Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2006 > August > 15 > Entry
Early gadget lust
This new portable Sirius radio hasn’t even officially been announced yet, but I already want one.
I held off on Sirius’ S50 because it’s not a true portable satellite receiver (you can record programs when it’s plugged into a base unit, but you can’t listen to satellite live and on the go), but if the specs on this are right, the WiFi will be especially useful for using it indoors. I get sporadic reception in my house in New Braunfels with the indoor antenna I use for my Sirius radio. If it were mounted on the roof or outside, it would be no problem, but using it indoors involves moving it around every few hours based on where the satellites are at a given time.
So far, listening to Sirius online works well, although slower computers aren’t good for it and a slow Internet connection leads to skipping. Sometimes the buffering on channels takes a while and you don’t get artist/song info while listening online. Not sure yet if using WiFi with the Stiletto would address those issues or not. Timeshifting is definitely the wave of the future for satellite radio, though — my radio only buffers 44 minutes for rewinding and pausing at a time, but it’s already a feature I use quite a lot. Setting shows to record in advance to listen in on later would be even better.
Still, $399 is a bit pricey for a satellite radio unit considering you’re still paying a monthly fee and this isn’t a product that has an “i” at the beginning of its name. It seems pretty slick, but it remains to be seen whether packing this many features into a portable unit is going to make it a dream device or, in the words of Red Stripe beer, too much of a good thing.
Any XM users out there using the Inno or Helix units? How does the (purely speculative) Stiletto seem to compare in terms of features? Comment here.
Permalink | | Categories: Gadgets, Shopping
