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Limited edition Sonos Blue Note PLAY:1 celebrates 75 years of jazz

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Music, Videos,

Sonos Blue Note Play:1

Sonos has announced a new, limited edition model of its Play:1 speaker in the Blue Note edition. Produced in collaboration with Blue Note Records, this Play:1 sports a gradient blue hue that strays from the typical white and black shades that Sonos has stuck to over the years. It's a way to commemorate the 75 years that the iconic jazz label has been in business. According to Sonos, painting the Play:1 this unique solor of light blue to navy was no simple task, requiring the use of robots and hand-painting to get the right look. The end result is what you see above. It'll cost you $249, which is a $50 premium over the standard Play:1, but with that you also get access to the exclusive Blue Note on Sonos radio station, with customized playlists from some of the best names in the jazz game. If you want one of the Blue Note Sonos Play:1 units, you'll likely have to act fairly quickly--the company is making only 4,100 of them. They'll be on sale on the Sonos Web site sometimes in the next few weeks.

Click to continue reading Limited edition Sonos Blue Note PLAY:1 celebrates 75 years of jazz

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2014 Holiday Gift Guide: Sonos Playbar

Sonos Playbar

Sonos has earned two spots in our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide, because the Playbar is just so fantastic. Soundbars are typically designed to replace your HDTV's anemic speakers. The Sonos Playbar does that, but but also has a much cooler additional function: It integrates with all the rest of the Sonos multiroom audio system lineup (some of which has already appeared in our Holiday Gift Guide!), streaming music from your Mac, PC, smartphone, and subscription online services. Pair it up with a Sonos SUB and a couple of Play:1 units and you've got a bonafide wireless surround sound system.

You can pick up the Sonos Playbar now from Amazon for $699, and they'll even throw in a free Sonos BRIDGE accessory as well.

Read More | Sonos Playbar

2014 Holiday Gift Guide: Sonos PLAY:1

Sonos Play:1

We're music fans here at Gear Live (seriously, check out the Gear Live Rdio channel!) so we wanna make sure to include great music gadgets in our 2014 Holiday Gift Guide. This year, we're kicking it off with the Sonos PLAY:1. If you're unfamiliar with Sonos, it's basically the best way to get music from just about any location (your computer, your iPhone, the web, the cloud, etc.) to play in any room in your house. It's super intuitive, and even years after using Sonos, the technology still blows us away. The Sonos PLAY:1 is a wireless all-in-one music system that lets you jump right into the Sonos experience. If you have an iOS or Android device, you can download the Sonos remote control app, and you can also control the system with a computer using the Sonos Desktop Controller. Here are some other Sonos products that go nicely with the Sonos PLAY:1, which itself you can get for $199 from Sonos, or order from Amazon and get a free Sonos Bridge included with purchase!

You can use a pair of Play:1, Play:3, or Play:5 units to create wide stereo sound as well!


New U2 album Songs of Innocence available now for free on iTunes

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Hot Deals, Music,

U2 Songs of Innocence free

At the end of Apple’s We Wish We Could Say More event, U2 hit the stage to play their new song “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” for the crowd. At the end of the performance, though, it was announced that U2 had a new album called Songs of Innocence. After a bit of banter that saw Bono telling Tim Cook that he thought it would be cool if Apple distributed the album to all iTunes subscribers, Tim Cook said it was a deal. The end result? Anyone with an Apple iTunes account gets a copy of Songs of Innocence completely free. Even better, you don’t even have to redeem the offer. If you have an iTunes account, you’ll find that the album has already been placed in your account under Purchases.

The offer is available in 119 countries for iTunes and Beats Music users until October 13th, when the album will be sold for a fee, and show up in other stores as well.


Giveaway: Jawbone mini Jambox, UP24, Bodyguardz!

Jawbone mini Jambox, UP24 giveaway

It's summertime, and we've got a few items we're giving away to bring the fun to a whole new level. Courtesy of AT&T here in Seattle, we've got a Jawbone mini Jambox, Jawbone UP24, and a Bodyguardz tempered glass protective cover for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. Here's a little more on each item and why we think they're perfect for this Summer Bundle Giveaway:

  • Jawbone mini Jambox: Okay, for real, who doesn't wanna have music with them when by the pool or at the beach? A lot of us have a seemingly unlimited amount of music accessible by our smartphones and tablets, and the mini Jambox allows you to stream it over Bluetooth. At the next family BBQ, you'll be the star of the show.
  • Jawbone UP24: Fitness wearables are all the rage these days, and if you like tracking your stats or are looking for a motivational tool, then it's easy to see why. With the UP24, you can monitor your fitness throughout the day, and even track your calories and water intake. At night, it'll even keep track of how well you are sleeping, which is probably not well if you're out camping in a tent. The device connects to your smartphone or tablet using Bluetooth LE, so the battery lasts a full week, and there's no plugging anything in to sync.
  • Bodyguardz Screenguardz Pure: I always thought it was kind of silly for people to protect their smartphone screens with a thin plastic film. The Screenguardz Pure is a super-thin piece of tempered glass that can actually take a real beating, and exceeds the hardness of steel. That's protection.

So, are you ready to enter to win some of that goodness? Simply use the widget below to keep track of your entries! Remember, if you're a Gear Live Patreon backer at any level, you get an extra 25 entries in this giveaway! We've got a lot of ways for you to enter even if you aren't, but don't check off any that you don't actually perform. If you do, you'll be eliminated:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click to continue reading Giveaway: Jawbone mini Jambox, UP24, Bodyguardz!


Deal of the Day: 60% off the Bluetooth Shower Speaker

bluetooth shower speaker

Today in the Gear Live Deals Shop we're offering a 60% discount on the Bluetooth Shower Speaker. If you're one who likes to jam out in the shower, belting out the hits, then you'll wanna grab our Deal of the Day! It'll stream music from any Bluetooth device, so your smartphone and tablet are covered as long as they're no more than 10 meters away. Of course, this thing is showerproof, and is also great around the pool. Even better? There is a buit-in microphone, so you can even take calls on this thing. From the shower.

Save 60% on the Bluetooth Shower Speaker

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals.


Uncarrier 6.0: T-Mobile now gives all customers free, unlimited streaming music

t-mobile free music streaming

At yesterday's T-Mobile Uncarrier 5.0 event, the company surprised everyone by also announced Uncarrier 6.0: absolutely free unlimited streaming music. Dubbed "Music Freedom," T-Mobile CEO John Legere revealed that any T-Mobile customer can stream music from Pandora, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Spotify, Slacker, Rhapsody, Milk, and Beatport without having to worry about data caps. To make it clear, Legere stated "Every single note of music will come free, not against your bucket. Even when you exhaust your data bucket, you can still stream unlimited music at high speed." The services mentioned account for 85% of music streamed on T-Mobile, but the company isn't stopping there. For example, services like Rdio and Google Play All Access Music will be part of an online voting area that T-Mobile is providing to allow customers to choose which other music services they'd like to see added. The goal is to add a few new services each month.

If you already have an unlimited T-Mobile account, you aren't left in the cold. The company also announced a partnership with Rhapsody unRadio, an app that is available to anyone on any carrier, and T-Mobile unlimited customers get free access, while limited T-Mobile customers get a 20% off discount and pay $4 per month. If you aren't on T-Mobile, you pay $5 for unRadio.

Uncarrier 5.0 was the T-Mobile Test Drive, which sees the company giving anyone in the US an iPhone 5s for free for a week to try out the T-Mobile network.


Beats Solo2 headphones: Redesigned for better sound and comfort

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Wearables, Design, Music,

Beats Solo2 headphones

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Apple is buying Beats, the company has announced the brand new Beats Solo2 on-ear headphones, the latest in the Beats by Dr. Dre line. Touting a newly-refreshed physical design alongside improved sound quality, Beats Electronics says that the new Solo2 model will offer “a wider range of sound and enhanced clarity.” It's a good thing, too, as many have complained about the Beats by Dr. Dre line having bass-heavy sound that loses the highs and mids.

If wearing previous models of Beats headphones was something you found to be a chore, you should know that the Beats Solo2 has also been redesigned with a new look that's said to also be more comfortable thanks to better weight distribution and a memory foam-like material in the larger ear cups that should make them feel cooler and put less of a hard squeeze on your ear lobes.

You can pick up the new Beats Solo2 now. They're available in pink, grey, white, blue, and red for $199.

Read More | Beats Solo2 Heaadphones

Beats Music slashes prices, lengthens free trial to 14 days after Apple acquisition

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Hot Deals, Music,

Beats Music Apple

Alongside the announcement that Apple would be purchasing Beats Electronics for $3 billion comes a few slight changes to the Beats Music subscription service. First, the price of the annual subscription has dropped down to $99.99. Previously, the cost was $119.88. The other change is that the up-front free trial that was previously 7-days long has now been doubled to a 14-day "no strings attached" trial for all users.

The Beats Music iOS app has been updated to version 2.1 to reflect the changes, and also some bug fixes. You can download Beats Music now.

What do you think? Are you gonna give Beats Music a try now that it's an Apple-owned music subscription service?


Apple releases Logic Pro X 10.0.7: Here’s what’s new

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music, Software,

Apple Logic Pro X 10.0.7

Apple has released a bug Logic Pro X update, bringing the music and sound editing app to version 10.0.7. At the forefront is much improved support for 12-core Mac Pro 2013 models (see our Mac Pro (2013) review) which now allows it to use up to 24 processing threads at a time. The step sequencer now should perform as expected when using Low Latency Mode, and import and export bugs have also been addressed. As for other new features, you can now copy automation info and paste it into Logic Pro X with the Marquee tool, and volume, pan, and effect info can be inserted into an automation track at the current playhead position. We've got the full changelog for you after the break.

You can get the update now if you already own Logic Pro X. If not, you can grab the app for $199.99 in the Mac App Store.

Click to continue reading Apple releases Logic Pro X 10.0.7: Here’s what’s new


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