The £30 Gramofon turns your hi-fi into a socially connected, streaming jukebox

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Hey look, Sony shrunk the PS4!Honestly, that’s what we thought at first too, but this is no miniature games console. This is a 21st century jukebox for the modern connected gadgeteer, just 8cm square.

It does music stuff?Eloquently put. Yes, it does music stuff. It does it very good in fact.

The Gramofon is a Kickstarter project by Fon, the team behind the world’s largest Wi-Fi network, and it gives existing speakers the power to reach out into the cloud and pluck tunes from the electronic ether.

Connect it to your home connection via Wi-Fi or ethernet, plug it into your hi-fi via its 3.5mm jack and connect your Android or iOS device to it through Wi-Fi.

Congratulations – you can now stream music straight from Spotify to your previously dumb speakers.

Sounds neat. But streaming from my phone will drain its battery…
No it won’t. Your phone isn’t actually streaming the music. Tunes are instead streamed directly from Spotify’s servers, so your device is acting more like a glorified remote.

Unlike Bluetooth streaming, that means that you can leave the room and not have to worry about the connection cutting out. Not only that, but your friends can get in on the action too.

Friends?
Other human beings which you willingly spend leisure time with to talk about sports, babies, cats and other things of that nature.

Up to 20 people can connect to the Gramofon at once, letting you all create one huge playlist without having to fight over a single connection. They can login with their Facebook password too, so no pesky Wi-Fi codes are required.

What if I don’t use Spotify?
Then you’ll probably want to hold out a little while longer. There are a tonne of music services which will be added after the Gramofon launches, including Google Play Music, Grooveshark and Deezer.

On the plus side, if you buy the Gramofon then you’ll have access to free Wi-Fi in millions of places around the world. Not bad eh?

Is this the part where you tell me that I can’t afford it?
For once, no. The Gramofon is actually rather affordable. You can currently pick it up for US$50 on Kickstarter, and it should be with you in July. Happy listening.

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.