Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

USB Dongle Records Web, FM Radio

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-thats-a-clever-idea dept.

rah1420 writes "Gizmag just wrote about "Instant FM Music," a USB dongle that plugs into your computer's USB Port and records FM and Web Radio stations. You can record the playlist, tag the songs for easy playback, all without that nasty DRM." Nice and cheap, although who knows if the software is any good. That would be a neat device to see hacked for things like MythTV.

10 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FM Radio... huh? by celardore · · Score: 5, Funny
    Why would I want a vacuum tube hanging out of my USB port?

    Porn.
  2. Damned limitations on AM! by Martin+Blank · · Score: 3, Informative

    I understand why they're there, but much of what I listen to is on AM, and carrying around a Radio Shark just isn't always convenient.

    Still, I'd be able to listen to/record Car Talk and Fresh Air from NPR, and maybe the occasional show from Pacifica, so it's not entirely bad.

    --
    You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
    1. Re:Damned limitations on AM! by KermodeBear · · Score: 2

      I agree completely. AM radio has way more entertaining and useful content than FM. Of course, I'm one of those weirdos who likes talk radio instead of brain-dead Top 20 stations, so... Anyways, for recording AM radio, you can get a RadioShark, but I recommend that you think carefully and read my experiences with it before making the purchase. Yes, it records AM radio, but the quality of the product in relation to the price left a bad taste in my muzzle.

      --
      Love sees no species.
    2. Re:Damned limitations on AM! by Phat_Tony · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm glad I looked at your review, I was thinking of getting one, but probably won't.

      However, I thought I'd comment on this:
      "on the Mac systems you can record in AAC and AIFF. Why was this feature REMOVED from the PC version of the software?"

      I think they probably offer these features utilizing Quicktime API's, so I doubt it was "removed" on the PC version, I think it was just a piece of cake to implement on the Mac, letting Quicktime do the actual transcoding, where they'd have actually had to program something to keep this feature on the PC version.

      --
      Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
  3. A sales rep for Silicon Labs... by JesseL · · Score: 2, Informative

    came in to work and gave us one of these a couple months ago.

    --
    "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  4. Wasn't this called RadioShark a few years back by Em+Ellel · · Score: 2, Informative

    As in This RadioShark

    --
    RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
  5. Re:USB-TV? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because I didn't want to exclude the users of others by picking one. Googling for the name of a class of object is the closes we have to URIs on the Web.

    What's the problem?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  6. Re:Useless for me, but almost the right direction? by hackstraw · · Score: 4, Funny

    The only FM radio station I listen to is 88.7FM because that's the station that my iPod FM transmitter is set to.

    Wow! Mystery finally solved.

    I would surf the FM channels and land on 88.7 sometimes and I thought it was cool because it had no commercials, but I was puzzled why it always played sucky music and sometimes the songs would skip to a new track.

    Now I know!

  7. RIAA by bughouse26 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How long until the anti-innovation crowd at the RIAA comes knocking with a lawsuit? Or better, they'll use it as proof of why the broadcast flag is needed.

  8. Re:Appears to use RDS by Kankraka · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't live in that big of a city (metro pop, around 1 million) in Canada, and every major station has RDS enabled. Hell, RDS isn't that expensive to implement so a lot of community stations could do it as well for relatively cheap. Most new cars are coming equipped with a means of decoding RDS as well, you'll see it primarily in GM vehicles.