Technology - Google News

Sonos launches its own streaming radio service - The Verge
iPad Pro Diary: First impressions of the Magic Keyboard with trackpad - 9to5Mac
iPhone SE Plus with a bigger display may be coming soon - TechRadar India

Sonos launches its own streaming radio service - The Verge

Posted: 21 Apr 2020 06:02 AM PDT

Sonos has always been the neutral manager of streaming services on its multiroom audio platform, but the company is about to take a big step into creating some of that content itself. Sonos Radio is a new, free-to-use streaming service that's being introduced as part of a software update rolling out today worldwide.

Moving forward, it'll come preloaded in the Sonos app, so I think it's fair to think of Sonos Radio as a starting point that customers can sample before adding other services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and whatever else they will be listening to. That's a pretty advantageous spot to be in, and CEO Patrick Spence says it's "only the beginning" as Sonos works on other services "that provide our customers a better experience, and provide our music streaming service partners an opportunity to highlight their best content."

Sonos says radio playback accounts for "nearly half" of all the time that customers spend listening to its products. "Complementing the 100-plus streaming options available on Sonos, the new service introduces a holistic and cohesive way to explore radio, bringing together more than 60,000 stations from multiple streaming partners alongside original programming from Sonos," the company said in its press release.

Those partners include TuneIn and iHeartRadio, two obvious go-to picks for this category. In the Local Radio section of Sonos Radio, you'll be able to easily pull up your local NPR station, sports talk, news shows, or other favorites — or listen to something from across the globe if you choose. You won't get every feature of TuneIn or iHeartRadio as part of Sonos Radio, but the partnerships check off the core function of streaming live radio. Sonos says more partners, including Radio.com in the US and Global in the UK, are coming soon.

But the second, more interesting pillar of Sonos Radio is original programming — found under the Sonos Presents section — and this is headlined by an ad-free station called Sonos Sound System. Think of it like Apple's Beats 1. The company converted the basement of its (currently closed) flagship retail store in Soho into a recording and production facility. Sonos says this is what you can expect from its flagship station:

Listeners will enjoy a stream of new, well-known, or rediscovered music, behind-the-scenes stories, as well as guest artist radio hours from the likes of Angel Olsen, JPEGMAFIA, Phoebe Bridgers, Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Vagabon, and more. Artist hosted radio hours, released every Wednesday, will start the stream of Sonos Sound System for a 60-minute radio show with music and commentary about inspiring artists, releases, and the host's latest work.

There will also be artist-curated stations that offer "a regularly updated stream of hundreds of songs from artists inspired by their own influences and obsessions." The first of those is going live today from Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Like Sonos Sound System, you can listen to these artist stations without any ad interruptions. So if you've got Spotify's free plan and have had your fill of commercials breaking up your tunes, Sonos Radio might slot in as a decent alternative.

Sonos Stations are the third and last piece of Sonos Radio. These are genre-based stations that do have ads — Sonos is partnering with TargetSpot to sell ad inventory and says "only general location data (ZIP code) and music genre information" is shared with advertising partners.

The marketing points from Sonos ring very familiar here; with Sonos Stations, the company is trying to position its curation as superior to what competitors are doing and says it'll serve up a more varied assortment of music beyond the same old tracks you hear everywhere else.

I haven't had a chance to try Sonos Stations, so I can't weigh in there. You'll occasionally hear voices pop in to let you know what's playing (particularly for classical stations), and Sonos says it's using AI to smoothen out song transitions and keep the volume at the same level for ads and music. The end goal is for these to feel more like traditional radio than mere playlists. They are radio stations in the sense that you can't ever skip tracks. Every part of Sonos Radio is linear.

Sonos Radio streams at 128kbps, which is a little disappointing considering that the company has full control over both service and speaker hardware. There's only so much you can do with live local radio streams, but I would've liked to see a higher quality for Sonos Presents and Sonos Stations. At launch, you won't be able to use Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to access the service.

And that's the gist of Sonos Radio. Will Sonos agitate some of its partners by launching a streaming service? Possibly, but the company insists that it won't be giving Sonos Radio any unfair preferential treatment in the Sonos app. (If you know you'll never use Sonos Radio at all, you can hide it from your browse menu by going into settings, selecting "services and voice" and removing the account.)

This will also be a way to showcase content from all of the services that are available on its platform and bring attention to some of the lesser-known options, the company claims. In that way, it reminds me a bit of The Roku Channel. Roku is another company that has typically played a neutral role in overseeing its platform, but the ad-supported video service gave Roku company a more direct link to its customers.

Sonos Radio might be launching a bit differently depending on where you are. Internet radio stations will be available to everyone once today's update rolls out. Sonos Sound System, artist stations, and Sonos Stations are launching first (also today) in the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland, and Australia.

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iPad Pro Diary: First impressions of the Magic Keyboard with trackpad - 9to5Mac

Posted: 21 Apr 2020 05:54 AM PDT

I guess first impressions of the Magic Keyboard with trackpad can be thought of as layered. There's the ordering experience, otherwise known as: did I really just pay £349* – more than the price of the entry-level iPad – for a keyboard?

*Usual reminder: In the UK, VAT (sales tax) is included in the list price. So the UK price is £291 without sales tax, which is the equivalent of $359. This compares with a US price of $349, to which sales tax needs to be added.

Then there's the set up experience …

Set up

I'm getting to this before the look-and-feel because there is no set up.

Apple has long been working on automated set up. Hold your new iPhone next to your old iPhone to begin setup. Hold your AirPods close to your iPhone to pair them. Hold your iPhone close to your HomePod to begin setup.

But this is next level: attach your iPad to your keyboard and immediately begin using it. Skip setup altogether.

Open it, and it wakes, just as the MacBook would. Or, if it's already open, hit the spacebar to wake it from sleep, just as I would my MacBook. Swipe up on the trackpad and it unlocks. Open an app and begin typing.

That's it. Straight out of the box.

Look and feel

I've never been a great fan of Apple's polyurethane for cases and covers. In the past, I used to go for the leather Smart Covers before those were discontinued, and I'd ideally prefer to see this in leather.

I mean, the material is inoffensive enough, it just doesn't look stylish or feel premium. And for this price, it really should.

Opening it, the lower hinge snaps into place with a satisfying feel. The upper hinge is also really solid, allowing the angle to be adjusted easily. Once it is, the iPad stays exactly where you put it.

The magnetic connection is incredibly strong! Way more than the normal Smart Cover. Once attached, it really does feel exactly like a single unit. I immediately felt comfortable carrying it around by the keyboard.

Indeed, I held it upside-down by the keyboard, and even did it above my desk, because it was immediately apparent that the connection is that strong.

Weight

Much has been made of the fact that the combination of 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard actually weighs more than the 13-inch MacBook Air.

Many have been voicing that as a criticism, but I'm not sure it really is. First, if you want a keyboard – any keyboard – to support the weight of an iPad without being propped up at the back, then the base has to be heavy enough to stop it falling over backward.

Second, the implication of the criticism is that this is 'only' an iPad compared to a MacBook. I don't personally see it like that. To me, they are different devices, with different strengths and weaknesses. With a keyboard, there is overlap in their uses, but they are not – to me – competing devices, and I don't see the iPad as the lesser machine.

I'm perhaps also influenced by the fact that I have the 16-inch MacBook Pro, so am used to carrying a heavier device.

Would I like the iPad/Magic Keyboard combo to be lighter if it were possible? Of course. But do I see the weight as either unreasonable or problematic? No.

First impressions of the Magic Keyboard itself

The initial keyboard experience

Some early recipients and reviewers described it as exactly like the 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard. I disagree.

It's similar in feel, but definitely not the same. The iPad Magic Keyboard has a noticeably lighter spring action. I would say it offers perhaps 70-80% of the resistance of the MBP one.

The travel depth does, however, feel exactly the same. The keys themselves feel just as solid, moving as a single unit, with no wobble if you hit them at the edge.

I'm sure someone will do the exact measurements, but it seems to have the same dimensions, the same size keycaps and the same spacing between the keys.

I'd ideally like it to feel identical to the MacBook Pro, but it's certainly very close. It's a great typing experience.

On the lap, it's not quite so good. Apple has set the maximum hinge angle so that it remains stable on a flat surface. On my lap, it depends where I sit, as the angle of my legs varies on the seat. On a sofa, with a laid-back position, it's very solid. On an armchair with a more upright position, it is a little less stable. But I give it 8/10 for the lap typing experience, which is about what I give the Brydge – which is to say, I think that's realistically as good as you can expect without a much larger base.

First impressions of the Magic Keyboard trackpad

The initial trackpad experience

This transforms the experience of writing and editing on the iPad.

Overall, the Magic Keyboard and iOS 13.4 immediately makes the iPad feel like a laptop. It just feels instinctively right to use the trackpad rather than the touchscreen for most things in this setup, but writing and editing is where it shines.

Editing on a touchscreen-only device is a real pain. It's really awkward to select text, especially if you want to position the cursor mid-word to correct a spelling error. The spacebar long-hold to convert the keyboard to a virtual trackpad helps, but it's still a clunky experience, and is the main reason I prefer a laptop to my iPad for writing long-form pieces.

But with the Magic Trackpad, editing is exactly like it is on a MacBook: simple, fast, precise.

I'll need more use to see how much difference it makes that the trackpad is significantly smaller than on a MacBook, but my initial impressions are that it makes less difference than I'd expected.

One thing I love: Apple has implemented tap-to-click! This is the first setting I change on any MacBook, as it just feels unnecessarily forceful to physically (or haptically) click. I didn't expect Apple to implement this for the iPad, but it has.

I'll need to learn all the trackpad gestures, as they are not identical to macOS, but the ones I've used so far feel very natural. Swipe up for Home mirrors the touchscreen gesture, albeit you need to use three fingers. I'll report back on gestures next time.

Summary

First impressions of the Magic Keyboard – summary

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first: this is insanely expensive for a keyboard.

I mean, it's not the most expensive keyboard in the world, but you can buy an iPad for less. You can buy a Chromebook for less. Hell, you can buy a Windows laptop for less.

All the same, I think there is very little doubt that I'll be keeping it.

Things are worth what the buyer is willing to pay. I'm a writer. I do a lot of writing on my iPad. Offer me the best possible writing experience on an iPad, and I'll pay what it takes. And that's what this is: the best possible writing experience on an iPad.

The ease of separating the iPad from the keyboard is the single biggest selling-point to me, compared to the Brydge. It's also easier to open and close: with the Brydge, you always have to be a little careful doing this as it can be easy to accidentally pull the iPad out of the clamps. With the Magic Keyboard, it's still a two-handed operation for reasons well-explained by John Gruber (tl;dr the iPad is so heavy that you need to hold down the keyboard to prise it open, in contrast to a laptop where most of the weight is in the base), but it's definitely an easier operation.

Normally, the real test would be mobile use. How does it feel when carrying it around, using it on the tube, setting up in a coffee shop and so on? The lockdown has put paid to that idea.

So the closest I'm going to get is how it feels carrying it around the apartment, and switching between uses at home. Sitting on the sofa typing, then removing it to use as a pure tablet. Carrying it to the bedroom, then detaching to use the iPad as an eBook reader. That kind of thing.

I'm fully expecting my next diary piece to simply report back on the trackpad gestures and confirm that I'm keeping it, but we shall see!

How about you? If yours has arrived, please share your own first impressions in the comments.

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iPhone SE Plus with a bigger display may be coming soon - TechRadar India

Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:29 AM PDT

Apple only just announced the all-new iPhone SE, but there have already been murmurs around the existence of a bigger version of the phone.

The iPhone SE was unveiled globally last week, and with a starting price of $399 / £419 / AU$749 / Rs 42,500 it is the cheapest iPhone being sold by Apple currently.

Tech analyst and YouTuber Jon Prosser has teased about the existence of the Plus variant of the iPhone SE. Even though his tweet does not share any details or time about the launch of the phone, it is enough to get some excited.

Since the iPhone SE is considered both a successor to the iPhone SE and the iPhone 8 range - and the fact that both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have been discontinued - a replacement for the iPhone 8 Plus in the range may take the form of the iPhone SE Plus.

Should have some iPhone SE Plus news for you soon. 👀April 18, 2020

Other leaks have also suggested that the iPhone SE Plus is in the works and may get unveiled alongside the iPhone 12 series later this year. If these rumors are to be believed that iPhone SE Plus will have a similar design like the iPhone SE, obviously with a slightly larger display.

In terms of the specifications, the iPhone SE Plus may be powered by the same A13 Bionic chipset which powers the recently launched iPhone SE. It may house a 5.5-inch display as compared to the 4.7-inches display on the smaller variant.

If Apple decides to launch the rumored phone, one can expect the presence of a dual-camera setup, unlike the single-camera present on the iPhone SE.

However, since we have very limited details at our disposal, we will have to wait for more information to be able to ascertain if Apple is indeed planning to launch the iPhone SE Plus.

Via India Today