Donald and Jasmine discuss a new PVP from Cowon with an attractive price point.
Plus, Sonos inadvertently lowers the entry price point for its excellent in-home audio networking system--for those who already own iPhones or the iPod Touch. We interview Sonos co-founder Tom Cullen to get all the details.
Also this week: cute multimedia speakers, an overpriced in-car charger dock, and Jasmine's favorite music gadgets.
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While Jasmine takes a vacation, Donald Bell interviews Pandora Internet radio founder Tim Westergren about the company's future, life after iPhone, and the switch to ad-supported radio streams.
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Episode 107 |
Pandora goes free (and ad-supported) on Logitech Squeezebox--with other devices likely to follow
Is Apple borrowing a page from Sonos?
(Credit: CNET Networks)A report from the MacRumors blog shows supposedly leaked details of Apple's plans to allow the iPhone and iPod Touch to act as an in-home remote control for iTunes. As CNET's News.com reported this morning, the leaked remote control feature was discovered in a developer-only beta release of iTunes 7.7, evidenced in part by this unconfirmed screen shot.
If the rumors are accurate, the new iTunes remote control feature will be offered as a free application for iPhone and iPod Touch users once the iTunes App Store goes live. Presumably, a touch-screen remote control for iTunes could offer some of the same onscreen display and control functions as products like the Sonos music system or Logitech Squeezebox Duet. Unlike the music-subscription-friendly Sonos or Squeezebox systems, however, users of the iTunes remote control application would only have access to content from their iTunes library.
While users of iPhone-optimized Web applications such as iPeng have had similar iTunes remote control functionality for some time now, a one-step Apple-engineered solution would be less convoluted, and perhaps offer as-yet-revealed advantages. For instance, if the remote control feature already solves the problem of wirelessly linking your iPhone or iPod Touch into your home network, what's to stop Apple from finally offering the same type of wireless sync included on the Zune?
Anybody else see some cool potential with an iPhone/iPod in-home remote control?
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Donald Bell is an electronic musician, a veteran record store employee, and a fearless hardware hacker. He's also CNET's Senior Editor for MP3 and digital audio.
Jasmine France is CNET's resident digital audio doyenne, writing and editing product reviews, crave blogs, and feature stories on all things MP3. And if you need advice on headphones, she's your girl.
