Bang & Olufsen release the BeoSound 3

Turns out those rumors were true…Bang & Olufsen brings us the BeoSound 3 MP3/WMA player with FM radio and closed-box speaker for mono pumpin' sound. Like the BeoSound 2, it features an SD card slot which you'll need to fill since B&O couldn't squeeze any on-board storage into those 16-inches of tower. That 10-hour rechargeable battery and headphone jack makes this one ginormous pendant-style flash player, or make the most of the sleep timer, alarm, and digital clock for your very own alarm clock. For $850, you buy the right to decide. Following their previous design disaster, the BeoSound 3 actually looks pretty sweet if your pockets roll deep enough.

[Via New York Times]

[Sasha S. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

It looks to me that B&O people really do not understand this brave new digital world. I can not imagine anyone except hard-core B&O fetishists who are going to splurge this kindof money on this .... device.

Don't get me wrong I am Apple-fan - love the design + funtionality but this is just a disaster. Have they ever heard of focus-group testing?

Makes you wonder. Too bad.

Denmark: Zero points (eurovision song contest insider joke)

[duestown @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Flava Flav's pendant MP3 player of choice.

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Why is there NO love for the AM?!?! I would totally buy this if it had AM. Annoying.

[heath @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

sockatume, read the whole description: ginormous pendant-style flash, "ginormous" being the key word.... i can't believe this thing has no storage on board being that big, and costly... sasha is right, all design is ok for people with ginormous amounts of cash, but the rest of us like the combination of design and *gasp* functionality...

[yeah but @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

yeah but the antennea goes in and out automatically now that's gotta be worth something

[John M. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

At least it has buttons on it. Someone at Bose should be shot for allowing the new Bose Wave Radio 2 to hit the market without any actually buttons on it. Somehow Bose managed to convince themselves that the Wave Radio is more than a really, really nice clock radio. I have one, it's great, my parents have about 5 of them at their house. I would venture to say that you will find them in the bedrooms of most high end homes.

Really, I would love to upgrade my Wave Radio, the features of the new one are great but if I can't set the alarm, snooze it, or turn the alarm on or off without finding the little credit card remote in my morning haze, I'm not going to get it.

[Sockatume @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Fair enough, but I'm still bemused that they'd compare it to a pendant in the first place. It's like the writer went "Hey, I could totally... nah, nah, that'd be silly. It's huge. Still... hmmmmm...".

Prize for the first person to spot someone wearing it.

[Evinyatar @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Something's not right with that picture... maybe it's the fact that there's a B&O unit and a Porsche catalogue on it, combined with an IKEA lamp.

[vectorbug @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

"Following their previous design disaster, the BeoSound 3 actually looks pretty sweet if your pockets roll deep enough."

Uhm...thats not the attitude you guys had during the 49th podcast...What happened?

[sr @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I bet it sounds like crap as one can expect from B&O - all looks and no go. As for Bose wave radios being in "high end" homes, it is more likely in the homes of people who don't know better. Who buys this kind of garbage?

[Brad Hill @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I really like B&O but over the years they have been releasing overpriced piles of dung, like the no-so-portable BeoSound 1 (the preceding model had a handle), iPod shuffle initiator BeoSound 2, the lacking but still uber-priced HDR/DVD units and their whole line of phones including the new Serene co-developed with Samsung (even more user-hostile than their landline brethren). Unfortunately I believe the Beosound 3 will be relegated with the rest of these aesthetic duds.

However I hold their televisions and speakers in high regard, even much more so for any in the audio line which implements their Acoustic Lenses, which live up to the hype. They recently added it to an Audi.

[ryan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

#11 and every one else, B&O is a design company yes, and for the last 30 years have been way ahead of the rest in terms of style (althought i dont like this). But for sound quality, Their speakers are very good, not tops, but will be better than your average speaker, and most certainly better than Bose (the laughing stock of the audiophile industry).

[ruben dario @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

The phone does not look that impressive; though, I applaud their attempt at keeping it simple. Phones, IMHO, I trying to do too much while not doing their main function well. BeoSound 3 looks interesting and given their sound expertise it will probably sound well. I am way pass boomboxes.

I second that their audio and visual equiptment is great for the price. Granted if you have crazy $$$$$ you can always buy something more expensive.

Their av stuff will last and be enjoyed for many years which the same cannot be said for many consumer av equiptment out there. I rather save some cash and buy something that will last longer than milk and be 'upgraded' so often that your brand new av stuff is obsolete. Some people are tire of the throw away society that we have become. Everybody is looking for the cheapest and quality and workmanship be damn...

later

rd

[Sockatume @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Pendant style?

*looks at picture*

Just how big ARE the Engadget staff?

[Ted @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Hmmm... If anything it will look good next to the BeoCom 1 on my nightstand, that is if I don�t knock it over answering the phone or getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night... Also, if it ever does not work (as an alarm clock) I guess I could make a house payment selling it on EBAY!

[Ted @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Hmmm... If anything it will look good next to the BeoCom 1 on my nightstand, that is if I don�t knock it over answering the phone or getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night... Also, if it ever does not work (as an alarm clock) I guess I could make a house payment selling it on EBAY!