Those of you with Sonos equipment already filling your abode with the sweet tunes of your music library and an iPhone or iPod Touch should promptly hit up Apple’s App Store and download their free app now. It may or may not be available right this second, but it should make its way to the App Store sometime today. There are two other Sonos apps currently available but they want you to pay $15 for each.

Having seen the app in person I can say that it’s very intuitive and easy to use. You will also be prompted to update your Sonos’ firmware to 2.7 today so that it is compatible with the software. So if you bought Sonos equipment in 2005 and you own an iPhone then you’re sittin’ pretty. A demo of the app in action and other screen shots are available after the jump.

But that’s not the only announcement Sonos has for today.

Sonos 2.7 unleashes 15,000 Internet radio stations from across the globe and free access to Last.fm and Pandora (everything syncs on the fly with both Last.fm and Pandora to your accounts online).

Other new features of Sonos System Software 2.7 include:
• Updated Rhapsody support with improved sound quality. Rhapsody now streams at 192 MP3 (versus 128 kbps WMA previously).
• Support for RTSP streaming protocol which allows for expanded Internet Radio coverage.
• Dutch and Swedish languages are now supported in the Sonos system software. Sonos already supports English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
• For more information about the features of Sonos Software 2.7, please visit: http://www.sonos.com/support/software_update.aspx.

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Sonos launches iPhone, iPod Touch app

We’ve already seen cameras that let you pretend you live in a radioactive apocalypse shoot HDR video, combining overexposed and underexposed images into one surreal composite. But so far, that kind of dystopian trippiness has been relegated to experiments and rigs using two lenses. But here we have AMP, a portable-enough five-pound camera that splits the light into three sensors, giving it a range of 17.5 stops to “reveal reality” in our drab, incomplete lives. The single-lens camera shoots 1080p video at 24fps or 30fps, records raw, uncompressed data to an SSD, and works with Nikon F-Mount-compatible lenses. To give you some perspective on the amount of sheer storage required, AMP promises a 256GB SSD can hold 30-plus minutes of footage, with 24fps video consuming less space than the 30 fps variety. It’ll be available later this summer for some unknown sum, but not as a mass-produced product. Rather, it’ll end up in the hands of a select few prosumers who add themselves to a waiting list. Assuming you won’t be one of the chosen, you can get your fill of reality in a pair of demo videos after the break.

Continue reading AMP camera records 1080p HDR video, you probably can’t have one

AMP camera records 1080p HDR video, you probably can’t have one originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plantronics has two, count ‘em, two new headsets — one cancels noise out, the other keeps noise in.

The Voyager 520 is a noise-canceling Bluetooth headset “featuring robust noise-canceling technology for business-quality performance”.

It’ll set you back $99.99, available in August.

For the less-mobile (but still pretty mobile), there’s the sound-isolating .Audio 480 Virtual Phone Booth headset “for laptop multimedia and Internet conversations.” It’s the smallest computer headset that Plantronics has pushed out yet.

Analog version available for $89.95, USB for $109.95 — also available in August.

I have a Gamecom Pro1 headset from Plantronics and it’s real, real nice. Good stuff outta Santa Cruz, California.

Plantronics Delivers Superior Sound and Noise-Cancellation with New Voyager Bluetooth Headset

Plantronics Launches the .Audio 480 Virtual Phone Booth Headset

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Plantronics Announces Late-Summer Earware

Proff sez, “Markus Kayser built a 3D printer that works with solar power to heat up sand and form objects like a regular 3D printer, by taking the energy and the raw material directly out of the desert. He also built a laser cutter working with solar energy and a lens.”

In mid-May the Solar Sinter was tested for a two week period in the deserts of Siwa, Egypt, resulting in the amazing footage above. It’s incredible to think that the solar energy generated for both machines is used only to power electronics, servos and the mechanism that tracks the sun, while the power used to cut wood and melt sand is just raw, concentrated sunlight. While I fully understand the mechanics and science at work in Kayser’s devices, there’s something about them that just seems magical. Definitely head over to his website to explore more photos and info.

Markus Kayser Builds a Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand and a Sun-Powered Cutter

(Thanks, Proff!)

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Solar-powered 3D sand-printer

Visually editing audio files isn’t exactly a new idea, of course, but Divide Frame’s new Spectral Layers application looks to take things to an even more Photoshop-style extreme than other tools. While still in the alpha stage and not available to the public just yet (though both Windows and Mac versions are promised), the software does appear to be fairly complete, including the ability to use multiple layers, work with multi-channel audio, and extract individual voices, instruments, or any other noises. Perhaps just as notably, the actual process of editing seems to be a kind of weird mish-mash of otherworldly visuals and disjointed sounds– something that we could easily see leading to some unexpected and interesting results. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading Spectral Layers promises to let you edit audio Photoshop-style (video)

Spectral Layers promises to let you edit audio Photoshop-style (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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