Sirius recently unveiled their latest iteration of their portable satellite radios, the Stiletto 2. The best part is it’s smaller and lighter than the original Stiletto.
So normally a decrease in size isn’t enough to warrant and entirely new product, so what features came with the diet? Enhanced WiFi is the first, then there is a new microSD card slot and better library management.
Which is always good right? Apparently the deal is $6.95 per month for the first 50 channels of your choosing from one provider. From there it goes up to $14.95, but you get to choose up to 100 channels from either provider.
Subscription radio is not something that’s taken off over here in the UK, but if you’re in the US then there’s plenty of choice if you don’t like free-to-air FM or tire easily of what’s on your PMP. The Gadgeteer’s Rob Tillotson has been trying out a chunky little XM receiver made by Pioneer, the inno, and has found that if you’re looking for a compromise between rocking your own tunes and sampling a bit of the mobile XM life then the portable device might be for you.
Yikes, and it was all going, well, not too bad for the Sirius Stiletto – the hotly anticipated satellite radio DAP that promised so much and yet, as Travis Hudson found out, delivers very little. His quibbles? Zero indoor and patchy outdoor reception, the ergonomics of a brick (and not a pleasant brick, no, the nasty kind), slow WiFi (the Stiletto uses ‘b’) and a limited number of internet radio channels to choose from, oh, and the headphones (which have the aerial built-in, so you can’t change them) are uncomfortable and look dorky. All in all, not a great showing.
Recently seen in adverts but subsequently yanked, the Delphi SkyFi3 is a pretty little slice of satellite radio playing goodness, 65% smaller than previous SkyFi models and boasting 30 minutes of live radio rewinding, built-in storage for up to 10 hours of XM content and a Micro SD slot for storing mp3/WMA/WAV files. Sadly the battery lasts just eight hours, meaning you won’t even have time to play back all that stored content, never mind get started on your mp3 collection!
Words out that after being stopped about 2 weeks ago possibly due to intervention of the FCC, the SIRIUS Stiletto 100 is now back on for preorders. However, the ship date remains uncertain but most likely will be in late September or early October. Sites such as TSS-Radio have already placed the Stiletto back on its website along with its video. Hope its a smooth road from here on, we’ll keep you posted.
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