It’s been about a week since Sonos CEO Patrick Spence apologized for the months-long issues with the Sonos platform and recommitted to biweekly app updates to try to work things out. And today we’ve received an interim app update that the company says should address “an issue where the app used excess phone battery on iOS.”
The update — which is available now — also claims to “improve the stability when adding new products,” according to the changelog. In addition to the update for the Sonos app itself, it’s also worth digging into the app settings and checking to see if there’s an update to your speaker system, too.
The Sonos app saga has been going on since mid-May 2024, when the app received a major overhaul ahead of the release of the Sonos Ace headphones. While it’s not uncommon for users to be skittish when it comes to changes to the way an app looks and feels, there were obvious problems from the get-go. Some features had been removed on purpose, with plans for them to return in future updates. But other things were just obviously broken.
Sonos, for its part, has at least been fairly visible in the Sonos subreddit, listing known bugs and broad update schedules. That’s better than nothing, and it showed the company was aware of the problem,and working on things. However, it still took more than two months for company leadership to publicly address the issues, which Spence did on July 25, writing that “fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority.”
One more little nugget from KeithFromSonos in the Sonos subreddit: The company is still targeting late-summer or fall for an update that will allow the Sonos Ace headphones to work directly with the Beam soundbar. Currently, the Audio Swap feature only works with the Sonos Arc soundbar.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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