I tend to troll up and down the XM dial alot and I just wanted to comment on a few things I’ve noticed lately.
X Country XM 12 - When you first hear the name of the station and its location on the dial you’re thinking its just a regular country music station. I am definitely not a country music fan, actually very far from it….very very far from it. They play more bluesy/guitar type music. I’m told this is a genre called Progressive Country. Call it what you want, but I’ve really enjoyed it alot
Deep Tracks XM40 - I know I have had quite a few mentions of Deep Tracks in the past. If you really thought you have no interest in Deep Tracks. I urge you to listen to Deep Tracks Essential 5002. It will give you a good overall perspective on the station.
Fred XM 44 - This station had really lost its direction for awhile. It seemed to have no cohesiveness to it. Fred just became extremely hard to listen to. I’ve been listening to it here and there this week. The programming has gotten way better and they are truly playing classic alternatives now. The only thing its really missing is DJs and some shows. Just wanted to point out that it has improved alot.
Opie and Anthony - XM 202 High Voltage - I really enjoyed O & A this past week from CES. The big difference to me was the guests. I think they should have more guests rolling in. I think it would add a lot to the show.
The last XM2Go2 device I waited to talk about because it was such a big hit @ CES. It won The Peoples Choice Award @ CES. This is really big news and will add alot of exposure to the satellite radio market as a whole as well as XM Satellite Radio. Here’s the skinny on the Pionner Inno:
XM Press Release is here
XM Product Page is here
Features:
- Full-color, 180 X 180 pixels TFT display
- 50 hours of recordable programming
- Flash memory storage for MP3/WMA files and XM content
- User Friendly Interface
- Personal playlists using a mix of XM content and tracks from their own digital music collection
- Memory buffer to make it easy to store an entire track heard in XM, even if the user starts storing it in the middle of a song
- Ticker and Tune Select
MSRP for all you early adopters out there is $399, but WOW….this thing looks amazing and winning the people’s choice is no small feat. There were some excellent products this year @ CES. This device is sooooo cool. The only thing I think they really missed is not integrating XM Passport with the device, but with a device like this what else do you really need. This device will no doubt this will be very hot commodity when its released and for quite sometime. The CES has really shown the world what a great product line XM has come out with as well as showing everything XM has to offer. I think that 9 million subscriptions by years end is not out of the question at all.
Once again congrats to everyone @ XM Satellite Radio for everything they’ve shown us the past week I cant even fathom the amount of work that has gone into all the work they’ve done and also for making the XM Nation a better place.
Another addition to XM2Go second generation receivers. Here’s the skinny:
XM Press Release is here
XM Product Page is here
Features:
- Live XM Satellite Radio when docked in a home or car docking station
- Memory storage for XM content, MP3s, and .wmas for portable listening; NEXUS 25 stores up to 25 hours of XM content, and NEXUS 50 stores up to 50 hours of XM content
- XM + Napster feature that allows users to bookmark the names of songs heard on XM, connect the Helix player to the PC, and purchase the bookmarked tracks instantly from the XM + Napster online service.
- Easy-to-use interface, which lets users save and delete content, create personal playlists, and find and play back their favorite songs
- The ability to store XM content by song, by channel, or by scheduled session
- Ability to create unique playlists with a mix of XM content and personal music collection
- Category list for saving and accessing favorite channels
- TuneSelect, which alerts the listener to a favorite artist or song whenever it is played on any XM channel
- Integrated, wireless FM transmitter for beaming XM to any FM radio frequency.
Dimensions are approximately 4.5 ounces and measures approximately 3.7 inches high, 2.2 inches wide, and 0.6 inch deep. The unit will also include the new XM Passport mini-receiver so with one subscription you can play on multiple units. It will retail for $249 if you want to gold 50 hours of content or 25 hours will run $199. Car kit sold separately.
The Nexus looks like a pretty cool unit. My only complaint about what I’ve seen thus far is that the Nexus does not include TuneSelect or the tickers. It’s still a very impressive feature set as well as being very economical. The thing this is perfect for is someone who wants a portable unit as well as a nice receiver desktop receiver @ home that pull from one subscription. I can totally see myself doing this. I’m absoultely drooling over the new Crosley Receiver I think this may be the unit for me but let’s see what else comes down the pike !!!!