lounge
Latest
Audi is piloting battery-powered EV fast-charging stations
Audi has unveiled an interesting high-speed "charging hub" concept that will allow EV users to make a reservation for up to 300 kW charging speeds.
Nokia brings wireless charging to Virgin Atlantic lounges, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
Nokia thinks you'll like the wireless phone charging on your Lumia 920 or 820 enough to want to take it on the road, and to that end it's striking a deal to bring the cable-free experience beyond the home. Both Virgin Atlantic's lounge at Heathrow Airport and countertops at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the US will let you top up your Windows Phone without having to hunt for a power outlet. We're still waiting on details like the timing, but we're glad to know that we won't have to lug around our FatBoy Recharge Pillows just to keep living in Nokia's vision of the future.
Pure Music looks to give Spotify a run for its money, but only in the UK
If you're looking to save a little coin on your Adele streaming habits, Pure Music may be worth a look. Beginning in December, you can have millions of songs at your fingertips for £4.99 (about $8) a month -- but only in the UK. Music on-demand, internet radio and other programs will be available for your laptop, iOS device or one of the company's many WiFi capable devices, all for a monthly sum that's slightly cheaper than Spotify. Should you make use of the Tag bookmarking system on one of Pure's radios, you'll be able to access those highlighted tracks on your smartphone or computer as well. Don't worry Android faithful, an app tailored for you is in the works. Need a peek at the fine print? No worries, just hit the source link below and read away.
Pure launches Contour, One Flow and i-20, also debuts FlowSongs cloud-based music service
It's a heavy day at CES, and it's also a big day for the folks at Pure. Not only have they provided an updated release time table for the Sensia ("later in 2011" for an unknown amount) and Sirocco 550 (March for $499), but it's also branching out with a few unexpected launches. In order to get even more tunes to the outfit's blossoming line of WiFi radios, Pure has revealed its FlowSongs cloud-based music service -- put simply, it enables consumers to buy music directly from their radio and Pure's Lounge iPhone app. Users are instructed to 'Like' songs on FM or internet radio, and then within the same interface, they're able to click 'Buy' while simultaneously scratching that Instant Gratification itch. Customers can download high-quality versions of the MP3 onto their Mac and PC, and it'll work on any Flow radio. Currently, the service is expected to launch as a public beta in North America this spring, with individual tracks priced between $0.99 and $1.49 depending on the publisher. Unfortunately, there's a $5.99 yearly subscription to actually use FlowSongs, which all but guarantees failure in a world where $1.49 tracks feel too pricey on their own. Moving on, the company is also dishing out a few hardware announcements. Up first is the Contour (shown above), an iPod / iPhone-friendly WiFi radio that touts a black crescent shape (not too unlike Meridian's M80), touch-sensitive controls and a trio of video outputs (composite, component and S-Video). The One Flow ($149) is about as basic as it gets, rocking a truly retro motif, a 3.5mm auxiliary input and a pair of alarms. Wrapping things up, there's the i-20, which is hailed as the only digital iPod dock available that supports component, S-Video and composite outputs. In a nutshell, it's a video output stand for your iPod or iPhone, which may or may not be worth the $99 asking price. Head on past the break for specifics on availability, and tap that source link once your credit card is ready. %Gallery-112399%
Beta Beat: Twitter app Lounge
In the history of marketing battles, The Cola Wars have nothing on the Twitter App War that's currently raging online. Twitterrific, TweetDeck and others (popular with commenters: Pwitter and DestroyTwitter) are waging the ground battle, while Twitterrific (mobile), Tweetie and TwitterFon (to name a few) are fighting it out in the air.Today we got our hands on a beta of Lounge, a new client for Mac OS X (and iPhone/iPod touch). It's definitely got a way to go (I saw more beach balls than Memorial Day at Hilton Head), but I see where they're going and I like it. First off, there's support for multiple accounts, and switching between them is easy. A series of buttons appear horizontally in the left of the window, including "My 2 Cents" (which displays just your tweets), Favorites, Friends, Replies and my favorite, Vanity, which finds all occurrences of your Twitter handle.Mouse over a user's tweet to see options to re-tweet, copy the URL, open in a browser and more. I really like the option to view user details, which lets you see just that user's tweets, his followers, those being followed and profile and URL. It is kind of wide (wider than Twitterrific but not TweetDeck, of course) so those with small displays be warned. Also, some may be put off by the pastel-colored icons. Still, it shows promise. Check it out if you're up for it, and provide some feedback to make Lounge better.
Inside the Xbox 360 Lounge
A Flickr user recently visited the Xbox 360 Lounge in Tokyo and has posted photos of the experience, helping us Westerners answer the question "So what really goes on in there?" for once and for all. It's a glorification of all things 360, from the tables to the integral gift shop (of course) and huge stacks of consoles for sale, and looks like a great stop to take if you're planning on visiting Japan in the near future. As the lounge is scheduled to close in just over two weeks, on January 15th, it's not going to be an easily repeatable visit.
