airplay2
Latest
Sonos confirms only newer speakers will support AirPlay 2
When Sonos announced forthcoming support for AirPlay 2 back in October, it was pretty vague about exactly what that would look like. Now, it's clarified matters, and while support is definitely on its way, there are a few caveats involved. In an announcement to MacObserver, the company says that AirPlay 2 will only be compatible with the Sonos One, Sonos Play:5 and Playbase. Older speakers won't have native support.
Apple's iOS update brings AirPlay 2 with multi-room playback
This week Apple revealed exactly what we can expect from iOS 11.3 -- which will roll out for iPhones and iPads this spring -- and hidden among the new Animoji, improved resolution and Business Chat features is support for AirPlay 2, a long-awaited feature that Apple appeared to go quiet on following its announcement at WWDC 2017. And it officially supports multi-room playback, which means you can stream to multiple Apple TVs and speakers around the house direct from your iPhone.
Apple's HomePod won't have multi-room or stereo audio at launch
Apple just announced that its HomePod smart speaker is set to ship February 9th of this year. What didn't make the large print is that it won't support multi-room audio or stereo pairing on that date. These are pretty big features of all other internet-connected speakers these days, which really shows how down to the wire Apple is on getting HomePod into your living room, especially after the recent delay.
Sonos will add AirPlay 2 support for direct control in 2018
If you watched in envy as your Spotify-loving friends controlled their Sonos systems from within the music streaming app, hoping Tidal and AirPlay 2 would follow, there's reason to celebrate. The audio firm has announced support for those services as well as Pandora. AirPlay 2 won't be out until next year, but Pandora and Tidal will be available before the end of 2017. Meaning, you'll be able to control a multi-speaker system via your streaming app of choice rather than Sonos' own kludgy application. It's the latest step Sonos is taking to provide a platform-agnostic experience, where almost everything works with its hardware regardless of who's providing the music.
Sonos One is the company's first speaker with built-in voice control
Sonos wasn't shy about promising a voice-controlled speaker at its October 4th event, and it's delivering. The Sonos One will support Alexa out of the box, but Sonos says it's open to using other voice assistants -- in fact, Google Assistant will be coming in 2018. The company says this is the first smart speaker for music lovers. It looks like a Play:1 on the outside (not a bad thing), but it has a six-microphone array to pick up your spoken commands and lighting to indicate when voice control is active.
Apple brings multiroom speaker support to HomeKit with AirPlay 2
Apple's HomeKit has provided iPhone and iPad users with a simple platform to connect multiple smart home devices, but it's shied away from one of the most important gadgets: speakers. Before revealing the rumored Siri speaker, the company announced today that it's expanding its smart home hub to support a large number of third-party audio hardware.
