Sirius
Latest
Sirius announces sleek new Sportster4 radio
To prove that there is still life in the world of consumer electronics outside of videogames and laptops, Sirius broke up today's monotony by announcing an updated version of their Sportster series of Plug and Play satellite radios with 44-minute buffers. The Sportster4, which is small enough to easily transport between home and car, maintains the same recording capacity and features as its predecessors, but adds a new vehicle dock that includes an auxiliary input for your MP3 player. Additional niceties include 30 presets, bundled remote, favorite artist alerts, and game reminders to keep you updated on score changes. Look for the Sportster4 later this month for around $170, with accessories like boombox docks soon to follow.
Sirius execs confirm video service will be live
In an announcement that is being described as a victory for couch potatoes worldwide, Sirius execs at the recent Morgan Stanley Global Automotive Conference claimed that despite rumors to the contrary, Sirius Video will indeed be a live, streaming service (as opposed to delivering cached content). Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin gave the example of a Nickelodeon-loving rugrat -- whose traumatic Spongebob-downtime will soon be mercifully limited to the short walk between couch and minivan -- as the type of customer who will benefit from live broadcasts. Although we've known that Sirius was planning to roll out a video service for well over a year now, this is the first time anyone has been able to pin down the suits on a launch window, with Senior VP Bob Law citing a "post-CES 2007" target for the initial rollout.
HD Radio to get $200 million advertising and retail push
We haven't heard much of HD Radio lately, perhaps due to the stealthy force of ninja assassins from Sirius and XM that dispatch the proponents of the standard, or perhaps because there ain't a lot going on. Hopefully things will spice up soon, since the format is about to get a major push from the HD Radio Alliance, who have plans to land compatible receivers in stores along with a $200 million budget for advertising and promotion. HD Radio equipment should be making it to 100 stores nationwide soon, and in-store education will be offered for consumers and employees. We sure wouldn't mind if prices dropped a bit for the receivers, but we guess availability is a good start, and you can't get much cheaper than free for the subscription cost.
