$399 for this is stupid expensive.

$399 is a *lot* for a wifi speaker. Love the look and idea though. I just was at a friend's wedding where we needed something like this, and the jambox-type speakers are just not loud enough.

$399 is expensive, but I also paid like... $350(?) for my big jambox when it first came out.

Just got the email: This will be available June 23 to Rdio Unlimited subscribers only.

It's impossible to tell if $400 is too expensive for this, at least until we hear it. It's not hard to imagine it sounding $100-200 better than alternative portable speakers. It's also not hard to imagine it sounding the same as those speakers. Group music selection is not a solved problem as @staringispolite points out. (Also volume is an issue with small speakers). No idea if this would work well for groups, but I can say that a bluetooth speaker at a party (especially one with non-nerds) often results in people stealing the main phone to change music and then someone drops it in the pool and everyone's heart breaks.

Re: price, I should qualify that to my own preferences. The problem is not worth $400 to solve (for me), even if the resulting sound is very high quality. I don't care much about sound EQ, or auto-playing fanciness. I just want 6-8hrs of USB-rechargable battery life, and a speaker loud enough to hear over party (or beach, park, networking event...) noise