At first glance, it seems to be just a normal CD player and amp, albeit with an iPod dock on top of it – but that in itself is nothing unusual. Scratch under the surface, though, and you’ll find a surprising list of connectivity features that make the RCD-N7 one of the most connected hi-fi systems you can get your hands on – and as it’s from Denon, you can bet the sound’s extremely impressive as well.

The Denon RCD-N7 features

OK, so what’s so special about the RCD-N7? Well, in addition to its traditional role of being a CD player, it’s also got a 65W amp, an iPod dock, a USB input for plugging your MP3 players into it, a radio, and support for a wide range of audio formats, including FLAC.

And then it has something just a little bit special.

Like built-in Wi-Fi, DLNA, and support for Windows Media Player version 11, Apple AirPlay and Internet Radio.

What this means is that you can stream your tunes directly from your PC, Mac, iPhone and iTunes, and have the tunes played through the RCD-N7′s crystal clear audio circuits, before being pumped out by its beefy amp.

Better still, you can download an app for your iPhone or iPod that controls the RCD-N7 remotely, letting you use your iPhone or iPod as a remote control.

In short, the Denon RCD-N7 is what all small hi-fi units should have been for the past five years! Happily, Denon at least have caught on, and so hopefully this will be the start of an increasing number of ultra-connected, socially aware Hi-Fi systems.

[Source: Akihabara News]

Microsoft made the strange decision a while ago to keep the Zune family stateside, but now, after being on sale in the US for over a year, the Zune is finally on its way to the UK.

Zunes have always faired well in the area that counts for mobile music devices – sound quality – and the Zune HD adds some lush hardware to this with a 480×272 16:9 3.3″ OLED screen powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor, WiFi, accelerometer and 720p output via a HDMI dock, all wrapped in a shell Apple would be proud of.

Is the Zune HD an iPod killer?

Indeed the Zune could now be seen as Microsoft’s iPod Touch to Windows Phone 7′s iPhone, more so with Zune forming the media playing arm of WP7. The Zune tagline – “Welcome to the Social” – rings true with its ability to run apps from Facebook, Twitter, MSN and even a web browser, plus Zune games like Xbox favourites Project Gotham and Hexic.

The Zune HD is a great device, the rare embodiment of Microsoft getting things right for once, and offers excellent integration with that other rare MS home run, Windows 7. It’s really attractive from the hardware to the software and will certainly turn heads, so keep an eye out for it before Xmas going up against the likes of the new iPod Touch and the cute Archos 28 mini Android tablet.

[Source: The Inquirer]

Let’s take a more detailed look…

Google Music Locker

Yes this is your music in the cloud, and here you can put the music you have purchased from the Google music store.

Additionally you may also be able to store tracks from your hard drive that Google has licence for, even if you’ve obtained them from another retailer (such as iTunes or Amazon) or other alternative ways, such as your own CDs and…well, you get the picture. These would then appear in your Google music library available for stream or download.

How To Listen

Google is obviously going to put the Google Music service into heavy use on its own platforms, and none comes bigger than the soon-to-be world’s most used mobile OS, Android. You’ll be able to stream direct from your handset or download for those areas with less than capable signals.

There is also likely to be a Web-based player (let’s wait and see if it’ll have Adobe technology) so if you can browse to a page anywhere – you can listen. A boon to listen to your tracks when not at home, especially if the browser becomes integrated into devices like the Sonos music system, Revo’s Axis or even Web-aware TVs like Samsung’s UE40C8000.

Full Song Previews and Social Interaction

If you are a big fan of strokey-beard noodling jazz odysseys, you’ll know that a measly 30 seconds is not going to show the squawking genius of Miles to a non-believer. No, you want them to be wrapped up in Bitches Brew for the full 27-odd minutes to appreciate it – and Google hears your plea.

The service aims to offer a full track preview to listeners – just the once mind, so while you can listen to every track on it once, you still need to buy the album to listen to it again. What this means socially is you will be able to recommend a track, album or even playlist to a friend and they can check it out and get to judge each song on its full merits.

This puts the service somewhere between Apple’s Ping and Spotify, and could prove to be the 21st century mixtape.

At the moment, the whole service is shrouded in mystery and nothing has been confirmed. Billboard say that no favours have been made to Google in terms of pricing, with digital albums still costing $7 wholesale, with tracks at 70 cents average.

We’ll wait and see if the vast coffers of the big G will take a hit to get the service off the ground, but if nothing else it’ll give the legions of Android users present and future an excellent integrated music service that will bring devices like the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC’s forthcoming Desire HD into the ‘cool’ arena, and won’t leave their owners longing for Apple’s behemoth.
[Source: BIllboard]

The main parts of the system are the rumoured iTunes-like music store for the usual preview and buying of digital music – not much new here. The other, clever part though is the idea of a cloud-based ‘digital locker’ for your other music.

Here you can upload tracks you already have and listen to them combined with your Google Music purchases anywhere you can gain access to the service. One of these places with most certainly be via an Android device, with this being the first cloud based service with user uploading – potentially extremely popular.

Apple could certainly replicate this, and to some degree will when it puts LaLa to work with streaming media, but it would go against their locked-in ethos and would require a large revamp of iTunes to accommodate uploading tracks to a user’s space.

Of course, Google’s reach is far further than Android, so we can expect to see this system on the various means of social interaction with Google (music recommendations through Buzz or screensavers while playing from Flickr for example or maybe even playing youtube as a part of your Google Music playlists), plus devices like the forthcoming Google TV will bring it into the front room.

Apple has had it quite easy for a while, with any challenges to their successful brands often falling by the wayside. But, as Android shows, when Google put their minds and their dollars to something, they can easily match the Infinity Loop inhabitants. I certainly wouldn’t want to be their rivals.

All this is controlled through the dedicated Sonos touchscreen control, or if you want to put some money towards some cool speakers, then there’s free iPad, iPod, Mac and PC apps too.

Now Spotify has been added to Sonos, it really is a fantastic way to listen to practically any tune you can imagine (well, as long as it’s not The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or, oddly, King Crimson, nne of which are available on Spotify). I live in a small flat but even I want one!

Sonos isn’t a cheap option, but its combination of great quality sound, wireless freedom, and now an unlimited range of tunes to listen is pretty unbeatable for the audiophiles amongst you.

However, the plans for world domination don’t stop there. Sony will go on to release the service onto “networked Sony devices”, so this may include the PSP, Sony Ericsson handsets and even Vaio laptops (or possibly tablets, take the hint Sony – take the hint).

It’ll be a streamed service as items such as Bravia TVs have no writeable memory, although it may also be the case the downloading may be offered for phones and consoles. Films will come from such movie houses as MGM, Lionsgate, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Sony (obviously).

No prices but it appears to be initially rental based. Let’s hope they get it together properly and offer trailers for all films, not just the few we see randomly added on the Playstation Network.

[Source: Engadget ]

Well Apple think you do, and like a giant hypnotoad they will make you want to by introducing Ping into iTunes 10. In essence Ping adds all this social interactivity to your iTunes / iPod / iPhone/iPad, making it a kind of Twitter for music that Apple hope will help you “discover” (i.e. buy) more music.

It works by updating when you do something in iTunes (or a player on an iOS device), be it buying a track, reviewing an album or simply listening to something. People can then comment or like this action – very Facebook.

You can also be ‘followed’, much like in the Twitter sense, so people who feel you have an impeccable taste in music when you follow Slayer with Vera Lynn can track your Ping movements and “discover” (yes, Apple still means buy) tracks you listen to.

You can post tracks as suggestions for others – a kind of “what do you think of this?” noticeboard – and you can also follow artists with a certain degree of social interactivity coming from them in return, including posts and pictures.

There’s a lot of scope here and to be fair to Apple, it’s a decently implemented social networking system, albeit one piggybacking on iTunes and iOS players. It’s success, though, will depend on how easy it is to use and, crucially, maintain.

There’s no mention of any integration with the established social networks like Facebook and Twitter and certainly we won’t be seeing it outside of Apple circles but it’s a brave move to enter the social arena. Even the giants fall (MySpace) but Apple certainly has the audience and financial clout to make this work.

Want to get in on Ping? You’ll need iTunes 10 from Apple, and on the move you’ll need an iOS 4 device, so that’s at least an iPhone 3G, an iPod touch second generation, or the iPad.

What is Last.FM?

Last.FM is an intelligent radio station that tailors itself to your musical tastes by examnining your mp3 collection. Using the oddly named system of ‘scrobbling’, every track you play though a supported media player (such as Windows Media Player) is logged and sent to Last.FM to build up a picture of what you like.


Then you select your ‘channel’ and you’ll hear a stream of tracks that you have scrobbled, plus new ones the system thinks you will like. If you don’t like one, you can tell it so and it’ll further tailor your taste. You can also select the easier way of putting in an artist’s name and the system will stream tracks it thinks relate to that artist.

For example, put in Depeche Mode and you may also get Yazoo and Nine Inch Nails in the stream. All very clever and all very free for the basic package, and there is a £3 per month premium package with extra features for those wanting more customisation and additional use with media streamers.

In addition, there are thousands of “radio stations” based on a particular artist that feature tunes that are similar in style and genre to that artist’s music. Again you can tell the system which particular tunes you love, helping it to build up an even more complete picture of the tunes you like.

The end result is a continual stream of tunes that focus more and more on your musical tastes, and all without having to do any kind of searching yourself. The more the system knows what you like, the more it can pick the tunes for you, until you get an Internet Radio that’s absolutely perfect just for you.

Getting Last.Fm in your Living Room

All this is great when you’re at your PC or using Last.FM through a phone app (yep, you can do that too!), but let’s face it: good music deserves a proper sound system.

So how can you get Last.FM into the living room? With the following five devices, each of which will hook straight into your stereo or home cinema system, so your bass can kick and your guitars can rip!

1. Revo AXiS

Like a space age lunchbox, Revo’s top of the line Revo Axis is a radio for the 21st century.

Part DAB radio, part iPod dock and part touchscreen media centre, the AXiS is certainly a one stop shop for all your digital audio needs. The AXiS boasts a touchscreen interface controlling the internet radio, the DAB radio and for the old school it also has FM radio too. It has wireless media streaming from a Mac or PC (including artwork) and hooks into Last.FM, allowing you to choose an artist or band and the AXiS will stream a unique station tailored to the listener.

It’s no sonic slouch on it’s own either, with NXT’s ‘Balanced Radiator’ speakers and a class D amp but you can still hook it up to a big system for an even bigger sound. Revo have been doing this sort of thing for years with great success, and come October 1st, when the AXiS is launched, they’re success is sure to continue.

Best for: The music-loving gadget fiend who wants a cutting edge design and great sound, but without the price tag.
See more details and check prices of the Revo AXiS

2. Logitech Squeezebox Touch

One of the original music streaming systems, Logitech’s Squeezebox has evolved into the touch generation with the release of its Logitech Squeezebox Touch.

Unlike the AXiS above, the Touch is designed from the ground up to be connected to a larger system, as it has no speakers or amplification of its own. Looking like a very sleek digital photo frame, the Touch is, as the name suggests, a touchscreen device using Logitech’s dead simple Squeezebox interface.


Taking more than a few cues from the original iPod interface, the Touch’s interface is simple and intuitive to operate and connects not only to your mp3 collection but to internet radios and the all important Last.FM. It’s very snappy and smooth to operate (although those with a large collection may experience some occasional jerky scrolling of titles) and the unit has a capacitive screen – far more elegant than a resistive solution.

Of course, you can use the supplied remote too for use at a distance, and cleverly it puts the display into large text so you can read it from over on the sofa. The Touch also has a selection of outputs including digital optical, so if you are lucky enough to own a high end system, you can use its superior DAC instead of the Touch’s own.

You will need a PC or Mac to stream music from using the proprietary SqueezeServer software but coming in at a shade under £250, the Squeezebox Touch is a keenly priced device that looks good and works great, and with Last.FM, it boasts a never ending supply of music.

Best for: The musical perfectionist, looking to mix the range of tunes from Last.FM with the audio quality of their existing Hi-Fi
More details and check prices on the Logitech Squeezebox

3. Sonos Bundle

Like the Squeezebox Touch, the Sonos system is a wireless streaming system. However, unlike the Touch it doesn’t require a PC or Mac.


The Sonos system is a high end audiophile product that can stream music to any room in your house and comes with a 15″ touchscreen server. You can also add powered or unpowered satellite devices to bring the music to other rooms, all controllable from the very cool CR200 capacitive touchscreen remote control. You can also control the system with an iPhone or an iPad, with each having their own separate app for full control and interactivity.

Not only is the Sonos an extremely elegant audio solution but it also seamlessly integates Last.FM into your playback. It’s the same idea as the desktop versions – select an artist and it’ll find similar tracks. It also scrobbles your own music so over time it builds a picture of your tastes, so when you can pick what to listen to, let the Last.FM feature read your mind!

As the remote has a full colour 640×480 display, you can also access Last.FM’s artists biographies and even if they are touring nearby. You can also see what others who share your taste in music are listening to, broadening your horizons.

The Sonos package is a serious bit of kit but not only does it play back music superbly, it’s very impressive to use. From the large 15″ display of the main server to the lavish remote control, the Sonos system screams quality.

Best for: The Audiophile sound-smith, for whom nothing but total quality will do (irrespective of price!)
More details and check prices on the Sonos Bundle

4.Roberts Stream 83i

Roberts seem to be making an art of putting cutting edge technology into classic boxes that look as at home blasting out Test Match Special as they do Interpol or LCD Soundsystem. The Roberts Stream 83i though is their first device to incorporate Last.FM along with a wealth of internet radio stations and both DAB and FM radio.


Stylistically a world away from its peers in this list, it nevertheless still puts out a good sound with its “bass woofer housed in an acoustically tuned cabinet” and it’s simple to operate with the raft of buttons on the front.

Talking of the front, it’s also got a USB input for either an MP3 player (not an iPod) or a memory stick and it’ll happily play music from it. It’ll also pick up uPnP servers too (some other devices like the Squeezebox will only talk to their own servers) which is great to plug and play if you already have something like that set up at home.

While the Stream 83i’s looks are not to everyone’s taste, it offers so many ways to stream music it simply can’t be ignored by anyone looking for a comprehensive playback unit.

Best for: The go-anywhere music person who wants their tunes wherever they are from a gadget that looks great wherever it’s placed.
More details and check prices on the Roberts Stream 83i

The Alternative Choices

5. For Bedroom Rhythms: Revo Domino D3

Ok let’s say you love having Last.FM so much in the living room you want the same in the bedroom but don’t want to have to do the hooking up to a sound system bit. Well how about another box from the makers of the AXiS?


The Revo Domino D3 is a neat little WiFi-enabled sound system with a natty OLED screen and the bonus of an inbuilt iPod dock, all in a deep black or cool white package.

Best of all, it offers Last.FM in a portable format so your carefully scrobbled music that has taken so long to build up can sweetly send you to sleep (or violently wake you up if that is your want!). It is quite small so some may find the little screen difficult to navigate but once set up you just need your ears, and the Domino is generous to them with a good sound from a good source.

Revo have designed another interesting device that certainly catches the eye and gives a wealth of sources in a neat little package.

Best for: those who want the features of the AXiS on a budget
More details and check prices on the Revo Domino

6. For Audio and Visual: Microsoft Xbox 360 S

Did you know you can get Last.FM on the humble Xbox 360? From November 2009, Last.FM has been available to subscribers of the Xbox Live Gold service, and brings the full Last.FM experience to the big screen TV.

Hooking into your Last.FM account, it’ll show you the last stations you listened to on any device including your own, and selecting any will start the stream just like on any other Last.FM client. The screen will then show images of the artist or band playing (which move and change to prevent screen burn), with the full biographies and links to other stations all present.

It’s excellent at parties, really showing a multimedia experience – streamed from the net, displayed on a HDTV and played through a surround sound system. The new slim black 360′s themselves are much quieter and smaller than their older cream forebears, and re-engineered to prevent failure. Coupled with the inbuilt optical or HDMI outputs for digital sound direct to your amplifier,this really could be the time to get a sleek, black 360-shaped media hub for your living room.

How will you listen to Last.FM?

So there you go, some ways to bring the power of music and the power of the internet together, giving it the sound it deserves. With your collection fully scrobbled you can use Last.FM to bring you music anywhere and in great quality. With these devices you can explore its rich features to show you new music you may like or find out if the band you are listening to are touring.

Or you can simply use these Last.FM gadgets to listen to great music and show off a bit when doing so. Never before have we had so many of sources of music and any of these devices will help you get the best sound possible from them.

Go on, turn it up to 11!

I was at a friend’s house the other weekend, who’d suggested we all pile back to his at the end of the night. In the near past (i.e. last year!) this would have involved a dubious CD of his choice and maybe a DVD or video game (depending on our energy levels and co-ordination – in other words, how drunk we were all feeling!)

This time, though, it involved music selected by all of us from Spotify, which never fails to deliver, followed by an hour two spent trawling through the archives of YouTube, which was hooked up to his impressive Samsung HDTV.

Viewing YouTube on an HDTV makes so much more sense than viewing it through a PC. Just seeing it on your telly makes for a much more sociable (not to mention comfortable) experience. It seems so less geeky, and therefore just as valid a piece of evening entertainment as a DVD.

In fact, it was so easy to dip into, it felt natural to everyone watching it – well, as natural as watching Stavros Flatley can be!!

What was intriguing, though, was how everyone came alive once the 3 minute clip had ended. ‘Is Susan Boyle on there?’ asked one deluded friend. She was.

‘I saw a clip on a riduclous wedding’ shouted another as soon as SuBo had finished warbling. A quick search later and up it came, followed in quick order by other ‘amusing’ wedding clips, various clips of car crashes, and the chinese guy who pushed a suicidal man off a bridge because he was holding up rush hour traffic (he survived).

All of this, of course, is familiar to regular YouTubers. What was unfamiliar to us all, though, was the context – someone’s lounge after the pub.

It was immediately familiar, yet much more fun than watching static video or TV. People were sharing their own favourite clips, which we all laughed at or mocked. Each clip was short enough to ensure no-one got bored. And none of it, not a single second, involved terrestrial or satellite TV. If I was a traditional broadcaster, I’d be seriously worried!

What this made me realize (apart from how differently my brain works when drunk if this is what I was thinking about!) is how much the Web is changing the way we entertain ourselves.

YouTube’s been around for three years, now, and HDTV much longer. Mix the two together, though, and you have a brilliant new way of entertaining you and your friends after a merry evening of drunkenness that really is non-geeky!

What I think is missing, though, and where there must be a huge opportunity, is a Spotify for music. The ability to create a playlist of favourite clips that everyone can contribute to, so that you get home and watch what is, effectively, your group’s own personalized TV channel, all selected by members of the group.

This is a huge opportunity for someone. Individual clips are fine, but having a pre-selected channel of group-selected content, chosen before an event before people get too drunk to think, is what the market’s crying out for.

I’m sure something like this must already exist, but if it does, it isn’t exactly heavily promoted. I’ll do some digging and see what I can find.

In the meantime, if you know of a service or Web app that acts like Spotify for video, feel free to add it in the comments below.

Instead, you play a flat rate subscription that gives you unlimited downloads for a year, after which you get to keep the tracks you’ve downloaded, but not download any new tracks unless you take out another subscription.

Seems like a reasonably deal. Unfortunately, as with all things digital music, there’s catch – the tunes you download contain DRM that locks them into the mobile phone or PC you register with the service. In other words, you can keep your tunes for as long as you like, but you can’t transfer them to other devices.

Until now…!

Yes, after just a few months of the service going live, a new application has emerged called TuneBite that extracts all of the DRM from any tunes you’ve downloaded from Nokia’s stores. It works in a similar way to ye olde tape recording of the last century, in which you used something called cassette tapes to record the tunes you or your friends had on vinyl.

TuneBite plays the tune silently in the background (at speeds up to 54x the original) on your PC and re-records the resultant signal to any format you need – without DRM.

So, combining TuneBite with Nokia’s Comes With Music lets you download any tune you want – legally – for a year, and the you can use TuneBite to strip it of its DRM – legally! You’re then free to keep the resultant track forever, and transfer it to any other device you want to listen to it on – legally!

Very nice. The only thing you can’t do, of course, is upload it to a file sharing app, but that goes without saying.

The sooner DRM dies the better, and TuneBite is just one more nail in its coffin!

[Source: TechDigest]