USA TODAY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 MONEY 5B TECH Apple brings ‘totally new feel’ to its iOS 7 SONY Overhaul is from The Sony Hi-Res Music Player has a built-in 1 Terabyte hard drive. Hear that? Sony has the ground up Jefferson Graham [email protected] new high-res gear USA TODAY
Mike Snider @mikesnider USA TODAY TALKING LOS ANGELES Like it or Sony is turning up the volume on TECH not, your Apple mobile EVERY high-resolution music. THURSDAY device is going to look The electronics company has a and act dierently with- new line of products, coming this fall, in a few weeks. that play a variety of high-resolution On Tuesday, Apple will introduce music formats, including new Direct SONY the latest iPhone, and part of the tra- Stream Digital (DSD) downloads. Miles Davis in 1959 session. dition of the new device introduction JEFFERSON GRAHAM, USA TODAY Several music companies, includ- is an operating system update that, at JibJab co-founders and brothers Gregg Spiridellis, left, and Evan Spiridellis. Evan ing Sony, Universal and Warner, rectly from the music player over some point, most of us upgrade to. says iOS 7 will “be a little shocking at first. It’s a totally new feel.” pledged to support the high-res your home stereo. So even without springing for the movement with more releases. Two A lower-priced Sony HAP-S1 Hi- new phone, your older iPhone gets a stylistic upgrade that will see buttons new music players come with 20 Res Music Player System ($999) has free new coat of paint — and poten- and icons in new places, look for: high-res tracks pre-loaded; among similar capabilities, but sports only a tial pain — with tools in dierent uInstant app updates. In the past, the artists: Miles Davis, Willie Nel- 500-gigabyte hard drive. For those places and dierent ways to access you had to manually update each app son, Aretha Franklin, the Beach Boys, who prefer to keep a computer as the apps. when changes were oered. Now Sting, John Mayer and Sheryl Crow. center of their digital music system, Unlike past upgrades, iOS 7 is a they’ll be done automatically in the Sony and the labels hope to attract the USB Hi-Res DAC System ($799) from-the-ground-up overhaul. Apple background. consumers with music downloads bridges your iTunes collection and CEO Tim Cook calls it “the biggest uControl Center. The eight most APPLE that improve on MP3 and other com- your sound system. change to iOS since the introduction Apple’s new mobile operating system, commonly used features will reside pressed formats. High-res downloads Also out this fall: two types of Hi- of iPhone” in 2007. iOS 7, is coming soon. on the Control Center screen, which boast CD-quality sound and a vinyl- Res speakers (priced at $599 and Basic functions have been altered. can be accessed by one quick swipe. like listening experience. $399 per pair) and headphones, For instance, to go from one e-mail VIDEO ONLINE So instead of going to the Settings “Now is the time to oer high-res- starting at $199. For more informa- to the next, instead of swiping to the TECH.USATODAY.COM icon, opening it up and turning on olution audio products that bring tion go to www.sony.com/hires. left or right, you swipe upward and Jeerson Graham previews Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you’ll find those music enthusiasts closer to their fa- Compared with CD, DSD uses a downward. Apple’s new iOS 7. options in Control Center, along with vorite recordings, and allow them to higher sampling rate of the original For consumers, “It’ll be a little Flashlight, Camera, clock and experience those recordings the way to produce an improved recording. shocking at first,” says Evan Spiridel- So way more people will upgrade calculator. the artists, producers and engineers “It gives us back what we lost when lis, who runs the JibJab e-commerce to the new operating system then uInstagram-like features in the always intended,” said Sony Presi- we went to digital in the early ’80s,” company with brother Gregg. “It’s a pick up the new phone, which is ex- camera app. Filters to pretty-up pho- dent and COO Phil Molyneux in a says Gus Skinas of the Super Audio totally new feel.” pected to be in stores by the end of tos are added, along with the ability statement released in conjunction Center in Boulder, Colo. JibJab has been working with a September. to shoot photos in a square format. with the Wednesday announcement. Sony joined Universal oering test version of iOS 7 over the sum- The last update was widely accept- That means you won’t have to crop Consumers have a growing inter- DSD downloads available from on- mer. “After a few days of flipping ed: IOS 6 is installed on more than your pictures anymore for inclusion est in high-resolution music, Moly- line retailer Acoustic Sounds (Super- around, people are going to love it.” 93% of Apple devices, according to in Instagram. neux said, citing new data from the HiRez.com), which last week became Developer Joel Housman of Alex- the company. The new update works Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner, Consumer Electronics Association. the first to oer them from major la- andria, Va., says consumers will also on devices back to the iPhone 4, the says Apple had to make the software For nine in 10 consumers, sound bels. With 70-plus albums available scream loudly, in the negative, upon iPad 2 and fifth-generation iPod change. quality is the most important compo- now, the store is expected to expand the iOS 7 release, much as “every Touch. “The trade press was getting very nent of a quality audio experience, to 500 by the end of the year. time Facebook makes an interface Apple will begin reminding folks, negative to how stale and old-looking research suggests. And almost 40% of “We want music to be oered in all change, they complain about it.” when iOS 7 is available, that it’s time iOS was,” he says. “In truth, most us- consumers with a moderate interest kinds of flavors ... and formats,” says It takes most consumers time to to upgrade the software. ers don’t care. Nonetheless, it was in audio say they are willing to pay Acoustic Sounds founder Chad learn the intricacies of a new device, The iOS 7 launch comes in a year worthwhile to do it and give it a fresh more for high-quality audio devices. Kassem. he says. The iOS overhaul will force when Apple’s once-strong lead over new look.” That’s good, because the new “High-resolution audio is simply folks “to learn how to do things dif- competitors has begun to fade. Goo- And Gregg Spiridellis says despite products from Sony are premium- about giving consumers more ferently” even on their current gle’s Android — and the hot-selling the pain some consumers might feel priced. The 1-terabyte Sony Hi-Res choices. No one wants to walk into an phones. Samsung Galaxy series of smart- initially, it will be worth the upgrade. HDD Music Player, priced at $1,999, ice cream store and only see vanilla There are 600 million Apple mo- phones — now dominate worldwide, “It feels like you have a new upscales music to DSD quality. You being oered. We want music to be bile devices in use worldwide — in- although the iPhone has the edge phone,” he says. “It’s that freshness of can sync music from your PC via oered in all kinds of flavors ... and cluding just over 60 million of last here in the United States. getting something new, even though ethernet or Wi-Fi and then play it di- formats.” year’s new model, the iPhone 5. Beyond a new coat of paint and you didn’t have to pay for it.” Mini Jambox: Big sound, small package regular Jambox. The latest model is wasn’t able to test it in advance on Edward C. Baig actually louder and clearer then the the Mini. @edbaig original, and like its sibling promises Nor could I test a free companion [email protected] 10 hours of battery life. iOS app that launched with the new USA TODAY While that original brick is small speaker on Wednesday. You can con- and light enough to throw into a trol the speaker from the app. You backpack and take to the road, Jaw- can name your device through the bone is positioning the Mini as an app. The app also brings together even more portable speaker. You can playlists from Spotify, Rdio, Deezer In 2010, the folks at stash it in your pocket and pull it out and iTunes. An Android version of PERSONAL JAMBOX TECH Jawbone unveiled the when you want to bolster the sound the app is coming. Jambox, a small, brick- of the music, game or movie emerg- Jawbone’s new 9-ounce Mini Via Bluetooth, you can pair up to shaped 12-ounce wire- ing from your smartphone or tablet Jambox retails for $179.99. eight devices with the Mini, and less Bluetooth stereo so that you can share it with your manage two connections simulta- speaker that delivered surprisingly companions. volume or kept levels soft. As you neously. Of course, you can play vol- big sound. It cost $199 and doubled Mini Jambox comes in nine colors might imagine, though, the Mini ume from only one at a time. Like its as a speakerphone. and five designs, carrying the kind of doesn’t have quite the oomph of its larger siblings, Mini Jambox, too, Just over a year ago, Jawbone names marketers love to drum up Big Jambox sibling for providing the functions as a speakerphone. brought out a larger brick with even (Aqua Scales, Purple Snowflake, etc.). soundtrack at a large backyard bar- Jawbone is taking orders at its bigger sound, the aptly named Big I paired the new speaker with an becue. website. Retail availability comes lat- Jambox for $299. iPhone and iPad to watch YouTube, While watching a scene from Iron er, at Apple Stores, AT&T, Best Buy, Now, Jawbone is at it again. On movie clips and to listen to an eclec- Man, Jawbone demonstrated an im- Target and Verizon stores. Wednesday, Jawbone announced the tic mix of music. I listened indoors mersive Live Audio feature that adds The field for compact Bluetooth 9-ounce Mini Jambox, which comes and out and was quite impressed an extra dimension of sound as you speakers is quite crowded. But Jaw- in about half the size of the Jambox with the clear sound that came watch a movie or play a game. I’ve bone with the Mini Jambox has pro- and retails for $179.99, same as the through — whether I pumped up the tried the feature on Big Jambox but duced another standout.
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