“Developed by former Google employees, Beep is a Wi-Fi controller that plugs into a speaker and, using the accompanying iOS or Android app, streams music directly from streaming services, or from your computer or phone hard drives,” Evie Nagy reports for Fast Company.
“‘It’s kind of like Sonos, but what’s cool about it is it’s this very inexpensive device that can plug into a 1/8-inch jack, a normal headphone jack, or a regular stereo setup,’ says Gracenote president Stephen White. ‘I’m a big fan of the Sonos concept, but not the price point,'” Nagy reports. “As the leading brand in wireless speakers, Sonos is a closed system that requires purchase of the speakers themselves, starting at $199 each and going way up with size and power. ”
“Beep, on the other hand, uses your home Wi-Fi network to make any speaker wireless — and is available for pre-order now at $99 apiece (units will ship later this year),” Nagy reports. “For now, Beep is partnered only with Pandora, but other partnership announcements are expected soon.”
Read more in the full article here.
More info: thisisbeep.com
This is new? I feel like I have been doing this for years with the Airport Express (used to extend network). The speakers of course need to be powered.
Okay. Went to the site and apparently beep allows multiple speakers to play the same music (sync). I can’t do that with the Express. beeps can be grouped to allow different music to be played though that group. Overall it sounds pretty cool. Not so sure about the price. Maybe $79, but I understand introductory pricing for early adopters then reducing pricing so hopefully more affordable soon.
“Went to the site and apparently beep allows multiple speakers to play the same music (sync). I can’t do that with the Express”
Yes, you can, and in exactly the same way they show.
An iOS device can only stream music to one Express or Apple TV at a time.
Unless you use the Remote app to stream from a computer with a choice of several AirTunes speakers, AppleTVs, or Expreses.
Different, but also better…..
I use $99 Airport expresses for the same function, which allows us to not only connect our with our mobile devices, but desktop and laptop computers. The one functionality this lacks is that while computers running iTunes can connect to multiple speakers simultaneously, the nation iOS functionality only allows connecting to speakers connected to one airport express at a time.
I can make any powered speaker wireless for $99 too. I just use either an Airport Express ($99) or an Apple TV ($99).
Haha…Even former Google employees have more taste than Cook & Ive. They used iOS 6 on iPhone to display their app in the advertisement.
Not even former Android users can stand the ugliness of iOS 7. Nor can I, to be honest. It’s junk.
The iPhone in the YouTube ad is clearly running iOS 7. Thanks for confirming my suspicion that you few iOS 7 haters are either blind or oblivious.
Yeah, I wonder who’s the blind and dumb one…
Wait, are you arguing that the phone in the ad is iOS 6? … because it’s not, it’s iOS 7.
On top of that, the app requires iOS 7 so it couldn’t be running iOS 6.
You’re so anxious to rant about iOS 7, you can’t even pull your head out of your ass long enough to actually look at what you’re blathering on about.
The iOS 7 signal strength dots you mention? They’re right there in the video, plain as day. iOS 6 used stepped-up bars. The “radiating arcs”? That’s the Wi-FI symbol, dumb-ass.
The battery indicator and charging icon are also obviously iOS 7.
Those “borders” you refer to? They can be any color! Many of Apple’s apps are white, while others are black, translucent, or a graphic image. It’s blue in the Beep app because that’s what they chose. Of course, you probably don’t know any of this because you’ve never actually used iOS 7 for any length of time.
Moron.
I think Apple should pay 4 billion for this company of ex Google engineers pronto! Then Apple will finally be innovative.
Forgot to add sarcasm tag.
Nothing new here, the
bigadvantage with SONOS is that it actually has a controller in it so you can stream music from various sources without having to have your iOS device maintain a connection. If you’re not going to do that, then Bluetooth and Airplay work just fine.