I have a mothballed RX-S601D in the eaves cupboard with four years of dust resting on its lid, the awfulness of Yamaha's AV Controller and MusicCast Controller apps part of the reason I gave up.

At the time I chucked it into the cupboard it all felt too half-baked and proprietary for my liking, and looking at the two app stores today I'm really not sure much has changed. The Yamaha duo remain some of the worst rated big name apps you can download: the former last updated pre-virus and the latter having the cobwebs blown from it when iOS 14 appeared in the summer.

I have to confess that from investigating and tinkering with the competition they ALL fall strangely way short of what I would consider ideal. Strange because the accompanying hardware is so expensive. You can't help but wonder if owners really are more interested in look rather than feel.

Speaking of such, the B&O app does feel like the B&O team are at least trying to keep things on the boil, whereas the Yamaha apps are terribly rated (both are 2-star with exasperated reviews) and something of a disincentive for anyone thinking about what to buy in the sales!

Norwin wrote:

Thanks, updated now. Still I can only have one Deezer playlist as favorite stored and not more. Am I the only one or are there more out there with same issue (might be by design though but not sure)

Same issue here - hope it's not 'by-design' but something they can address in the next update. Love my wall-mounted Halo so far  (connected to a Shape)!

Norwin wrote:

Thanks, updated now. Still I can only have one Deezer playlist as favorite stored and not more. Am I the only one or are there more out there with same issue (might be by design though but not sure)

Same issue here - hope it's not 'by-design' but something they can address in the next update. Love my wall-mounted Halo so far  (connected to a Shape)!

65535 wrote:

Speaking of such, the B&O app does feel like the B&O team are at least trying to keep things on the boil, whereas the Yamaha apps are terribly rated (both are 2-star with exasperated reviews) and something of a disincentive for anyone thinking about what to buy in the sales!

Damn that's too bad. The hardware for the WXC-50 gets great reviews. The software is also A LOT easier to use than the terrible B&O apps. I'm a UX designer for apps for 20 years now and the Yamaha software is better than B&O's in every way other than its not as pretty.

The Yamaha app which accompanies their digital pianos is also 2-star bad.

Ditto Roland, Casio et al who for whatever reason just don't know how to polish their software either.

In addition to stereo gear have also had a number of Yamaha motorcycles in my time so it's not as though my brand allegiance is in question 😁

I realize the software of halo is not yet finished and hardware might be capable of more. 

Does anybody know if a microphone is included in the halo?

Would be cool if in future software release voice control (through Google voice assistant) would be included like in beosound1/2 and level/balance.

driehoek wrote:

I realize the software of halo is not yet finished and hardware might be capable of more. 

Does anybody know if a microphone is included in the halo?

Would be cool if in future software release voice control (through Google voice assistant) would be included like in beosound1/2 and level/balance.

The FCC diagrams indicate a microphone. However, this initial Halo definitely does not have one. There is an area where the microphone would be that has a different texture of plastic -- which makes one wonder if this might be a "placeholder" for where a microphone could be in future generations.

beojeff wrote:

The FCC diagrams indicate a microphone. However, this initial Halo definitely does not have one. There is an area where the microphone would be that has a different texture of plastic -- which makes one wonder if this might be a "placeholder" for where a microphone could be in future generations.

Hi All, I woke up this morning to my three Halos telling me they had a software update to 1.2.3547. Does anyone know what if any additional functionality this update provides?

I read from a user on a Danish website that it now works with Beosound Balance and Beosound Level as well. I cannot confirm this, as I have none of these products.