Slashdot Mirror
Griffin RadioSHARK Exceeds Expectations
reifman writes "Picked up a Griffin RadioSHARK (think TiVo for radio) at the Apple store this evening: It exceeds all expectations. The user experience is simple. The iPod synchronization is seamless. The RadioSHARK is a counter-attack on the recording industry and its draconian file sharing lawsuits. I'm glad to see Griffin had the balls to release this product. ."
I wish it featured an external signal input. Thing I get very bad radio reception at my place but I get near-digital quality (and free) radio through my cable TV outlet (there's 2 connectors, one for TV one for radio).
Nice gadget anyway!
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
well, hate to be a bit of a whinger, but call me back when they do a DAB version for the uk- AM/FM? Welcome to the 20th Century!
Anyone want to take a guess on how long it'll be before the crackdown commences?
Actually, I just went to RIAA's website for the first time... all of the "latest news" articles on the main page are about lawsuits they've filed. Nice!
Don't they realize that something is wrong with their business when their news is about lawyers, and not musicians?!
Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
Looks cool but..
What's a "radio"?
Griffin RadioSHARK Exceeds reifman's Expectations
He never actually mentioned what his expectation were in the first place though so its hard to tell what was actually exceeded.
Peosonally I think more than one person needs to be impressed before you can write headlines like this, some guy scribbling on his blog is not a sufficient indicator for me.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
"I'm glad to see Griffin had the balls to release this product."
I don't see how releasing this required any balls. FM broadcasts are horrible when compared to the AAC streams from XM.
The RIAA have written off FM copyright lawsuits because any kid with a boombox can swipe a low quality song.
I've been doing this for two years using a TV/FM tuner that costs about the same as the Radioshark - and the bonus is I can record cable TV so now I can have low quality video too!
I mean, c'mon, you're pairing something with the sexiest, sleekest portable music player on the market. Any clunkiness or loose ends would stand out like an albino at the Apollo.
a te/], I wouldn't expect anything less than a well-executed product.
Then again, the RadioSHARK probably would have only met--not exceeded--my expectations, as given Griffin Tech's batting record with Cool New Things(tm) like the PowerMate [http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerm
I ordered mine in July of 2003 and got it last week.
The application (at least on OS X) leaves a lot to be desired. It does not behave like a typical OS X application in many ways, have no way to edit a preset- if you want to go back and put in the radio station's call sign or a genre descriptor you have to re-add the station as a preset and then delete the first instance of the preset, there are no menu options (and thus no keyboard shortcuts) for many of the really important GUI elements.
The time shift feature is a good idea, but is poorly implemented. You can set a number of seconds to move forwards or backwards (defaults to 10 seconds) by pressing the left and right arrow or you can drag the slider around forwards and backwards in the time shift buffer but these 2 methods are either too granular or too coarse to help you pinpoint a precise location.
It would be so cool if Griffin Technologies opened up the API... since the GUI and user interface are just so lame.
This would be great if it could interface with XM or Sirius satellite radio, plain and simple.
Macs as a fetish property
When was AIFF ever more compact than AAC? Isn't it, in fact, the least compact format possible?
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
His glowing review almost convinced me, until I got to the end where he similarly praises the Griffin SightLight.
The SightLight is one of the most poorly-conceived products on the market. It's a light for the iSight webcam; it's a ring of white LEDs which mounts around the iSight lens to illuminate you so that people can see you when you're using the webcam in an otherwise dark room. Sounds clever, right?
Except that using the SightLight is like trying to talk to an automobile headlight two feet in front of your face. And you'd think that in return for being blinded, you could at least be seen better by the person on the other end of the conversation - but no, that's not true; for as retina-piercingly bright as the SightLight is, it does a terrible job of actually lighting you up. A face lit by the SightLight will look ghostly pale and near-dark to the person on the other end, and the user has to be very close to the light to be seen at all.
And all this for $39.95!
I returned mine the very next day, and I now approach Griffin products with skepticism.
The only problem I see with this though, is that your average geek will simply not need one of these. I have a CD changer in my car. I have my iPod hooked up to my car stereo. I'm literally surrounded by computers at work. I have a stereo at home, that my iPod and one of my computers is hooked up to.
With regard to my "music needs", I guess I'm pretty much covered. I guess this is really useful if you're into talk radio. But to me, the radio is something I use when I'm on the road and want to listen to a ballgame or when I'm working on something outside and don't really feel like listening to my iPod but want some background music. The radio just isn't something I pay a lot of attention to.
The reason TiVo is such a huge hit is that it fundamentally changes the way we watch TV. When I'm watching TV I usually do pay attention to what's on - it's not just some random background noise. I find it hard to see how this could work for radio. Except, of course, skipping commercials. That would indeed be nice (but not all that useful, since most commercial stations already do 30-minutes-without-commercial stuff).
The problem is this: I, and I can only speak for myself here, don't really care what's on the radio. To me, it's random stuff. Turn it on, listen to some music while doing something else, turn it off when you're done. TV's different: I care what's on. That's why I'm watching in the first place.
Now I can listen to Rush Limbaugh yell at me all day long!
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
I've been using mine for a few days now, I and love it. Here's my raves:
- 64kps AAC sounds great for npr shows, and the files aren't too big.
- After recording, it automatically puts the file into an iTunes playlist, so you just need to dock your iPod each time to get the updated recordings.
- You can set the time-shift buffer to any length you want. So at any time you can go back to listen to any broadcast in the last day on a station.
- The hardware is solid high quality.
- It records even when the application isn't open. It appears to have a daemon process running at all times, still recording to the buffer.
- You can preset stations with names, and then switch between them using a dropdown.
- The interface is really slick.
Here's what could be improved:
- The filenames for repeat recordings should have the date in them to make it easier to pick from multiple recordings of the same show on the iPod. ID3 tags would be nice, too.
- There should be an option to record shows only on the weekdays. To record a weekday-only show, you need to set up five identical recordings, one for each day.
- The blue/red light on the unit glows like three night lights. Having it in my bedroom lights up the whole room. Where's the dimmer?
- It would be a cool feature to be able to schedule recordings remotely without using VNC.
Now if someone would only come up with a good time-shifting TV tuner of this quality for the Mac.
At least in my area, there is little on the radio id want to record anymore.. it it all pop/top 40 noise..
Even the so-called 'aternative' stations just keep repeating the same stuff... after 3 days you have heard it all..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Select A Tenna. I have one of these, and it really works well for pulling in weak AM signals. And no physical connection required.
In the alternative, you could hook the radio output of your cable outlet directly into the audio input of your computer and write scripting software to capture it. For tuning, you'd have to hack something like a cable mouse (an IR emitter that you'd have to write software to drive with the appropriate signals to command the cable to change radio channels). A lot of work, but it could be done.
I'm curious (assuming the original writer is reading this) about how that writer would respond to Mossberg's criticism.
First, not everything on the radio is music. There are a number of NPR shows that are on while I'm at work that would enjoy listening to.
And as is usually menitoned whenever someone reviews this thing, some people enjoy listening to Howard Stern, but can't for various reasons. Now they can, at least for a year or so.
And there is plenty more talk of varying quality radio out there.
And where I live there is a space music show called Echoes. Runs between 10 pm and midnight. More often then not I'm doing something else. Now I can record it, load my iPod, and listen at work.
SteveM
According to this MacCentral page, the audio output jack of the RadioShark also doubles as an external antenna input. Not sure of the wiring or input impedance.
No it's not. Its a radio receiver not a p2p app. Settle down. It is less of a threat to the evil RIAA than Audio Hijack Pro.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I believe that the RIAA is not that concerned about this product because of the quality of a radio broadcast. They don't mind people copying less than CD quality audio (or close to it with mp3). The source is low enough quality for them to allow it. However, Howard Stern might be upset about this (at least for the next 15 months before he moves to Sirius). People can now auto-record his show, and throw up a torrent file. It's talk radio so the quality won't be an issue. Shouldn't be long before the Stern downloads begin.
The Windows drivers suck, to put it mildly. They don't use DirectInput, so there is no games support, regardless of what the marketing brochures and manual say, and the USB integration is so piss poor that every time you plug the PowerMate in it installs another copy of the drivers, regardless of how many previous copies might already be on the system. At first I though it was just mildly stupid and wanted a new driver for each USB port. Nope, it will reinstall/add drivers ad infinitum if you just keep plugging it into the same USB port.
Griffin acknowledged the problem to me in email about 2 years ago. Not after a long story from their engineer about how driver writing is "hard" and I should just be happy it works at all and shut up. They said 6 months out there would be better drivers. The version number hasn't changed from 1.5.2 in over 24 months.
It's a piece of junk and I suspect, based on other reviews I've read, that other Griffin products are of the same poor quality.
Can it record to MP3 or Vorbis?
RTFA.
Answer: No.
It can, however, record to unprotected AAC (compressed) or AIFF (lossless - I'm pretty sure). AIFF has been used for years, predominantly on the mac, and many utilities are available to easily convert AIFF into whatever format your heart desires.
I don't know if I could justify $69+s/h for a hardware device with no way to boost signal reception. If you already have a radio that has stereo out, you can cross connect it to your PC and use this software: Total Recorder. This enables you to schedule and encode the broadcast directly to any number of formats (mp3, aiff, wav, etc). It's only $12. This is from a Windows perspective, but I'm sure there is some Mac software out there that can do this.....but then again, if you listen to certain regularly syndicated radio show, you can snag eps of it from suprnova.org, I do this for Howard Stern.
...so there's no need for this gadget.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has to ask...
What the hell would you want to record off of radio today?
On a two hour long trip yesterday I heard one song that I might want to hear again. If I had been in my own car with a CD player available, I wouldn't have even thought about listening to radio.
AM talk radio is the only remotely listenable radio left and you really don't miss anything by skipping a day.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
How is it ballsy, you can achieve the same effect by hooking up a tape deck to your radio. Choose your battles wisely, the headline just sounds retarded and immature. I don't see how it is a counterattack on the RIAA or the file-sharing lawsuits, it's the radio, you have always been able to record it.
I hate sigs.
No. But the business of RIAA is not about musicians. It is about making money. Both are different. There are two ways of making money in US ("making" money, not earning them):
1. make something useful and sell lots of them.
2. Litigate, leverage, collect fees from others...
RIAA belongs to second, since the first step is known to produce crappy songs like Evanescence...
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
The one reason I'm keeping on eye on this and consider getting the RadioShark, is that for certain radio shows like KROQ's Kevin & Bean Show, which don't have an internet stream and usually start earlier than I wake up, I can now record it and put it on my iPod so I can listen to it on my way to work.
This effectively time-shifts the show for me, which in the case of Kevin & Bean show, I think it worth it. They usually have entertaining or interesting discussions about all sorts of stuff from the weirdest news of the day to stuff like info on MPAA/RIAA lawsuits etc, artists interviews, and on occassion the Mayor of L.A. James Hahn (or a satire of him and other political and sports figures.)
Sure you can get much better audio quality for Music from other sources, but if you want to record a talk show on the radio that you are interested in, now you can.
.... ... }
int main (void) {
Wish they had them in mp3 or ogg, though. I'd love to be able to listen to them on my handheld, instead of having to sit at a computer while it plays.
This is perfect for listening to college radio. The shows are the pinnacle of diversity interesting music. A lot of times they have specials on wonderful bands that time forgot.
postmodernsideshow.com
Yes it can. Just try Wiretap for the Mac. Records ANYTHING that goes out including copyprotectd AAC's. I would not use it to do that (it's easier to do it other ways)but when you'd like to record a program that is only streamed, it works like a charm.
Gorkman
While this looks like a great geek gadget for the price I find it disturbing that both the review and the Griffin site totally neglect specifications. .2 Mhz spaced spots? (tv channel 6 sound is 87.775 Mhz, audible but not properly tuned on many digitally tuned radios)
1) Does it support an external antenna?
2) How free is it from spurious responses in the presence of strong signals?
3) How sensitive is it?
4) How is the adjacent and alternate channel selectivity?
5) What's the signal to noise ratio for strong and weak signals?
6) How's the A.M. rejection?
7) How's the stereo separation?
8) How's the distortion at various modulation levels? (including a bit above 100%, some stations overmodulate)
9) Can it receive S.C.A. subcarriers?
10) Is there software support to decode E.A.S. (Emergency Alert System) messages?
11) How's the frequency response?
12) Can it tune signals at other than the usual
Granted I don't expect a low-priced receiver to use a balanced mixer, but I'd at least like to see some clue that designers put some thought into performance.
From their webpage.
...snip!...
This is very funny:
The principle that the work that one has created belongs to the creator and should be controlled by you is as timeless as it is global.
The copyright in the sound recording, i.e. the recording of the performer singing or playing a given song. This is usually owned by the record company.
"In conclusion: overrated, overpriced Mac hardware. For the same price you can get a Hauppuage product that can also timeshift television."
Have you ever owned and used a Hauppauge product? I've had a couple and to compare that crap with almost anything on the Mac (or the PC for that matter) shows ignorance or chutzpah of the first order. Then there is the odd comparison with a Linux product that can involve installing a few binaries and setting up some cron tasks. Right, that is a real valid comparison.
What I suspect you are missing is that people are willing to pay to get something that just works rather than turn the whole thing into a project or a continuing hobby. I like the CreativeLabs TiVo-like product I have for the PC but it still has some rough edges and only works for TV. When I selected it there wasn't anything at a comparable price that included a radio tuner. That was less than 5 years ago so I suspect your numbers might be a little off.