Associated Press Not Impressed By MyFi

prostoalex writes "Michael Regan from the Associated Press started reviewing MyFi, a portable satellite radio receiver, by treating it as a competitor to iPod, but then admitted the two devices are quite different. For $350 and a $10-a-month subscription the buyer gets access to XM satellite radio stations and ability to record the stream to 128 MB of built-in flash. There's no way to transfer the recorded content to the computer or vice versa. The review recommends waiting for lower price and better features."

hmmm...

[loid_void]

There's no way to transfer the recorded content to the computer or vice versa.

not yet, that is...

Re:SIRIUS IS WAAAY BETTER

[roche]

Sirius play more "hits" while XM has more of a diverse playlist.

I prefer XM myself.

OMG DONT CLICK TUBGIRL

[Anonymous Coward]

PARENT POST TUBGIRL

I have one

[Texodore]

Random notes:

Everyone keeps saying the iPOD holds more music, has better battery life. I don't seem them competing. Maybe it's just me. The limitations of satellite radio mean you have to have an antenna and specialized hardware that sucks the juice down. But you get a 2,000,000 song library.

You can record and playback, and it has an alarm. It also comes with a home and car kit. Note that buying a SkyFi2, home, and car kit will almost cost as much as the MyFi.

I have the MyFi so I can listen while I'm walking my dog. Yes, I like XM that much to want to listen to it over MP3s or something like that. One thing your MP3 collection can't do is turn you on to new music. I wouldn't have known about many new bands (or old bands for that matter) without XM. I don't know if I would know who Muse, The Faint, or Franz Ferdinand were, and I wouldn't have found out how much I like Echo and the Bunnymen and stuff like that.

I don't think it needs more storage space. The idea is to listen to radio, which is mostly live. I think the recorded feature is for programs you can't pick up when you aren't available (a timer feature will record something for you) and if you can't pick up a signal. It's basically 5 hours of music programming.

Did I mention the talk radio and the ACC/Big 10/Pac-10 games?

I like not having to cue up playlists, pick what I want to listen to, listen to new music, etc. XM seems to want to play their deeper library more than Sirius, one reason I like their service more.

I've had it for 2 days and like it. I need to play with the wearable antenna some more before I say I love it. The signal is spotty outside at times while walking around. I have no problems in my car or at the office. Speaking as someone who is upgrading from the original Sony Xm radio, this is also a huge upgrade.

Finally, to the editors, stop knocking XM an satellite radio. Half the satellite radio stories seem to denounce it somehow. The AP review doesn't really say anything bad about it. Some of you that knock satellite radio need to try it before worshiping your iPOD again.

Re:Recommendation??

[MBCook]

Both would be nice. But the thing is still a great deal. For the $350, you get the device, a car kit, a home kit, earphones, etc. If you take the little Delphi XM radio I have now ($99), buy the car kit ($99), the home kit ($99), the boombox so you can listen anywhere ($99), you're already over the price (those numbers may be a tad high, like $10 each).

So for the same or less, this little thing is smaller, portable, AND CAN TIMESHIFT.

As an XM radio reciever goes, this is THE DEVICE unless you only want to ever listen in your car (which, by the way, would change).

It's not cheap, but it's a good deal relative to other solutions. Plus you can use it anywhere like a walkman and it could tape Art Bell or This American Life or any other show for you to listen to later.

I'd LOVE one. I'd suggest that they offer it stand alone (no home/car kits) to lower the price, but I think we all know that would only save maybe $50 bucks because the little device is by FAR the most expensive part.

Re:Neuros did it better...

[Sottilde]

Problem: It runs on every platform. You just need to look harder. It's completely open-source, which means that tools have been written for linux and mac. NDBM and Sourne are great multi-platform tools for the Neuros.

Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Had Sirius, now with XM. Why? Because (a) Sirius is stuck on endless self-promotion. Why do they keep advertising their own service on their own channels? Christ, you have to already be a subscriber to listen. (b) They have a less variety of music channels than XM - compare the lists of music offerings between the two and you'll see what I mean. (c) Sirius would rather spend its money on stupid jocks than decent music - yes now we get all those NFL games. Great. In the meantime good luck finding a good punk station, ska station, whatever-your-taste-is station.

What does Sirius have going for it? NPR. But in the music genre, they are far behind XM in my opinion.

Re:SIRIUS IS WAAAY BETTER

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

How clueless are you, Chevy is GM. Furthermore nearly all car companies are going with XM, the only one that i can think of right away that is with Sirius is Ford.

hearing music that you had forgotten about?

[pbjones]

you spend how much to get access to music played by 90% of FM radio stations?? bah! TripleJ FM and web cast, ROX! www.triplej.net.au

Re:SIRIUS IS WAAAY BETTER

[jratcliffe]

XM has exclusive arrangements with Honda and GM, while Sirius has exclusive deals with Ford and Daimler/Chrysler (including Mercedes). BMW is effectively exclusive to Sirius (albeit not contractually). Toyota's still a tossup, and it looks like Nissan will split between the two.

Re:Maybe useful for Flyover-country

[geoffspear]

Actually, Clear Channel owns exactly 7 of the 35 radio channels in the Orlando market. But feel free to make up "facts" to fit your argument.

Re:explaination needed

[Anonymous Coward]

There's probably a deviceID in the XM/Sirius hardware, that is associated with your subscription (which you 99.9% probably have to sign up for in order to buy the XM/Sirius hardware...), and when you don't pay the bill or otherwise become a non-subscriber, they send a "disable [deviceID]" data packet down-stream periodically, and you can't listen until you resubscribe/pay your bill, and the devices are always listening, even when they're turned off, so you would need to probably completely unpower them to keep it from being disabled. But since you don't know when your hardware is going to get meta-zapped...

Anyways...

DirecTV and DishNetwork do this with SmartCards, but of course, there is programming knowledge and hardware out there to defeat this method, and as long as you don't plug your DirecTV/Dish Network box into the phone, then all you need to do is keep reprogramming your card when they catch on to what the non-paying customers are doing...

DirecTV got burned when for awhile it was allowing Wal-Mart to sell RCA DSS receivers w/o getting the buyer to subscribe... Now they sell the receivers w/o smartcards in them, and you get the card(s) in the mail after you subscribe.

Re:Maybe useful for Flyover-country

[LoadStar]

It must've been a while since you listened.

Both Sirius and XM's music streams are both completely commercial free. The talk, news, and informational channels on both services carry commercials (partially because many of the channels are simulcasts of TV audio).

XM had originally tried having some of their music channels carrying commercials, but it's been almost a year since that point.

Re:Maybe useful for Flyover-country

[Desert Raven]

Um, OK.

I live in one of the largest metro areas (Phoenix) and only know of one such station. Some truly awesome individual who owns a few small stations took one that was failing and turned it into his own private station [kcdxfm.com].

No commercials, no DJs, just non-stop music from his own (huge) playlist, randomly chosen by an automated system. He's got a serious following, even though it's a low-power station. Funny thing is, he could care less.

But even so, it's an anomaly. He's rich enough to run it at a loss just because he wants a station he likes. And, he's got the license to run it, because he was wealthy enough to buy it, license and all in the first place. Not too many folks out there with that kind of money, influence, skills and devotion.

See also [azcentral.com]