Bose updated its SoundLink Mini Bluetooth speaker with a new version that includes a speakerphone, longer battery life, a dual-connect option for a smartphone and tablet, and voice prompts for pairing. The price remains $199, Bose said. Users can connect two Bluetooth music source devices simultaneously, and the speaker stores the eight most recently used Bluetooth devices in memory. Voice prompts walk users through the Bluetooth pairing process and identifies devices by name using text-to-speech, said the company. Battery life is up to 10 hours for music listening, it said, and the speaker can charge using most USB power sources. The SoundLink Mini II is available in carbon and pearl finishes; optional soft covers (red, green, navy blue, charcoal and gray) are $25 each, it said.

Sony announced availability of a trio of Bluetooth speakers Thursday that incorporate the company’s LDAC hi-res audio technology. LDAC is said to provide three times the data transmission capability of standard Bluetooth to boost improve wireless audio. The SRS-X55 ($179) and SRS-X33 ($129) speakers offer one-touch connectivity via near field communications for compatible devices and Sony’s DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) that’s said to boost the sound of compressed audio files by restoring high-range sound removed during compression. Built-in speakerphones allow users to answer phone calls at the push of a button, said the company. The 30-watt SRS-X55, available in black only, adds a USB charging output for a smartphone and offers 10 hours’ battery life, said Sony. The 20-watt SRS-X33 provides USB charging, has rated battery life of 12 hours and is available in black, blue, red and white. The 10-watt SRS-X11 ($69) delivers 12 hours on a charge and comes in black, blue, pink, red and white.

Yamaha introduced the YAS-105 soundbar with integrated subwoofer that’s designed to match with ultra-thin flat-panel TVs. The soundbar is offered as a flexible design that can be placed horizontally in front of a TV or vertically on a wall. Its 2-1/8-inch height prevents it from blocking the image on TVs with short stands or thin bezels, the company said, while incorporating two full-range drivers, two tweeters and two subwoofers in the single-body design. Features include Bluetooth for streaming audio, app control capability, advanced bass extension processing, Dolby Digital, voice enhancement technology and Yamaha’s proprietary Air Surround Xtreme virtual 7.1-channel immersive sound. Inputs include optical, coaxial and analog with a subwoofer output for an optional add-on subwoofer, the company said.

Harman released an Android SDK (software development kit) for the Harman Kardon Omni Wireless HD home audio system to enable third-party developers to create audio, text-to-speech and IoT experiences, it said Thursday. The SDK, licensed from Blackfire Research, makes it easier for developers to participate in Harman’s network of connected audio and IoT experiences by accessing tools, downloads and community forums that they can use to create and test a new generation of apps, said Harman. “Building audio features into connected apps represents the next wave of user experience,” said Chief Technology Officer IP Park. The software detects, controls and sends audio to speakers over Wi-Fi and can identify the status of speakers, determine the strength of the Wi-Fi-signal and receive “events” from the speaker, such as the volume level, via Harman’s abstraction helper library, documentation and example apps built for the Android OS, it said.

Audio streaming services could charge more for their products and consumers would still pay for them, research from Atenga shows, said the firm in a news release Wednesday. ITunes could maximize revenue by raising its price from $25 annually to $15 monthly and Pandora could double its price from $5 to $10 per month, it said. Those surveyed were more conflicted over the issue of music choice versus quality, with about half responding that audio quality is less important than music choice. Those who preferred Spotify and YouTube, which allow users to select specific songs, not surprisingly showed more preference for choice over quality, the research shows. The survey of 857 American adults done by Atenga, a pricing consulting group, has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of 2.5 percent.

Object-based audio brings “amazing new features to the audio experience” but every new technology “comes with a cost,” Jordan Miller, DTS director-global communications, told us. Miller was responding to Yamaha’s decision to leave DTS:X and Dolby Atmos decoders out of the mid-level ($449-$849) AV receivers it launched last week (see 1505190051). “Modern processing can support DTS:X, however, older, less expensive processors may not be able to support the technology,” said Miller. He deferred to Moore’s Law, for future receivers that will be able to employ lower-cost processors that do the trick. “It won’t be long before almost all device models will be able to support our latest technology,” Miller said, saying every manufacturer DTS licenses to plans to support DTS:X “but may not support it across all models.” The decision will be made on a “case-by-case basis” that factors in the type of processor used, he said. Onkyo will begin shipping in early June a mid-priced ($699) 7.2-channel AVR that decodes Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Miller said DTS works closely with AV receiver manufacturers and integrated circuit (IC) companies “to understand the DTS:X footprint” so engineers can estimate resource needs ahead of complete implementations. Processing power measurements are unique to each demand-side platform, Miller said, “so it’s hard to give one quantifiable measurement which translates to something with universal meaning. ... We can say that we fit reasonably on the latest chips found in modern AV receivers.” DTS:X runs on an IC that handles all the processing inside an AVR, he said. Receiver makers go with different IC companies, and DTS:X can be found on various IC solutions from ADI, ARM, Cirrus Logic and Texas Instruments, and on Intel and AMD CPUs, he said. Dolby and Yamaha didn’t comment.

Sony Europe became the second major CE subsidiary this week to say no to object-based immersive audio, at least for its new product lineups. At a Sony audio line show with demos for the press and trade Thursday in the Soho Hotel in London, we noted that though several new hi-res audio products boasted 7.1 or 7.2 surround, none offered Dolby Atmos, DTS:X or Auro-3D. “We are not adding immersive audio at the moment,” said Eric Kingdon, senior technical marketing manager at Sony Europe, echoing feelings previously expressed by Yamaha (see 1505190051). “It’s expensive and it’s power-hungry. It needs more channels and consumes extra processing power. We think that sticking with 7.1 or 7.2 is the best way to deliver high-quality sound at an affordable price.” Kingdon promises Sony Europe will be “keeping a close eye on the situation, but our policy is to sell boxes that people want to buy.”

Yamaha introduced its 2015 flagship subwoofer that will ship next month at $2,499. The NS-SW1000 1,000-watt sub includes Yamaha’s Twisted Flare Port that's said to deliver a flow of air to reduce extraneous noise and achieve the intended tuning of the subwoofer enclosure, it said. The subwoofer's three-way mitered construction is said to ensure tight joints resulting in accurate bass reproduction without vibration. The NS-SW1000s has a 12-inch driver and an automatic shut-off feature that kicks in after the unit doesn’t see a signal for a period of time, said the company.

Sonos lopped $50 off the price of a two-room starter wireless music system in a dads-and-grads limited-time promotion good “while supplies last.” The deal differs from previous Sonos offers that included a free Sonos Bridge ($49) for connecting a dedicated Sonos network inside the home. The company eliminated the need for the Bridge last fall (see 1409030065) when it updated its software to enable a Sonos system to run over Wi-Fi rather than requiring a dedicated network. In the current promo, consumers can buy two Play:1s for $349, down from $399. Although there’s no fixed end to the promotion, a customer support representative told us the deal would last “at least a couple of weeks.” The company is in the midst of a software beta upgrade for the Play:1, it said in a blog post last week. One of the “slight changes” in the software update is said to improve the clarity of the smallest speaker in the Sonos line “so when you crank up the volume, the vocals will sound even more natural,” it said. The company also said an upgrade boosts bass performance when the Play:1 is paired with the Sonos subwoofer. The update will be available to all Sonos users this summer, it said.

Qualcomm’s Connected Experiences subsidiary added Bluetooth-to-Wi-Fi streaming to its AllPlay smart media platform, along with custom audio settings and optimized synchronization, it said Thursday. In addition, Hitachi America signed on to AllPlay and for three Wi-Fi speakers, joining Monster, which launched its SoundStage line of AllPlay speakers at Best Buy last month. Combining Bluetooth and Wi-Fi streaming enables all local or cloud-based music on a smartphone to be streamed to any Bluetooth-compatible AllPlay speaker and then re-streamed over Wi-Fi to multiple AllPlay speakers -- all in sync, said Qualcomm. The technology allows wireless connectivity to individual speakers or an entire home audio system over an existing Wi-Fi network, an advantage over Bluetooth-only speakers that can only perform one-to-one streaming, said Qualcomm. The Hitachi speakers are due “at a U.S. retailer” later this month at "affordable," but undisclosed, prices, it said. Sy Choudhury, senior director-product management-Qualcomm Connected Experiences, called the coupling of Wi-Fi with Bluetooth “a game-changing combination” bringing together the range of Wi-Fi and the ubiquity of Bluetooth. With the new feature, AllPlay device makers “can now offer their customers more connectivity options and access to myriad streaming services throughout their home,” he said. The addition of custom audio settings allows manufacturers additional ways to differentiate products and give their customers more control over playback through EQ settings and channel selection capabilities, said Qualcomm. Optimized synchronization of less than 100 microseconds between devices makes the platform suitable for multiroom and multichannel wireless audio streaming, it said. Manufacturers can now build devices powered by AllPlay that take in audio from line-in sources, such as CD players or turntables, with the ability to re-stream to other AllPlay speakers around the home, it said. ASUSTeK, Magnat and Vestel also have announced plans to introduce AllPlay products.