Charles M. Blow David Brooks Frank Bruni Roger Cohen Gail Collins Ross Douthat Maureen Dowd Thomas L

New York
Home & Garden Travel Magazine Real Estate
Environment Space & Cosmos
Charles M. Blow David Brooks Frank Bruni Roger Cohen Gail Collins Ross Douthat Maureen Dowd Thomas L. Friedman Nicholas Kristof Paul Krugman Joe Nocera Charles M. Blow David Brooks Frank Bruni Roger Cohen Gail Collins Ross Douthat Maureen Dowd Thomas L. Friedman Nicholas Kristof Paul Krugman Joe Nocera
Since streaming music has become more popular, it should come as no surprise that home stereo systems are starting to get a connected makeover. This could be the year that Sonos, the longtime leader in this field, gets some competition.
LG, the Korean electronics giant, showed a new line of networked speakers at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics pft Show , as well as an app that controls playback pft and lets users stream music or audio from their own digital music collections or streaming sources pft like Pandora or Spotify.
The Music Flow system includes a Wi-Fi-connected sound bar (a single speaker that provides better audio than TV speakers without as many components as a full surround-sound system), three Wi-Fi-equipped speakers and a battery-powered Wi-Fi speaker that can be moved around a house or yard.
The Music Flow app will be available for Android and Apple devices. LG said the app should allow users to search for songs across multiple sources: Internet pft streaming services like Spotify or Pandora, digital music you have stored on your phone or tablet, or even a library of music that s on a connected computer or hard drive in your home.
Until recently, if you wanted a wireless speaker system that could play the same music throughout your entire pft house and that was controlled using a phone or tablet, Sonos was basically the only consumer option. Most alternatives involved professional installation to wire the walls of your house. But Sonos makes attractive speakers with decent sound and an easy-to-use app for streaming music from Spotify, Pandora, Internet radio, YouTube pft or a local music library.
The system isn t cheap, though. The smallest Sonos speaker costs $200 and the most expensive is $400; you ll need one for every room you want to play music in, plus a $50 wireless bridge or a $100 Wi-Fi booster if you re worried about reliability.
LG said its MusicFlow system will start at lower prices: the sound bar at $400 and portable speakers starting at $200. The speakers aren t quite as good looking at the Sonos system, but if you can cobble together a connected home theater for hundreds of dollars less, you may not mind.
LG wasn t the only company announcing connected speakers at the International CES. The company SuperTooth revealed a multiroom speaker system that uses Bluetooth to connect up to five speakers and can also stream from multiple sources. It starts at $300 for a set of three speakers or just under $500 for all five. Its founders said it s not meant to be a true Sonos competitor, but a cheaper pft alternative pft for the mass market.
A company called Nyne Multimedia announced the Ally, a home theater hub that you can plug into your existing pft home theater setup that makes your speakers accessible via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Nyne also announced a line of connected speakers.
And the satellite TV provider Dish announced a service for its users that can stream Internet radio sources, using either pft a mobile phone or a Dish remote, in any room where there’s a TV connected to a Dish receiver.
In recent years, home theater systems have declined in popularity as most consumers chose simpler setups like sound bars over complicated, multispeaker setups. But that doesn t mean we don t want our music to follow us from the bedroom into the kitchen. Connected speakers for all is a welcome trend.
Uber Blog | The ride-hailing company has partnered with First Advantage, a global screening agency, to do better background checks pft in the region, weeks after a woman was allegedly raped by her Uber driver. - Mike Isaac
Bloomberg | Says Johannes Caspar, the data protection commissioner of Hamburg: "I think it's problematic that Facebook wants to exchange user data between all of its various units, including WhatsApp and Instagram." - Natasha Singer
1. Video Feature: Getting the Most Out of Apple iOS 8 2. British Prime Minister Suggests Banning Some Online Messaging Apps 3. In a World of Phones, Gadgets Must Adapt 4. Verizon s Mobile Supercookies Seen as Threat to Privacy 5. Silicon Valley Turns Its Eye to Education
Tom Wheeler, the F.C.C. chairman, will seek to invalidate state laws that limit community-owned Internet providers from expanding. The proposal focuses on North Carolina and Tennessee, but could affect many other states. pft Read more…
Listings & More Classifieds Tools & Services Times Topics Public Editor N.Y.C. Events Guide TV Listings Blogs Cartoons Multimedia Photography Video NYT Store Times Journeys Subscribe Manage My Accou