Hasta La Gadget!

See anything new in that picture Sonos fans? If you look closely, you’ll spot some new Sonos Wireless Docks on the table. The scene is last night’s GDGT party in Boston. The device is the WD100 that streams the music collection stored on your docked iPod / iPhone throughout your Sonos multi-room music system. Look for it launch at the end of October for $119. With any luck, we’ll be hands-on with it later today. Official press shot after the break.

Continue reading Sonos Wireless Dock for iPod and iPhone launched at GDGT party

Sonos Wireless Dock for iPod and iPhone launched at GDGT party originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems that though just about everybody’s getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab, few know how much it costs, but Australian customers can expect to pay AUD $999 if they’re buying off-contract. Several Australian media organizations are reporting that’s what the seven-inch, 16GB Android 2.2 tablet will cost, when it arrives at the country’s three major phone carriers for a slated November release. Smarthouse points out that the price reveal surprised Australian executives as a comparable iPad 3G 16GB costs just $799, though a Samsung VP told the publication, “we believe this is a fair price.” We’ll just let the market decide on that one, okay?

Samsung Tab priced at $999 in Australian money, ships November originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s holding its developer conference (VDC, for those in the know) this week where it courts software and hardware developers alike to make stuff that works on its airwaves, and one of the bigger pieces of news to come out of it so far has been from Bug Labs. Now, Bug’s not exactly a company we’d expect to be working with Big Red, as CEO Peter Semmelhack notes in his blog post on the matter: “it may come as a surprise to you that a company that is so often vilified for being closed is teaming up with Bug Labs, a company that is defined by its openness.” What changed? Basically, Bug modules are going to serve as pre-certified building blocks for developers, saving little guys with limited budgets the time and expense of going through Verizon’s certification process — you just integrate Bug’s hardware and you automatically inherit its approval. No word yet on when the new modules will be ready or how much they’ll cost, though (we’re still waiting on the new BUGBase to launch). Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Bug Labs to offer pre-certified modules for Verizon’s network

Bug Labs to offer pre-certified modules for Verizon’s network originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Competition is always good and the battle among streaming media players for the consumers’ living room is resulting in some new products and attractive prices.

Roku has announced three new media players that include HD streaming support of up to 1080p and improved connectivity to home entertainment systems.

The three Roku models will be the $60 Roku HD with support for 720p , the $80 Roku XD that includes wireless and 1080p HD, and the $100 Roku XDS that adds dual-band wireless technology.

“Customers can now buy an HD-capable Roku player with wireless for 40 percent less than the price of our original $100 Roku HD player,” says Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku in a statement. “Or, think of it this way: for around the price of two Blu-ray Discs, a Roku player brings you access to limitless instant streaming entertainment choices available.”

Roku’s latest line-up is a response to not just the recently launched $100 Apple TV, but also newer products that are competing for consumer attention.

As more web users turn to web video–watching Hulu, Netflix streaming movies, and episodes of their favorite TV show–companies are trying to find a way to make it easier to pipe that content from the PC to the flat screen TV. Earlier this month, a company called VeeBeam announced a $100 streaming media player that would connect your PC to the TV. Google TV, Google’s streaming media box that aggregates cable TV programming and web video, is expected to launch next month. Even Intel has started integrating streaming media software into some of its chips and laptops.

Roku’s new players will continue to offer shows from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand. It will also include sports from the MLB.TV site, music from Pandora, and photo and video sharing from Flickr and Facebook.

There are some new features. The $60 Roku HD will stream video at up to 720p and has built-in wireless and ethernet for broadband connectivity. The device is also smaller and sleeker. It is about 1 inch tall and less than 5 inches wide. It will come with composite A/V cables and an HDMI port.

The Roku XD and XDS versions will have 1080p HD support and include a feature called ‘Instant Replay’ that lets the viewer instantly skip back in 10 second increments without having to wait for a rebuffering delay.

See Also:

• Veebeam Uses Wireless USB to Stream Media From PC to TV
• Intel Touts ‘WiDi’ for Connecting PCs, TVs
• Google Introduces Google TV, New Android OS
• Google TV Likely to Launch at Best Buy on October 17
• 7 Ways to Watch Web Video Without Google TV

Photo: Roku

It’s an interesting time for Roku — the upstart device company has owned the cheap’n’easy Netflix streaming market since the beginning, and its platform has been getting more and more flexible over time, adding various channels like Amazon Video on Demand, MLB.tv, UFC, and others. But cheap and simple aren’t necessarily good enough anymore, not with the new $99 Apple TV set to launch in just a few weeks — and while Roku already took the preemptive step of slashing prices across the board, it’s following up with some promising new hardware and features. The new Roku HD offers basic 720p streaming capabilities for just $59, the new Roku XD adds 1080p streaming support for $79, and $99 Roku XDS — which we tested — offers 1080p support, a USB port for local media, optical and component outputs, and dual-band WiFi. Apart from the new case, the HD and XD are extremely similar to Roku’s previous offerings, but the XDS is immediately interesting — it offers a number of features absent on Apple’s offering. So does the newest flagship Roku have what it takes to remain our favorite inexpensive streamer? Read on to find out!

Continue reading Roku XDS review

Roku XDS review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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