Sonos has a new musical trio landing in SA before month’s end

Brett Venter — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 22:00:00 +0000

Sonos makes some pretty good audio gear. That’s not a vague statement of fact, we didn’t give the Sonos Beam Stuff‘s Hi-Fi Gadget of the Year and, ya know, the friggin’ Gadget of the Year award in 2018 for nothing. There’s a new set of Sonos gear landing in South Africa over the next two weeks and they’re all worth checking out. Meet the Sonos One SL, Move, and Port — three very different candidates clamouring for your attention.

Rule of three

First up is the One SL, a evolution of the very popular One. Not a whole lot has changed with the speaker, but there is one major difference. The One SL drops the mics, removing the option to use Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa. It’s just a (stylish and effective) speaker now, rather than a combined digital assistant.

The Move, as the name suggests, is designed to move around. Billed as an outdoor speaker, it’s got a convenient finger hole (like a bowling ball, only nothing like that) for carting it about. It’s got an IP56 rating (for general weather and dust — don’t drop it in the pool) because you’ll be using the Move outside. Alexa is built into the device, and the casing is rated for more abusive treatment than Sonos speakers are used to. Again, you’re taking this thing outside. Mishaps happen.

Then there’s the Port, which looks more like an Apple TV than a speaker. Because, well, it’s a so-called ‘streaming component. It stands between Sonos hardware and other, less intelligent bits.The ability to connect to older tech has left the Port with a bunch of legacy ports — cos you’ll need em. It also supports Apple’s Airplay 2 and can stream directly from iPhone and iPad hardware. So that Apple TV similarity? Yeah, that suddenly makes a bunch of sense.

They are coming

The Sonos One SL pitches up first in South Africa, from 18 September. Next up is the Port (R9,000, on 20 September). Finally, the Move will cost R8000 here in South Africa at launch. We’re told that launch day will be 27 September.

The Sonos trio will drop overseas a few days before South Africa gets access to the devices. Local pricing and availability was provided by PlanetWorld, where you’ll find the Sonos Move, One SL and Port on their respective launch days. We suspect you’ll spot ’em at other outlets as well — this is just the info we’ve got for now.

The post Sonos has a new musical trio landing in SA before month’s end appeared first on Stuff South Africa.

Apple prices and dates Apple Arcade, Apple TV Plus – and they’re coming here

Brett Venter — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 22:00:00 +0000

Man, Apple really knows how to underwhelm with their launches these days. Jumping right into the event (which suggests they’ve got a lot to get to), we were treated to a handful of gameplay demos for some of the titles coming to Apple Arcade. Demonstrations from Konami and Capcom led the way, but it wasn’t long before we got some actual information.

Coin operated

Information in the shape of Apple Arcade’s launch information. The service will launch with a selection of titles, for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, from 19 September. Pricing? That’d be just $5, or about R75. What you might want to know is: Will I get to play it? Since the service launches in over 150 countries, there’s an extremely good chance we’re included in the initial rollout. There’s less of a chance of that with Apple’s other announcement: Apple TV Plus.

Coming soon

Opening with a trailer for new series See, starring Jason Momoa and revolving around a world where people can no longer see, we got the relevant details about Apple TV Plus’ launch. If you want it, you’re going to have to be in the over-100 launch countries — which may or may not include SA. We’ll have to wait for more info there.

But we do know the service will launch with a limited number of shows, that will be constantly increased upon. Launch day? 1 November. Price? $5 or R75. Oh, yeah, and if you buy a new Apple device (like an iPad, iPhone, Macbook, and so on), you’ll also get a free year’s access to Apple TV Plus. Still, though… this isn’t the way we were hoping the festivities would commence.