XM to Launch Satellite Radio Handheld?

g00set writes "Reuters is reporting 'XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc next week is expected to unveil a "wearable" device, marking the satellite radio industry leader's latest effort to woo audiences to the nascent format, analysts said.' In adddition, 'A radio industry executive said the device was believed to be a satellite-radio receiver with headphones that also had a hard drive enabling users to download XM content.'" There have been other rumors of this as well.

Comments

Cool Device

[genkael]

This is a really cool sounding device. But XM needs to do some more marketing to fight Sirius. XM is sweet and I'm looking forward to getting it. A handheld would make it that much better.

Re:Cool Device

[Anonymous Coward]

Why must they do that? From a business prespective I uderstand why they might want to do it but why would you want that. I would much rather both networks servive. After all Sirius is the newer and smaller player at the moment. As a consumer nothing would please me more then for it to become XMs equal. It means there will be competition and therefore, lower prices most likely come the day I decide to go Sat. Not that I ever will unless it pushes free FM radio out of usefull existance. Frankly I think subscriuption raido service is horrible. I hope the two kill any chance at profit the other has. The last thing I want is for radio to become like TV where the networks have nothing worth watching and to enjoy Tv you must have some type of content serivce with a monthy fee and then still be subjected to commercials. I also don't think Sat radio is gonna stay commercial free. There is two much money there to avoid that. Now I grant you it might be more PBS like where they don't interrupt a program and advertisers are "Sponsors" but it still will mean that when you jump in your car at 5pm on your way home it will be just prior to the next programs start time and you're gonna listen to 10min + of commercials. Die sat raidio die.

Re:Cool Device

[joeljkp]

Yeah, you're right about the HD radio. But that won't solve the commercials problem.

Also, Sirius is in Chrysler and Ford, so things may be looking up for them.

Sign me up

[erick99]

I have XM radio right now and I would sign up for a portable receiver to augment the "fixed" one sitting on my nightstand. I am curious though, if I lean over the antenna I can lose the signal, where is this antenna going to be put on your body to maintain a good skyward orientation?

Re:Sign me up

[Anonymous Coward]

dont sign me up.

They need to modify their gear to take some kind of ID card so I can have a reciever at home, in the car and portable and NOT pay close to $60.00 a month for the ability to have XM wherever I go.

it is stupid to have to pay near full price for every reciever I listen to and the car solution in my Pioneer which is integrated in the head unit is far superior than the "move the module" crap. so I refuse to play that cradle and module ugly looking thing in my car and it also looks stupid at home on the audio rack.

no thanks, I'll skip XM and sirus until they think of the customer.

The Only Reason I Never Got Sattelite Radio

[jetkust]

Is that it wasn't portable. Very interesting.

As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[SamMichaels]

I have to say that the quality of XM's audio has significantly decreased since I got the service in 2002. It resembles a poorly encoded 96k MP3 now. It could be that they have too many channels and they had to drop the bandwidth...but it sounds AWFUL. FM stations in the area have more highs, not to mention actual audio processing (the stuff that gives it that "radio sound").

If bandwidth is becoming a problem with all these channels, change the technology. Put an MP3Pro-like encoder on it...newer units sound crystal clear again and older units sound the same.

I'd sure like to hear the technical explanation from XM as to why the audio has sucked over the last few months.

Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[SamMichaels]

I haven't heard a noticeable degredation. I've subscribed in late 2001. Talk stations are pretty bad, but music hasn't been.

It's easier to tell with an FM modulator. It used to have mad sibilance from the pre-emphasis...now since the highs are completely GONE (low pass at 10khz or something ridiculous?) and warbled, you don't hear that anymore.

If my old Pioneer unit is no longer supported, don't you think XM would have said "we did technology improvements...you need to upgrade the firmware or buy a new unit manufacturered after XX"?

Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber...

[Fnkmaster]

This is just not true. TV/CRT whine is almost painful to my ears if a room is otherwise silent. My roommate always does this - turns off the cable box, leaves on the TV in his room, and I have to go down the hall, into his room to shut the damned thing off because it's so distracting. Now admittedly, all of my friends are in their mid-twenties, and have never been loud concert going types (well, I've been to a few, but not a regular occurrence), so maybe we just don't have the damaged hearing of many older folks. But any audio product built specifically for a half-deaf 50 year old audience isn't going to do too well.

I'm assuming you are talking from experience re: XM radio? For me, it's just a matter of listening to XM radio and listening to a normal MP3 or AAC encoded file. You can hear the "hard cutoff" in frequency response which you can visibly see in a spectral analyzer. Even if your hearing in the high frequency range isn't too great (and admittedly, nobody hears very _well_ at those high frequencies), the cutoff sounds hard and unnatural and should be quite noticeable. It's not a bitrate artifact, since low bitrate artifacts sound very distinct (and can be heard on many of the talk channels, especially the news/weather channels, ouch). Apparently, some of the XM issues are also from the "neural analyzers" they use as part of the encoding process, according to some of the people who should know in the XM radio forums. But almost everybody seems to admit now that the hard frequency cutoff is an issue.

Portable

[Auckerman]

I'm one of those people who think if the music isn't portable, then it's useless. The only exception to this is my old war time jazz vinyl collection and that's cause I'm lazy and haven't encoded it yet. Anyhow, it's one of the fatal flaws in satellite radio along with the fact that the user still get's little input into what's being played.

Personally, I think there's a LOT of money to be made with satellite based on demand music. The playlist/selection revolves during the day, you queue it up or put it on random.

Sirius...

[Iphtashu Fitz]

I hope Sirius comes out with a similar product by the end of the year. I plan to subscribe to Sirius when Howard Stern starts there next year.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

#1 No FCC
#2 Huge huge amount of variety
#3 No Commercials
#4 No FCC
#5 Travel Convenience
#6 No FCC
#7 O&A

Honestly, I look at it the same way as I do cable. Why do people pay for hbo? Great programming, No commercial interruptions, No FCC 'guidelines'. Same applies here.

Re:XM Adapter for iPod

[The Spoonman]

except I don't believe the iPod has a way to play through audio from another source.

Although I don't have one, I have been investigating getting one, and I think that is incorrect. There is at least one accessory available for the iPod that suggests otherwise: The iTalk turns your iPod into a voice recorder. I think the unit simply stores your voice notes as MP3s on the iPod, but perhaps with a few tweaks it could playback real-time audio instead of just recording.