Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Paul Kamp, VP of Business Development at Backbone Networks, notified RAIN that his company has released Backbone Talk, a lightweight solution to taking call-in talk programs out of the studio. Continue Reading
We received a note from London DAB+stream station TeamRock, with a heads-up about a Friday the 13th stunt planned for tomorrow morning. With morning host Stephen Hill on vacation, substitute DJs Moose and JRock plan to hijack the station from its studio location and take it underground. Literally. Continue Reading
Ad management company WideOrbit announced that its Clarity platform, which offers streaming, ad injection, and audience measurement to audio publishers, will be the first distribution partner for Nielsen Audio’s newly developed streaming audience measurement technology. Continue Reading
We saw WiFi speakers dominating the news at CES this year, and the trend shows no sights of abating. Not only are many of the big tech brands getting in on the action, but recently smaller startups have been leveraging crowdfunding to try out their own innovations in that product niche. Continue Reading
Rocki has added Spotify to its roster of supported audio services. Rocki makes a device that plugs into traditional speaker systems and gives them WiFi capability. With the addition of Spotify Connect, owners of the Rocki device can listen to and control their music from within the Spotify mobile app. Continue Reading
Sonos may be planning to open up its API to third-party apps. GigaOm noticed a job posting at the WiFi speaker company seeking a software test engineer to guide projects aimed at “allowing third party music services to easily integrate their apps with Sonos.” Since the job posting only recently appeared, it’s unclear when Sonos might be ready to open the doors to its API. Continue Reading
Automaker Hyundai is planning its 2016 digital dashboards, and issued a press release with some details. The system is called Display Audio, and comes in Google and Apple flavors. It is plug-and-play, where the driver connects a smartphone to the dashboard with a USB cable. The CD player has been eliminated. Continue Reading
In sharing the news of Google Cast from CES, we noted that the tech giant could face an uphill battle getting both streaming audio services and hardware companies to sign on to its vision for at-home listening. Less than a week after the announcement, Google Cast already has a major player that’s not interested: Spotify. Continue Reading
RAIN’s founding editor Kurt Hanson gazes into the new year, and intones 15 predictions for 2015. Continue Reading
Philips announced the launch of multi-room speakers designed specifically to stream music from Spotify. The Philips Spotify speakers use Spotify Connect to control the music from within the Spotify app on a mobile device. Just press the Spotify button on any of the speakers and the stream should immediately transfer over. Continue Reading
Rdio’s many CES announcements add up to a major push into new listening devices both large and small. For starters, the streaming service entered into an exclusive partnership with Bosch to integrate into the mySPIN platform. It also announced new deals to integrate with more smart TVs and WiFi speakers. Continue Reading
Qualcomm AllPlay is refreshing its existing product with a commercial rollout, the company announced at CES. Several new music partners, including SoundCloud and Tidal, will be supported on the wireless streaming service, joining iHeartRadio, Rhapsody/Napster, and SomaFM. Qualcomm is attempting to reduce home-listening silos with this open-source solution to remote streaming. Continue Reading