Hasta La Gadget!

It’s less than a couple of months away from CES 2013 now and brands large and small have already begun war on the media with releases – today’s big news from Soundfreaq contains one heck of a rundown of future sound products. This rundown includes the first lightning speaker docks for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini as well as a set of Dual System Streaming products for futuristic audio action.

This party begins with the Sound Platform 2, continues on with the Sound Rise Lightning, and rolls forward with Sound Step / Sound Step Recharge Lightning. If those names weren’t long enough to get you riled up about the Apple device friendly show about to be brought on by Soundfreaq, perhaps you’d better get a look at the first basic specifications:

Sound Platform 2 takes what the first iteration was and brings on more enhanced bass, high-volume quality, large speaker drivers, Tone Control galore, and UQ3 spacial enhancement. This all comes with dual USB charging ports for whatever you’ve got that’s chargeable via USB, a Universal Device Tray, and connectivity to basically any mobile device you’ve got on hand. You’ve also got a rechargeable battery pack and Bluetooth integration for wireless music action – all of this coming on February 17th, 2013 for $149.99.

Sound Step, Sound Step Recharge, and Sound Rise are all products that’ve been out in the past, but are now going to be offered up with the new Apple lightning connectors for futuristic iPhone 5 / iPad 4 / iPad mini connectivity. Sound Rise is at its heart an alarm clock disguised as an iPhone dock, here with Bluetooth wireless connectivity and USB charging as well. You can also connect with any smart device – Android, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry included – with the USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack – make it yours!

Sound Step Recharge (and the non-recharge Sound Step) are massive beasts of audio magic in a compact size, here now with lightning dock integration. It’s got a rechargeable battery, works with iOS devices as well as every other kind of smart device with USB charging and headphone jack integration, and makes the sound jump with UQ3 spacial sound enhancement!

We’ll see more on final pricing and release dates for these updated units as well as the rest of the Soundfreaq line at CES 2013 – join us in January and stay tuned to SlashGear until them for every single early release, rumor, and hands-on experience!

Soundfreaq brings lightning to CES 2013 in massive audio preview is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When you’re on the go and you need a portable stand, it doesn’t hurt to have one that does more than just act as a stand. The Sonastand was just updated for the new iPhone 5, and it will hold your phone snugly, as well as acting as a passive sound amplifier.

The machined-aluminum Sonastand for iPhone 5 is said to have been improved over its original design. It’s supposed to provide a more stable base and better sound amplification, as a result of the iPhone’s smaller power connector. The Sonastand is available in different sizes to accomodate users who like to use their iPhones naked, with skins or cases.

The Sonastand sells directly from Kinetic Custom Machine for $25 (USD) and it’s a nice gift for anyone with an iPhone.

[via Sonastand]

Recently I picked up a shiny new iPhone 5 and handed down my old Android smartphone to my daughter. She’s too young to really need a smartphone, but it’s nice to be able to know where she is in the neighborhood anytime. She uses it to listen to music all the time. She’s a big music fan and seems to be constantly asking me the name of a song and expects me to know it simply by her humming a few notes or telling me a few keywords from the lyrics.

I’m totally going to load her phone up with the new Rhapsody SongMatch app. The app is able to listen to music playing anywhere and identify the name of the artist, album, and song for you. You can save identified songs as playlists and share the song data with other people.

This isn’t the only app available that can identify music for you – SoundHound and Shazam have been around for quite a while – but Rhapsody’s free app is totally free of annoying ads (other than promoting the Rhapsody brand, of course.) While you don’t need a subscription to Rhapsody to use the app, if you do have a subscription you get extra benefits. You can listen to the track on Rhapsody if it’s available, view the rest of the artist’s catalog, and discover similar artists.

Rhapsody SongMatch is available on the Google Play store right now for download.

Everyone’s favorite music-streaming service, Spotify, announced today it will be overhauling its platform soon to make it easier for its users to discover new content with very little effort. The three new sections Spotify will be rolling out in beta soon, with a full release to all devices planned for early 2013, are called “Discover,” “Collection” and “Follow.”

The Discover section will allow for Spotify users to receive artist recommendations based on their previous listening tastes as well as artists that you follow. The recommendation engine will also show users artists that are touring near them in the near future.

Collection puts all of the users’ music in one place instead of being a group of playlists like it was previously. It will combine recommended music, music you’ve personally added to playlists and music people you follow have shared on the platform.

The last section, Follow, allows users to follow their friends and celebrities like Shakira and Barack Obama. As users populate their follow section with friends and artists they care about, their Discovery section will improve with music their friends and favorite artists enjoy.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Enter Sandman: Metallica Joins Spotify, Philips Announces New Lightning-compatible Speaker Docks In Time For Holidays,

If you’re the guitar playing sort, you may be interested in the new multi-effect pedals from VOX that has just debuted. The pedals are designed for both guitar and bass players and promise powerful sounds in a compact unit. The unit features a metal housing for durability and comes equipped with easy sound selections for a variety of music styles.

The manufacturer says that the multi-effect pedals come with sound selections for rock, blues, or metal players. The new series includes the StompLab 1G that has a dedicated guitar amp and effects modeling. The other model is the StompLab 1B that has a dedicated bass amp and effects modeling.

The series also includes the StompLab 2G and 2B featuring expression pedal that can be used to control wah and volume. The user-friendly panel has 100 preset programs and musical style choices are categorized in 10 types. Effect types include amp, drive, cabinet, modulation, delay, and reverb.

The pedals support eight simultaneous effects. The StompLab 1G comes with 103 effects provided, the 1B includes 60 effects, and the 2G and 2B models feature one additional effect. All of the pedals have an integrated chromatic tuner with three-LED indicator making tuning easy. The 1 series devices sell for $69.99 with the 2 devices selling for $89.99. All of the effects pedals are available now.

VOX unveils new StompLab multi-effect pedals for musicians is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.