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XM Portable Satellite Radio Receiver with Hard Drive
daveplot writes "XM announced today the new XM MyFi. The hand-held MyFi gives users the personal freedom to enjoy XM Radio's Ultimate PlayList of more than 130 digital XM channels in two ways: a 'live' listening mode and a time-shifting "memory" mode. The MyFi's live mode enables users to listen live to all of XM's 68 commercial-free music channels, plus premier news, sports, talk, traffic and weather channels. MyFi's memory mode -- called 'My XM' -- allows users to store five hours or more of XM's outstanding content with the press of a button, even when the unit is not in use. The MyFi makes it possible to enjoy XM Satellite Radio anywhere, anytime, effortlessly. More information is at XM411.com." We had a story mentioning this a few days ago.
I know!
But atleast there's a tool to convert XM Radio stuff into mp3.
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/xm-myfi-by-delphi- 024234.php
I believe that the people at neurosaudio might take issue with that "MyFi" name, since it is their trademark according to their fact sheet.
Read about the feature here
Wort Wort Wort!
Compare that to my SkyFi radio, which was $99. Add the home kit for $70, and the car kit for $70 and you're at $240. If you want to be able to listen anywhere, you need the boombox which is $99. So now we're at $340. Now if you include the fact that this new one can be used anywhere (and doesn't need a big boombox full of D batteries) and time shifts, that's a great deal.
$10 (or so) to make it portable and add timeshifting. Sounds fine.
Now if you want to argue that ALL XM radios are overpriced, that's a different argument. But compared to one of their current offerings, this is a good deal.
Unless you ONLY want to listen to it in the car ever. But if you've had XM for a while, you'll want to start being able to listen to it at home too, and maybe out doing yard work, and...
My one comment is, I'm a little worried about the timeshifting. I hope it doesn't try to do that while on batteries, because I would think that would eat them up if it recorded much stuff. Hopefully only when in a crade (the car, at home, etc.).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Might want to check out soemthing similar called podcasting, http://www.ipodder.org/.
If you are looking at getting either services, here are a few lessons I learned over the last year and a half....
(i) XM seems to be going for the "deep playlist" crowd whilst Sirius is going for the "I would like to hear my favorite song many times a day" crowd. both approaches are valid. Depends if you are the type of person who likes pounding hits all day or, if you are the type of person who likes to listen to the "B" sides of records.
(ii) XM's pricing approach is to have a cheap base price $9.99 but charge for services after that ( premium channels, online streaming is extra ), etc. Sirius has plans for premium channels, but have so far resisted the effort, they trying to have a hefty base package. I use streaming, but I would like for it to be optional, since I may what to go with yahoo launch ( once they start supporting Mozilla ) or real radiocast.
(iii) Do not depend on the FM transmitter. Those things produce horrible sound. If you live in a city, forget it; you're going to be dodging stations on even short commutes.
(iv) They both have less than CD quality sound and expect it to get worse as they try to cram more and more obscure stations in very limited bandwidth.
(v) Do check xmfan.com and siriusbackstage.com to find the problems current users are having.
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To stream satellite video to a handheld, you'd have a problem with getting enough antenna gain. Today's satellites aren't powerful enough to send video without groundstation antenna gain.
Then again, if you were willing to wait 100 minutes for each minute of video, then it could be done, I would think.
Digesting some of the jucy bits:
Going Anonymous this time.
At best you might be able to get a digital out through a home connection kit, but I assume that the digital out ports have encryption on them to prevent you from copying that audio like I imagine that DVD players have.
I'm sure they'll try to find a way to complain though. I noticed that XM now has a stereo component XM player, it would be cool if that could timeshift. Now if they would just get some more of my favorite talk radio people (Dr. Laura, Paul Harvey, and I'd LOVE an NRP station (who has a deal with Sirrius, I think) so I could hear This American Life and A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk. But that's another discussion).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
What happens at work depends on how high up you are, whether you have a south-facing window, and whether you have a local repeater. I brought mine into work a couple of times, and while I had a hard time finding the sweet spot, it does work. This is in the middle of a floor in an office building with no windows closer than about 30 feet in any direction.
The trick is that I'm picking up a terrestrial repeater. The satellite signals are at 0%. This repeater must be pretty close and quite strong, since I even get a usable signal in the company parking garage. It's nothing but concrete and steel, and it still works.
Here's something to try: bring in the radio, plug it into your line-in, run ices and icecast, and stream oggs to everyone else on the LAN.
I'm not saying that such a service would be impossible, but it would be a very big step from what they're doing now.