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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.
XM Radio has every reason to push MyFi, in its press release, it mentioned "MyFi is a revolutionary product that dramatically expands XM Radio's appeal and potential subscriber base". The easier it is to listen to their contents, the more subscribers they will get.
$349.99 is a bit pricey, but with enough advertisements/sponsors etc, they might even be able give it away for free??
I wonder if any other company is going come out with a competiting product (like TiVo vs MythTV)? Might be another lawsuit in the making. And how about time-shifting local radio station? There are times when you want to skip some ads, or probably pre-record some live converstion before you head into a no-reception area.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Ahh, if only one of the new iPods and this XM device were one and the same. :-)
Was this bad timing on Apple or XM's part, or intentional? Surely there'd be reduced press coverage on the XM device with the new iPods being launched...
Either XM or Sirius should team up with apple to launch an Ipod with satellite radio. I bet that would help sell satellite radio subscriptions.
Man, I have to think that the most ridiculous thing is selling a hard-drive based music player without any way to put on mp3/AAC/etc.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Dear Slashdot,
My company is releasing a product. We would like a organize a grassroots advertising programs. Our marketing team has created a number of press releasing. Would your site please post our adverstising for free?
Oh Ick. Just what we need - more ads on a pay service.
*cough*RIPOFF*Cough*
Sure the name of the Neuros MyFi means something else, but sheesh it doesn't take by one google search.
Hell for 399 bucks you could get a neuros that will (finally) do timed recording with a 40gb hd and all the niceness of having linux in your.... backpack. The thing is freakin huge but XM didn't even bother to be original in the naming of their Ipod wannabe.
Give me lots of channels, time shifting, and the ability to buy (preferrably unencumbered) tracks out-of-band (i.e., I can browse for tracks, not just wait for them to be played) and I will sign up. This service is so almost there.
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!
$350 + XM subscription, going to be a little bit harder to sell this product. Sure XM is a great service, but I couldn't see getting one of these, unless I can tap into my dads service.
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.
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.
Wow... what a way to work in the number of channels, etc. into the schpiel.
What else did you expect? That MyFi would not allow some channels to be heard??
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.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I'm old enough to remember the beginning of Cable TV and the promises they made. They promised a crystal clear picture (mostly fulfilled) and commercial-free TV except for local channels carried.
Well now everything, including the premium movie channels are carrying commercials. Kinda pisses me off because when cable started to catch on, they cut back on the signal strength of local air stations practically forcing the watcher to buy cable TV. Some people think I'm imagining things that local TV over the air was always bad. I tell them to compare that with their local ethnic TV station... out here local spanish TV comes in clear as a bell. They didn't cut back signal strength.
So if satelite radio catches on, the same will happen to the local radio stations. I mourn already...
The poster is the owner of xmxpert.com and owns stock in both XM and Sirius:
"I opened a Scottrade account last week and purchased $450 worth of XM Stock and $50 of Sirius stock. I'm going to stay in it for the long haul, even though it has gone down every day, but it will go back up. It's all gone down $56.90 so far."
His blog can be found here http://www.davidplotts.com/mt/
All your Sybase are belong to us.
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.
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.
Well, it ain't free but you can get one really cheap -- there's this device that offers constant free music and talk streams all the time, and you can rip any stream you want by connecting another device. Most of the free music is paid for by advertising. It's pretty cool if you like advertising; they call it a "radio."
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.
It has an NPR station now. Or at least a "public radio" station. XM 133, "XM Public Radio." Check out the details here . Not sure if it has actual NPR, but it has the WBUR feed which is equally bor-- er, entertaining.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.