A Smarter Satellite Radio

The newest XM player learns what you like and records it, no tutoring involved

By PopSci Staff Posted 09.15.2008 at 12:04 pm 1 Comment

Music Multitasker XM Radio XMp3; $200, xmradio.com Luis Bruno

A player worthy of Doc Frankenstein. XM's newest offering makes sure you never miss your favorite broadcasts; the XMp3 can record up to five stations at once. But the recording multiple channels concurrently feature pales in comparison to its Tivo-like brain. It notes which stations you listen to most and records them at least once a day.

And, lest the 170 live channels or 30 hours recorded content bore; MicroSD lets you load 8 gigs of your own music onto the player (hence the "Mp3" part). If this iPod-on-steroids doesn't bring users into the satellite radio fray, we're going to bet nothing will.

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1 Comment

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BEDBG28

09/21/08 at 11:44 am

I have the Pioneer Inno and this unit is just more of the same! I had hoped that the Inno would be something that I could click to my waist or arm and listen to music while at the gym! The signal for the Inno can be blocked so easily,go under a bridge,go inside a building,get into an area with a large forest or mountainous area! Inno's answer to this? They give you some Frankstein earphones for the signal loss and they still come up waaaaay short. You look like a Dork with them on and the signal still drops off!
The battery life on the Inno stinks too! Pioneer says you can expect 2-4 hours of battery life,you will get closer to 2! Then they lure you in the ability of this unit to mimic and i-pod! Thats all well and good but I can download about 350 songs on this baby and that's not much!This new unit brags about having 30 hours of recording time? Thats no improvement! The Inno has 50 hours,so what if this new gadget can record 5 stations at a time,before you know it,you'll be out of memory. Unless this gadget comes with the capacity to plug in a card,giving you the ability to hold more songs and content,30 hours is a joke! Come on Pioneer live up to your name! Be a Pioneer! Unless this article doesn't bring up everything this gadget can do,it AIN'T much! Its just more of the same and a different looking Package!