O2 have today announced a collaboration between themselves and PURE Digital, bringing PURE’s The Lounge Internet Radio streams to the O2 Joggler, and at the same time, reduced the price down to £99.99.  The O2 Joggler, if you remember, is a proprietary device offering access to a limited set of applications providing access to certain facilities (Weather, Road Traffic, News, Sports, local photo display, and messaging).  In fact, back in the March launch, O2 talked about Messaging and Internet Radio following in May, although only the Messaging support got added (and in June); so finally, they have added the Internet Radio support originally promised!

By working with PURE Digital, they are providing a “selection of the most popular UK BBC and commercial radio stations” (around 100 stations in total) out of the 12,000 or so available via PURE directly, although there’s no word as to whether the O2 Joggler also supports the listen again facilities of The Lounge.

O2 have also announced that the device will be upgraded from Flash 8 to Flash 10, and have announced an SDK will shortly be available to allow developers to create 3rd party application for this device, which will then be accessible to users via a dedicated App Store, which should be available before the end of the year (although based on pretty much all the timeframes so far being missed with this device, don’t hold your breath!)

Initially, the O2 Joggler App Store will only support free applications, which is probably a good move; and any developers interested in developing for this device should look at some of the UK specific widgets developed for the Chumby platform to understand what might work for the UK.  As a hint, Flickr photo display, Live UK train departure / arrival information, and BBC support would all help the device, not to mention apps such as instant messaging and Social Networking support, plus last.fm and/or Spotify support would help make this device sell better, and compete against the PURE Sensia and it’s own application support.

Of course, whether O2 would authorise all those applications is another story, but as the device does not use their 3G network (only the local broadband connection), there is little reason to limit the device, and support like this could in time make it a firm favourite with O2 customers…

After the release of the touchscreen based Revo IKON last month, PURE Digital have announced their first touchscreen based DAB radio.  The PURE Sensia will sell for £249, and is a DAB radio, Internet (Wi-Fi) radio, as well as supporting that 5.7″ 640×480 touchscreen display, which will feature additional applications too.

In terms of the music options, as well as the DAB radio (DAB and FM with RDS are both available), it features support for Internet radio and podcasts, access to your local media (via Wi-Fi), and “unique broadcast material”; and if you don’t want to have the unit by your bedside, you can add an optional ChargePAK battery for listening around the house, and make use of the colour coded RF remote control too.  In terms of colour options, you can go for Black, White, Red or Yellow.  If none of those music options appeal, you can connect an iPod / mp3 player directly via a 3.5mm socket, or you ca add the optional i-10 iPod dock.

However, it’s those “online apps” which interest us; so lets look at those.  So far, PURE have stated it will include Facebook support, Twitter support, and weather and news feeds.  It appears it will be possible to either have the application appear full screen, or just in the top right hand area, so you can still see the radio station list, the time, and access the other menus.

So given the close price to the Revo IKON, which should you choose? Well, the IKON seems to have a greater range of music options built in (with last.fm streaming support and a iPod / iPhone dock included as standard), whereas the PURE Sensia is closer to a Chumby-like device, offering access to other applications whilst the music is playing.  Of course, were PURE to add Spotify or last.fm support into their device, it might tip the balance in the their favour…

Both companies are known for producing devices capable of firmware updates, and both companies have produced firmware updates for various devices; it’s not yet clear whether adding more applications to the Sensia needs a full firmware update, but it will be worthwhile keeping an eye on how well PURE support this device in terms of new features.

You should find the PURE Sensia available at the end of October at £249.

It’s been a while since we’ve featured PURE Digital, and in that time, they’ve released a whole range of new devices.  The PURE AVANTI Flow (above) is, according to PURE, the ultimate next generation digital audio system.  In the rest of the article we’ve got the specs and details of the other units…

(more…)

We’ve mentioned the Revo Blik RadioStation, and the Revo iBlik RadioStation before, but it appears Pure Digital have joined Revo in releasing a combined Internet Radio with a DAB/FM radio. The PURE EVOKE Flow will cost around £150, and also features “support for DAB+”. One other nice feature is Pure’s own web radio portal, which will act as a one stop shop for your radio stations, podcasts and listen again stations. You will also be able to access the Pure Lounge portal and the content from your PC.

More information on the Pure website.

PURE Digital have announced the PURE ONE Elite, which takes the current popular ONE DAB radio and adds the ability to pause and rewind live radio for up to 15 minutes, and a radio alarm. It also appears to be have stereo speakers, and has increased the number of preset radio stations from 20 to 50. Many other features, such as RDS support (on FM), an iPod / mp3 player input port, intellitext and textscan, and support for the ChargePAK rechargeable batteries are also all included. The price will increase to £70, and it should be available at the end of August in Black or White (no pink option here).

Between the PURE ONE Original (which is still on sale), the PURE ONE Mini, and now the ONE Elite, PURE have produced a nice range of units for all scenarios.

Story and picture courtesy of Tech Digest.

After the success of the PURE ONE Original DAB radio, Pure Digital have now released the PURE ONE Mini, which offers the majority of the features of the ONE, but in a smaller package. These include an input jack (for your iPod / mp3 player), an FM radio, station presets (although 16 instead of 20 on the ONE), and support for Pure’s ChargePak rechargeable battery packs. Although rarely needed, we support Pure for two reasons, firstly they are British, and secondly, they build the capability for user upgradeable firmware for their devices, and the ONE Mini is no exception, with a miniUSB port as standard.

Pure Digital, a well respected maker of DAB radio equipment in the UK, have just announced their new PURE Highway DAB in-car radio.  What’s unique about this, compared to the previous in-car DAB addon radios is the easy self-install design…

More details in the rest of the article.

(more…)