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iHome To Ship AirPlay Speaker

Rahway, N.J.
— The

iHome

division of SDI
Technologies plans Sept. 26 retail availability of its first AirPlay-equipped
tabletop speaker, the $299-suggested AC/DC iW1.

Retailers offering the device
that day will include the online stores of Apple Store, Best Buy and
Crutchfield as well as iHome.com. The device will also be available in
brick-and-mortar stores.

With AirPlay,
the one-piece amplified speaker system uses Wi-Fi 802.11b/g to wirelessly
stream music from a PC’s iTunes application, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. From a
PC, music can be streamed to multiple AirPlay-equipped speakers at a time
throughout the house.

The product had
originally been scheduled for release early in the year.

The speaker
features 100-240-volt AC operation, internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery, integrated
handle in back, Bongiovi Acoustics DPS signal processing with Class-D
amplifier, four speakers, and backlit capacitive-touch control panel.

Its
iPod/iPhone-compatible USB port also streams music directly from a connected
iPod or iPhone and charges the devices. The USB port also connects to an iPad to
stream iPad music but not charge the tablet.

An analog aux
in is available to connect other audio devices.

Playback of PC
music can be controlled from a portable Apple device loaded with a free Apple
remote-control app, which will also display the metadata and album art of
PC-stored songs. Also from the portable Apple portable, users would be able to
view the album art and song metadata of the PC-stored music.

The speaker’s
display doesn’t album art and metadata, as a spokesman previously said.

From
the speaker’s touchpanel controls and from an included IR remote, users can control
the play/pause, next track, and previous track functions of a PC’s iTunes
application and Apple portable devices.

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