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

Sonos might be looking into supporting ‘multiple voice platforms’ for future smart speakers

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has once sent an internal memo to his team stating that he was willing to work with “global leaders like Amazon, Google, and (likely) Apple… [to bring] all the services that matter to every home.” And it looks like they’re at least trying to make that happen. A recent FCC filing that references “Product model S13,” Sonos might bring different voice assistants to its smart speaker. The filing describes the S13 has having “integrated voice control functionality” and supports “multiple voice platforms and music services.” If Sonos will be able to integrate the likes of Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and even Microsoft’s Cortana, that should give them an advantage over their competitors.

Aside from that, the FCC filing shows off the possible UI look (as you see above). It shows a microphone, pause/play, as well as two unspecified icons to each side of the pause and play button. There’s also a line above the pause/play button. The S13 indicated also comes with far-field microphones, which can be seen in the likes of the Echo devices and Google Home.

Source: Android Authority

Sonos coming to Apple Retail and online stores on October 5

Sonos wireless hi-fi audio products are going to be available at Apple Retail and online stores starting on October 5. 

Sonos is by expanding their collaboration with Apple and bringing Sonos into Apple’s physical and online retail stores. Two of their popular speakers — the PLAY:1 and PLAY:5 — are immediately available at Apple.com in the US today, at 468 Apple Stores worldwide on October 5, and Apple’s online stores outside of the US starting November 2. 

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