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Listen to Internet Radio over Wifi
wildumut writes "There's an article on the Register about new WIFI radio tuners, worth a look. 'Wi-Fi is not only freeing up notebook and PDA users to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the home, it's also making Internet radio work (almost) like the real thing.'" The company website has some more information, but these aren't available for sale yet.
I've had wireless radio for years. It's called... erm... radio.
I support a football (soccer if you prefer :-) team that has a webcast of all the home matches. Since very few matches are televised per season, it's a good second-best, especially because I've got a nice fast broadband connection. Just take the portable into the front room, link it up to the projector using the VGA input, and watch the match with the video stream being served using WiFi from the router at the back of the house :-)
:-)
The quality isn't as good as broadcast TV (!) but it's a damn sight better than radio
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Doesn't this mean people will be able to drive around pulling radio broadcasts out of thin air? I don't want to live in a world like that.
... how long will it be before we can grill a chicken by hanging out the kitchen window on the end of a stick and cook it with RF?
The Erogenous Zone
Tune in later this year to hear "This is WIFI Radio, a Clear Channel Partner."
Yes, but now you can get stations from all around the world where ever you are...
I live in upstate new york, I am in a college town, so there is some decent radio, but when I want news from around the world, I want radio from around the world...
I could read a lot of it on the internet, but that is hard to do while washing dished/making dinner/working on my bicycle...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
At my house I have a small Wifi-enabled Avertec 3120 V plugged into the back of the stereo system. Had to set up Winamp for some easy key combination, like 'space' to start playing and N to stop.
Then it's Internet Radio list in WinAmp, or Shoutcast.com, choose the one with the better bit rate and we're off with high quality Internet radio.
Any cheap laptop with WiFi card or internal WiFi would work.
Let me just check.
:)
I can buy a radio, listen, enjoy.
Or I can buy a computer, buy a wireless lan card, buy a wireless lan radio, configure everything, PAY for a reasonable intenet connection, listen, enjoy (within a small area around my hub)
Ah that's real progress
Wait - isn't there a serious lag and quality issue?
Since when lag is an important thing for a one way transmission?
As for quality, a 96Kbps MP3 stream sound a lot better than FM radio.
It'll be really neat to see Internet radio receivers with WiFi connectivity. I can picture these as part of stereo systems picking up Shoutcast (or other) radio stations. Unless the RIAA gets their way.
I'd still like to retrofit my house for wireless connectivity.
I don't get it. Are your walls lined with lead or something that would hinder wireless connectivity? Go buy a router and a wireless NIC already. The future is now!
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
On the other hand, internet 'radio' lets just about anyone broadcast audio to anyone willing to listen. I'd say that's a major advantage, even if the quality isn't as high as ordinary radio.
I think mp3/ogg streams are especially nice for voice, since the quality only needs to be high enough to make it understandable, while music requires the listener to appreciate the actual sound.
Only problem is that damn 200 mile long cable that connects to my car
Ugh - retrofitting my house for wireless connectivity was a royal pain in the ass, man. My heart goes out to you and the effort you'll be putting into this. Plugging in that Dlink wireless router and using the web interface to configure it nearly gave me a asthma attack.
I also reply below your current threshold.
Another way to do this on the cheap is to just plug in a standard analog wireless headphone or speaker transmitter into the back of your soundcard.
900 Mhz is typically used for this application, so you can keep 2.4 GHz free for WiFi.
and it will be because of the descendants of things like this.
One day you'll be able to tune into a radio station based on URL, and it will be *the* true revolution for music delivery. Information may or may not want to be free...but it definitely hates coming from central sources.
Newspaper cartoons are to Strongbad as top 40 is to the bands of the future.
but these aren't available for sale yet.
It doesn't even look like they have made a prototype yet. The images on the website are all computer generated.
Johnkoerner.com
Radio revolutionized communications, especially as it became more available to smaller companies. It made a wider range of ideas, music, and personalities available to the common person. Radios eventually became omnipresent - a nearly free (minor cost for a radio and power/batteries) outlet for on-demand contact with the outside world.
Radio's core problem, though, is that there is only a limited spectrum that's both electromagnetically effective and safe for human exposure at high power levels. Otherwise we'd be pulling power from the air instead of wire.
It's still in it's infancy, but I wouldn't be at all suprised if today's clumsy fledgling attempts at digital network-based radio will later be seen as heralding the birth of a whole new medium - same concept as radio, but even more available.
Cable tv, encrypted compressed signals over wire, made it possible to host hundreds (thousands?) of channels, and far cheaper to run them (no broadcasting, less infrastructure per station, etc). The end result: hundreds of channels of purile crap. And mixed in with all that crap are a good number of true gems that never would have seen the light of day in a world of pure airwave broadcasting. The public is now exposed to history, culture, technologies, and news that it never would have had access to before.
I think wifi radio is just one more step in the direction of providing a denser and low-cost medium for propagation of signal. Satelite radio as well (I say let em target regions - even neighborhoods, and let Clear Channel and others be-damned).
Any broadcast medium that brings down the cost of operation for the same general service is inherently a good thing - while it will introduce new content that isn't worth much, it will also allow a wider range of content, and make large-scale advertising income less of a driving survival requirement.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. KORP radio: 30 minutes of continuous top 10 big-studio hits, every hour on the hour.
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
Saying something like "In excess of ten thousand radio stations broadcast their programs on the Internet." is all well and good, but the thing has a knob, doesn't it? If it was A Really Big Knob, I imagine you could scan through a few hundred stations, but wouldn't it have to be A Really Really Awfully Big Knob to get through all of them?
How do you deal with glare on the screen? When I use my laptop outdoors, I need to sit under a roof, with my back to the house, so the light furing the day doesn't wash out the screen. I suppose that's laptop dependent, though....
Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
I don't want to hear about WIFI radio. Not until someone tells me how you install and configure PAM on a pam-less linux box (slackware originally).
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Wow! Wireless radio, what will they think of next.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
But your radio never performed encryption/decryption or balanced your checkbook. Nor was your computer regulated by the FCC. But now that your data processing device has become a communications device, the FCC (or non-US equivalent) has jurisdiction over your computer.
This is why Wi-Fi should never be integrated with the motherboard chipset (a la Centrino). Keep it as an optional add-on. Let the FCC regulate a PC Card or USB device, not the entire computer.
Down with non-optional bundling of law with convenience.
And what is wi-fi? Radio, maybe?
The real question is whether you want to spend less than $10 on an AM/FM radio or you want to spend considerably more to do the same thing.
Well, to each his (or her) own, I guess...
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
I have a treo 600 through sprint, with their unlimited data service package. With the latest pocket tunes software I can stream audio from the internet where ever I am. Generally if there is cell service, I can get a data connection. I know it's not traditional WIFI, but it's still really neat! :-)
I want to listen to what I want, when I want. and I want diversity. This company definitely has an interested customer in me.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
send radio with your computer this program sends AM signals through a CRT monitor
Rhino Gets Amorous With Car
In all seriousness....how the hell is this news?
This is brainless and lacks any substance suitable for the slashdot crowd.
So sad to see the product killed by 3COM right before it's release (The product was actually completed and manufacture started when it was killed), but Kerbango was based on the exact same concept, except it actually existed beyond 3D models (Although never released to the public). I was really looking forward to it.
http://www.gadgetcentral.com/kerbango_intro.html
In my opinion this is the populace "Routing around" the limited point of view that we receive on traditional radio.
If this succeeds and people can run 802.11 "radio stations" for local areas it will prove that the FCC has long ago left the needs of the people.
The reason I say this is the inconvenience needed to listen to this kind of radio. If it can succeed, imagine what would happen if we had that kind of diversity of regular radio.
The FCC hasn't served the people with respect to radio for quite some time.
I wonder if the legal quagmire around rebroadcasting comes into play when you are effectively transmitting the net radio station on the air from your access point.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
this is great, I can now tune in to every right wing nazi nut with a radio show!
now that's progress!
The ster article, "Firms prep Wi-Fi Internet radio tuners," states:
Isn't this just a severely crippled laptop with a WiFi card or built-in WiFi? Isn't this like those e-mail only machines that were sold awhile back? (We all know how popular those proved to be.) What happens when one wants to do some Stream Ripping?
Given these limitations, how much would you pay for something like this? At what point does it make more sense to simply by a laptop with a WiFi card or built in WiFi?
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
BTW, did anyone else find this quote odd? "Hutchison wouldn't say who he's been talking to, but he claimed to have received plenty of interest from ISPs looking to build products to sell on top of their broadband access offerings - particular those who want to target punters without a PC."
ISPs wanting to sell broadband to folks w/o a PC? Does this market really exist?
but when I want news from around the world, I want radio from around the world...
Ever heard of, umm...Shortwave?!
It's been around a long time.
In fact it's one of the best ways to get news from Cuba, which is usually given some ridiculous anti-communist spin by American or even BBC and made out to sound like some kind of crazy Island stronghold run by an insane dictator. Too bad that's just silly. It really makes American news services look like a freaking joke. I don't want a political spin just give me the last happenings in Havana ok...
Anyways, shortwave has been doing what you say for a long time...
All your chicken are mine.
I like how it "can pick up many of the 10,000 or so stations broadcasting on the Net", but they only give you six (6) presets (in the reference design). How about a simplified favorites list or something? 6 seems a little small - I get 30-50 (whatever) stations on my FM car radio, and I have 12 presets, just under 25% of the available stations. With this thing, I get 0.12% of the available stations.
Just my $0.0199.
- Do not paint -
I get my Net connection from a free public source, and I play streaming radio through my stereo. What's the big deal?
particular those who want to target punters without a PC
If I didn't have a PC with a wireless lan card, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a wireless access point. If I didn't have a computer, why would I have a broadband internet connection?
. there used to be a sig here.....
Zoo keeper mauled to death 'after defecating on tiger'
A young Chinese tiger keeper has been mauled to death after apparently trying to defecate on one of his big cats.
The 19-year-old appears to have climbed the railings of the Bengal tiger cage and pulled his trousers down.
Evidence at the scene of the death at the Jinan animal park included toilet paper, excrement and a trouser belt.
Zoo officials think Xu Xiaodong either slipped into the cage or was pulled in by one of the four angry tigers.
According to the South China Morning Post, the man told a co-worker he needed to go to the toilet but police were called when he failed to return.
They found his body lying on the ground surrounded by tigers. The teenager had reportedly been bitten in the neck and was covered in blood.
Police believe Xu climbed the wall of a partially constructed building used to raise the tigers to relieve himself. They said the smell probably caused the tigers to pounce.
You can see more stories about tigers and zoos on Ananova, or read our Animal attacks file.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
ISPs wanting to sell broadband to folks w/o a PC? Does this market really exist?
Yes, and this market is growing quickly.
I can think of about a half dozen personal friends with broadbands, but with no PCs.... Think XBox Live, PS2 Online.
Last weekend I helped a friend network his XBox, PS2 and 20 dollar email station. (Network as in we bought a cheap home router and some cords).
We'll see a lot more PC-less applications of the internet. A set top device that streams video over the 'net, 'net aware radios and boomboxes, VOIP boxes, etc, etc..
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The HomePod from MacSense is already available, and best of all, it will stream music from any iTunes shares it finds.
Isn't this just a severely crippled laptop with a WiFi card or built-in WiFi?
Don't know the hardware, but I would bet on some cheap ARM CPU with wireless chipset and something for audio.
Given these limitations, how much would you pay for something like this?
~200 EUR/USD probably
At what point does it make more sense to simply by a laptop with a WiFi card or built in WiFi?
Definitely not for the kitchen. It's exactly what I am currently looking for. Something with WLAN (so I don't need an ethernet cable), built-in speakers (it needs to be small, I dont want a full blown device in the kitchen) and easy to use. I don't want to boot a laptop or start an app when I want music in the kitchen. Turn the thing on, press on the button of the station and then I want to hear the music.
He'll still have to retrofit if he's using DLink. I made the mistake of buying Dlink and had to return 2 APs, not to mention inummerable phone calls, emails, etc. Also, Dlink repeater I bought doesn't repeat, because it doesn't even receive as well from the Dlink AP as my Linksys 802.11b card (without an antenna). I didn't even bother trying to return this-just threw it away. I will never buy DLink again.
Existing products already do this, though they have a PC requirement: in particluar, seeSlim Devices' offerings.
It has an integrated speaker, you do not need a remote control and I guess it can run with batteries. So it's a semi-portable device for the kitchen, the garden etc.
Unless you are watching WiFi radio with subtitles, you don't need to see the screen.
I've been doing this for months using a little WinAmp knockoff called GSPlayer2 that runs on my Pocket PC and can handle any Shoutcast stream.
I don't recall where I found GSPlayer2 -- it seems to be an orphan now that I'm searching for it with Google.
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
I've got a great business idea... Make wireless access points in cars. Sell them as internet radio, and sell access to the grid. In big cities, the grid could be huge! From your home, you could have access to "the Auto Grid." Of course, this would probably have to be some sort of broadcast system, so bandwidth limitations might be an issue. But you could slap some smartness into it, and have a useable system I'm sure. I think there was an article on slashdot before about motorcycles using this concept in a 3rd world country, but I couldn't find it.
Sadly most of these applications lacks any security. Some supports WEP, but none supports WPA, so most of the time if you want to connect other devices than your PC, you have to lower your security standards.
As for the product we see here, I think it is a great concept but I was unable to determine if it supports any security at all.
Amen, brother. Power to the people.
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
A SqueezeBox can do that, no need for a WinXP box. The latest server software even has a module to let you browse ShoutCast with your remote.
Yikes! You're right. How stupid (of me to have missed the obvious)!
This is is really stupid... or diabolically clever! You ask, "If I didn't have a computer, why would I have a broadband internet connection?" Before, there was no good reason to have a broadband internet connection. (There probably still isn't.) But now there is at least one plausible reason -- Internet Radio! Don't own a computer? Don't know how to operate a computer? Can't afford a computer? NO PROBLEM! Just pay $XX per month and purchase our Internet Radio for $XXX (with low montly payments) and you can listen to radio stations in Hi Fidelity from around the world!
Still there's MORE! For just $XXX for the Internet Television, enjoy streaming Internet Video (porn) from all around the world!
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
As for quality, a 96Kbps MP3 stream sound a lot better than FM radio.
Get your ears checked, asswipe.
ME: "Hey, this is great! I can listen to IDM and doom metal and prog-rock radio stations on the go!"
RADIO: "Coming up next - King Crimson"
ME: "Awesome! King Crimson on wifi internet radio!"
RADIO: "Cat's foot - iron BUFFERING...."
ME: "Iron "buffering"? That's not the right lyric"
RADIO: "Politicians BUFFERING.... BUFFERING...."
ME: "Screw this! Why did I sell my iPod for this??"
Actually, in Philadelphia, there was a pop station in the '70s whose call letters were WIFI.
But if you don't have a computer, how can you read all the SPAM???
. there used to be a sig here.....
Can someone recommend a small MB to build something like this with off-the-shelf parts? I'm not fussy about the CPU, be it ARM, MIPS, PowerPC or x86, but it should work with passive cooling, run linux, and they should be available to a looser like me who just wants to buy a single board.
... too pick you up later!
remember those hokie Mr. Microphones? I got one at a yard sale several years ago for 50 cents. I used to prop it up in front of my speakers, tune into a net radio station I couldn't get otherwise, and broadcast it out to me with my radio headphone set when working in the yard. Worked great, I just wish I could find the dang thing again, lost it in the move someplace. I *could* do it with one of my FRS radios, but that's pushing it and sorta illegal. Doing it with wifi is OK as a concept, but a 5$ regular radio is better, if it's possible where you are. I guess if you are already toting around a PDA or laptop every place and live in some city with overlapping wifi hotspots it makes more sense.
Wonder who has the best deal on the low power FM transmitters? hmm, that Mr. Microphone was some AM freq I remember, but FM would be nicer, especially if they made a real cheap one. the ones I looked at were all over 100 clams, I need something that will do 1/4 to 1/2 mile and be *cheap* and have a clean adjustable signal so it can be adjusted to not interfere/slop over with a real station someplace.
I just got through building a really nice home media system with WiFi.
The centerpiece is a PC running SageTV. It uses a hardware mpeg encoder to capture video from my digital cable box and save it on a 250 GB hard drive. Encoding at the "DVD Standard Play" quality uses about 3 GB per hour of video and the quality is definitely acceptable. Also stored on the monster hard drive is my entire CD collection ripped to very high bitrate MP3. The hardware media card also includes a built-in radio tuner. The machine has a DVD burner in it as well, and SageTV glues it all together.
Now, the really cool part of it is, I can access the mpeg video files and MP3s over my home network. With an mpeg video codec, I can use any of a variety of players to play my recorded television anywhere in my house on a laptop. SageTV also offers a separate piece of client software that allows you to remote-control the PVR from any networked computer and play any of its recorded media -- so, if I'm in the garage with my laptop, I can call up the current TV guide and select a program to record right there without having to directly interact with the media PC.
The only thing I haven't messed around with yet is the radio part of it. Mainly, because radio sucks, and because I do have access to all of the music-only channels through the cable TV (and therefore the PVR) anyway.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
These things all look really cool to me, I have been eyeing up Dlink's new media player, but I'm worried about it's reliance on windows. Sure soudns good though... http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318
surley am/fm radio broadcasts for miles where as your lucky if you can manage 1 mile with wifi (using omni directional antennas). Its hardly going to replace your car stero unless we are going to place wifi masts every few hundred metres along every road. Running this over 3g/cdma/gprs etc might make more sense except you'd probably run the networks out of capacity very quickly if everyone did it.
head phones would be cheaper though you couldn't change stations.
I'd be real curious to see how this handles configuration. For instance, how do you change URLs? The interface I see picture doesn't look like it's up to the task. Howbout WEP? Non-broadcasting SSIDs? I can't find any of this on the company's site. If it doesn't handle this stuff graciously it's a big pretty looking doorstop as far as I'm concerned.
There's an interesting concept, wardriving for radio.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Wi-Fi speakers! This is what we need! Then I can plug my speakers into the mains sockets on the other sides of the room and not trip up over the speaker cables when I go back to where I keep my PC! (okay..maybe bluetooth or wireless usb should also be considered)
--> Streaming in Shoutcast/or Whatever --> Headphones out to Sterio input on Sterio.
Simple, effective... can even add bookmarks.
about a score of 5 for dipshit obvious comment
(i) You're going to have to have a WiFi signal everywhere you'd like to listen to radio. In the middle of long deserted highway. Satellite radio covers the entire US, AFAIK.
(ii) Lots of people, like myself, listen you satellite radio because they have no advertisements in the music channels. So We'd still have to pay for the premium channels; like Yahoo launch or something.
(iii) I use Sirius radio with Audiovox Portable Boombox at home. I can take this thing anyway. Also have a tuner docking kit for the car; and Sirius radio comes with a streaming account at no additional charge for streaming radio of their website so I use that at work/school. All with a single account.
Sorry, but I don't see this thing getting anywhere close to that level of availability.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I can't figure out why it will support M$ format? Even if people do use windoze media player, they shouldn't proliferate the wma format. No good can come of it.
m@t
I realized that I'd like to be able to broacast my TV signal to my laptop so I can use my laptop as a wireless TV (with cable connections for the "erm it's called TV" crowd)
AIK
Are your walls lined with lead or something
Copper pipes, most likely, although I wouldn't discount ductwork for the heating/air conditioning. My dad had the same problem. His cable modem hookup was by the utility room--all the water pipes were just on the other side of the wall. It wasn't until we moved the wireless router away from that wall (about 2-3 meters) that he could get decent connectivity from his recliner. (After all, how else can you web surf while watching TV in comfort?)
One of the coolest things I have done yet with my T-Mobile Pocket PC device with GPRS is listen to streaming talk radio stations while driving. At a max of 40k there really is not the bandwidth for quality music, but for talk nerds like myself it is awesome. Right now their all you can eat plan for wireless data is $19.95 and I am buying that for other uses anyway. Playing with buffers and what not yields a very reliable very high quality signal even with the frequent tower hopping that happens when driving. It is good for even the local stations which tend to be on the AM dial. A 20k steam sounds so much better then the wines and pops of AM radio, especially after dark when most stations have to turn their wattage down.
The only issue I have is when I am traveling at a high rate of speed on the Interstate. Apparently the tower hopping at 70 - 80 MPH is a little too much to keep a steady enough connection. Averaging 40 - 50 MPH works very well, however.
Who ever it is that takes smooth tower jumps and adds wifi speeds to it, they will be a very rich person.
Download porn to cook your chicken!
It wasn't until we moved the wireless router away from that wall (about 2-3 meters) that he could get decent connectivity from his recliner.
Sounds like the pipes became part of the antenna. I've not had any such problems with 802.11 gear at work. In fact, we get way better coverage than we need, which makes me nervous about security.
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Could you please post a link directly to the playlist/url so I can open it in WinAmp? I can't make heads nor tails of their site and the play button doesn't work. When I finally allowed popup windows I at least got a window that gave me a javascript popup saying, "You don't have VBScript enabled. Unable to continue media player setup."
UGH.
!#^T!#$^(!#$%^#!($#
GDP is a very capitalist way to gage sucess...
You could look at life expectancies, or some arbitrary happiness metric, or accomplishments.
Life expectancies are best in socialist countrys in general, and happiness, well I don't know how to measure that... And accomplishments, The space race comes to mind, and the russians kicked our ass, we hold the moon up as a great accomplishment, but we were second in space, second in orbit, second in manned space, second in manned orbit. The moon was the only thing we were first in.
I am not saying that I don't think capitalism is a better system. I am just saying that if you think GDP is THE metric for sucess, you have been brainwashed by the capitalists...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
The default player for live365 uses a browser popup window. If you try to listen using by clicking the link on proggedradio.com, this is what you will get. Very annoying.
Not sure I'd entirely agree with the tone of the parent, but at 128kbps (and possibly 96) the quality of the kit plugged in starts becoming relevant.
Crappy laptop plugged into aux jack on hifi - not good.
Minitower with decent sound card and decent miniplug cables (or at least as least bad as you can get) - much better.
Anthing from the BBC on their crappy realaudio streams - much, much worse!
Not that it matters anyway because I can't stand listening to music from "normal" radio stations. All the ones I have heard has uses (forgot the right technical word) some form of limiter which evens out the signal so you can hear in pop or rock music at drumbeats, the rest of the music drops in strength. I guess it's to avoid bothering people with different sound levels and perhaps to deliver a signal that poor portable radios can play.
That said, I have heard terrible internet streams at 128kbps also. I guess the admin people in the other end has not listened to their stream on other speakers than the ones on their computer.
Most people already have "broadband" -- cable TV
It's probably the cable TV guys they're talking about here..... they'll probably go to
TCP/IP based content on demand eventually or something like that anyway... so they add a cable modem extension to the box, charge a fraction of what "computer broadband" costs (even though you & i know it's the same damn thing)
and presto! people without PCs have broad band.
i can't image DSL providers being that intrested in something like this, but almost everybody has cable these days... it wouldn't take too much for a cable ISP to send you radio down your coax.
The latest version of mmplayer for connected PalmOS machines (the Tungsten C has built-in WiFi, as does the Sony UX50) now supports HTTP streaming over the wireless connection. Not just audio, but video as well.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
You sir, are the man. I have been planning a similar setup for quite some time now. Now all I have to do is find a quiet computer so it won't keep me up all night and I'll do all that!
I've had a Tutrle Beach audiotron for 2 years now, and it's great. While it requires a computer with a web browser for initial setup of the radio service, after that you don't need a computer.
While it does rely on a runing server for initial sertup (called Turtle Radio) to pick your favorite channels and download the station list to the unit.
The only drawback is that you can't enter a radio URL directly into the machine.
However, I do the majority of my net radio listening on this device. And while it's only limited to MP3 streams, I don't find that much of a problem.