John Sciacca

At a time when many people aren’t willing to spend $500 for a speaker, Bang & Olufsen is coming out with the new optional advanced grill to accompany its new line of in-ceiling speakers that are being manufactured by Origin Acoustics. To be fair, pricing hasn’t been set on the new grille, but the company stated that it would cost more than the price of the lowest speaker and would probably retail for around $500 each.

To clear up any confusion for the American market, even though the grill that is included with the speakers is called the “premium grill,” the truly premium option will be the aluminum advanced grill. So, what exactly is involved in making a $500 speaker grill?

Auto tracking satellite antennas certainly aren’t anything new, but they have always come at a rather premium price. And, sure, if you want to roll down the highway in you Winnebago and have a dish continuously track satellites soaring overhead in geosynchronous orbit, well, that’s still gonna cost you.

But if you just want to pull up to a camp site, or parking lot for your pre-game tailgate, whip out a simple antenna and not have to futz around with aiming and azimuth and angle so you can enjoy a little TV before the big game, DISH is making that a whole lot simpler and cheaper for you to enjoy!

In a classic, “And just one more thing…” moment to begin the finale of its press conference today, Control4 announced that they have launched Amazon Alexa skill for voice-enabled whole-home automation control. Integration with Amazon Alexa –enabled devices including Echo, Dot, Amazon Tap, and Amazon Fire TV will enable a new Control4 Smart Home Skill allowing homeowners simple and intuitive voice control over their home systems.

"On average, our customers have over 40 connected devices in their homes that are orchestrated by Control4 and now, voice interaction with Amazon Alexa offers another convenient way to control all of them,” said Martin Plaehn, Control4 CEO. “This integration combines Control4’s automation power and extensive support for connected devices with the intuitive voice control from Amazon Alexa, reinforcing our shared vision to make life in a connected home ever-more personalized, comfortable, and hassle-free.”

Control4 Updates to OS2.9 Automation company, Control4, announced an update to its operating system today, moving from 2.8.2 to version 2.9. As with previous OS updates, this not only squashed bugs in the system but also introduced a slew of new features.

Control4 announced that it features integration support for nearly 10,000 devices, and OS 2.9 will enhance that experience with a new feature called “Connects with Control4.” Control4 is heavily invested in helping dealers deliver customized smart home experiences for its customers, and one of the ways they do this is by Simple Device Discovery Protocol (SDDP) that identifies a product and loads the correct driver. Currently 185 companies are shipping over 1,500 devices enabled with Control’s and the new program will feature QR codes on products that can be quickly scanned in to automatically identify and add the correct integration driver. This now includes products from Amazon, Lutron, Nest, Somfy, and Sonos.