AirPlay 2 now available, ask Siri to play music on your Sonos smart speakers

Sonos has taken pains to ensure that it's smart speaker line up can work with various partners. The Sonos One and Sonos Beam already work with Amazon Alexa out of the box.

Now that Apple's AirPlay 2 standard has been made available, users of iPhones and iPads can also use their Sonos speakers.

I've tested AirPlay 2 on some Sonos speakers by setting up the Sonos app on my iPhone. Suddenly I see some of my recent Sonos speakers appearing as AirPlay 2 compatible. This allows me to quickly route audio from my iPad or iPhone to any of these nearby smart speakers.

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Sound Control: The Apple HomePod Review

 By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple's HomePod is one of the most mystifying products in the market today. The most recent product category from Cupertino is essentially a Siri-powered Apple Music speaker with HomeKit inclinations.

After spending time with the device, however, I discovered a choc-full of innovative features and functions aimed to delight iPhone users.

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Sonos Song Series celebrates 20th anniversary of seminal 'Northern Touch' hip-hop track

Rascalz, Thurst, Kardinal Offishall and Choclair celebrate 'Northern Touch' at the Sonos Song Stories event in Toronto

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto - Sonos has sponsored various Song Stories events across the world and in downtown Toronto yesterday, it celebrated 'Northern Touch', a collaborative hip-hop track by artists Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, Checkmate and Thrust, which put the Canadian hip-hop scene on the map even if it got very little airplay or support at home.

The song, which represented various locales in Canada, blew up on American and International radio stations and its video was one of the first works by Little X, who is now known as Director X and is one of the most sought after musiv video directors as well as a feature film director working on a Superfly reboot this year. The Northern Touch video also launched the career of model Melyssa Ford.

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Sonos One speaker to get Google Assistant support in 2018

The Sonos One speaker is shaping up to be the most competitive in terms of supporting the major virtual assistants out on the market. The speaker, which is the company’s answer to the Amazon Echos, Google Homes, and Apple HomePods of the world, is going to open public beta support for Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. This time, Google’s own Google Assistant will be joining the fray. It’ll get all the features Assistant offers on other devices. What we don’t know is if these two virtual assistants will work side by side or if there will be specific models per system. On top of these two, the Sonos One is also getting Siri Support through AirPlay 2 in the coming year, making it a pretty formidable speaker/smart home hub.

Source: The Verge