XM to Launch Satellite Radio Handheld? 165
g00set writes "Reuters is reporting 'XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc next week is expected to unveil a "wearable" device, marking the satellite radio industry leader's latest effort to woo audiences to the nascent format, analysts said.' In adddition, 'A radio industry executive said the device was believed to be a satellite-radio receiver with headphones that also had a hard drive enabling users to download XM content.'" There have been other rumors of this as well.
XM Adapter for iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:XM Adapter for iPod (Score:2)
Re:XM Adapter for iPod (Score:4, Interesting)
Although I don't have one, I have been investigating getting one, and I think that is incorrect. There is at least one accessory available for the iPod that suggests otherwise: The iTalk [apple.com] turns your iPod into a voice recorder. I think the unit simply stores your voice notes as MP3s on the iPod, but perhaps with a few tweaks it could playback real-time audio instead of just recording.
Re:XM Adapter for iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Wearable != handheld. (Score:2)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:1)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:5, Informative)
I have logged 40000 miles in my car with XM and have noticed the following:
Bridges: no problem
Parking deks: no problem
Tunnels: problem, but how long do you spend in tunnels
As far as indoors:
Home, Brick(portable device): no problem
Office: Can be iffy if mobile and dead spots can be encountered. But where it works I would not want to be without it.
The service is fantastic I would recommend it to anyone. Small price to pay to get real music choice and almost no commercial interruption.
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:2)
Let me guess...aelbric, you haven't seen our glorious Big Dig during rush hour, have you?
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:4, Informative)
I haven't but I don't think that XM necessarily has the same problems that AM has because they are on different bands, and the property of RF vary depending on its wavelength. For many urban areas, XM also has terrestrial repeater antennas to minimize the risk of drop-outs.
Besides, for intermitten't problems, the signal is pre-buffered a bit with plenty of error correction to boot.
I'd be vaguely interested in it if I can dock this little thing to my car, dock it to my HT sound system, or to my computer sound system, and use external antennas that connect through the dock.
Satellite radio subscriptions are charged per-reciever, and for one person, it isn't worth owning multiple recievers.
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:1)
Re:Wearable != handheld. (Score:4, Funny)
A wearable satellite? (Score:3, Funny)
Cool Device (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cool Device (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Cool Device (Score:1)
Re:Cool Device (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, I'd rather a small subscription for a lot of stations, long playlists and no ads versus "free" radio's obnoxious ads, repetitious programming and only a few stations. As it is, there used to be some ads on some channels of satellite radio but they've both gone [i]away[/i] from it. I can't imagine the satellite radio companies making money charging subscriptions AND selling ads, because the no-ads is a major selling point.
I try to avoid "free" radio because of their stupid short playlists too. Die terrestrial radio, die.
Re:Cool Device (Score:2)
Re:Cool Device (Score:2)
Re:Cool Device (Score:1)
Re:Cool Device (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, Sirius is in Chrysler and Ford, so things may be looking up for them.
Sign me up (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sign me up (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sign me up (Score:1)
And perhaps a blender!
Just add some sort feature X so you won't look like a jerk!
*Wonders if anybody knows the refrence*
Ohh nooooo! (Score:1)
Tinfoil hats are no longer safe. They are now being incorporated with XMSR and other tracking devices.
In other news:
in a strange twist of fate - Microsoft is announcing that the sudden migration of former Open Source advocates to Windows ME is proof positive that Windows is the best OS.
Meanwhile, at a computer convention
Steve Ballmer - it was inevitable, windows has and continues to be the OS of choice for the informed in the IT community... Suprisingly enough , most of the new visits t
Re:Sign me up (Score:1, Interesting)
They need to modify their gear to take some kind of ID card so I can have a reciever at home, in the car and portable and NOT pay close to $60.00 a month for the ability to have XM wherever I go.
it is stupid to have to pay near full price for every reciever I listen to and the car solution in my Pioneer which is integrated in the head unit is far superior than the "move the module" crap. so I refuse to play that cradle and module ugly looking thing in my car and it also looks stupid at hom
Re:Sign me up (Score:2)
Re:Sign me up (Score:2)
That all depends on where you live. In major metro areas, xm has ground repeaters, which will even let you get a signal in tunnels and whatnot. I seriously considered going satellite when i heard O&A were finally going back on the air, but alas budgeting my graduate student's stipend doesn't justify subscription-based radio.
The Only Reason I Never Got Sattelite Radio (Score:1, Interesting)
Ooooo! (Score:2)
Plenty of songs to rip on-the-road!!!!
As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:5, Interesting)
If bandwidth is becoming a problem with all these channels, change the technology. Put an MP3Pro-like encoder on it...newer units sound crystal clear again and older units sound the same.
I'd sure like to hear the technical explanation from XM as to why the audio has sucked over the last few months.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
Funny you mention that. The encoder technology on XM actually uses an mp3pro-like approach. You can tell when the sound gets "muffled" for about half a second while driving under a small bridge. And yes, I read it is 96kbps per channel, except on those "weather and sport event" channels (which is why you can hear a "nasal"
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
No, we pay $9.99 a month to get our service. Less if we buy yearly or multi-yearly subscriptions.
Despite what others have said, I think the music channels sound awesome. I wouldn't say they are significantly better than an FM radio station, but they do sound good. I think those that are hearing 'degraded sound quality' probably have played it so loud that they are actually loosing their hearing. =]
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
I listen to BPM #81, 90s on 9 #9, Highway 16 #16, and Top 20 #20. Top 20 is pop..it's the same. Highway 16 is decent...they're pretty quick on the new songs.
90s was trashed. It's SOOO bad compared to when Kane/Girl/Priestly were on.
BPM is a mess. Disorganized, late on new music.
Even if we solve this lousy sound quality issue, I'm still debating on whether or not to just let my radio get deactivated from
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
Reports are the new SkyFi2 sounds better than pretty much anything else. And there is a new Polk component XM receiver with optical and coaxial output. Time for an upgrade?
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's easier to tell with an FM modulator. It used to have mad sibilance from the pre-emphasis...now since the highs are completely GONE (low pass at 10khz or something ridiculous?) and warbled, you don't hear that anymore.
If my old Pioneer unit is no longer supported, don't you think XM would have said "we did technology improvements...you need to upgrade the firmware or buy a new unit manufacturered after XX"?
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:1)
That's why so few people are bothered by flyback whine from TV sets - 15,734 KHz is above their hearing range. It wasn't for me when I was younger, and used to drive me crazy, but rock & roll & gunfore took care of my high frequency hearing to the point that I can't hear it anymore either.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm assuming you are talking from experience re: XM radio? For me, it's just a matter of listening to XM radio and listening to a normal MP3 or AAC encoded file. You can hear the "hard cutoff" in frequency response which you can visibly see in a spectral analyzer. Even if your hearing in the high frequency range isn't too great (and admittedly, nobody hears very _well_ at those high frequencies), the cutoff sounds hard and unnatural and should be quite noticeable. It's not a bitrate artifact, since low bitrate artifacts sound very distinct (and can be heard on many of the talk channels, especially the news/weather channels, ouch). Apparently, some of the XM issues are also from the "neural analyzers" they use as part of the encoding process, according to some of the people who should know in the XM radio forums. But almost everybody seems to admit now that the hard frequency cutoff is an issue.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
How so?
Wouldn't it be easier to tell if you have it directly plugged into a something instead of transcoding it for FM transmittal
I hear no signal problems with my delphi home plugged directly into my stereo.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
When XM was sending crystal clear highs, it would often get that scratchy sound from overmodulating (sibilance)...since the sound quality has taken a nose dive and the highs are basically missing, it doesn't do that an
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:1)
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:1)
It also costs about 250,000,000.00 USD per bird to just build it and put it in orbit, and believe it or not, they get the money to launch/build it from investors based on FUTURE earnings.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
It seems like its gotten quite a bit worse just in the last few months. Weird compression artifacts, I was getting some clicking on one of the channels I was listening to on the drive. Weird stuff.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:2)
They only have so much bandwidth, so in order to cram all the worthless weather channels, college sport channels, and the emergency channels, in the same alloted bandwidth, they had to sacrifice quality on several other channels.
Re:As an FM guy and XM subscriber... (Score:3, Informative)
given that, the average bitrate per channel is 48kb/s. of course, talk and news channels will be given less bandwidth and music channels given more. xm HAS been experimenting with different codecs/bitrates and has the capability to change them on the fly.
perhaps the reduction in quality that you are hearing is simply a channel that has had its bitrate lowered so that another could be raised.
Nice (Score:1, Insightful)
reception? (Score:2)
I already have a Roady with home kit. Reception in the car is fine, but inside the house, it's very sensitive to antenna placement.
I wonder how this device addresses reception isues.
XM Stock price (Score:1)
here are some pictures!!! (Score:4, Informative)
This does not look dorky, there really doesn't appear to be room for a harddrive (ignorant industry exec!), the antenna is integrated in the headphones, and it's actually just an accessory for the Roady2 XM receiver.
Re:here are some pictures!!! (Score:2, Informative)
Portable (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I think there's a LOT of money to be made with satellite based on demand music. The playlist/selection revolves during the day, you queue it up or put it on random.
But while driving? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Portable (Score:1)
XM really getting Serious (Score:1)
Re:XM really getting Serious (Score:2)
Tin foil hats could be useful once the satellites are employed for another reason, but what personal identifiers make you traceable? None so far. Sleep tite.
*yawn* (Score:5, Informative)
How small?
This small [siriusbackstage.com].
Re:*yawn* (Score:1)
Re:*yawn* (Score:2)
Re:*yawn* (Score:1)
"Yawn"? (Score:2)
Nothing to yawn at to me...
Re:*yawn* (Score:2)
It's a plug-and-play shuttle, not a stand-alone unit. It's just like my Audiovox SIR-PNP2, only smaller.
Re:*yawn* (Score:5, Informative)
There is a handheld power unit that goes with it.
It looks something like this [flyingjestore.com].
And if I get modded to -1, you're going the same way, as it is not a "farking car module". Troll.
common subscription (Score:2)
If my 1 XM subscription would allow me to listen on an XMPCR, car, computer, handheld, whatever, I'd be interested in it; otherwise, no.
Re:common subscription (Score:3, Informative)
Sub$cription co$t$ (Score:3, Informative)
XM
first receiver: $10 / month
each additional receiver: $7 (2nd - 5th receiver)
Sirius
first receiver: $13 / month
each additional receiver: $7 (2nd - 4th receiver)
Both have discounted multiyear subscriptions.
Sirius has a product lifetime subscription available for about $500.
Hmmm, TiVo's product lifetime subscription is only $300.
Re:common subscription (Score:2)
Why?
Because it's easier that way. And because there are less parts to worry about.
Portable is good for personal use...dockable is okay (Delphi SkyFi receiver comes to mind.)
I prefer individual devices for different settings. In-dash, desktop, pc-attached, personal.
Cool! (Score:5, Funny)
Huh?
Oh, a hand-held radio satellite's still cool; miniaturization has come a long way.
What?
Oh.
Nevermind.
Sirius... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sirius... (Score:1)
Sure he will work better in the satellite medium, and I'm sure he still love his work, but I bet he loves that $100 MILLION PER YEAR he will be making even more.
Stern's a sellout, and I wouldn't mind seeing Sirius go broke trying to pay him.
Re:Sirius... (Score:2, Insightful)
The way that censorship is cutting away at his radio empire, what other choice does he have? Satellite radio will become the cable TV of radio, I think everyone knows that, and Stern made the move at the right time.
Re:Sirius... (Score:1)
And what about the rest of the crew? Gettin way offtopic here, but is it just Stern making the cash, or is that $.5 Billion contract for the rights to the entire show, including current personnel?
Re:Sirius... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sirius... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sirius... (Score:2)
Getting hot and heavy on the radio. (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps this push for wearable units will force the manufacturers to update the technology. I don't understand why the tuner cannot be the size of a Palm Pilot and run cool. I have to im
Re:Getting hot and heavy on the radio. (Score:2)
The audiovox is big and runs -really- hot.
The JVC uses the new Gen 2.5 chipset and gives off minimal warmth and
is about one third the size, due to the new, efficient chipset.
They've gotten the technology refined quite a bit from the first release of the radios.
The first ones ran hot because there's an exceptional bit of processing needed to find, refine, and process the signal.
Pretty amazing that they got it to work so well actually.
Re:Getting hot and heavy on the radio. (Score:2)
R.I.P. Radio... (Score:2)
I assume someone will get congres to "mysteriously reassigned" the soon to be empty AM and FM bandwidth?
Long live NPR!
I've built something similar... (Score:1)
Sirius competitive advantage (Score:2)
Satelite Radio = cable TV (Score:2)
How long will that last I ask.
Re:Just say no... (Score:1)
~S
Re:Just say no... (Score:1)
Re:Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
#2 Huge huge amount of variety
#3 No Commercials
#4 No FCC
#5 Travel Convenience
#6 No FCC
#7 O&A
Honestly, I look at it the same way as I do cable. Why do people pay for hbo? Great programming, No commercial interruptions, No FCC 'guidelines'. Same applies here.
Re:Why? (Score:1)
The quality things I want I usually want to see or hear more than once, so I purchase them. On Video, that a rare thing, on music, almost as rare. I was never one for the large audio collection. And now that Cd backup is possible, (and legal for archiving)I just burn me a copy, and when it wears out, burn another.
I guess I just don't see the value in it, but hey! That's just me! YMMV
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:1)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
If you are seriously into serious music, AM/FM is just not going to cut it. Not going to find Television, Richard Hell, King Crimson, Magma or Slint on your local rock station.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie wooooorld!"
Re:Why? (Score:1)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
I do. My listening choices are:
I listen to a fair amount of talk (AM and NPR), but there's nothing else here for me. I keep getting this close (hold thumb and index finger close together) to getting a Sirius receiver, but I keep backing down and buying more random stuff from CD Baby