Stiletto100
Latest
Sirius Stiletto users stuck a day behind everyone else
While most seem to have learned from past date-related issues, at least some folks at Sirius appear to have overlooked the fact that this year is a leap year, and the company's Stiletto 100 unit is now having trouble keeping up as a result. As numerous users have reported in the Sirius Backstage forums, the Stiletto has been dragging a day behind ever since the New Year kicked in, which, in addition to being an annoyance, has posed some serious problems for anyone doing scheduled recordings. Now, after a bit of silence on the matter, Sirius is reportedly telling customers that there is in fact a problem, and that it'll fix itself on March 1st. Unfortunately, Sirius's only "solution" in the meantime is to tell users to set up recordings for each day of the week.[Thanks, Bill]
Polk Audio delivers miDock Portfolio for your Stiletto
Although Polk Audio has made its miDock Portfolio available for your iPod in the past, it's about time that Stiletto receiver of yours received the same treatment. The SLPTD1, which can be powered with two AA cells or an AC adapter, was crafted to play nice with the Sirius Stiletto 10, 100, and shiny new Stiletto 2, and as any portable speaker station should, this one folds flat for easy travel, comes bundled with a protective case, boasts a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary jack, and even arrives with a "windowsill antenna." Look for it to land this October for around $129.99.[Via MobileWhack]
Sirius Stiletto 100: this dog will hunt
Sirius' answer to XM's Inno/Helix -- the Stiletto 100 satellite receiver -- just scored an "excellent" review over at CNET. No surprise to find the player taking hits for bulk and for requiring users to wear those "kind of dorky" and "very uncomfortable" headphones for the best satellite signal reception. But you'll be happy to know that CNET was still able to tune-in to satellite radio with the included, antenna-less earbuds with the reviewer pulling 2/3 signal bars while seated near a window in his fifth-floor office building. They also weren't too stoked at the "less-than" 1GB of storage available to MP3/WMA audio or the AM-like audio quality when streaming Sirius content over WiFi (802.11b, only) but it was nevertheless a welcome feature when in a satellite dead zone. Still, you can always pay an additional $3/mth for Sirius to open access to their 128kbps "CD quality" streams. Streaming internet radio over WiFi worked well and the ability to pause/replay and record live Sirius streams functioned with "razor precision" storing files in the "well-organized" library. CNET still has to conduct their battery-drain test but don't expect anything better than the 4 hours for live satellite radio, 8 hours for Internet radio, and 20 hours for MP3s off the big ol' standard battery -- impressively, a slim battery is included in the bundle but offers only about half the playback. Overall, CNET found the Stiletto 100 to be particularly "fun" to use due to the "huge" feature set your $350 buys and from the "incredibly easy to use" game-like interface allowing you to constantly discover the new music and content delivered by satellite and Internet radio.[Thanks, Brit]
Sirius Stiletto 100 caught in the wild
Engadget reader John C. managed to nab a Sirius Stiletto 100 and took a bunch of pictures for us -- thanks John! Sounds like he was really happy with it for the most part, mentioning that the sound quality is great, but already we're seeing some drawbacks. Apparently the unit suffers from such a minor but obvious oversight in lacking a charge indicator when it's off, but the big bummer was learning how this unit gets reception without a fat antenna like its XM2Go competition -- they give you some seriously massive and dopey looking headphones that receive the signal from atop your dome. You might not think that's as big a hack as we do -- after all, it's probably only for those pesky dead zones where you need a little extra oomph, right? Not so; John mentioned to us that unless you live near a terrestrial repeater, you're not going to have much of a choice but to wear the big phones, and not the ear buds (of course, your mileage may vary). The things we do for portables.P.S. -Reader Eric hit us up with a YouTube vid of his Stiletto 100 in action -- check it out after the break.
Sirius Stiletto 100 "availability" announced
We know that the last thing you wanted to see on a peaceful Tuesday afternoon was another Stiletto post, but we thought we'd just let you know that Sirius has finally gone official on the "availability" of the Stiletto 100 this month. We're not even sure what they mean by that, since there's still no mention of the player on their main site or online store, but they printed it up in a nice fancy press release, so at least it means they're done with any of those rumored "delays" or whatnot. Sirius also has the prices on the vehicle kit ($70), home kit ($70) and executive system ($150) that we spotted yesterday, so that's pretty, um, exciting.Update: Reader Scotty points out that Sirius' online store is now showing a ship date of October 4.
Sirius Stiletto 100: the rest of the story
We've been all over the place with this Sirius Stiletto 100 portable player, with rumored specs a'flying, a launch window stretched to the limit, and even a bit of RIAA drama. We still don't have an actual launch date -- that would be too easy -- but we've got the info on just about everything you could care to know about the little player, thanks to a conveniently "live" official site for the player. Of course, you've probably already heard the basics by now: live satellite radio, 802.11b WiFi (with WEP and WPA support), a purtiful screen (2.2-inches at a QVGA res) and a good helping of storage (turns out to be 2GB of NAND flash) for live radio recording and for pre-loaded PlaysForSure action. Now we've got the nitty gritty. The player comes with dual batteries out of the box, a standard version that makes the unit measure 1-inch thick in total, and powers 4 hours of satellite radio, 8 hours of Sirius Internet Radio (over WiFi) and 20 hours of library playback, along with a slim version that trims things down to 0.72-inches, but halves all those battery scores. As for other dimensions, the Stiletto measures 4.6-inches tall, 2.1-inches wide and weighs 5.6 and 4.6 ounces with standard and slim batteries, respectively. There's also a set of antenna headphones, earbuds and a PC sync cable included in the box. Sirius, of course, has a whole complement of accessories for the player, including vehicle and home docking kits, and a Stiletto Executive System dock with built-in speakers. We're still holding out for a September release date here, so start prepping your $350 for this fall's satellite hotness.[Thanks, Ian Z.]
Sirius Stiletto delay FCC-related?
Let's recap: Sirius gets us all in a tizzy by announcing its first "personal live satellite radio product," then opens up the floodgates to pre-orders, and suddenly pulls the rug out from under the whole deal by demanding that retailers stop taking orders of the Stiletto 100 under further notice. The cause behind such a curious sequence of events might not be manufacturing hangups, supplier shortages, or any of the most common issues related with postponed launches -- rather, the company may simply be waiting for an FCC ID number. Considering the agency hasn't exactly been an ally in Sirius' production process (nor XM's, to be fair), we aren't terribly surprised at the supposed culprit. A tiny, albeit powerful snippet of fine print within FCC guidelines prohibits the marketing of products that aren't in good standing with the commission, which gives strong suspicion that Sirius is just holding its horses until the Stiletto 100 is granted its oh-so-honorable identification tag -- whenever that may be.[Via Orbitcast]
Sirius Stiletto 100 live sat radio discovered
Between leaky catalogues and the FCC it's a wonder anyone's products are kept under wraps for long, but that obviously wasn't the case for Sirius's unfortunately named Stiletto 100, which went out with the usual Crutchfield catalogue before being officially announced. Besides having a you-know-what like clickwheel, the Stiletto appears to be their first live portable sat radio player, finally catching up to the tech XM introduced at CES earlier this year with the Inno and the Helix. It should have PlaysForSure support with 100 hours of storage for Sirius programming, and another 50 for the stuff you've downloaded; the device should also have WiFi, and apparently 4 hours live reception (and up to 22 hours recorded), and will go for $399 when Sirius officially acknowledges its existence. Psst, guys, cat's out of the bag, just go ahead and announce it, ok?[Via OrbitCast, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
