By David Ponce

Royal Philips Electronics is Obsessed With Sound. Seriously. I know this because they’ve told me and they’ve shown me and now, six months after this episode started, I finally get it. I get their message. I get what they’re on about. The pieces of the puzzle have fallen in place.

And I like it.

Back in March, I told you’d I’d soon be talking about my trip to Amsterdam to check out the Metropole Orchestra. It took quite a while longer than expected, but here we are. In this article, I’d like you to come with me behind the scenes of a Philips production of a musical piece called I’m No Prototype. In the process you’ll be introduced to an awesome musical visualization technique they developed and you’ll also hear about an ambitious musical talent competition Philips is sponsoring.

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By David Ponce

Philips recently invited me to Amsterdam. Why? Because they’re Obsessed With Sound, and they wanted to show me just how much. Take it from me: it’s a lot! In the next few days I will be releasing an exclusive article (as in I was the only member of the media there…) showing you what I mean. Stay tuned for that, it’s really good! In the meantime though, you should know that Royal Philips Electronics is announcing its revised audio product lineup in Barcelona today, and there’s some exciting new stuff. Let me give you a few highlights.

From speaking with representatives of the company, I gathered that one of the products they’re proudest of is the revamped GoGear Muse, their standalone MP4 player. It’s a crowded market for sure, not the least of which because of the iPhone/iPod’s ubiquitous presence, and yet the very good looking GoGear Muse stands out enough to have received a CES 2011 Innovation Award. Aside from playing back a slew of both audio and video formats, new features include SafeSound, which “analyses listening and informs of potentially damaging volumes”; Sound Personalization, an intuitive touch-based way to change the equalizer settings; and LikeMusic, “a feature in Philips Songbird which creates perfect playlists based on your listening.”

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Article courtesy of John Beck, from The Processor.

It usually only takes a few weeks of starting my daily commute long before the meager winter sun makes an appearance until I start seriously considering tossing myself under a train. Fortunately, the Phillips Wake-up Light could be just the thing to brighten up those dingy December mornings. It’s a combined bedside lamp, alarm clock and digital radio which Phillips rather boldly claims will make waking up a “pleasant experience”.

To achieve this seriously tall order, the multi-talented lamp conspires to disturb your slumbers in a more agreeable manner by gradually illuminating your room and playing a choice of 4 “natural and pleasant wake-up sounds”, which all seems simply lovely.  It’s probably worth noting that said sounds aren’t all so terribly natural however; tweeting birds and jungle noises I can deal with, but wind chimes just remind me of living next to annoying hippies, and a “relaxing beep” sounds highly oxymoronical.

Also, it’ll set you back £130. Maybe I’ll just take my chances with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

[ Phillips ]