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Audio Video News
More Fun in the New World: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day Four
Billy Altman  |  Mar 17, 2012  | 

I've been attending the South By Southwest music festival for many years, but I can't ever recall ever hearing the particular sound I encountered late Friday night at Stubb's: squealing. And I mean the kind of squealing that means only one thing – female hormones on the march. 

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Audio Video News
The Boss Speaks: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day Three
Billy Altman  |  Mar 16, 2012  | 

"How important can this speech be if we're doing it at noon?" joked Bruce Springsteen as he began his keynote speech on Thursday at South By Southwest. "I mean, is any musician up at noon?" 

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Audio Video News
Alabama Shakes, Black Flamingo, and Gemma Ray: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day Two
Billy Altman  |  Mar 15, 2012  | 

The first full day at the 2012 South By Southwest music festival was really all about the ladies, as a number of talented women from all points of the stylistic compass made their presence felt at various hot spots throughout the day and night.

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Audio Video NewsNew Products
Your Budget AirPlay Companion: iHome's iW2
Michael Berk  |  Mar 14, 2012  | 

As our own Geoffrey Morrison pointed out earlier this week, a lot of AirPlay-enabled speakers are expensive enough that they're bound to get you thinking about building your own system around a cheaper device like an AirPort Express.

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Audio Video News
Compact Discs - Not Dead Yet: Parasound Rolls Out Futureproofed Zcd CD Player
Michael Berk  |  Mar 14, 2012  | 

The writing may be on the wall for the CD and for physical media in general; but we're still seeing interesting disc players emerge as we enter the format's end times (of course, we could be totally wrong about that; vinyl certainly hasn't gone away, and nor has innovation in the turntable arena). But simple CD-playback devices may be a thing of the past.

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Audio Video News
Keep Austin Weird: Billy Altman's SXSW 2012 Diary, Day One
Billy Altman  |  Mar 14, 2012  | 

"Keep Austin Weird" is a catch phrase that adorns many a T-shirt in this Texas town that for well over two decades has hosted the South By Southwest music festival.

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Audio Video News
Samsung 2012 TV Briefing
Scott Wilkinson  |  Mar 06, 2012  | 
Today, Samsung revealed more details about its 2012 TV lineup at a press conference in New York. Seeing as how Tom Norton and I are based in Los Angeles, the company was kind enough to bring us up to speed at its QA Lab before the NY event, placing the info under embargo until now.

Actually, most of the info is not new—it was first presented at CES in January. But there was one bit of real news not available at CES—pricing and availability.

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Audio Video News
Flops: Fourteen Formats and Technologies That Couldn't Quite Hang On
Bob Ankosko  |  Feb 13, 2012  | 
The road to A/V perfection is littered with formats and products that didn’t make it for one reason or another. Some were technically sound but ahead of their time or poorly marketed. Some were victims of bad timing, unforeseen circumstances, or uninspired design. Others were just plain curious in a “what the heck were they thinking?” kind of way. And then there are the tweak formats and technologies—embraced by enthusiasts and ignored by the masses—that refuse to go away. Here, we remember A/V formats, products, and technologies that are gone but (mostly) not forgotten.
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Other TechAudio Video NewsNew Products
2011 Top Picks of the Year
HT Staff  |  Feb 03, 2012  | 
It’s always a blast around here to take a look back and see which of the hundred or so components we’ve reviewed in the last year really rose to the top. Of course, the best of these end up on our Top Picks list, but like watching a good movie whose message or performances resonate in the days and months that follow, there are always a few pieces of gear that prove themselves to be just a little more special over time.
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Audio Video News
Web-Friendly "Social Bowl" Breaks New Ground
Jamie Sorcher  |  Jan 31, 2012  | 
It is the most high-tech pigskin playoff yet, and it might be the event that truly marks the debut of social TV.

This year’s SuperBowl is the first to be streamed live online and wirelessly to select mobile phones, so no matter where you are (maybe you've been sent for more beer or ice!), you can stream the game to your PC, tablet, or smartphone and not miss a moment of the action.

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Audio Video News
S+V Backstage: Now for iPad and iPhone
Michael Berk  |  Dec 16, 2011  | 

BackStage is a fully interactive iPad and iPhone app that does so much more than inform you of concerts. BackStage serves three main functions for the user. The first is a concert calendar which informs you of concerts in your area based on data from your iTunes library and your current location.

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Other TechAudio Video NewsNew Products
2011 Black Friday Home Theater Deals
Scott Wilkinson  |  Nov 24, 2011  | 
As the song says, it's the most wonderful time of the year—or the most dreadful, depending on whether or not you plan to join the buying frenzy on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Many stores open at an ungodly hour and offer seemingly outrageous deals on certain products to get people in the door, hoping that they'll buy more than they bargained for and put the store's accounts in the black for the year, which is why it's called Black Friday—either that, or it might be due to all the black eyes resulting from fights over the last remaining $40 Blu-ray player.

Scanning some of the myriad Black Friday websites—my favorite is bfads.net because you can search by product category from multiple retailers—I found a few great deals on home theater gear. In many cases, however, these products are already available at less than the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price), so the savings I cite here might not be as great as they appear. I've included links to HT's reviews of the same or similar items if available, so let your mouse do the clicking before you venture forth to battle the hordes.

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Audio Video NewsStreaming Device Reviews
iTunes Match vs. Google Music: Which One Should You Choose?
Peter Pachal  |  Nov 17, 2011  | 

It's been a big week for digital music. First Apple finally rolled out iTunes Match, the final link in its chain of cloud services, allowing users to get anytime, anywhere access to all those songs they ripped from CDs over the years or acquired by, uh, let's say "other means." Then on Wednesday Google unveiled Google Music, its fully armed and operational online music store.

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New ProductsAudio Video NewsStreaming Device Reviews
Whole-Home Audio for the Rest of Us
Michael Berk  |  Oct 13, 2011  | 

Legrand - a leader in residential wiring and custom install components - in something of a surprise move announced the airQast wireless music system at this year's CEDIA Expo.

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Audio Video News
AudioStream.com Launched For Computer Audio Enthusiasts
HT Staff  |  Oct 12, 2011  | 
AudioStream.com is a new website edited by Michael Lavorgna dedicated to making sense of the evolving world of computer audio and getting the best sound from your computer-based audio system.

The site's motto is "Computer Audio For Everyone" and will focus on the world of computer audio hardware, software and music resources. Topics will include hardware reviews from the mass-market right up to the bleeding-edge of what’s possible as well as in-depth analysis of music management software and an exploration of our newest music resources including HD download sites, streaming media and cloud services.

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