Logitech announced the new Squeezebox Touch today and I think it could make an interesting alternative to an empeg for some people.

It runs Linux with their LUA based Jive framework providing the UI. They have ported their Squeezebox Server to sqlite and the Touch is capable of running it.

It has a USB port, so you can plug in a USB stick or drive and the Touch will scan/index it much like Emplode does for the empeg. It also has an SD slot.

It has an LCD colour touch screen display, but can also be operated by infra red remote.

It obviously isn't aimed at in car use, but I think it might adapt to it fair well.



Assuming it is like the Jive based Squeezebox Controller it will be highly hackable. Most of the Controller's source code is available (as most of the "business logic" is sat on the device in LUA script code).

Is that a 16MB SD card there? Not seen one of those in a while.

Looks pretty cool. I think as long as you can 'chunkify' the buttons in the UI to make them easier to use in a car environment then it should fit in a dual DIN aperture with minimal fiddling. $300 isn't likely to break the bank either.

When you use the remote it switches to "10 foot" mode, with large fonts for use from across the room

I don't understand why they even bother bundling such small cards with cameras and other devices. You're obviously not going to use it because of the size.

The Squeezebox Touch looks neat but I'm actually pretty happy with the Squeezebox Boom and iPeng.

I think the 'hand with SD Card' is probably a stock image Photoshopped next to their product rendering.

That's what I was thinking actually! If photoshopdisasters blog has taught me anything, the SD card is probably even separate to the hand.

If it is a stock image it hasn't been used my on the web.

http://tineye.com/search/31676e5a7b192d2594eed701b36da65b9046b741

Development continues to enable the TinySC function on the Touch, so it's not something that's ready to roll yet.

If you scan back in the archives at the Slim forum it's remarkable how many (sensible) points Logitech has actually hit from one of the long "SqueezeBox 4 wishlist" posts. I'd swear this thing uses a couple of my posts from the forum as a blueprint.

It should do well for them as one of the items necessary for strong traction in the non-enthusiast market (read: high volume) is being able to run such a device without a server.

Some people on the forum are still wishing for a ripping station, but I think we may have moved on from that point already. With iTunes the number one retailer of music, a large number of people (read: large market and high volume) already consume their music digitally and file-based.

There are a lot of possibilities for mounting this badboy in a car. It's going to be interesting to find out how fast and robust the indexing is and what can be created to plug into the software. It might be nice to copy tracks directly to its attached storage over wifi instead of needing to remove the disk or use SD cards for instance. It's also going to be interesting to look at the code base for the TinySC to see how it compares to the full deal, especially in terms of modifications. In the end, it's still likely to be a lot easier to hack and extend this thing than to ever redevelop or extend existing code base from the empeg repository.

Damn, even using a SqueezePlay implementation on something like an iPhone and then running the server on a small PC somewhere in the car would be a lot more straight-forward and realistic goal.

The USB port is also fully functional and also supports keyboards and mice. I don't know if anyone has tried it with a hub to test multiple devices in unison.

I'll probably pick up a SqueezeBox Radio next and give the Touch some time to develop out.

I agree with this preview LINK

I would rather have a box connected to the stereo and use the touch screen part for the remote. The screen needs way bigger to do it this way.

I don't agree with the criticism in that review. If I'm going to be critical it's about the piece itself, since it's not a review at all. But it's from CNET and they're not known for being on-the-ball anyway.

Starting at the end, while iPeng and Squeemote are not written by Logitech, they are officially blessed and recommended by them. They're even included on their Squeezebox web page.

I think the mistake was made by Sonos to tell you the truth. Its latest remote is far to expensive for what it offers and it's the only display you can use with that system.

Forgetting about the Touch's "touch" ability, it's a great replacement for the Classic SB3. It's priced the same and can do everything the older unit could. Everything else is gravy, including its support for higher resolution audio and more native codec support (directly without on-the-fly transcoding from the server).

Sonos hasn't been able to break into the mainstream with their solution and IMO, Logitech has been eating their lunch for a long time. They can likely remain a niche player, but I'm confident Logitech is going to be able to break into the mainstream with their product line. They did it very successfully with the Harmony remote line, previously a fairly low volume and very niche segment, it's now handily the number one mid-range remote brand in the world.

I suspect we'll see an in-house iPhone app at some point as well as a future iteration of the controller device. The current model was already in the planning/design stages when Logitech acquired Slim.

Logitech can buy 8GB iPod touches at retail, configure them with their app, put them into new packaging, custom laser etch the back case, provide a leather wallet and a stand and resell them for less than the Sonos controller, while *still* making a decent profit. And it would be profit without having to amortize hardware design and tooling. This isn't a likely scenario, but a $10-20 controller application would be completely viable even if they didn't want to just give one away for free.

I'm glad to see the Touch at its announced price point and configured the way it is. For those that want visual control in their hand, they can use an iPod or the web interface on any number of devices for now. The Lua SqueezePlay interface later.

I think the Touch is going to get some traction in the custom installation category as well. Looks to be a decent product to flush wall mount. With something like the Sonos, which lacks a display, you never know any playback details until you find that remote. Which could very well be hiding under and cushion somewhere. PLus you really don't have the additional control flexibility as you do with the Touch - IR, Web, CLI...

As I understand it, TinySC doesn't really exist. It is just a bunch of optimizations to SqueezeCenter (or Squeezebox Server as it is going to be renamed to), that are enabled via the commandline. That and disabling the webUI and transcoding.

The whole things relies on SC moving to sqlite, which it will be doing for the Windows/Mac/Linux version as well.

Only in the US. In the UK it is a fair bit more (£259 vs £199) and in some EU countries the Touch is priced at closer to twice the SB3 price.

The developers have made it very clear already that indexing on the Touch is slow.

Since the product isn't out yet, and likely won't be available for a few months, I suspect the pricing outside the US may change. When I said "same" I also meant at the US$299 price point which is the MSRP of the Classic. It can be found for less and has been available for $250 numerous times in the past.

There's a bunch of work to be done on SC yet and I'm sure there's a lot more code involved to insure portability and ability to run on the Touch's platform/resources than only the move to SQLite. I think that's only the tip of the iceberg.

I'm surprised they're moving back to the "server" nomenclature for the server software. That's not really a consumer marketable name and it's why they moved away in the first place. I suppose with the new devices they're trying not to focus on that software in the first place, so the naming isn't going to be as prominent anyway.

I was comparing the official manufacturers prices of both products in the UK as well. You can get the Classic for £155 at the moment.

So the UK official price of the Touch is 67% higher than the street price of the Classic. Were as in the US the Touch MSRP is only 20% over the lowest street price for the Classic.

So although I'm sure that the street price of the Touch will below £259, it seems likely that in the UK the Touch really is going to cost a fair bit more than the Classic (and in other EU countries much, much more than the Classic).