Mini fans get to enjoy their favorite car's badge inside the house with the new MINI Rocks Sonoro Elements W Internet radio. In a cross-promotional design move, Sonoro Audio worked with Mini to develop this special edition of its Elements W Internet radio, showing it off today at the Maison & Objet furniture and design trade show in Paris. The Mini Rocks radio gets Mini badges on its face, remote control, and iPod dock, along with stripes across the top that echo the hood stripes on the Mini Cooper. Four Mini Sounds presets come programmed into the radio. Mini Sounds' four stations are Mini Space, alternative rock tracks; Mini United, hit music; Mini International, chillaxing beats; and Mini Cross, hard rock. Beyond the special Mini elements, the Mini Rocks radio also receives 18,000 Internet radio stations. It can be hooked up to an Internet connection through Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The interface lets users browse stations by genre or country. Other audio sources include streaming from a computer or the external iPod dock. The Mini Rocks radio also includes an alarm clock with sleep and snooze functions. As the unit only has one 3-inch speaker and a bass reflex tube, the audio quality is limited to mono output. The maker of the Mini Rocks radio, Sonoro Audio, is a German company. The radio will be sold on a limited edition basis in late September for 499 euro, equal to $640 at current exchange rates.
Mine just arrived today, simply awesome! The package also came with white gloves which I assume you are to wear when you set the system up. I washed my hands really good, I promise, so I don't know that I really need to wear the gloves. Set up was fairly easy and not to mention, it really is cool looking. The sound is not bad and it is certainly superior to my ipod, iphone and computer. The design is very MINI and I can continue to immerse myself in the MINI experience without sitting out in the garage!