- I-Pod/I-Phone compatible, Internet Radio via Shoutcast, Digital Photo Frame, Video/Movie Capability, FM Radio with presets, Bass Boost Enhancement.
- 2GB Internal Storage, alarm Clock, Built In WiFi, InternalWLAN, USB-keyboard enter URL, IR Remote Control
- Supports MP3 (Thomson), MPEG4, H 264, JPEG, TIFF, BMP
- Headphone audio output jack, 3.5mm AUX audio input, A-Type USB host input, Ethernet RJ-45, WLAN Antenna connection.
- ipod; docking system; wifi; mp3; internet radio; aura sound
The Aura Soundstation is an excellent docking station and multimedia center. Its glossy black color and rounded shape are aesthetically pleasing and looks great in most rooms. It is light weight and easy to move and set up.
The Soundstation supports many mediums in which to enjoy one's media, including docking an ipod or iphone, loading it onto the Soundstation directly by USB drive, auxiliary cable, internet radio, and FM radio. Ipod controls on the Soundstation are great.
The picture quality of the 7 inch touchscreen is clear and vivid, and controls are responsive to touch. The Soundstation requires a slightly more firm touch than current high end touch screens as those in ipods and ipads, but is very responsive nonetheless. Control icons are clear and menus are easy to navigate. I could easily navigate through my playlists, albums, artists, and songs to find the music that I wanted. Ipod video and picture controls are similarly easy to navigate. Auxiliary and FM radio controls are very clear as well.
The only aspect of the Soundstation that I have had some difficulty with is finding internet radio stations (using the wireless internet setting), although, I do not know any internet radio stations to begin with. Searching for a radio station by genre and setting favorites is simple...assuming you know what stations to look for. However, this is a small complaint considering the product in its entirety.
I would DEFINITELY recommend the Aura Soundstation to anyone looking for a small, portable, easy to use ipod ready Soundstation.
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Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player
-first impressions are everything, as the saying goes -and, Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player delivered the "wow-factor" right out of the box!
Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player does not disappoint Me when it comes to quality.
a few many things I like about the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player :
* Sleek, stylish, modern, comes in my favorite color black, goes with most any decor, light weight and easy to move from one room to another, skid/slip proof feet -stays put when I press the icons on the touch screen or plug things into the back, a lot of Fun to configure and Play with -I kid you not! :)
* Large touch screen with rich vivid/vibrant colors and easy to see/decipher touch icons. for Me, all icons worked (went to desired destination without flicker or hesitation) when lightly touched, without any problems.
* My ears detected Excellent Sound quality, with no distortion.
* Creates Envy -everyone that has Seen the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player -in my home, Wants the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player! 'nuf said :)
* The light weight, credit-card thin, remote control feels great in palm of hand -and, all buttons function without any problems.
* Am able to hook up, and play, all kinds of media devices, old to new technology (portable cd players I have left over from my jogging days, thumb drives, flash drives, an external hard drive, my cameras, a variety of mp3 players -as examples) -without problems.
* The Photo Viewer mode is highly configurable and a lot of fun to set up ( with its multitude of transitions et al ) and use.
* The Radio mode will search, lightning fast, for the 20 strongest radio signals in your area -then lock them in as pre-sets -until you touch the search icon again, starting the process all over. Very nice feature!
Tips:
* The glossy black finish, on the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player, will pick up fingerprints quite easily, but I discovered that they can be wiped away, in a flash, with a clean/soft/dry micro-fiber cloth.
* One must go through the calibration process before using for the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player for the 1st time -else, it will just sit on the screen with the "+" in the left hand corner and look like it is defective. But, it isn't! Calibration is quick and easy! :) after that, you are taken immediately to the touch screen -where all the Fun begins! :)
* One does not need an IPod/IPhone for the Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player to work. Just hook up your mp3 player, or phone to the Auxiliary Mode, using the "supplied" green connection cable.
Aura Sound Station Universal Media Player would make a Fantastic gift for any "special" somebody -and, don't forget to pick up one for yourself! :) Highly Recommended! --Katharena Eiermann, 2011
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Although I received this products months ago, I recently hooked it up to my Ipod Nano. It starts out with a blank screen that has a + sign that you touch with your fingertips 4 times (it shows up in each corner) The problem for me was that after doing this and wanting to play music, it was a pain in the butt to get it to read your finger print and nothing would play or you have to constantly press it and then it randomly goes to another screen, and worse of all it freezes and then you have to restart it. I've spent more time tapping on this thing than actually hearing music off it.
The date shows as DAY/MONTH/YEAR, I found that to be strange also. The LED is so bright for the clock, if you are like me and like your bedroom dark, this is not the place to leave your clock on.
It's easy to use, but all the time you spend to try and get it to play music is just annoying.
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I was unbelievably excited to get this unit. But I have yelled my throat raw trying to set it up. The touchscreen is not responsive... you can press, tap, whatever and it either ignores you or chooses something else entirely. You will spend half your time screaming "NOOOOOOO!" It also relies on a lot of swiping, for instance to find internet radio stations... you have to swipe your way through dozens and dozens of groups of 10 (really bizarre) stations, which is incredibly difficult when the screen is unresponsive. Even the clock took a good 10 minutes to set, because you have to press and press and press before it will respond. The "back" button is way too close to other things, so as you're trying unsuccessfully to press it repeatedly and it won't respond, whatever is directly underneath it inevitably gets pressed, and it's nearly impossible to go back. I'm not sure how much the "touchscreen calibration" thing matters, but I've done it twice.
If you have your home wi-fi as a "closed" network, you cannot use this wirelessly unless you open the network, because it does not give you the option to type in the name of your hidden network, only the passwords of the networks it can see. This is an issue they need to fix, because many people have hidden networks that require the name of the network to be entered before the device can even see it. Unfortunately, though, even after you open the network, the unit sometimes sees it and sometimes doesn't. I don't have this problem with any other device.
The remote is extremely basic and doesn't allow you to navigate the options on the screen. It would be great to have a full-featured remote to bypass the annoying touchscreen situation. Also, no amount of shoving or wiggling would make the USB port accept even the most basic thumb drive. It simply doesn't fit. I've tried playing music wirelessly through iTunes via Airport and with my iPod since I can't download anything to the unit's internal drive, but the sound quality is abominable. Even at fairly low levels it's distorted, as if the speakers are blown. It's basically unlistenable.
Basically, if these technical problems were resolved, this unit would be heaven on Earth. It's a fabulous idea, and I love having all these features in one small unit. But trying to make it work will bring the most patient person to tears, and impatient people will give up fairly quickly and throw it in the closet. I'm somewhere in between, so I'll keep trying.
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Subtitle: A Very Expensive 7" Digital Picture Frame
This little stereo looks great. It has a sleek, glossy, modern black case that fits in well in a modern decor. The digital picture function is excellent. You transfer your photos via a USB drive, then they play on the screen in clear color with some pretty transitions. You can also transfer your MP3 audio and MP4 video to the device (or just play them directly from your USB drive). The video quality is very good, and the audio quality is acceptable, if only just. You can't expect much from such small speakers, so the sound is a bit tinny. The remote is small and easy to use. Also, you can plug in anything that has a 3.5" headset jack to play the audio through this unit.
Unfortunately, that's where the good stuff ends. I had hoped to use this primarily as an Internet radio, but it does not function as advertised there. I have a WiFi b/g/n network running WPA2 Personal security. I have many items connected to this network, including four PCs, two DVRs, a BluRay player, a bridge, a printer, a couple of Palm Pres, and all of these connected to the network first time, just as they were supposed to. The Aura Sound Station will not connect to the network at all. Every time I try, I get "CONNECTED: FAIL." I emailed tech support, but have never heard back from them. Therefore, this "Internet radio" is no such thing since it will not connect to the Internet. Of course, I should have taken it as a bad sign when the connection menu asked me for my "passward." Misspellings in the user interface are never an indication of good quality control.
So, if I cannot listen to Internet radio, at least it has FM radio, right? Well, not exactly. I plugged in the FM antenna and got no stations at all. I held the antenna every way possible, and I still couldn't get a station that transmits 2.5 miles from my home! There is a menu setting for US or European FM, but it was on the default US setting.
So, no Internet radio, and no FM radio, but at least it has an alarm clock, right? OK, technically it has an alarm clock, but it doesn't have a working clock, so the alarm clock is useless. Yep, I set the clock as soon as I started it up, and the clock stopped at 8:03 PM. No matter what I set it to, it always displays 8:03 PM. Useful in finding the time of death in an Agatha Christie murder mystery, but not so useful for telling time. I have never seen a digital clock stop before, so that was interesting, at least!
So, no Internet radio, no FM radio, and no alarm clock, what's left? Well, that leaves you with an expensive MP3 player/digital picture frame. The touchscreen isn't as responsive as many, so even as an MP3 player, this leaves a lot to be desired. You can scroll through your songs, but every second or third page you will accidentally select a song while trying to scroll. Hopefully, you only like songs that start with A or B! Likewise, all music is dumped into the root folder, so you can't even just find a folder of songs you want to hear and play that, you are stuck with the entire list every time!
The only thing I didn't get to review here is the iPhone dock, since I do not own an iAnything. Maybe that works REALLLY well to make up for all the other deficiencies. At least it has a nice door covering the iPhone dock, so you don't have an ugly hole in the top when there isn't an iPhone there.
Maybe they'll fix these problems in a firmware update, but considering that tech support ignores emails, I'm not holding my breath. If these are fixed with a firmware upgrade, I'll return here to ammend my review. In the meantime, give this one a pass!
