sonos S5 wireless iphone controlled music system

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SONOS ZONEPLAYER S5 NOW SHIPPING IN CANADA: ALL-IN-ONE WIRELESS MUSIC SYSTEM CONTROLLED WITH AN IPHONE NOW AVAILABLE

• Wirelessly play music from iTunes® and the Internet in any room for $479 per room
• Enjoy room-filling, high-performance sound with all digital architecture
• Control your music experience with free Sonos Controller for iPhone™ app or any other Sonos Controller
• New Sonos Software 3.1 with Twitter functionality now available for all global Sonos customers

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – November 3, 2009 – Sonos®, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today announced that the Sonos ZonePlayer™ S5, the all-in-one wireless music system you can control with an iPhone, iPod® touch or any Sonos Controller, is now available for purchase in Canada.  The S5 will be available globally later this month.  In addition, Sonos released Sonos Software v3.1, a one-button free software update for all global Sonos customers that includes Twitter functionality. The S5 has a suggested retail price of $479 and can be purchased at Sonos Canada retailers or www.sonos.com.  To view an introduction video about the S5, please visit: www.sonos.com/S5demo.

“This is the best time in history to love music,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc.  “The marriage of devices such as the iPhone and the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 connect consumers to an entire world of music and give them an easy way to control it all from the palm of their hand, in any and every room of their home.”

Key features of the S5 include:

Ø  Room-filling sound: 5 integrated speakers and 5 dedicated digital amplifiers provide crystal-clear, great-sounding audio that fills any room with music.

Ø  Unlimited music from iTunes and the Internet: Play way more than what fits on your iPod, including all your iTunes, free Internet radio and millions of songs and stations from the Internet.

Ø  Control with an iPhone or iPod touch: Download the free Sonos Controller for iPhone app and search for songs, choose the music and control the volume in any room from anywhere.

Ø  Wireless expandability: Add more S5s wirelessly and fill your whole house with music. Then, play the same song in every room or different songs in different rooms.

Technical specifications of the S5 include:

Ø  Amplifiers – Five Class-D digital amplifiers

Ø  Speakers – Five driver speaker system includes two tweeters, two 3” mid-range drivers, and one 3.5” woofer

Ø  Volume/Mute control – Quick-access controls on the top of every S5

Ø  2-port Ethernet switch – Ideal for connection to your router or bridging Internet connectivity. 2-port switch (0/100Mbps, auto MDI/MDIX) allows Ethernet devices to connect through SonosNet.

Ø  Headphone connection – Built-in, auto-detecting connection

Ø  Analog audio inputs – Auto-detecting connection for iPod, CD player, TV, and more to your S5 enables music or audio playback on all ZonePlayers in your home.

Ø  Audio formats – Support for compressed MP3, iTunes Plus, WMA (including purchased Windows Media downloads), AAC (MPEG4), Ogg Vorbis, Audible (format 4), Apple Lossless, FLAC (lossless) music files, as well as uncompressed WAV and AIFF files. Native support for 44.1kHz sample rates. Additional support for 48kHz, 32kHz, 24kHz, 22kHz, 16kHz, 11kHz, and 8kHz sample rates.

Ø  Music services support – Napster® and downloads from any service offering DRM-free tracks, including iTunes, AmazonMP3

Ø  Internet radio support - Pre-loaded 25,000 stations; streaming MP3, WMA support

Ø  Operating systems (for stored files) - Windows® XP SP2 and higher; Mac OS X v10.4 and higher; NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices supporting CIFS

Ø  Wireless connectivity - SonosNet 2.0, a secure AES encrypted, peer-to-peer wireless mesh network

Ø  Power supply - AC 120/240V, 50-60Hz, auto-switchable

Ø  Dimensions/Weight - 8.50 x 14.40 x 4.80 in (217 x 365 x 123 mm)/ 9.15 lb (4.15 kg)

Sonos Software v3.1 software integrates Twitter into the Sonos Controller interface enabling customers globally to send the name and artist of the track playing on Sonos to their friends and followers.  Sonos makes it easy to send tweets about what you’re listening to by auto-populating a variety of messages with the name of the song and artist. The Twitter functionality is available on the Sonos Controller for iPhone*, the Sonos Controller 200 and the Sonos Controller for Mac or PC.  Other features of Sonos Software v3.1 include:

Ø  Full support for the S5 allowing it to work seamlessly with all previous generations of Sonos products

Ø  Graphical Music Menu featuring icons and logos makes finding music easier and more fun. Available on the Sonos Controller for iPhone and Sonos Controller 200

Ø  Unicode metadata for music libraries in the following character sets: Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese are now displayed on the Sonos Controller 200

To learn more, locate an authorized US Sonos dealer or make a purchase, please visit www.sonos.com/S5Demo or call 877.80.SONOS.

*Sonos Controller for iPhone 3.1 is currently awaiting approval from Apple.

By basscleff | August 17, 2007

RIAA Sends Seventh Wave of Pre-Litigation Letters
By Susan Butler, N.Y. (original article posted here)

The RIAA has sent a new wave of 503 pre-litigation settlement letters to 58 universities on behalf of its record company members.

The latest round of letters is part of the education and deterrence campaign the RIAA launched earlier this year, which focused on illegal file sharing on college campuses. The program gives students the opportunity to resolve copyright infringement claims against them at a discounted rate before a formal lawsuit is filed. Each letter informs the school of the forthcoming infringement suit against one of its students or personnel who used the school’s computer network, and then requests the university administrators to forward the letter to the appropriate user.

The RIAA sent its seventh wave of letters to: Boston University, University of Tennessee – Knoxville; North Carolina State University; Duke University; University of Maine System; Columbia University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Texas at Austin; Boston College; Carleton College; Georgetown University; Indiana State University; Marshall University; New York University; Tulane University; University of Virginia; Bethel University; California State University, Fresno; California State University, Sacramento; Colgate University; Emory University; Loyola University Chicago; University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Mississippi; Allegheny College; Gettysburg College; Lehigh University; Seton Hall University; University of Kentucky; Washington University; Bryn Mawr College; Bucknell University; California State University, Chico; Creighton University; Florida Institute of Technology; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Rice University; Texas A&M University; University of Florida; University of Notre Dame; Bowdoin College; Haverford College; Mt. Saint Mary College; Pepperdine University, San Jose State University, Smith College, Trinity College; University of Minnesota – Duluth; American University; California State University, Stanislaus; San Diego State University; University of Hawaii; Villanova University; Oberlin College; Swarthmore College; Virginia Military Institute; and Wellesley College.

Because of the summer schedule, the RIAA is extending the amount of time that the recipient of a pre-litigation letter has to contact the organization’s legal representatives to work out a settlement.

Since launching the program in February 2007, the RIAA has sent approximately 2,926 pre-litigation settlement letters to universities nationwide. The letters are in addition to the lawsuits that labels continue to file on a rolling basis against those allegedly engaging in music theft via commercial Internet accounts.

Posted on Sunday, August 12, 2007 by BassCleff   100 (or more) hits a day – Guaranteed!

100 Hits a day is not an astronomical number by any measure, but it is a great place to start with a new website, or web blog. Quickly, you’ll be able to increase that number to several hundred a day (or more), but you have to learn to walk before you can run. I am drawing from personal experience. Your results may vary. I’ve often seen 1000 hits a day!

There are thousands of websites, blogs, ezines, and articles that will promise you millions of hits and exploding your traffic. That is all well and fine, however – most of the time, it is short lived, and things will start to taper off, or never materialize at all. Why? Well, following bad advice, or:

Spamming the internet, subsequently building a bad reputation

Poor content, or nothing to offer the reader – original content

no actual content, just links and advertising to other sites and affiliate links

no actual products to promote or sell. Many websites just link to other sites, and try to capitalize on ad impressions and banners clicks.

I recently launched rockstarist.com, and slowly built it from the ground up. Initially, I was receiving about 10 – 20 visitors per day. With the help of many bloggers, and related websites, I’ve managed to get my site up to several hundred hits a day and more! Keep in mind my blog is a niche blog, and does not appeal everyone. I’m not saying you will see the same results, but you can start out small and build your way up. Chances are, you’ll have better results.

I’ll not even get into monetizing your website at this point as there are millions of resources on that topic. That of course is my next step, and should be yours as well.

There are no secrets. Everything is readily available, you just need to invest some time, read and learn. A quick checklist of the steps I have taken is as follows:

Download webceo , and IBP\Arelis. (or any other SEO software you like) These two software suites will help get your website on the map. They assist with search engine listing and help you get your web site “ready” for the search engines. They have many components and sub-components that you can follow.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a science in itself, and is definitely something you must learn about. Link building and link trading is another component, as well as website keywords, which are what allow you to be found when someone does an internet search. (such as google, yahoo, msn, hotbot, altavista, lycos, netscape etc) Your website will attract more visitors when you are closer to the top of the search results. Aside from your website search ranking, you need to attract visitors.
Social networking, blogging, and website promotion all play a vital part in building traffic.
Social Bookmarking is the latest marketing tool that can bring huge results. Social networking started it all – savafav, facebook, youtube, myspace – are all social networking sites. Social bookmarking is simply an extension of that. It’s not new by any means, and has been around since the very first internet web browsers were available.

Essentially, you manually submit your web browser’s bookmarks to a community web site. Everyone may browse it your bookmarks. You may also share your bookmark folder itself, or keep it private. There are options for private and public bookmarks. Many of the social bookmarking sites have an interactive element, with some features such as user voting, story rating, commenting, and even editing. Digg.com and a few other sites allow members to vote and promote (digg) a story’s rating, or to demote (bury) the story.

Utilizing Social Bookmarking tools

1) Sign up for as many of these social bookmarking sites (over 100 in this list) as you can. Use a secondary email address that won’t be impacted by the reply emails and verification emails. Just use this email for signing up and posting. You have to create an account on each one, but it’s well worth it.

1. savafav
3. 30daytags
4. BlinkBits
5. BlogHop
6. BlogLot
7. BlogMarks
8. BlogMemes
9. BlogPulse
10. BmAccess
11. browsr
12. Fark
13. CiteULike
14. clipclip
15. clipmarks
16. Complore
17. Connectedy
18. Connotea
19. dzone
20. de.lirio.us
21. del.icio.us
22. digg
23. diigo
24. fantacular
25. Feedmarker
26. Feed Me Links
27. Furl
28. Gibeo
29. GoKoDo
30. GoogleNotebook
31. IceRocket
32. Kaboodle
33. linkaGoGo
34. linkfilter
35. linkroll
36. Listible
37. Lookmarks
38. ma.gnolia
39. maple
40. Netvouz
41. Newsvine
42. openBM
43. pe.oples
44. RawSugar
45. reddit
46. Rojo
47. Rollyo
48. Scuttle
49. Shadows
50. Simpy
51. Sitetagger
52. Smarking
53. Spurl
54. StumbleUpon
55. taghop
56. TailRank
57. Ticklr
58. unalog
59. Yahoo My Web 2.0
60. yoonoo
61. Shoutwire
62. popurls
63. NowPublic
64. gravee
65. wirefan
66. jumptags
67. ebooknetworking
68. pickorflick
69. devbumb
70. excites
71. sutree
72. eyje
73. linkboy
74. uvouch
75. jigg
76. netscape
77. tagspace
78. thoof
79. spotplex
80. awordofhelp
81. connectedy
82. wiklink
83. oyax
84. sync2it
85. tagza
86. thethingsiwant
87. urlex
88. web-feeds
89. wists
90. wurldbook
91. iglobecity
92. tektag
93. linklog
94. cloudytags
95. linkatopia
96. otavo
97. getboo
98. sirlook
99. bookit
100. listmixer
101. Web2announcer
102. A1-webmarks
103. googlelens
104. stirrdup
105. Bookmark4you
106. squidoo

It is very time consuming, but well worth the effort! You will frequent these sites every time you make a new article or posting on your web page or blog etc.

Social bookmarking sites also have many tools and browser add-ons to help you easily bookmark a page. These come in many formats, including bookmarklet applications, browser toolbar buttons, webpage javascripts and HTML codes that you can implement on your blog or webpage. Your visitors can add your bookmark to their browser simply by pressing a button on you webpage. They may submit your story, vote, and comment on your article the same way.

2) Use your browser’s password saving tools to speed things up. Allow your browser to save the login information from each site you register for.

3) Make use of multi-posting social bookmark tools. Some of theses websites allow you to submit your articles to multiple social bookmarking sites with one click. You simply need to prepare your posting details first.

Sites such as socialposter, web2.0 toolbar, and onlywire are examples of some great timesaving social bookmarking tools.

In addition to these tools, bloggers can benefit from plugin’s to automate these same processes. WordPress, for example has plug-ins that allow you to automatically submit your articles to the social bookmarking websites – as they are published to your blog.

4) Notify the social bookmark and search engines that you have created new content. This is done by pinging their servers. A ping tells the search engines and similar sites that you have something new posted and that they should investigate. They then perform a search of your site to discover the newly created content.

Blogging – (web logging) is another way to build an online presence, particularly if you have expertise in a specific area. Of course, that is not a requirement and there are more blogs that talk about nothing in particular – than ones that offer any expert advice. Nevertheless, blogs are a very popular method to get your product or advice to the masses. Blogging allows you to write about whatever you like, in whatever style you prefer. There are no rules, other than common sense and grammar. The key is content. Make sure your content is interesting, and newsworthy. If you are an expert, then write about what you know. If not, find content that is interesting.

Try to be original, write your own content, and don’t steal! Internet blog content falls under the same copyright laws as so any other forms of writing and information. If you find something you’d like to use, ask permission first. Chances are you’ll get more positive responses than you bargained for. In doing so, you are promoting the original author’s work, and building a solid relationship with your partners, readers, and contributors.

Promoting a blog requires some additional work. The premise is that simply because you’ve written something, that doesn’t mean that anyone knows about it. You have to tell everyone! That is done by sharing links in blog communities, blog listings, and blog directories. Apart from that, there is a service called pinging that allows you to announce your new content to the directories and communities. Once the content is published, you will have an address. That is what you need to send the ping requests to the directories.

You can manually ping your website or blog using pingomatic, pingoat, kping, and pingmyblog, additionally, WordPress has a multitude of pinging tools that you may freely add on to your web blog.

Really, following the steps listed above is all you really need to do to drive traffic to your website. if you are looking for more, then you really need to investigate some of these topics:

SEO
Website Monetization
Link building
Website optimization
Back-link building
Website Advertising and Promotion

I hope the article helps you!

Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2007 by BassCleff   There are many resources to solve computer problems, most of them come in the form of software, like tune up utilities, registry cleaners, system optimizers and similar. Those programs are great when you are looking to repair those types of problems, however, where do you turn when those programs don’t do the trick?

Most of us have a computer friend, or a friend of a friend that fixes computers. The friendly neighborhood computer guy to the rescue! They usually come with a price. They are experienced, so they should be paid for their work, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to pay cash. Bartering works great and so does trading. After all, any one of us (including the computer guy) – only have so many favors in them! It gets tedious and bothersome after a few years. It’s great when you are starting out, because it helps you learn and hone your troubleshooting skills, but if you are an IT professional (aka computer guy) and work in IT all day, the last thing you want is to fix computers after work.

That doesn’t help those that need their computer guy now does it? How about calling Microsoft, they are happy to help, just have your credit card ready. Yes, you heard right. Even though you purchased Vista, and are entitled to support, the problem you are experiencing is out of the supported scope. You problem is NOT microsoft’s problem. The Microsoft tech advised you to contact the vendor did he not? Problem is, the vendor is a big box store and they have no support department – or if they do, you’re not leaving your computer there! Where do you run to now? Maybe you computer guy wasn’t so wrong in asking for $75 an hour now was he?

In any event, if you decide to take matters into your own hands, there is help! Local computer support groups – Computers Anonymous – will help you rid yourself of that pesky and life altering burden – Just Kidding!

You do have choices for computer support – really! Try some of these suggestions – Yahoo! Answers, Live QnA, Fixya. If you need more, google has more than I can list!

webcam

Posted on by BassCleff

Television makes you look 10 years younger they say, and never wear stripes because it causes havoc with the cameras! No need to worry about that with a webcam! The only concern you need concern yourself with, is concerning the fact that it has to be plugged into the pc, and that you have the necessary software and physical ports to operate one.

A web camera (webcam), is a low resolution camera designed to send video or images to a computer, which in turn can be broadcast on the internet; used in chat programs like AOL, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype etc; They can also be used online games, online dating websites, and with video capture and editing applications. Webcams are controlled by software on the computer. The software will enable features such as continuous video (live) and still or timer based images at preset intervals.

Web cameras typically require a USB port on your PC, and software to install the proper drivers. This is included with the camera. Once you have the camera installed, you then must configure the camera to operate in the application you wish to use it with. MSN messenger has a camera configuration utility built in, as do Yahoo and several other instant messaging programs. Depending on the model of the camera, you may or may not also require a microphone to allow sound to be transmitted with your video.

Webcams are relatively inexpensive, and they can fit into small places, such as the computer desktop, the top of your monitor, or on a shelf. However, the quality of the video they broadcast is not suitable for professional use. Many camcorders and digital cameras have the ability to connect to a pc and be used as a webcam, if you require better quality than a standard webcam, you may wish to investigate these products.

Many businesses use webcams to monitor security, cottagers and travelers use them to monitor their homes and property. This is achieved using the internet, and having your webcam connected to a remote computer. Monitoring software allows you to simply type in a preconfigured website address that connects you to your remote web camera through the internet. Some security software suites have the option to be “woken up” when there is activity in your home or cottage.

Posted on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 by Chris   Everyday there is a new Internet startup. That’s the beauty of the Internet and technology, it never gets stagnant. It always changes – not always in the best way, but regardless, it’s always fresh.

Of recent months social networking websites facebook, and myspace have taken the media spotlight. Anything and everything being launched, developed and released is either to accompany, augment, improve, integrate or replace facebook, and myspace.

For those that don’t know what these websites are or can do, just think of it as a town hall. It’s a place to build personal networks, meet new people, share music, pictures, experiences, stories, messages, ideas, business contacts, calendars. Anything at all can be advertised, announced, promoted, etc.

Well, now we’ve got some new additions to the myspace world, however these aren’t your usual myspace add-ons, layouts, backgrounds, or tools. These are for your pets!

myspace pet spaces – or more specifically, myspace dogs and cats!

mydogspace – Community Network for Dogs
With MyDogSpace you can share your dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.

And not to be outdone…

mycatspace – A Place for Cats
MyCatSpace is a site for all cats and cat lovers. It’s a new place for a cat community! There are many social communities for people – it is about time that cats have their own place on the internet too. A place to let the world know that Cats are IT.

It’s all going to the dogs!.. and cats!

Posted on Friday, August 3, 2007 by Chris   What is the difference, which is better? What should I choose?
Three very good questions, with a multitude of answers however, there is no absolute choice. Let us start by asking what you are looking to accomplish. If you have a digital camera, or an external hard drive, or a computer recording interface, you have the choice of both.<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
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Ipod’s and other personal mp3 players typically use USB. If you are using audio and video devices such as digital cameras, or digital audio mixers and recorders, then USB is not the best solution. Speed (bandwidth) is not the primary concern with these types of devices, however reliability and consistency are.<!–[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–>
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USB (version 1) was first introduced in 1996, and quickly caught on as the next “must have” PC option. It was designed to offer two speeds; low speed at 1.5 megabits per second, and full speed of potentially 12 megabits per second. There were technical problems and limitations, so the standard was revised and version 1.1 was released in 1998. Again, more problems were noted, and another revision to version 2.0 was released. With USB version 2.0, High-speed was implemented, which allows up to 480 megabits per second. USB also allows up to 127 physical devices to be connected in a daisy chain – although there are some technical limitations, such as the need for usb hubs.

USB’s main problem lies in reliability and consistent speeds. This can be attributed to the design of the USB protocol. USB devices are essentially slave devices to a master controller, which is a microchip on the motherboard of your computer. USB peripherals essentially operate by answering requests from the host controller. If they are transferring data, or images, they can only do so when the host controller asks. Bottom line, USB was designed to be cheaper and easier to use.

Firewire (sometimes called 1394) on the other hand has some very different properties. First and foremost, firewire 400 is 400 megabits a second. Firewire version 2 is Firewire 800, double the first version. Firewire doesn’t operate on a “respond to requests” format as USB device does, and has the capability to deliver a consistent bandwidth. This is because any firewire device can control the firewire port and all communications. USB requires a hoist controller, whereas any firewire device has the host capabilities built in.

Firewire is the way to go if you are transferring or editing video or audio. It can reliably deliver consistent bandwidth and is significantly faster than the best that USB has to offer, however it is not as common as USB.

Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 by Chris

Question: I have Microsoft Office on my other computer. How can I get it on my new computer?

That question has been asked many times, and the answer is different depending on your circumstances. First and foremost, do you still have the original license and installation software CD? If the answer is no, then you have no option but to purchase another copy.

If you do have the original installation cd and the license, you may install the software on the new computer – provided that you uninstall it from the old computer. With Microsoft licensing, you are purchasing a single copy of the software for a single computer. Installing the software on more than one computer will violate your software licensing agreement. It is also not uncommon to be limited to the computer that the software is installed on. This is the case when you purchase an OEM computer such as a IBM or a DELL, which included Microsoft office. In that purchase, you bought an OEM version of Microsoft Office and that license is locked to that machine. We’ll not discuss our opinions of this, although I do know what you’re thinking and agree with you! The primary reason is that retail versions of software cost quite a bit more than OEM versions. Retail versions have full packaging, user manuals, warranty registration, and usually some additional software included in the box. OEM versions are basic barebones versions, that include the installation cd and a license, nothing else. Hence the lower cost.

Typically, an OEM version of Microsoft Office may cost $150 CAD, compared to $300 for a retail boxed version from the superstores. The software is the same, other than the extra user manuals and so on.

If you uninstall the software from the old pc, and install it on the new pc, make sure you have a retail version, or a copy that will allow you to do so. Worst case scenario, contact Microsoft and inquire about the license that you have. Be warned – that may take a while to get through their technical support maze of telephone prompts.

In some cases, your employer may have purchased a special license that permits you to install a copy of Microsoft Office on your home computer, and on your work computer. Check with your IT department for details.