Logitech makes Squeezebox Radio and Touch official
By Tim Stevens 
posted Sep 3rd 2009 4:00AM
posted Sep 3rd 2009 4:00AM
Logitech® Squeezebox™ Radio Wi-Fi music player
Big sound from a small package - A world of Internet radio throughout your home
Announcement Date: September 3, 2009
Shipping: September 2009
Price: $199.99
Available at: www.logitech.com
Product Overview
For music lovers who want to enhance their enjoyment of digital music (Internet radio, online music services, and songs stored on their computers), Logitech Squeezebox Radio provides easy access to a world of digital music through a vibrant color interface and big sound from a small form-factor that fits into any room in your home.
Key Features
• Plays Internet radio and digital music files over your home Wi-Fi network including DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads, Internet radio, and subscription music services like Rhapsody, Napster, Pandora, Sirius, and others.
• Integrated amplifier lets you enjoy full, high-quality sound with low distortion anywhere in your home thanks to an all-in-one design that includes speakers (woofers and tweeters). Just plug it in to a power outlet – no additional wires to connect.
• Color screen can display album art, track and station information and photo screen savers.
• Social Networking support: Facebook users can share music recommendations and see their friends' recommendations right on the display and Flickr users can show a slideshow.
• True 802.11g wireless networking optimizes wireless network speeds and provides a secure connection.
• Auto-dimming display adjusts brightness based on room lighting, making Squeezebox Radio ideal for any room, including your bedside table.
• 6 preset buttons allow one touch access to favorite radio stations and playlists.
• Available in black or red.
System Requirements
• 256 MB RAM and 100 MB hard disk space
• Ethernet or 802.11 b/g/n wireless network
• Windows: 733 MHz Pentium running Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista
• Mac: OS X 10.3.5 or later
• Linux / BSD / Solaris / Other: Perl 5.8.3 or later
Product Specifications
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 8.66 inches x 5.12 inches x 5.04 inches
Warranty
• 2-year limited warranty
Logitech® Squeezebox™ Touch Wi-Fi music player
Enjoy a virtually unlimited music collection – all through your home stereo
Announcement Date: September 3, 2009
Shipping: December 2009
Price: $299.99
Available at: www.logitech.com
Product Overview
For music lovers who want to listen to digital music in their living room, Logitech® Squeezebox™ Touch uses an intuitive, fun-to-use touch screen with your existing Wi-Fi network to stream your favorite digital tunes to your stereo system. An intuitive 4.3-inch color touch screen lets you easily select and play music, and view album art and photos. And support for high-resolution encoding gives you rich sound very little distortion.
Key Features
• 4.3-inch color touch screen lets you easily select and play music from up close using the intuitive color touch menus, and view album art or photos.
• SqueezeNetwork brings the music you love – including Internet radio, DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads, and subscription music services like Rhapsody, Napster, Pandora, Slacker, Sirius, and more – together wirelessly
• Support for a wide variety of digital music files, including uncompressed and lossless
• USB Port and SD card slot let you access music and pictures stored on flash drives or memory cards.
• Support for high-resolution encoding gives you high quality sound with very low distortion.
• 802.11g wireless networking optimizes network speeds and provides a secure connection.
• Add more Squeezebox products to create a multi-room music system.
System Requirements
• 256 MB RAM and 100 MB hard disk space
• Ethernet or 802.11 b/g/n wireless network
• Windows: 733 MHz Pentium running Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista
• Mac: OS X 10.3.5 or later
• Linux / BSD / Solaris / Other: Perl 5.8.3 or later
• Stereo system or powered speakers
• Broadband Internet connection required for Internet radio and music services
Warranty
• 2-year limited warranty
Appears from the specs that the Radio has 802.11 b/g/n.
Interesting that the comments system has decided to call me Lordo. Must be a sign. Of dyslexia.
lol wut
From what I can gather it's not actually 801.11n, it's just that like all g stuff it's compatible with a “n” network. I could be wrong but this would be a pretty big change and there has been no mention of this on the Slim forums.
Touch looks nice, for having a nice big screen more than being touchable. Not sure about the slim remote though, I always liked the shape of my current-gen Squeezebox remote (SB3 I think)
Would this work with spotify?
Not directly yet as apparently the developers (who want to support it) are waiting for a usable API to be finalised. However lots of people have got it to work using a plugin - see discussion here http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=64590&highlight=spotify
Is the radio a replacement for the Squeezebox boom? I wonder what the difference in sound quality is between them.
It looks like a much smaller device to me - more a kitchen/bedside radio replacement.
Also the radio looks to be portable, so you can take it outdoors
Still sounds like there isn't any battery option, which would really make sense with this gadget.
"Just plug it in to a power outlet – no additional wires to connect."
I like the concept of Squeezbox a lot but think that they are grossly overpriced. Having set up a Boom think that the remote control is, very poorly made.
True, However a small peice of folded up paper fixed it up a treat :)
No word on SqueezeCenter? Are they now iTunes only? Although to me, its not that clear that these things play from iTunes librarys. "DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads" sounds more like "plays AAC in M4A-Container".
Okay, forget about this one. SqueezeCenter is still the way to go:
NT/2000/XP/Vista/OS X 10.3.5/Linux/BSD/Solaris/Perl 5.8.3
Don't now about that ambiguous iTunes statement though.
No it still uses squeezecenter.
Not quite sure what you are saying but SC will play non drm songs from iTunes, you just point your SC library where your Itunes tracks are stored.
There is some iTunes integration via a plugin but as I have never used it I can't really comment. However here is an overview from the wiki http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Beginners_Guide_To_iTunes
VTech IS9181 is a similar alternative to Squeezebox Radio (also with a color screen, which is a much nicer feature than I even expected), available now, and cheaper.
I have one, and I like it a lot!!
http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/store/music/index.cfm
Oh, nice. The Vtech has a line out, which the Squeezebox Radio lacks.
Unbelievably dumb of Logitech to build a mono radio and not give it a line out.
Spec say 3.5 headphones jack which is a line out just like the boom. Maybe you can't get it to function as sub out, but I didn't care for this feature much anyway with the boom.
As an alarm clock + squeez receiver combo (connected to my bedroom stereo) which is how I use boom today the radio looks promising. I hope the LCD will not be too bright.
Sadly, the vtech device does not have support for Pandora...
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-audio-receivers-dars/vtech-is9181-wi-fi/4505-6470_7-33485088.html
Is the Squeezebox Radio MONO?
It looks like it only has one speaker, and while it might produce both left and right out of that one speaker its not going to have a very good sound stage.....
I'll stick with my boom.
Hmm..lemme see.
$199 for a device that is hyped up MP3 / Wifi enabled media streamer
or
$249 for a Netbook computer.
I'll sleep on it! LOL!
Or the soon to be released Zune HD. That will have streaming radio too, plus you'll just load all your music on it and be done with things. Oh yeah, you'll be able to take the whole thing with you so you can have your music on the road with you. Just get an A/V dock for each room in the house you want to listen to music in.
The Squeezebox tech is cool, but seems to be eclipsed by other products at this point.
Is there a place where I can find the radio station list? I'd like to see what stations they support before buying one of the squeezebox devices.
If it's anything like existing Squeezebox devices, then you have an option to browse and search the entire ShoutCast directory. And of course enter your own URLs manually if you wish.
can someone explain to my why this thing has a touch screen that sits on top of your stereo.. isn't that other duet thing they had much better where the screen is in the remote.... you can search, skip etc right from the remote.. this thing makes no sense to be at all... what the hell where they thinking??
doctorSpoc, all of the Logitech components work together. You can use your duet remote with this player. And if you just want to look over and see what song is playing you can look at the big screen.
I'm peordering mine now. I test it with my VortexBox media server and report the results!
Some people aren't lazy fat asses that sit on the couch all day. The screen is much bigger, and you can walk up and browse through your cover art to pick albums. For the same price as the Classic, you now get a nice big color screen.
Am I the only one wishing they did a real update on the Boom? And don't even say the Radio is an update of the boom.
@mehrad I read an article yesterday stating that updates to the Boom, and Duet were to follow the release of this Radio.
Seriously . Why not get yourself a used/good condition NOKIA N800 off of Ebay.
Probably get one for under $99 or less.
Believe me. As an owner of the N800, you can get scores of great and FREE Media Playing software and it has WIFI too. It has the 3.5mm output. And it can play almost all media file types.
Plus it has web browser, email, and about 1000 other apps. It is an INTERNET TABLET.
With a stand and get for the bedroom or kitchen for internet radio or streaming music.
....oh...btw.. it has Skype downloads for it too.
So you can make nearly FREE calls to anywhere in the world from it while listening to music and surfing the web. NOKIA N800
NokiaFanBoy
"¾-inch (1.9 cm) high-definition, soft-dome tweeters and 3-inch (7.6 cm) high-power, long-throw woofers " for the Boom
vs.
"¾-inch (1.9 cm) high-definition, soft-dome tweeter and 3-inch (7.6 cm) high-power, long-throw woofer" for the Radio.
Notice the plural vs. singular. That's the $100 difference I guess.