Sonos introduces new accessory to dock your iPhone/iPod
by Volker Weber
In a surpise move Sonos has announced a new accessory that I have been testing for a couple of weeks. The wireless dock WD100 is another node on your SonosNet. It holds an iPod or an iPhone and charges the device through the power supply that comes with the dock. To the iPod it looks like a car stereo, to Sonos it's a line-in. So you can play anything from the iPod that goes out through line-out, and on top of that you can control the iPod from your Sonos remote.
It's different from a NAS storage, because you don't see the files to queue them up, but you just tell the iPod what to play and you can relay the sound to one group of ZonePlayers at a time. You can also set a default player for the dock. If a friend visits with his iPhone, it will just continue to play his music through the designated player as soon as it is docked.
At 119 Eur it looks a bit expensive, but the dock also serves as a relay in SonosNet. I consider the dock a must have accessory. ;-) Available by the end of October.
Comments
Whow, Sonos nun mit SAN Anschluss :-)
So the ipod dock is a "crippled" ZonePlayer with an ipod connector instead of a standard line-in, without Speakers/Speaker connectors and without the "normal" ZonePlayer capabilities. So basically it would not replace a ZonePlayer in that room. I do not see the added value there, a standard ipod dock connected to a ZP via line-in does the same job and costs €100 less.
How would you control the iPod?
Ahh, I see the point - so you actually can control "Play", "Pause", "skip" etc. of any ipod? That didn't come through to me yet. That would require a Sonos Software update (to virtualize the ipod controls), right?
Sort of. You are using the Sonos controls. But you can also select the album, the playlist. Exactly as you can from a car stereo with iPod control.
"Must have accessory" - does that mean it gets the "editor refuses to give it back award"?
Absofuckinglutely. I can play things that are on my iPhone without pushing it to the Sonos library.
One for me please...
Want one, too.
Quick question: Is the Sonos app for the iPod touch/iPhone in any way limited in comparison to the dedicated Sonos remote?
In other words: if you have neither, would you rather buy an iPod Touch or the dedicated remote?
Marc,
from my point of view the ipod/iphone app is not limited at all. You can do everything with the ipod app what you would do with a dedicated Sonos controller. However, the Sonos controller is always up when You grab it !!! whereas the ipod/iphone app must be loaded and the ipod must reconnect to the wifi.
From my experience the Sonos controller is much faster. If I need to mute the music due to a phone call I prefer the Sonos controller, esp. when the iphone rings ;-) To select music I don't care which one I use.
If You are in the market for a controller or an ipod - I would go for an ipod as it is more versatile and live the small limitation.
One controller is never enough, so get one of each.
Problem solved.
On a related note, I've been wondering if this upcoming AirPlay feature of iOS devices will hook up to Sonos in any imaginative way...
No, it can't. You need a chip from Apple to make that work.
In theory Sonos could produce a box of tricks, that could bridge between Airplay and SonosNet, and they haven't ruled that out.
In practice, once you throw in the Apple licensing cost, it would be over-priced and it would just end up running down the battery in your iOS device. When it needs charging, where are you going to put it? In a cradle. The best solution already exists in my opinion.
The Sonos cradle works, charges and any inserted device is immediately trusted and available. I'm assuming AirPlay will need some kind of pairing up procedure, which won't suit guest devices much.
