There has been alot of speculation on the XM2Go2 units and again I’m still hearing alot of buzz and nothing concrete on this one, but most of the reports I’ve heard are pointing to an end of April release date. I hope this is true. I hope all the bugs and all that have been worked out, with the delay I can only assume that’s what’s been going on. I dont know but most of you, but I am salivating right now and would really love to get one of these.
Anyways, lotsa rumors and nothing definite at the moment. Let’s hope we see these soon.
There have been alot of people wondering what’s been going on with the new XM2GO units. The word I’m hearing is that its looking more like a May/June time frame at the moment, but XM hasn’t announced anything, so all I can say for now is let’s hope we see these new units soon. At the same time if these are being delayed to knock some bugs out I’m all for the delay. I’d rather have the products be tight than buggy.
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 !!!!
Here’s some more info yet another XM2Go2 unit. This one is by Samsung called Helix.
XM Press Release is here
XM Product Page is here
Features:
- Stores your favorite XM channels at home, in the car or on the go
- Mix stored XM with your MP3s and CDs
- Compatible with XMNapster Service
- Color and larger screen
- 50 Hours of storage !!!
-Price $399
All I gotta say is WOW !!!! (again) This unit is has everything one could ever want in a portable Satellite Radio and more. The big question I have that I guess can’t sufficiently be answered until this is out there (which will be by Spring) is what will the reception be like on the go. With the size of the antenna I would think it would be pretty darn good and the dimensions of the unit are like cell phone size as well. This unit doesnt seem to be lacking too much. I’m sure these will be flying off the shelves. Very very impressive !!!!
The XM Sportscaster was announced. What’s so good about it? Well the Sportcaster is aimed @ Sports fans on the go at a price point that is just amazing….$60.
XM PR Release is here
Advanced GT Site is here
Here’s a rundown of the feature set:
- 30 channel presets including preprogrammed sports stations
- Slim sleek rugged design
- 2 line display
- Optional wearable kit
It doesnt sport any of the recordable features, but hey for $60 that’s just a steal. There is definitely an audience for this type of unit. Perfect for a secondary radio.
Today was certainly a huge day for XM Radio. Talk about unloading some great news on the XM Nation. I was wowed by all the announcments coming out of CES today.
There were big announcements on 2 fronts. One was related to the next generation of XM2Go units and the other was a subscriber update:
The new receivers:
The Pioneer Inno - sports mp3 playback as well as recording capabilities that will store 50 hours of XM content as well as being compatible with XM + Napster
The Samsung Helix - formerly called Nexus sports mp3 playback as well as recording capabilities that will store 50 hours of XM content as well as being compatible with XM + Napster
I’ll post more info on the receivers later. I’m reading some conflicting information on the units and I want to make sure and report what I’m hearing as accurately as possible as well as detailed info the XM Passport which is essentially a mini tuner that will allow you to have one subscription and broadcast to several devices.
The 2nd announcement was that XM Radio now has 6 million subscribers…w00t !!!! That’s huge and Hugh Panero also stated that XM will be @ 9 million subscriptions by year end.
This was a very big day for XM and the Satellite Radio industry as a whole. I want to hit the highlights in separate posts and sort through the facts, but I just wanted to quickly outline this amazing day. Once again XM has really earned my respect and really proved what an amazing company they are and what incredible technology is possible
Very Interesting post on Orbitcast about the new Dell DJ which has XM Radio integrated into it with a 6gig drive for recording. How cool is that !!!!! The only thing that I don’t like about that is that I’m primarily a Mac and Linux user. I do have a PC @ home that I don’t use very often. But I would hope that the unit would just be seen as an external USB drive but who knows.
I do have a Pioneer Airware right now that I am extremely content with however. I think the one big thing that it is missing is capacity. Sure I can record 4 hours of XM, but its only 4 hours and I cant save it for later. It’s an issue yet it isn’t for me. I don’t currently record a ton of stuff. I listen to what I record and essentially dump it. the reason I do this is simply because there is just too much stuff on XM that I listen to, so when I do record content I listen to it quick and dump it, so I don’t know if the Dell DJ or the Samsung Nexus would be advantageous for me or not. I’ll probably be sticking with my Airware for awhile but if the price is right who knows !!!!!
In my continuing obsession with XM Radio I am so jacked about my ClipXT which should be arriving tommorrow. My Pioneer Airwave does get decent reception, but in the office my cube is over in this area that has very little little natural sunlight coming in. I’m really hoping this helps. If I walk about 30 feet away from my cube reception is just awesome. The reviews of the new Clip XT sound good and for $15 I cant complain at all.