Sonos gets iPhone app, Last.fm streaming

Sonos CEO John MacFarlane dropped by CNET UK last week with a full Sonos Music System setup in his arms, an Apple Time Capsule full of music and an iPhone. Curious, since Sonos doesn't have anything to do with iPhone.

Except that now it has. We're pleased to exclusively reveal online that as of today, Sonos has added a fully functional iPhone app to the iTunes App Store, enabling full control of your multi-room Sonos system from your iPhone or iPod touch. And it's free.

Although this will be great news for existing iPhone-owning Sonos lovers, it's even better news for new ones, as the iPhone app offers identical functionality to the £250 Sonos Controller, meaning you can easily strike off that £250 spend when you're buying a Sonos setup.

It offers control of every ZonePlayer in the house, including isolated volume controls for each system. You can browse your complete music library, access all your playlists, browse anything stored on iTunes on your Mac or PC, and everything else previously only available with the Sonos controller.

But there's one more thing, too. Sonos has partnered up with CNET UK's sister site Last.fm to offer full access to the site's streaming music service, including scrobbling of everything playing on any ZonePlayer at any time.

All this functionality will cost you zero pounds, zero pence, as of today. There's a delicious video just waiting to be watched at the top of this here page, where Rob Lambourne, director of user experience at Sonos, gives you a demo of how the iPhone app works.

And if you've just read this entire article and still don't know what the hell a 'Sonos' is or how you get one, consult our recent review of the updated Sonos BU150 and bask in its 9.6 out of 10 score. Go on, we don't see you basking yet.