RadioShark for Windows and Mac OS X

Quantrell writes "Ars Technica has done a very thorough review of the AM/FM radio time-shifting device radioSHARK. I was surprised when I read it, because I thought it was Mac-only. Actually the device has good Windows support, and their review shows that some of the problems experienced by early adopters have been solved with recent updates to the product. That said, there are actually some considerable flaws with the product, so buyer beware." There's a lot more meat on this review than this story which was a lot more glowing of a review.

Comments

I'm not sure I would need this

[snuf23]

Seeing as almost all of our local stations have been consumed by mega-corporations such as Clear Channel. We have nice exciting playlists that repeat about once a half hour.
I guess for sports, national public radio and the like this might be a cool thing. Or for college radio shows that play at odd hours (it always seems that the only shows I like are on at 3 in the morning).

tvtuner

[sPaKr]

Why not get a Happuaguge tv tuner card that comes with a FM reciever? The radio tuner alone would have to be several factors cheaper then the TV card to make this a good buy, and its not.

Re:I don't get it...

[grub]

Does looking "cool" really sway people that much?

It works for Apple, car companies, clothing manufacturers, et al ad nauseum. So... yes :)

Why bother when there's StreamRipper?

[dudeman2]

Seems like the market for this is limited. StreamRipper lets me download most radio stations' MP3 streaming audio. Mplayer with some addons allows me to download RealAudio streams which can be converted to MP3. I've got this all automated via cron job to download NPR news, This American Life, plus foreign radio broadcasts for later playback. Plus I can download multiple streams simultaneously, and no worries about poor reception.

Re:Why'd they leave out internet streams and XM?

[Absentminded-Artist]

One guess: cost. Adding a satellite radio tuner would add a considerable amount of cost to the unit. I imagine the price would easily double.

As for streamed broadcasts, this would be a feature of the radioSHARK software, not the hardware. I think Griffin is lucky their software runs at all at this point, nevermind having the ability to grab internet streams. I imagine that feature will be implemented later in the Mac software using Applescript and iTunes since iTunes already streams internet broadcasts. I'm not holding my breath. I would recommend Mac users get RadioLover for the timed recording of internet broadcasts.

At this point their software is very buggy and hastily assembled, IMO.

Re:RDS support?

[kitzilla]

RDS adoption is growing. it's certainly worth adding to Radio Shark.

I agree this gizmo would be cooler if it recorded streams, too. Think I'll still buy one, if only to aircheck the other morning shows while we do ours.

Not so important for NPR

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

Say you're listening to All Things Considered and Nina Totenberg is about to make an especially poignant point about the day's oral arguments at the Supreme Court, but nature is urgently calling. Click on the TS button, hit pause, and walk away. Nina is then cut off in midsentence. Once you take care of business, you can then return to your PC, hit play, and Nina takes up right where she left off.

I often listen to NPR as well, not having a radio in my office I just listen to WBUR's real audio stream. With Real you can also pause the live stream and go take care of business. The buffer seems to be pretty large (I haven't hit any ceiling yet).

I live in Boston so WBUR is my local NPR station, which is perfect. But even if your local NPR station isn't online (I think most are) you can just go ahead and listen to one that is.

I know this product can do more, and not just for NPR, but as for that being a selling point, it just doesn't work. And Real seems to be doing a lot better now in terms of not being jerks and actually adding features that are helpful (I know quick time for windows can't pause and resume live streams... and quicktime still annoys you every time you start the application). The Helix Player and the recent Real Player on Linux is great as well. I actually wish them well these days.