Streaming Music

Microsoft isn't the only company looking to conquer the living room with a streaming music service this month. Rhapsody has been quite prolific, developing apps for just about every mobile device ecosystem one can think of, but now the company is looking to engage consumers in their living rooms. Rhapsody has announced that their music app is now available for Smart TVs from Panasonic, LG, and Samsung, with Sharp and the Xbox 360 to come later. This is an unusually diverse mix of Smart TV platforms to launch on simultaneously, so one would assume that the app is pretty similar across the board, but it probably won't mirror the online and mobile device experiences, but will instead serve to complement those experiences. It sounds like the Smart TV version of Rhapsody will be focused more on the company's streaming and subscription service rather than on purchasing individual tracks in the music store. This includes highlighting a radio version of the Rhapsody service that selects songs and editor-curated playlists based on music preferences, a move that suggests that Rhapsody isn't content competing with Spotify and wants to take on Pandora on its turf as well.

Rhapsody's music service is turning your living room into a jukebox, announcing today that its music app is now available on LG, Panasonic, and Samsung Smart TVs.

Though the company provided few details about what the Rhapsody TV app will entail, it said that the technology has been optimized for convenience, fast playback, and a rich visual interface maximized by high-definition displays.

PC Magazine

--Press Release After the Break--

About a month ago, Logitech announced its first lineup of Ultimate Ears products since buying the company. Although Ultimate Ears is best known for its earphones, the product announcement was dominated by Bluetooth speakers and a curious little radio that looked suspiciously like the Squeezebox Radio. As it turned out, it was the Squeezebox Radio, rebranded under Logitech's new Logitech UE label and attached to a new UE online service and controller software. Left unspoken at the time was that Squeezebox was dead. With the advent of systems like DLNA and Airplay and the growing capabilities of mobile devices, there is not as much demand for multi-room music systems capable of tapping into local and Internet music streams, but Sonos and Squeezebox had seemed to carve out pretty solid niches for themselves in recent years by hopping on the mobile app bandwagon and integrating the right collection of online music services. The Squeezebox Server software had also established itself as a popular addition for home servers and consumer-level NAS devices.

The demise of the Squeezebox brand was unexpected and created a great deal of consternation in the community that Logitech might prematurely disrupt the Squeezebox ecosystem by discontinuing support and closing down mysqueezebox.com, the website that powers the online services for Squeezebox devices. A representative from Logitech UE recently took to the Logitech company blog to reassure current Squeezebox owners that Logitech UE does plan to contine to offer active support and troubleshooting for Squeezebox devices, that mysqueezebox.com will continue to operate, and that Squeezebox Server and it UE replacement are able to run alongside each for a mixed environment. She also reiterated plans to allow Squeezebox Radio owners to update their devices to become UE Smart Radios in the future if they choose to do so. The post seems to be about a month late and fails to address some of the issues that the Squeezebox community is concerned about, particularly the need to have Internet access for local network streaming, so it will be interesting to see if Logitech can assuage the concerns of Squeezebox fans and convert them to become UE evangelists down the road.

Hello Squeezebox Fans,

I’m Ariel, director of products for Logitech UE, and I’d like to take a moment to provide some additional explanation about our transition from Logitech Squeezebox to Logitech UE Smart Radio.

First, we want you to know that Logitech values you, and we will actively support the service in its current form, so you can continue to enjoy the Squeezebox experience you love.

Logitech Blog

Google made a number of announcements at Google I/O this year, but the most surprising was probably the announcement of the Nexus Q. The Nexus Q was the strange, little orb-shaped media streamer. The size and shape were unusual, but the surprising part was that the Nexus Q is not a Google TV device, but is instead positioned as a completely new type of streamer. With its built-in 25 watt amplifier, the Nexus Q seems specifically geared toward music streaming, but it also sports an HDMI output for streaming movies and shows purchased through Google Play or for accessing YouTube. The real purpose of the Nexus Q is to to focus attention on Google Play and the media and apps that Google is pushing. To go all SAT on you, it would seem that Google intends for the Nexus Q to be to the Apple TV as Google TV is to the Roku, but unfortunately Apple is a couple generations ahead with the Apple TV and has already seen the wisdom of opening up to at least some third party providers such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.

Google’s Nexus Q wants to compete with Sonos and beam music from the cloud to your speakers. It also plays YouTube and Google Play movies and TV shows – but is it worth $299?

GigaOm

Of the three major console manufacturers, Microsoft is the Johnny-come-lately, but somehow the company has managed to stake out the first slot on the first day of E3 for their keynote over the last few years. For this year's keynote, all ears were perked lest Microsoft let a detail slip about the Xbox 360's successor. In the end, no details slipped and Microsoft showed off a solid line-up of hardcore and casual games, all backed by a big bet on Kinect, but `round these parts, the most interesting announcements related to how Microsoft plans to continue to push the Xbox 360 as the living room media hub.

The big news on this front was Xbox SmartGlass. Details first started leaking a couple of days before E3, but no one was exactly sure what to expect until Microsoft took the wraps off of Xbox SmartGlass on stage. Xbox SmartGlass is an app that will be available on Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android devices this fall that offers Xbox remote control, media hand-off and play-to functions, and supplemental experiences for games and media. The first two functions appear to be a refined and slightly enhanced version of what the Xbox Companion App currently provides, except cross-platform. It's the last feature that offers the most intriguing opportunities for the future. During the keynote, Microsoft demonstrated an example of the Xbox playing back an episode of Game of Thrones while, on a tablet, Xbox SmartGlass showed a map of the character's off-screen journey through the realm, as well as an example of the Xbox playing Halo 4 while Xbox SmartGlass was displaying Halo WayPoint updates on a mobile device.

While gaming pundits seem to be quick to characterize Xbox SmartGlass as a response to the Wii U GamePad's auxiliary screen functionality for gaming, this is only part of what Xbox SmartGlass brings to the table. The real target here actually appears to be Apple. With the Xbox, Kinect and Xbox SmartGlass, Microsoft is positioned to offer the streaming media functionality of the Apple TV, Siri-like interaction with the home theater and a credible Apple AirPlay competitor, all wrapped up in a high-quality video gaming system and support for your choice of mobile devices, including ones you probably already own. The ribbon on the package was the announcement that Internet Explorer is also coming to the Xbox and that Xbox SmartGlass will offer an option for controlling the experience in lieu of a mouse and keyboard.