Squeezebox Duet is even more feature-filled on second glance

While the Squeezebox Duet's original spec sheet might've been enticing enough, it doesn't look like Logitech is just leaving it at that. It turns out this little-remote-that-could includes Flickr support, a built-in speaker and headphone jack, a hidden SD card slot, IR transmitter and a 3-axis accelerometer. That's in addition to the WiFi media streaming and controls we've touched upon, and there's even an expansion port on the bottom if that still isn't enough. We're not quite sure what a WiFi home audio controller needs a 3-axis accelerometer for, but we want.

[aguiluz @ Jan 14th 2008 4:10PM]

"3-axis Accelerometer"

Then the "Big N" goes to court yelling how Logitech copied the WiiMote.

[cmc @ Jan 14th 2008 4:12PM]

But.............Why?

[JC @ Jan 14th 2008 4:32PM]

My momma's got one of these. My daddy hardly sleeps at night.

[Lerch @ Jan 14th 2008 4:46PM]

LOL, aguiluz, that's my thought as well. Could the port on the bottom be to add a SqueezeNunchuck?

This device is really neat, but I wish they would just come out with cheaper Squeezeboxes.

[bruno @ Jan 14th 2008 4:47PM]

i'll bet it just kicks out of stand-by mode when you pick it up... nothing revolutionary

[Taylor @ Jan 14th 2008 4:47PM]

There are lots of reasons to have an accelerometer on something like this, but the simplest reason is detecting when to put the device to sleep based on when it last moved.
-Taylor

[zamir.evan @ Jan 15th 2008 8:22AM]

As a beta tester of the (formerly "Jive") remote for the past several months, I can tell you this product is for real. And to those wondering about the accelerometer, the main use I have seen for it is that it knows when to wake up simply by grabbing hold of it. The controller works not only for the new headless receiver, but also the older SB3 (I'm not sure about the SB2 or older models). Anyway, it's a great remote. I was considering buying a Nokia N810 or Asus Eee just as a remote for my SB3, but this controller does just about everything I need.

[mathew @ Jan 14th 2008 5:19PM]

A TV remote with music streaming, Flickr and accelerometers? WTF? It sounds like a joke Sharper Image product.

[LD @ Jan 14th 2008 5:22PM]

Currently, the accelerometer is there to put the device's screen to black when it's sitting on the table. However, there are a ton of possibilities, such as flipping the remote on its face to pause the music, flipping back upright to resume. Being an open source device, there are tons of developers adding fun bits of functionality to this daily. The SD slot is there so you can copy over your own firmware image with your own apps, if you choose, or for storing debug logs.

[Bob S. @ Jan 14th 2008 5:29PM]

For those of you still living in the '90s, many of Logitech's remotes have accelerometers that trigger the screens and backlighting.

[dylanzznz @ Jan 14th 2008 5:38PM]

yes, the firmware for the remote open source, but not completely
it's a special logitech license; you're free to modify in any way you see fit, with the source code available freely, BUT YOU CANNOT REDISTRIBUTE YOUR OWN 'SPINS' of the firmware.

i can also confirm that the accelerometer does literally nothing more than undimming the screen when you shake the thing, at this point anyway

and yeah, it's all wifi, so flickr is natural, and it has a built-in RSS reader

ALSO: it has an infrared port, which as far as i can tell from playing around with it is NOT used at the moment

plenty of potential though

[SuperQ @ Jan 14th 2008 6:04PM]

This devices comes from the people who built the squeezebox. It's not just a consumer device, it's also a hackers device. The built in a few extras just in case people wanted to try something different than what they thought of. A great example of this was the Squeezebox's headphone port could be more easily software controlled. At the request of a community member they added some extra bits so that the port could be modulated to simulate IR controls and now you can use it to send IR commands to your stereo to turn on and select the proper input.

Idiots will ask "What did they add that for?", but the smart people ask "What could I create using these parts."

[Sirocco @ Jan 14th 2008 7:42PM]

I have a SqueezeBox but don't use any of its added features, other than displaying title info of the current song. It's great for simply listening to internet radio.

[blblack @ Jan 14th 2008 10:02PM]

As long as we're getting into the device's hacking potential, I should note that it runs embedded Linux, and you can ssh into the remote over wifi (and scp in new peices of software).

[interspectrum @ Jan 14th 2008 11:11PM]

I have a squeezebox 1 and 2. They are the best way IMHO to stream your music collection to a quality home system (or a crappy one was well). SlimDevices makes good stuff and they put audio quality first, hackablity second. Just because it might be hacker friendly, these things still sound great. If you don't believe that they are audio freaks, then go to slimdevices.com and check out the Transporter!

I think many people who are not familiar with SlimDevices see that their products have a Logitech name on it and write the product off as a crappy cheap consumer product. This however is just wrong. Time will tell if SlimDevices will stay true to their small company history or if Logitech will destroy their new devision's ability to great audio hardware for the wired generation.

[glenn s @ Jan 15th 2008 1:10AM]

Not sure why you associate Logitech with "crappy" and "cheap". I've been using Logitech products for 15 years, and those are not adjectives that I would use. So far Logitech has done good things with the Harmony remotes that they acquired. I suspect they will do good things with SlimDevices as well.

[Jon @ Jan 18th 2008 3:43AM]

Picture and video here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbauer/2201055378/