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RadioShark Is Vaporware No More

Posted by timothy on from the no-more-sleeping-through-car-talk dept.

DLWormwood writes "Well, after acquiring a reputation for being 'vaporware of the year' from Wired News, MacCentral is reporting that Griffin Technology's radioSHARK is finally shipping. Now maybe I can finally get some sleep while Dr. Demento is recorded by my Mac late at night..."

7 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. What is the demand for this? by no+haters · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't know about other people, but for me, the radio is something that helps to pass the time when I'm doing something else. I listen to the radio when I'm driving my car, when I'm cleaning my house, when I'm having dinner, occassionally. Granted, I wish I could catch "Prairie Home Companion" more often, but oftentimes many broadcasts that are one-time appearances like that are available online after the fact anyway. Do people see a strong demand for an item like this? At $70? Only available as hookup to your PC?

  2. Things that make me go ho-hummmm by Bin_jammin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seems like too little too late for me and radio. After the corporate buy-outs (Clear Channel, I'm looking at you) the blandification of radio pretty much turned me off from turing radio on. If I could find a station I wanted to listen to, it would probably not entice me to buy another radio to listen to it. If this product had been around 5 years ago, it would have been the latest and greatest. As it is, it's just the lastest. The tech behind it is cool, and it seems like a great product. Commercial free radio would be great, but these days it seems like the songs are the breaks in between the commercials, and not the other way around. Alas radio, you've died at the hands of top 40, and the funeral march will be performed by top selling artists. You sure do look nice in that beige suit though.

    1. Re:Things that make me go ho-hummmm by RPI+Geek · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Try finding a small independent radio station, or a college radio station. They tend to have good programming and the Top40 music is occasional rather than the rule. One of my favorite radio stations is 102.7FM WEQX (Manchester VT, but I can hear them in the Albany NY area just fine) simply because they don't pump out the same crap over and over.

      91.5 WRPI plays a lot of eclectic and oftentimes strange music, and they aren't corporate slaves.

      88.3 WVCR "The Saint" plays mostly hit music during peak hours, but other than that, you can hear just about anything: classical, folk, rock and rap sometimes within a few hours, especially if you're up for some sleepless night.

      The bottom line is that there are a handful of radio stations that are actually doing very well without ClearChannel's meddling. Try finding one of these because they're actually enjoyable to listen to, and you might find that it's better than listening to your music collection over and over. Or try finding a local NPR station. Or listen to any given AM station, they can be pretty damn funny sometimes, especially when they're trying to be serious.

      --

      - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
  3. Gettin' in line to buy one of those... by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't wait to get a RadioShark, record Coast to Coast A.M. every night, and then listen to the cavalcade of freaks and weirdos on my iPod while driving, walking, exercising and so on.

    For internet broadcasts, I'll still be using iRecordMusic to bring shows like This American Life and The Savvy Traveler into my iPod via iTunes on my Mac.

    Good thing that 120GB external hard drives are on sale at Office Max this week!

    --
    You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
    1. Re:Gettin' in line to buy one of those... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why??

      I have been doing EXACTLY that for over 2 decades with a FM radio Tuner Card in my pc, or one of the serial port radio tuners, or current USB tuners.

      The software that came with all those devices allowed you to specify a time to start recording and a channel. convert the WAV to a mp3 using lame when finished and everything is done.

      I do not understand why people think the radioshark is anything innovative or special. It's the same-old from 20 years ago and has been available ever cince.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. It Works On PCs Too... by DLWormwood · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...though it is a bit expensive ($70) come to think of it. I still plan on getting one, however. My iMac doesn't have an audio-in, and this device appears to send the recorded data over USB. I don't have cable, so I never got a TiVo, but now I can experience something similar. Staying up late for the Funny Five wrecks my return to work on Monday mornings.

    I might start listening to more NPR too, since I've had bad luck listening to their Internet broadcasts. I better curb my enthusiasm, I'm starting to sound like a Griffon shill...

    Wow, I'm batting 3 for 3 on getting accepted submissions, anybody have a longer streak?

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  5. Why is this interesting? by Redshado · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For $70 dollars I can buy a Hauppage Win-TV FM, $10 dollars more I can add Hauppage's radio time-shifting software. So, for a net cost of $10 dollars more I can have all the benefits of the RadioShark and a TiVo, or even better, run it under Linux and MythTV/MythRadio and have it all for the same cost.