Listen to Internet Radio over Wifi 188
wildumut writes "There's an article on the Register about new WIFI radio tuners, worth a look. 'Wi-Fi is not only freeing up notebook and PDA users to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the home, it's also making Internet radio work (almost) like the real thing.'" The company website has some more information, but these aren't available for sale yet.
I've had it for years (Score:5, Funny)
I've had wireless radio for years. It's called... erm... radio.
It's global... (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in upstate new york, I am in a college town, so there is some decent radio, but when I want news from around the world, I want radio from around the world...
I could read a lot of it on the internet, but that is hard to do while washing dished/making dinner/working on my bicycle...
Re:It's global... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's global... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's global... (Score:2)
The BBC World Service stopped transmitting to North America a couple of years ago, arguing, in part, that their Internet streams served the NA market well enough.
To be fair that is probably a resonable move to make especially as the significant intended audience of the BBC World Service in all probability does not live in North America as Canada and the USA have had free press for a while.
Re:SWEET JIGGLIN' JESUS!!! (Score:2)
Re:It's global... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not only that, but get stations that don't just play the same five lousy songs over and over again.
I've been listening to this station [proggedradio.com] for several months now, and it beats the hell out of anything I've heard on the airwaves. Lots of indie bands, and yes, lots of bands that are not from the US.
I look forward to the day when I can put one of these devices in my car and listen to internet radio as I drive around town.
Re:radio from around the world (Score:2)
brainwashing (Score:2)
You could look at life expectancies, or some arbitrary happiness metric, or accomplishments.
Life expectancies are best in socialist countrys in general, and happiness, well I don't know how to measure that... And accomplishments, The space race comes to mind, and the russians kicked our ass, we hold the moon up as a great accomplishment, but we were second in space, second in orbit, second in manned space, second in manned orbit. The moon was the only thing
Re:radio from around the world (Score:2)
Big Deal (Score:2, Funny)
Only problem is that damn 200 mile long cable that connects to my car
Regulating Data Processing (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why Wi-Fi should never be integrated with the motherboard chipset (a la Centrino). Keep it as an optional add-on. Let the FCC regulate a PC Card or USB device, not the entire computer.
Down with non-optional bundling of law with convenience.
Re:Regulating Data Processing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Regulating Data Processing (Score:2)
Wi-Fi is not integrated with the motherboard chipsed (a la Centrino). It is an optional add-on.
All your base are belong to Intel's marketeers.
Re:Regulating Data Processing (Score:2)
Re:Regulating Data Processing (Score:2)
My (not very clear) point was that functionality creep is inevitably accompanied by regulatory creep. This thread is about the convenience of using a (historically data processing) computer as the functional equivalent of a global radio.
While b
Re:Regulating Data Processing (Score:2)
PC components have always required FCC certification in the USA, and CRTC certification in Canada. There's always something in your motherboard's doumentation that states that it's designed to comply with part 15 of the FCC rules. Basically, any computer emits RF interference by nature, and that interference must stay within all
Re:I've had it for years (Score:2, Interesting)
Hell, I use it for video (Score:5, Interesting)
The quality isn't as good as broadcast TV (!) but it's a damn sight better than radio
Simon
This sounds very scary (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This sounds very scary (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This sounds very scary (Score:2)
With all the Wi-Fi traffic... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:With all the Wi-Fi traffic... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I wouldn't try it after reviewing the (rough) numbers, because the chicken would definitely spoil before being cooked.
Re:With all the Wi-Fi traffic... (Score:2, Funny)
Am I the only one who thinks this sounds wonderfully dirty?
Just wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tune in later this year to hear "This is WIFI Radio, a Clear Channel Partner."
Exactally (Score:4, Interesting)
If this succeeds and people can run 802.11 "radio stations" for local areas it will prove that the FCC has long ago left the needs of the people.
The reason I say this is the inconvenience needed to listen to this kind of radio. If it can succeed, imagine what would happen if we had that kind of diversity of regular radio.
The FCC hasn't served the people with respect to radio for quite some time.
Re:Exactally (Score:2)
Sure they have. What you mean is that the FCC hasn't served YOU in some time.
Re:Exactally (Score:2)
Radical cheap solution (Score:4, Interesting)
At my house I have a small Wifi-enabled Avertec 3120 V plugged into the back of the stereo system. Had to set up Winamp for some easy key combination, like 'space' to start playing and N to stop.
Then it's Internet Radio list in WinAmp, or Shoutcast.com, choose the one with the better bit rate and we're off with high quality Internet radio.
Any cheap laptop with WiFi card or internal WiFi would work.
Re:Radical cheap solution (Score:2)
Re:Radical cheap solution (Score:2)
A cool thing you can do (I've tried that at my girlfriend's house) is have the laptop connected to the back of the stereo system and TV as well through S-Video, and then with Win XP Professional (should work on Linux as well with some differences) do the remote desktop connection from your desktop PC.
This way you can sit and read Slashdot, while having the laptop window open and change the music in the stereo system any time you please.
I owned a ew5000 [techtv.com] for 2 days, and returned it afterwards, couldn't take
Re:Radical cheap solution (Score:3, Insightful)
Radio on WiFi (Score:5, Funny)
I can buy a radio, listen, enjoy.
Or I can buy a computer, buy a wireless lan card, buy a wireless lan radio, configure everything, PAY for a reasonable intenet connection, listen, enjoy (within a small area around my hub)
Ah that's real progress
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:5, Insightful)
only what's available locally, i.e. your 5 ClearChannel stations.
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:2)
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:3, Insightful)
You decide if I'm trolling.
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:2)
Integrity means maintaining your views regardless.
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:2, Insightful)
Let me just check.
I can buy a radio license and transmitter for more than I make a decade.
Or, I can set up my computer and existing hardware to broadcast my own radio free and legal.
That's really is progress!
Now it's true, if you want to listen to my station, you'll have to do more work. Maybe you don't mind that Clear Channel controls free speach in this country, but I'd like a little more freedom. I've been wanting to set up my own local TV station
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:2)
Just make sure to use an appropriately descriptive tagline, like "Wet Naked Chicks in the Bath." I'm sure you'll have plenty of viewers in no time!
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:3, Insightful)
Or I can buy a computer, buy a wireless lan card, buy a wireless lan radio, configure everything, PAY for a reasonable intenet connection, listen, enjoy (within a small area around my hub)
Point noted.
But, you forget something: that computer, LAN card, (or hard-wired LAN), and internet connection has more uses than just serving as a home portal for "wireless internet radio". So, while the observation that the overhead of such a device is significant, one should real
Home server/media center (Score:2)
Re:Home server/media center (Score:2)
Re:Home server/media center (Score:2)
Re:Radio on WiFi (Score:2)
Why go digital? (Score:3, Insightful)
900 Mhz is typically used for this application, so you can keep 2.4 GHz free for WiFi.
Re:Why go digital? (Score:2)
Re:Why go digital? (Score:2)
When you compare broadcast transmissions, FM is always cleaner than AM on a level playing field, because it's much less at risk to picking up interference from other eletrical devices. FM is simply a better way to move sound over radio, but AM is more commonly used in consume
Eventually satellite radio will die (Score:5, Insightful)
One day you'll be able to tune into a radio station based on URL, and it will be *the* true revolution for music delivery. Information may or may not want to be free...but it definitely hates coming from central sources.
Newspaper cartoons are to Strongbad as top 40 is to the bands of the future.
this thing isn't anywhere close (Score:2)
(i) You're going to have to have a WiFi signal everywhere you'd like to listen to radio. In the middle of long deserted highway. Satellite radio covers the entire US, AFAIK.
(ii) Lots of people, like myself, listen you satellite radio because they have no advertisements in the music channels. So We'd still have to pay for the premium channels; like Yahoo launch or something.
(iii) I use Sirius radio with Audiovox Portable Boombox [audiovox.com] at home. I can take this thing anyway. Also have a tuner docking kit f
Not for sale?? (Score:4, Interesting)
It doesn't even look like they have made a prototype yet. The images on the website are all computer generated.
Re:Not for sale?? (Score:3, Insightful)
The future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Radio's core problem, though, is that there is only a limited spectrum that's both electromagnetically effective and safe for human exposure at high power levels. Otherwise we'd be pulling power from the air instead of wire.
It's still in it's infancy, but I wouldn't be at all suprised if today's clumsy fledgling attempts at digital network-based radio will later be seen as heralding the birth of a whole new medium - same concept as radio, but even more available.
Cable tv, encrypted compressed signals over wire, made it possible to host hundreds (thousands?) of channels, and far cheaper to run them (no broadcasting, less infrastructure per station, etc). The end result: hundreds of channels of purile crap. And mixed in with all that crap are a good number of true gems that never would have seen the light of day in a world of pure airwave broadcasting. The public is now exposed to history, culture, technologies, and news that it never would have had access to before.
I think wifi radio is just one more step in the direction of providing a denser and low-cost medium for propagation of signal. Satelite radio as well (I say let em target regions - even neighborhoods, and let Clear Channel and others be-damned).
Any broadcast medium that brings down the cost of operation for the same general service is inherently a good thing - while it will introduce new content that isn't worth much, it will also allow a wider range of content, and make large-scale advertising income less of a driving survival requirement.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. KORP radio: 30 minutes of continuous top 10 big-studio hits, every hour on the hour.
Maybe I'm Missing Something (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe I'm Missing Something (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Maybe I'm Missing Something (Score:3, Informative)
Beside that, you do not use a Knob for internet radio, but URLs
Re:Maybe I'm Missing Something (Score:2)
Are you saying that when it comes to color choice, they'll only come black? (not meant to offend, only to jest)
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Sorta Related (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sorta Related (Score:2)
A lot of people are making jokes about this (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to listen to what I want, when I want. and I want diversity. This company definitely has an interested customer in me.
Re:A lot of people are making jokes about this (Score:2)
Barring that, you can also listen to it on your computer, or wifi device here:
kcrw.org [kcrw.org]
Some of the musical programming would be right up your alley, and you'd probably like the rest of it too.
slightly off topic but (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone else remember Kerbango? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.gadgetcentral.com/kerbango_intro.html [gadgetcentral.com]
Re:Anyone else remember Kerbango? (Score:2)
Re:Anyone else remember Kerbango? (Score:2)
Well, considering that Kerbango was killed by 3Com about 2 weeks before it was going to ship, of course it didn't make it into enough homes.
Kerbango died because 3Com got nervous about all the diffferent areas they had gotten into,
As for the central server for
Rebroadcasting (Score:2)
Re:Rebroadcasting (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Rebroadcasting (Score:2)
Consumer devices are by definition designed for home and office use, so they're not really "broadcasting" in that they don't reach far enough to distribute the signal to "the public". Sure, your neighbor might overhear such a signal, but it's not going to make it to the other side of town. Even if it could, it'd be blown out of the water by inter
Like e-mail only machines? Crippled laptop? (Score:2)
The ster article, "Firms prep Wi-Fi Internet radio tuners [theregister.co.uk]," states:
Isn't this just a severely crippled laptop with a WiFi card or built-in WiFi? Isn't this like those e-mail only machines that were sold awhile back? (We all know how popular those proved to b
Re:Like e-mail only machines? Crippled laptop? (Score:2)
Don't know the hardware, but I would bet on some cheap ARM CPU with wireless chipset and something for audio.
Given these limitations, how much would you pay for something like this?
~200 EUR/USD probably
At what point does it make more sense to simply by a laptop with a WiFi card or built in WiFi?
Definitely not for the kitchen. It's exactly what I am currently looking for. Something with WLAN (so I don't need an ethernet ca
Stupidity knows no bounds, or diabolically clever! (Score:2)
Yikes! You're right. How stupid (of me to have missed the obvious)!
This is is really stupid... or diabolically clever! You ask, "If I didn't have a computer, why would I have a broadband internet connection?" Before, t
Other options, & Broadband for PC-less custome (Score:2)
Re:Other options, & Broadband for PC-less cust (Score:2)
It has an integrated speaker, you do not need a remote control and I guess it can run with batteries. So it's a semi-portable device for the kitchen, the garden etc.
Re:Other options, & Broadband for PC-less cust (Score:2)
It's probably the cable TV guys they're talking about here..... they'll probably go to
TCP/IP based content on demand eventually or something like that anyway... so they add a cable modem extension to the box, charge a fraction of what "computer broadband" costs (even though you & i know it's the same damn thing)
and presto! people without PCs have broad band.
i can't image DSL providers being that intrested in something like this, but almost everybody h
Uh, how many presets? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just my $0.0199.
Already available (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Already available (Score:2)
Don't forget the Audiotron (Score:2)
While it does rely on a runing server for initial sertup (called Turtle Radio) to pick your favorite channels and download the station list to the unit.
The only drawback is that you can't enter a radio URL directly into the machine.
However, I do the majority of my net radio listening on this device. And while it's o
GSPlayer2 (Score:2)
I don't recall where I found GSPlayer2 -- it seems to be an orphan now that I'm searching for it with Google.
Re:GSPlayer2 (Score:2)
Lack of security (Score:3, Interesting)
As for the product we see here, I think it is a great concept but I was unable to determine if it supports any security at all.
squeezebox (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:squeezebox (Score:2)
The First 3 Minutes... (Score:4, Funny)
RADIO: "Coming up next - King Crimson"
ME: "Awesome! King Crimson on wifi internet radio!"
RADIO: "Cat's foot - iron BUFFERING...."
ME: "Iron "buffering"? That's not the right lyric"
RADIO: "Politicians BUFFERING.... BUFFERING...."
ME: "Screw this! Why did I sell my iPod for this??"
Home Media (Score:5, Informative)
The centerpiece is a PC running SageTV [www.sage.tv]. It uses a hardware mpeg encoder to capture video from my digital cable box and save it on a 250 GB hard drive. Encoding at the "DVD Standard Play" quality uses about 3 GB per hour of video and the quality is definitely acceptable. Also stored on the monster hard drive is my entire CD collection ripped to very high bitrate MP3. The hardware media card also includes a built-in radio tuner. The machine has a DVD burner in it as well, and SageTV glues it all together.
Now, the really cool part of it is, I can access the mpeg video files and MP3s over my home network. With an mpeg video codec, I can use any of a variety of players to play my recorded television anywhere in my house on a laptop. SageTV also offers a separate piece of client software that allows you to remote-control the PVR from any networked computer and play any of its recorded media -- so, if I'm in the garage with my laptop, I can call up the current TV guide and select a program to record right there without having to directly interact with the media PC.
The only thing I haven't messed around with yet is the radio part of it. Mainly, because radio sucks, and because I do have access to all of the music-only channels through the cable TV (and therefore the PVR) anyway.
Wireless media player... better yet (Score:2, Informative)
Wireless (Score:2)
Configuration? (Score:2, Interesting)
What About a WiFi Transmitter (Score:4, Interesting)
AIK
GPRS, Internet radio while driving (Score:3, Interesting)
The only issue I have is when I am traveling at a high rate of speed on the Interstate. Apparently the tower hopping at 70 - 80 MPH is a little too much to keep a steady enough connection. Averaging 40 - 50 MPH works very well, however.
Who ever it is that takes smooth tower jumps and adds wifi speeds to it, they will be a very rich person.
Almost ready on the Palm, too (Score:2)
Re:Ironic (Score:4, Insightful)
Since when lag is an important thing for a one way transmission?
As for quality, a 96Kbps MP3 stream sound a lot better than FM radio.
Re:Ironic (Score:2)
That said, I have heard terrible internet streams at 128kbps also. I g
Re:Ironic (Score:2, Insightful)
I think mp3/ogg streams are especially nice for voice, since the quality only needs to be high enough to make it understandable, while music requires the listener to appreciate the actual sound.
Re:Ya know... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't get it. Are your walls lined with lead or something that would hinder wireless connectivity? Go buy a router and a wireless NIC already. The future is now!
Re:Ya know... (Score:2)
Are your walls lined with lead or something
Copper pipes, most likely, although I wouldn't discount ductwork for the heating/air conditioning. My dad had the same problem. His cable modem hookup was by the utility room--all the water pipes were just on the other side of the wall. It wasn't until we moved the wireless router away from that wall (about 2-3 meters) that he could get decent connectivity from his recliner. (After all, how else can you web surf while watching TV in comfort?)
Re:Ya know... (Score:2)
Sounds like the pipes became part of the antenna. I've not had any such problems with 802.11 gear at work. In fact, we get way better coverage than we need, which makes me nervous about security.
Re:Ya know... (Score:5, Funny)
Ugh - retrofitting my house for wireless connectivity was a royal pain in the ass, man. My heart goes out to you and the effort you'll be putting into this. Plugging in that Dlink wireless router and using the web interface to configure it nearly gave me a asthma attack.
Re:wow! (Score:2, Funny)