Portable Internet Radio to take on XM? 231
TheDude writes "A friend who works for a design company attended the Australian EDN awards last night and was impressed with one of the winners, in the wireless category, which was won by Grey Innovation for their Infusion device . It's a Linux based portable internet radio that streams Internet Radio over WiFi. Is this the future of Radio? Given the big push by XM and Sirus , the potential of Podcasting and now the "inFusion", in which direction is mass-audio-broadcast heading? And why isn't anyone really pushing Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), like they have in the UK ?"
I want one! (Score:2)
Re:I want one! (Score:2)
Nevertheless, this device, or ones like it, will catch on with listeners. I wonder when conventional analog radio will croak altogether. If Internet radio keeps gathering steam, that moment may come sooner than anybody can predict. The Internet is transforming the breadth of radio from a narrow range of choices limited to the ones on the dial, to a vast range of "stations" that are really just IP addresse
Re:I want one! (Score:2)
Re:I want one! (Score:2)
Ferchrissakes, quit spamming. Once is enough, K?
But... (Score:1, Funny)
The best Radio is FREE. (Score:5, Interesting)
http://209.235.176.54/reverse_evolutionblues.mp3 [209.235.176.54]
Best heard under Heavy surround sound because it hasn't been mixed yet.lol
However I live by words, and YES i do suck. But here is my take. And its free for you. You need surround sound and good stereo to appreciate it, but i give it to you. That way its still mine. :P
And yes I wrote this and performed all the instruments. So its mine to give.
Re:The best Radio is FREE. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The best Radio is FREE. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The best Radio is FREE. (Score:2)
Re:The best Radio is FREE. (Score:2)
smt 5600 (Score:2, Interesting)
I heard of some people streaming live tv through a home computer and a program called orb to their cell phone.
It looks like wireless media is here.
Affordable? (Score:1)
I stream radio from the internet to my Audiovox SMT 5600 cell phone. Unlimited data plan so there is no charge for me other then the monthly.
How much does an unlimited data plan cost compared to a service such as XM Radio?
Re:Affordable? (Score:1)
Its still a little on the expensive side, but I like having internet everywhere I go.
Re:Affordable? (Score:1)
Re:Affordable? (Score:2)
Having Internet access is nice, but using it via a tiny phone screen is not my idea of fun, I think my phone is 150 pixels in each direction. I was given a two month's trial but cancelled it within a couple weeks.
Re:Affordable? (Score:2)
Also, the $25/month is IP traffic, not just "music" traffic. You can use it for all number of things while mobile, including real-time traffic updates, directories, you name it.
Re:Affordable? (Score:2)
I wonder (Score:2, Funny)
Not gonna happen (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:1)
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:1)
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically the government spends money on what it wants to, and it's too bad if you don't like it. I want WiFi, you want roads. You can't always get what you want...
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2, Interesting)
Why should that be? Because you say so?
The fact that so many people think the first is good enough is probably why the government costs the average person over half their income now, as opposed to less than a tenth in 1920.
Go and live in 1920 then. L
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2)
I agree with you that government is not the most efficient agent to implement something as complex as wi-fi, but there are real benefits to be realized by universal access that may transcend the ine
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:1)
Why? Couldn't a company come in and put up WiFi access points all over and have people pay a subscription fee to use them? I personally feel that would be a much better solution to wireless internet than these dial up cell phone based services. I don't see why it would have to be a city to do it and I think the city would do a much worse job than a for-profit company.
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2)
As an example, I'll offer WOXY, a Cincinnati traditional radio station that has gone 100% internet. http://woxy.com/ [woxy.com]
They have 6 different streams for you to choose from depending on your taste in bandwidth and player.
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2)
I would hope so.
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2)
<slinks off>
hey, anyone listening? (Score:1)
i guess wifi is the only way to deliver this, airtunes style.
this functionality could be built into future ipods and other music players. i'd pay more for it.
No - the future is EDGE/WDCMA/EDVO (Score:3, Informative)
Internet radio is also a very good application when done well (check the radio stations in iTunes if you haven't already), but you can do a lot more than just radio if you have Internet access. With Internet access you can also have music on demand. Rhapsody, Napster or the new Yahoo! Music Unlimited all provide this for a small subscription fee of $5-$10 US per month - much less than XM or Sirius charges. Their catalogues are pretty sizable, over 1 million tracks each.
The key is to link this all together with a reasonable user interface. It would manifest itself in the form of a device (either standalone or built into an automobile) capable of tuning into these radio streams, or connecting to one of the music-on-demand services, with a Bluetooth interface using the Dial-Up Networking profile. Tether that to your Bluetooth-capable mobile phone, and voila. Instant kick-ass.
I've already got a portable EV-DO solution! (Score:2)
I had tried the same thing with a Treo650 on Cingular's EDGE but encountered nothing but headaches with the Treo. I've been a Palm fanboi since `97 and sadly the Treo650 changed all of that. It was completely unreliable even in factory settings just
Re:No - the future is EDGE/WDCMA/EDVO (Score:2)
Re:No - the future is EDGE/WDCMA/EDVO (Score:2)
Re:DIY Music distro system. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
DAB isn't the last word in radio (Score:3, Informative)
Re:DAB isn't the last word in radio (Score:2)
DVB tv (freeview) suffers from the same problem, though at least when they eventually switch off analog tv broadcasting (currently looking at around 2010) there'll be a huge amount of bandwidth freed up for all sorts of services, including more and higher rate digital broadcasting.
Broadcast = good (Score:2)
The funny thing about this though is that broadcast => someone has to decide what the more popular channels are => corporate control => will never be as popular or as cheap as P2P / intelligence
Cache? (Score:1)
First radio, then comes t.v. (Score:2)
Sorry, this was phrased real badly.
Bad fit for a packet network (Score:2, Funny)
Not enough satellite bandwidth! (Score:2)
That's not much room at all for tons of broadcast channels.
Re:Not enough satellite bandwidth! (Score:2)
In the last round of negotiating for spectrum, 25mhz was allocated for SDARS (satellite digital audio radio services). Originally it was going to be much more, but congress decided to order the FCC to allocate/auction a lo
Re:Not enough satellite bandwidth! (Score:2)
For popular programming, IP multicasting is effectively broadcasting over IP networks. Multicasting hasn't taken off big on the internet because of issues relating to ISP peering and routing protocol standards. However, universities and large corporations are using Multicast to deliver real time video to thousands of desktops at the same time.
But you'
An interesting possibility (Score:2)
XM is quite horrendous (Score:2)
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:2)
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:2)
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:2)
That's what FM/Clearchannel is for.
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:5, Insightful)
You're persuading me to give XM serious thought. Avoiding Top 40 isn't a bug, it's a feature.
For example...the problem with "oldies" stations is that they're not oldies stations; they're oldies Top 40 stations. The only thing that keeps them from being as wretched as modern Top N stations is that they select their material from a time when radio was less specialized, so that they achieve some variety despite themselves. Even so, you'll never hear Quicksilver Messenger Service, or Pearls Before Swine on most oldies stations. Heck, you won't even hear the Nazz's "Hello, It's Me" as opposed to Todd Rundgren's solo version.
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:3, Informative)
On XM, there is more than one "rock station" that would play music that broadcast stations must play on the same station, save some of your huge market citie
Re:XM is quite horrendous (Score:2)
Nah... (Score:2)
Digital Audio Radio in the US (Score:2, Interesting)
Because DAB is shared across all stations. They take the spectrum and use wavelength division multiplexing and time division multiplexing to spread all of the stations with digital broadcasts across the spectrum. This allows high station density and no problems associated with signal drop out from distance nodes. However, this situation requires cooperation between competitors vying for listeners, something tha
Re:Digital Audio Radio in the US (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Digital Audio Radio in the US (Score:2)
On the other hand, digital radio has distinct advantages, especially in moving vehicles. Even when using RDS/EON to track the best frequency to receive a station on, the frequency switches are audible on analog. Digital doesn't care that the signal is fading, it either works or doesnt, and if it works, the sound is always the same volume. Getting good reception
Re:Digital Audio Radio in the US (Score:2)
well, here's how "alternative" radio works (Score:3, Insightful)
now, that's the original alternative radio format, and you control it yourself, all of it, every bit. with shuffle and random play options on most everything except linear tape products, it's truly random (most-played on the 'pod is about the same as top rock radio.)
radio when it works has always been a locally-focussed medium... the jukebox aspect is the filler for the local chatter, news, information, sports, and the like. radio when it doesn't comes off the big bird and you get two drop-in spots at the half hour and can donut the top of the hour.
the point is, none of those guys do what you are used to. it once upon a time was a sure thing to expose you to new venues, music types, and new songs and artists, when you could have beach boys bumped up against patsy cline and followed with the frank chacksfield orchestra and nilsson.
three new songs a week on any top-chart station is all the new you get, and it's all of a sameness.
radio has to get back to local to save itself, and I mean without all the invective of screech radio. until then, I format it myself, which I have done since before I strained the ether with my college radio hour.
May You Live in Interesting Times indeed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:May You Live in Interesting Times indeed (Score:2)
Even "Kramer", in his tv show "Mad Money" on CNBC played the death-march for FM-radio last week...
Short answer: YES... (Score:4, Insightful)
I follow the music and technology closely (systems administrator by trade) and have followed both XM and Sirius with a good deal of interest. But there's the catch: the reason I've followed them with such great interest is because the right alternative hasn't been available. And thats (aside from the desktop) internet radio.
Why is internet radio the right format? Because its a totally open system. Look at programs like Off The Hook for example. Thats the kind of programming that couldn't exist in a closed system, but on the internet the field is wide open.
Why on earth we'd want anything less then that is beyond me. We've already had our closed system, its called the public airwaves. Everyone knows Clear Channel perfected it, but they aren't to blame the system was flawed from the start. Anyone can have a website and thats all it takes to run a broadcast.
I don't know anything about this product, but I do know I'm a firm believer that internet radio is the answer to a question a lot of us have been asking ourselves for as long as we've been listening to music.
Props to XM and Sirius for broadening the horizon, but I can't see their (still limited) approach as much more then a stop-gap measure until WIFI broadband becomes ubiquitous enough that people can tune into their favorite radio station or flip on something they've never even heard before.
If I sound a little giddy its because my favorite syles of music aren't available at your local Virgin Mega Store, in fact since the arts and music explosion on the internet I can't even find most of my favorite bands down at the local alternative record store and I live in a major metropolitan city.
Even with all the existing media outlets combined they don't even begin to scratch the surface of whats available. And theres a lot of good stuff out there.
Sorry for going overboard. I feel passionate about it. This is a very exciting time in general and as a art and music lover doubly so. The beauty of the internet is that it's so totally open and I've been doing this for a long time now and I still find myself saying "wow".
Don't ever put this genie back in the bottle.
Sure... (Score:3, Insightful)
Right now Shoutcast.com alone is listing 8,751 stations. Thats just *one* portal.
I define 'closed' as being limited by available resources. You provide college radio as an alternative, but thats
Radio tuner encoders (Score:2)
I only found cards which could do one channel at the same time.
My question is, does somebody know radio tuner cards which can listen to / encode more than one channel at the time?
Internet Radio=NO CLEAR CHANNEL (Score:2)
Not that DJ's are bad. On rare occassion they can quite pleasant. There are only two stations I've found in my area where the DJ's tell
Authentication (Score:2)
How about some sort of XMLRPC protocol, so this authentication could be automated? It still sucks that I have to fire up my browser to enter my username/password, which is store in there anyway..
Not exactly portable (Score:2)
Roku Soundbridge [rokulabs.com]. Thank the gods it works with my router.
Convetional radio sucks. Especially the local stations. Moreso now that ClearChannel has a cookie-cutter KISS-FM here.
The wife likes listening to the 80s channel [club977.com] and I like listening to jazz [smoothjazz.com] and traditional irish folk/pop. The latter of which have no market or stations here in Austin, TX. YOU try to give culture to this place. It doesn't work for the most part.
2 Responses (Score:2, Troll)
Re:2 Responses (Score:3, Informative)
Streaming on my Treo (Score:3, Interesting)
This can't compete with XM on quality and obviously not on signal reception. But a treo with a wifi card would beat the device referenced in this article hands down, in my opinion.
Re:Streaming on my Treo (Score:2)
Re:Streaming on my Treo (Score:2)
PS- *BSP* warning, SomaFM now is streaming 3 channels in 40kb aacPlus RTSP/LATM for 3GPP phones. So if you have one of the few Sprint 3GPP phones (Samsung and some Sanyo models) you can get our streams on those phones now.
Does it do Real Media format? (Score:2)
Reciva [reciva.com] who were featured on
uhhh... (Score:2)
Use existing IP satellites (Score:2)
When In Roam (Score:3, Insightful)
WiFi (and its descendants) will be just the place to settle down, or breathe free. But hotspots will be spotty for some time, as our society's P2P buildout continues inexorably, but unplanned. The way this environment will reach a basic mobility platform includes interspot coverage by barely-adequate 3G "phone" networks, with roaming among them and hotspots, interchangeably. Motorola has announced a WLAN/GSM roamer due by Q32005. BT promises a WiFi/GSM "phone" [vnunet.com] by Q42005, and is launching a Bluetooth/GSM project. These vendors are trying to both extend cell/PCS service to enterprise WLANs (SCCAN [sccan.org]), and roam VoWLAN connections to cell/PCS networks (UMA [umatechnology.org]). And the IEEE already has a new "WiFi" descendant, WMM [nwfusion.com], that promises better roaming and QoS over the WLANs, for seamless telephony interop.
The upshot for devices like this cute little inFusion Internet radio is popularity well beyond shoppers at ThinkGeek. Which bigger global market means cheaper devices, easier to use, and more jobs for geeks. But it also means a bigger audience for content, within which niche producers can find supporting consumer scale for even the least popular content. So the leveled multimedia playing field can support people who tie other people together across the globe. Let's get it on!
Broadcast Flag Considered Helpful (Score:2)
Re:No, it's not (Score:2)
Actually, LA is a perfect example of a city where this wouldn't. Unlike NY, the "city" has no center, it's just a huge semi-dense, mostly lo-rise sprawl of thoroughly mixed commercial, residential, and industrial areas. There'll never be more than a patchy ad-hoc WiFi system here in Los Angeles for the same reason we won't ever have a decent public transportation system. There is no heart to the city where you can get a reasonable benefit for
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No, it's not (Score:2)
What, you mean hip-hop and rap aren't the highest form of musical sophistication and lyrical construct?
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
birge, meet troll. Troll, birge.
Oops, I guess IHBT as well with this reply.
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
I listen to a *lot* of progressive music, and there's a metric buttload of good progressive music coming from just about any part of the world right now - not just the U.K.
Some examples are: Ritual, Echolyn, Hourglass, Nightwish, After Forever, Opeth, Symphony X, Sonata Arctica, Lacuna Coil, Star One, and Dream Theater
That's just a drop in the bucket, and none of them are from the U.K.
If you want to check them out and more, go to Progged Radio [proggedradio.com].
Another great way to hear what's out t
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, anytime!
I shouldn't have been so flip, especially about prog rock
Oh, you weren't. You message came across right, I was just adding to it. I guess I came off more "intense" than I was aiming for.
I probably completely abused the term progressive rock.
It's actually a very difficult term to pin down exactly. One person's progressive rock, is another person's plain old rock & roll. For instance, Spock's Beard is very different than Lacuna Coil, and the
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
So, what's Hourglass like? Not familiar with them. Thanks!
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
Thanx! :) Apparently there's a lot of us listening to this stuff. Like I said, I saw Nightwish on the Borders listening station this month. You know progressive is coming back when Borders makes a point of displaying obscure Finnish symphonic progressive metal.
(Well, except for the Ritual - hate the second album).
I love the pirates! That song gets blasted a lot. :)
So, what's Hourglass like? Not familiar w
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
Speaking of which, I need to call Greg tonight and order some stuff - any recommendations? Tonight is Greg, tomorrow is Ken. On my list, I have Present, White Willow, Univers Zero, Isildur's Bane, Meshuggah, Pain of Salvation, Deus Ex Machina (if they've done anything new in a while), and a few others.
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
LOL! The funny part is, I haven't read a.m.p. in about a decade, so thanks for stressing the old bit. ;)
Speaking of which, I need to call Greg tonight and order some stuff - any recommendations? Tonight is Greg, tomorrow is Ken.
Forgive my ignorance, but who are Greg and Ken?
On my list, I have Present, White Willow, Univers Zero, Isildur's Bane, Meshuggah, Pain of Salvation, Deus Ex Machi
Re:This whole thread is ludicruous (Score:2)
Echolyn may be very hard to find, but the newest album is supposed to be amazing.
If you're talking about "Mei", it is. Not much of a fan of Spock's Beard or Flower Kings. (I'm also assuming you have stuff like Anekdoten, Anglagard, etc, which aren't metal and probably not Modern, but are damn good anyhow)
Ozric Tentacles is interesting if you like instrument rock
Yeah, I love '
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No, it's not (Score:1)
Re:No, it's not (Score:2)
XM sounds very nice but I'm really not ready for it, I have other priorities. Maybe when my iPod breaks, but I'm hoping to be able to use it for a long time. The current portable XM players are more than twice the bulk of an iPod, so there needs to be some improvement in that regard.
Maybe if there was a merge of the two, like it would switch to WiFi if inside a large steel building when recep
Re:No, it's not (Score:2)
Check it out. They are awesome. http://xmradio.com/myfi/index.jsp [xmradio.com]
Re:XM works a LOT of places Wifi doesn't... (Score:2)
Re:XM works a LOT of places Wifi doesn't... (Score:2)
No argument there. When the things are able to launch a cloud of small steel balls into geosynchronous orbit, let me know.
Re:XM works a LOT of places Wifi doesn't... (Score:2)
Re:-1, Stupid (Score:2)
Re:Sirius (not sirus) (Score:2)
But I could be wrong. Howard could be Satellite Radio's killer app, which would be great for Sirius.
Re:i have an xm radio (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, Ford and Chrysler have partnered with Sirius. I don't know about Chrysler, but Ford doesn't push Sirius at all. You have to get a premium (Mach) radio for it to even be satellite-ready.
Re:Some help here (Score:2)
But that's the problem, isn't it? Congress has mandated the sunset of analog radio and TV. I watch so little TV it seems a shame to spend any money on a new one, but in a couple of years (who knows when, exactly) my set is gonna stop working when they stop broadcasting analog. I don't want to spend gobs of
internet writers vs establishment writers (Score:2)
Before the internet, if you wanted to read some deceent writing, you had to go to the library or pay for it--newspaper, magazine, book, etc. Now all you have to do is fire up the browser, and viola, informed and talented writers are freely available. As a longtime reader myself, and a published writer as well, I can assure you that I what I get on the Net is every bit as good (or better) as what I got back