Wednesday Wrap: Roberts BluPad, 4K TV sales, ROK Mobile, Rolls Royce Wraith

Rolls Royce has announced a music-orientated version of the Wraith luxury sports car.

Called the Wraith ‘Inspired by Music’, the new version comes fitted with Rolls’ Bespoke Audio system, has a new Lyrical Copper paint finish on the outside and sports copper speaker grilles on the inside.

Door panniers and floor mats have been produced from a finely-woven leather and copper-coloured door inserts begin at the front of the interior and taper towards the rear. More copper can be found on the main fascia and even on the signature seat bullets.

The Bespoke Audio system is apparently the result of two years of development between the “world’s very best automotive audio engineers” and Rolls-Royce’s interior design team.

The system features 18 speakers in total: two bass speakers,seven tweeters, seven midrange drivers and two ‘exciter’ speaker in the headlining. The total output power is rated at 1300 watts.

Microphones have been fitted to the car to constantly monitor ambient and exterior sounds and aims to adjust the tone and volume of the system to compensate.

Rolls Royce has already produced two other versions of the Wraith: Inspired by Film and Inspired by Fashion.

Rolls Royce hasn’t said how much the Inspired by Music edition costs, but considering the regular Wraith sells for around £250,000, don't expect it to be cheap...

Read the Rolls Royce Wraith review on Autocar

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Roberts unveils BluPad Bluetooth speaker

Roberts has launched the BluPad Bluetooth speaker for £130. It’s been designed for use in the home, in the garden or even on the go thanks to its compact size. Roberts says that even though it’s small and light, the sound delivered is “rich and full of body” thanks in most part to bass boost settings and aptX quality Bluetooth streaming.

The BluPad can remember and pair with up to eight Bluetooth devices and the built-in rechargeable battery is said to offer 16 hours of playback time. It can double up as a charger for mobile devices and comes with a detachable leather case that can also act as a stand.

MORE: Best Bluetooth speakers 2015

See all our Roberts news and reviews

ROK Mobile

A new mobile service hopes to entice subscribers by offering the UK’s first phone and music streaming package. The new SIM-only package offers users unlimited minutes and texts, along with 4GB of data and unlimited access to a catalogue of 20 million songs for streaming.

ROK Mobile costs £24.99/month and works on a rolling monthly basis rather than long-term contract. Music is streamed in 160kbp/s quality and up to 2000 songs can be downloaded for offline playback.

A ’Test Drive’ package offers 250 mins, 500 texts and 500MB of data, with 14 days of music access, for a one-off fee of £9.99. This is available for 30 days.

ROK Mobile will use Three’s network for its mobile coverage, meaning users can also get 4G at no extra cost, but won’t get the international roaming benefits that Three customers currently enjoy. The music service is powered by 7 Digital, so many of the recent releases and big name artists should be available to stream.

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4K TV sales in 2015

A worldwide TV market report from Futuresource Consulting says that 4K TV shipments are expected to grow 147 per cent in 2015 - in contrast to overall TV sales, which are down 2 per cent.

One of the world regions seeing the largest growth is Latin America and it’s believed this is because of the Brazilian World Cup and the fact that analogue services are starting to be switched off in favour of digital.

Europe has seen a small growth of three per cent in TV sales, while Asia-Pacific (APAC) saw a decline in 2014, but ultimately remained the largest region for TV demand, accounting for 37 per cent of TV shipments.

The report expects global trade value to be $91 billion, a three per cent fall from $94 billion in 2014. Some more positive news from the report says that larger screen TVs and 4K TVs are being adopted faster than previously forecast with curved screens predicted to be particularly popular.

Source: PR Newswire

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Max is a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?'s sister site, TechRadar, in Australia. But being the wonderful English guy he is, he helps out with content across a number of Future sites, including What Hi-Fi?. It wouldn't be his first exposure to the world of all things hi-fi and home cinema, as his first role in technology journalism was with What Hi-Fi? in the UK. Clearly he pined to return after making the move to Australia and the team have welcomed him back with arms wide open.