The design makes the bulbs look a bit like ultra-modern salt and pepper shakers, but being able to stream audio and control lighting color and intensity using a phone and being able to program it to act as a much more pleasant form of morning alarm make this a very appealing product for those that have an easier time rising and shining to their favorite music.

Categories
Connected Objects Music

Gramofon is a Trojan horse box that streams home music, fosters public Wi-Fi

The Premise. The beauty of streaming music is that listeners can enjoy the music they love, no matter where they are. Transferring that access to an audio system worth listening to, on the other hand, often proves to be more difficult.

The Product. The Gramofon is designed to take all the accessibility of a Wi-Fi hotspot, and put that to use to stream music in the home or office. By using Facebook credentials instead of various wi-Fi passwords, it’s easy to use the Gramofon app to connect and start pumping music through any stereo equipment. Right now, the app supports Spotify natively, but there are many other streaming services expected to be added later. AllPlay technology, also supported by Musaic, provides compatibility with an emerging set of music sources.

The Pitch. With one of the more slickly-produced Kickstarter videos in recent memory, Fon CEO Martin Varsavsky and his team take viewers through Fon as a Wi-Fi hotspot company and how the idea of turning hotspots into music players led to the development of Gramofon. The entire campaign smacks of the same trendy, simple design that the device itself supports, and the confidence the developers have in the product will likely carry over to those supporting it. Gramofon needs $250,000 to start the party, increasing the number of support services, finalize the design, and go into production.

The Perks.  Getting a Gramofon will take a pledge of $50 for black, or $60 for white. Both products are expected to arrive in July.

The Potential. Devices like these are starting to crop up, combining the ease of having thousands of songs streaming from any device with the enjoyment of sounds through proper audio output channels. The modern design is similar to the Aether Cone, but the Gramofon really only provides the phone connectivity – more pieces required, but a better sense of control. Also similar is Apple’s Airport Express, but this device only handles music instead of full network sharing like the Airport, although that device has become a bit more streaming-friendly with the launch of iTunes Radio. Fon is also promising backers will get full free access to their millions of hotspots by supporting the Gramofon, so that can be an added incentive to pledge. All in all, the Gramofon is an inexpensive option that offers the quirky benefit of joining into a Wi-Fi-sharing network further along in Europe, but those who want a device that does more won’t yet be satisfied with what this product has to offer.

Categories
Music Wearables

Streamz headphones kick out streaming jams without the smartphone

streamzWhether on the commute to work or while doing chores around the house, listening to music on a good set of headphones seems to make the world a better place. It can be relatively cumbersome, however, to keep headphones handy and use a smartphone music player or app to get to those favorite tracks. The Streamz smart headphones have an Android processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, enabling it to function as the music player itself, even for streaming services such as Pandora. While there have been other music players built into even lighter weight (albeit non-networked) headphones, Streamz features navigation buttons on the side of the earcup, as well as intended voice control integration, Streamz allows users to get great sound quality and waste no time in setup. The basic 4GB model is available in August to backers who pledge $299.

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Connected Objects Music

Aether Cone smart speaker trades control for couture

The Premise. Without a full-home wireless sound system, listening to a variety of streaming music personalized to each listener’s taste requires a lot of bulky transportation and set-up. Between the device that can connect to streaming audio and the kind of speakers necessary to fully enjoy the music, the process is cumbersome at best.

The Product. The Aether Cone is a minimalist but powerful artificial jukebox of sorts. It can wirelessly connect to streaming music, internet radio, and even podcasts for up to 8 hours. By turning the outer dial, the speaker turns on and begins streaming music. The center of the speaker can be tapped to pause, or held to ask for something specific. Adventurous listeners can spin the dial again like a radio to find suggestions of a different genre. The device is extremely light and portable and boasts dual tweeters, a 3” woofer, and a 2.1 20w amplifier.

The Pitch. The full-screen integrated video for Aether’s Cone is slickly produced, pain-stakingly trendy, and explains absolutely nothing. The entire site is like this, with the “How it Works” and “Details” pages offering only the slightest bit more information. It isn’t until the actual product page that viewers learn what it costs, when it will be available, and the technical specs. As of right now, there is no specific funding goal listed on the page, and potential pre-orderers can only put their name on a waiting list for the time being.

The Perks. The Cone is expected to retail at $399, and it is unknown at this time if pre-ordering customers will receive a discount or additional perks. The initial run will ship out in early Summer.

The Potential. Modern and attractive, the Cone is the iPod shuffle of of connected home audio . However, the price seems steep for what it offers. The statement Aether is making about simplicity is clear, but it would be nice to have the capability to tap into playlists so as not to be at the mercy of shuffle, and with support only for devices running iOS 7+ or Mac OSX 10.9+, the user base becomes even further reduced. If music fans already have that kind of tech, they can probably better get by with a high-end Bluetooth speaker that offers the same level of convenience with more direct control and compatibility, albeit maybe not as much style.

Categories
Music Technology

Wily portable boombox releases an Android’s tablet’s inner voice

The Premise. It seems a week doesn’t go by without some company announcing a new portable speaker to tap into the rising tide of inexpensive smart devices such as Android tablets. Those devices today are often bridged using Bluetooth, but it might be more convenient to just have them merged into one.

The Product. The Auris Wily is basically a tablet with built-in sound, enabling it to easily access a wealth of popular audio sources such as Pandora, Spotify and Slacker as well as music stored on its internal flash memory and microSD card. It also has an HDMI connector so you can connect it to a TV and use it to stream video from Netflix, HBO Go or other sources. The curvy speaker even has a few other tricks up its sleeve such as being able to be used as a speakerphone or video chat terminal thanks to an integrated 2 MP front-facing camera. The Wily sports sleek, rounded, futuristic styling, similar to 60’s art-deco furniture; endearing, which is endearing in that tacky Jetsons sort of way. Available in red, white and black, it can also pump the volume thanks to its 90-decibel speakers.

The Pitch. The creators of the Wiley make their case with a video that features high production values, including an orchestral soundtrack and expensive digital transition effects. Detailed pictures of everything from production sketches to user-interface closeups are included and it runs through a detailed list of the products specs.

The Perks. Set to release in June 2014, the Auris Wily will cost early birds $169 for a model with 8 GB of on-board memory, and $188 for 16G. It will be available to backers for $189 for the 8 GB version and $208 for the 16 GB version.

The Potential. Although the Auris Wily logo bears a striking resemblance to that of the “Beats” franchise (Seriously, it looks like they just flipped it over) its design and concept stands out. The Wily comes on the heels of January’s announcement of Vizio’s portable smart audio system, which is heavier (8.8lbs for similar, 7-inch screen option) and has less bass response (60Hz). The Wily could be a fun poolside companion to backers who’d rather keep their smartphones out of the streaming chain this summer.