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GigaOM has a neat feature on Slim Devices, makers of the amazing Squeezebox network audio-client. founded by then 21 year old Sean Adams in 2001, Slim Devices is about to close $10mio of sales this year - with a mere staff of 30 employees and all expertise from product development to assembly and marketing in-house. Liz Gannes visited Slim Devices hew headquarters, portraying the hardware-startup with the notably open approach towards its user-community.

flashback: earlier this year, Slim Devices announced their new product Transporter to launch, with a pricetag of $2.000 USD clearly aimed at the hifi-enthusiast. if you want to go in-depth, check out my review of the Squeezebox and other network audio-players.

I just tried out an in-world text-to-speech (tts) synthesizer built by Christian Westbrook from the Electric Sheep Company. the prototype (which can be publicly tried out at Christian’s house) basically translates every message on public chat (=channel #0) into synthesized speech. the resultig audio-sample is streamed to the parcel almost in real-time and can be received by all avatars in presence. the current prototype seems to have problems with simultaneous speeches by several avatars, leading to cut-up samples. due to SecondLife’s audio-architecture, Christian’s script probably won’t work on-the-go, but only connected to particular land (afaik internet audio-streaming is only supported on parcels). still, integrate a decent cross-language translator and - voila - get a cool audio-Babelfish…amazing!

Slim Devices, well known among digital audio-freaks for its open-source based streaming player Squeezebox, just announced their brandnew high-end product Transporter.

while the Transporter is similar to its little brother in many aspects (WiFi & Ethernet, playback-support for mp3, WMA, Ogg, Flac, AAC & Wave, based on extensible Slim Server software), its easily distinguished by many features targeted at the ambitious audiophile:

• 17″ form-factor fitting into your hifi-rack
• 640×32 pixel display
• backlit remote-control
• ‘TransNav’ controller-wheel, using dynamic tactile feedback for fast access to your whole library
• high-quality digital/analog converter AKM AK4396 promising bit-perfect accuracy
• tons of quality output-connectors (gold-plated RCA, XLR & BNC-connector with independent gain-control, AES/EBU, TOSLINK, S/PDIF)

since the Slim Server-software is quite superior to most competitors’ offerings (see my review at PLAY.FM for more details), a hifi-version of the Squeezebox is appealing and will surely find its audience. since it won’t ship before september 18, there is no definite price-tag yet. however, the pre-order bundle containing a Squeezebox (single unit for 300,- USD) and a Transporter for 2.000,- USD emphasizes the device’s high-end claim.

according to TechCrunch, Microsoft announced Zune, their new take on digital music, media & entertainment, earlier today. while the official Billboard-article is currently offline and microsoft.com doesn’t lose any words on it yet, there are two microsofties from the Zune-team blogging about the project: Cesar Mendendez on ZuneInsider.com and Richard Winn on his Madison & Pine blog. the official product-site is located at comingzune.com.

Zune is expected to be a holistic approach on digital media, designed to challenge Apple’s dominant combination of iPod, iTunes and iTMS in every aspect. according to engadget, Microsoft is expected to release the first Zune-media-player later this year. the device is supposed to integrate wireless-capabilities and a 30-60 gbyte harddrive within a form-factor to the iPod. suprisingly, the new Zune media service won’t be compatible with Microsoft’s current Plays-for-sure brand.

I just finished my review of the Sonos Digital Music System for PLAY.FM - definitely the most amazing network audio player I’ve reviewed so far. the Sonos is a modular multi-room-system, streaming all sorts of audio-data from a PC/Mac or any SMB-fileshare (f.e. a fileserver or a stand-alone NAS-box) to a home stereo or (in case of the ZP100) any pair of speakers. A Sonos setup can connect up to 32 receivers  (think of one ‘ZonePlayer’ for every room of your apartment/house) which are managed by a neat handheld-controller. the controller features a crisp 3.5″ color-LCD and an iPod-like click-wheel - a great tool to navigate large media-collections. I’ve tried other systems like the Squeezebox or the Terratec Noxon before, and while both offer basically the same functionality, it just isn’t fun to browse through thousands of mp3s with a simple plastic-remote control and a tiny display you can’t decipher when being away more than 2 meters from the device. of course, all that shiny technology has its price: a basic setup for streaming music to one room costs about 800,- USD, additional receiver-units go for 350,- USD (ZP80, hooking up to an existing stereo-amplifier) and 500,- USD (ZP100, integrated amplifier).

since I’m going to move into a 2floor-apartment by august, I’m thinking about getting a basic setup…if my budget isn’t eaten up by the move, that is

update: while the Sonos is a great product, I think there is still room for improvements. primarily, I’ld love to see Sonos open up APIs to the controller unit. since the system seems to be based on linux, I’m sure a great number of innovative extensions would pop up soon. if you don’t believe me, just check the directory of available Squeezebox-plugins. moreover I hope it’s just a matter of time until Sonos integrates video-capabilities into their devices. I think of a ZonePlayer connected to my TV (maybe even HD-TV) or video-projector, streaming video-data (divx, mpeg2…) from a central file-storage. now that’ld be cool…

customers of Real Networks’ Rhapsody music subscription-service can now integrate audio-content from Rhapsody with Slim Device’s Squeezebox (a fine network music player I reviewed for PLAY.FM). depending on the type of Rhapsody-account, users may only consume Rhapsody-Radio (free accounts) or access all their playlists and full-albums (unlimited accounts). either way, Rhapsodys back-catalog of 2mio. songs can’t be browsed on the Squeezebox directly, but can only be accessed through the Rhapsody Jukebox-software (currently only available for Windows XP). unlike the integration of Pandora earlier this year, content from Rhapsody is streamed through the SlimServer-software, which basically means that this only works when the PC remains turned on. one last limitation: due to licensing-issues, Rhapsody is only available to US-customers.

the death of my ipod (4G, about 1.5 year old, refurbished by Apple only a few months ago) seems to be only a matter of days. since weeks it’s crashing while playback almost on a daily basis. since yesterday the device isn’t recognized anymore when plugged into the dock. I’ll try to remove the rockbox-BIOS, update the firmware and format the harddisk later today, but I guess it’s time to move on…

besides adding video-capabilities (at least to some degree), digital media players seem to stagnate since 2 years. innovation is happening only incremental. according to Steve Jobs, a new iPod should be just around the corner. a microsoft-manufactured media player is rumored to appear soon too. I’ll probably try to revive my old ipod until the major players push out new products… here are some features I’ld like to see in my future player:

• gap-less playback of audio-tracks: when listening to ripped albums, the ipod (and most other players I’ve tried) inserts a very short gap when roaming from one track to the next (mabye <0.5 second). most people won't even notice, but I know two groups of users who get the creeps about that behaviour: lovers of classical- and electronic-music. (I belong to the latter, so I sort of know what I talk about). in both cases, music is presented as a steady stream (i.e. DJ-mix) without any silence between tracks (or parts of the symphony etc.). eliminating this unwanted interruption of music will immediately own the hearts of hardcore-music-lovers to the manufacturer who solves this issue.
• direct recording: this is a feature for fans of live-music, DJs, Bands or solo-musicians: they all’ld love a simple device which records 5 or more hours straight away. hard- & software-requirements should be easy: proper A/D-converters, line-in, recording both lossless and mp3. yeah, I could use an iKey to record to my iPod - but carrying around two devices, cable and power-adaptors - hmm, no. other products (f.e. iRiver) can record but are artificially limited to 2 hours recording-time (thats why pro-users try out alternate software like rockbox or ipodlinux).
• wireless connectivity: to kickstart the next generation of portable digital media players, wireless connectivity is a must. automatic sync of fresh podcasts whenever your player comes in range of an open WiFi-hotspot. wireless upstream from your player to your friends’ WiFi-enabled hifi-stereo (think Apple AirPort). and probably most appealing: wireless sharing of tracks with friends or even the unknown guy on the tube who looks like he’s into electro-punk ;).
  three requirements: it better has to be based on standard WiFi, it has to treat battery life with care, and it has to work independently from digital music stores (the wireless Music Gremlin misses on 2/3 ). agreed, Apple probably can’t enable free sharing without cutting their own profit and scaring off the labels. but here’s an idea: why not let iTunes-customers be your mobile sales-force? integrate wireless sharing with ITMS and smart DRM. lets say I beam my favorite tracks to my friends player. the next time he connects to ITMS he is billed for the music - at the very same time I get a 10% revenue-split credited on my account. of course, your DRM better has to be solid…
• better manufacturing: this is aimed at Apple - please, improve quality of production. at least 50% of my friends who are using an iPod intensely (like, daily) face hardware-defects after about one year of usage. for a 400 EUR-device, this is ridiculous.

Update: the harddisk-format has helped - at least the iPod is recognized by iTunes again

preview 0.0.1 of Elisa - an opensource media-center developed by fluendo - was just released yesterday. Elisa currently offers a basic feature-set - playback of audio, photos and video using the GStreamer multimedia framwork, support for infrared remote-controls and support for DLNA-compliant upnp-devices. integration of TV-adapters and PVR-functionality (personal [digital] video recorder is planned but not implemented yet. the most shining aspect of Elisa is its (her?) beautiful 3D-styled user-interface, which can be watched in action on this screencast (Java required).

while Elisa is under development, I recommend checking out MythTV (Linux) or MediaPortal (Windows), both being established and well-supported opensource PVR/media center-solutions.

I just finished my third review on network-music-players for PLAY.FM. so far I’ve examined the Terratec Noxon Audio 2, the SlimDevices SqueezeBox and the Roku/Pinnacle SoundBridge. while the noxon and the soundbridge are mediocre devices which basically just fulfill the minimal requirements, the squeezebox stands out with it’s opensource server-software and impressive extensibility. here are the links to my past reviews:

Terratec Noxon Audio 2

SlimDevices SqueezeBox

Roku/Pinnacle SoundBridge M1001 (click to win the review-unit!)

if everything goes o.k., I’ll receive the Sonos Digital Music System next week. having read many positive things about it, plus considering the high price-tag, I’m quite excited getting this one under the lens.