With Christmas just around the corner, I would of thought that there would be new radio's by now.
I know the merger put a wrinkle on the radios, but I thought a new stiletto or somthing new...
TSS Taylor.... Any exciting news around the corner?
Where are the new radios?
- Thread starter me_rubin
- Start date
With Christmas just around the corner, I would of thought that there would be new radio's by now.
I know the merger put a wrinkle on the radios, but I thought a new stiletto or somthing new...
TSS Taylor.... Any exciting news around the corner?
There really isn't going to be many new radios for a while. The Starmate 5 is the new radio for the Holiday Season.
It seems the reason there isn't likely to be new radios and products is two things. One is that the resources are/were needed to transition the merger and work out the details of that. This I know was a tremendous amount of work and continues to be. Two is that a lot of stuff was put on hold until people learned whether they would have jobs and what direction the companies would want to go it.
I don't think between now and the end of the year there will be much in terms of new gear besides the new XM Portable, the Starmate 5, the SUBX2 and Stratus 5.
Probably some cool new interoperable stuff will start popping up in March or April or so.
It seems the reason there isn't likely to be new radios and products is two things. One is that the resources are/were needed to transition the merger and work out the details of that. This I know was a tremendous amount of work and continues to be. Two is that a lot of stuff was put on hold until people learned whether they would have jobs and what direction the companies would want to go it.
I don't think between now and the end of the year there will be much in terms of new gear besides the new XM Portable, the Starmate 5, the SUBX2 and Stratus 5.
Probably some cool new interoperable stuff will start popping up in March or April or so.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
The next radio will likely be the interoperable radio in June. This will likely occupy the hardware designers from both sides for the next while. Getting those first set of kinks out always takes longer.
Superfan Roundtable on Howard 101 discussed this topic last week. They said only 1 radio by end of this year and early 2009 for the new "interoperable" radio's. Apparently "interoperable" means the radio can be configured to use both Sirius and XM repeaters as well as satellites. Later during 2010 they should have everything fully integrated.
If anybody knows any further information perhaps you would know the difference between "interoperable" and "fully integrated". I can't seem to remember to that specific of a detail.
If anybody knows any further information perhaps you would know the difference between "interoperable" and "fully integrated". I can't seem to remember to that specific of a detail.
The one radio I think they were talking about was the new XM Portable. Nothing else beyond that.
Something that should also be accounted for is the fact that even though the merger has been talked about for quite some time, the two companies weren't allowed to collaborate on new radios until the merger was approved. I think it's a good thing that we won't see anything new for a bit. That way they will have time to test and produce a quality product instead of throwing an unknown and untested inferior product out there just to please everyone. I am looking forward to seeing what comes out. Maybe I should push for my company to send me to the next CES show? 
With Christmas just around the corner, I would of thought that there would be new radio's by now.
Perfect timing for this thread. After surviving the S50 and loving the Stilletto 100 ("SL100") since its inception, my Stilletto 100 is near to DOA (only one earpeice works on headphones, my battery backing is separating from its case, etc.) but I've been hanging in there and not doing the BB Warranty exchange hoping for new hardware that I could adopt for the long haul, and to avoid the SL2 issues. I've searched everywhere and it looks like no new recording player is on the six month horizon so here goes. Questions;
1. Will I definitely have memory problems with an SL2?
2. I guess I need new car/home docks? I see Taylor has a Soloist SL2 adaptor for my first generation Soloist (which I currently use to listen at work); is there an adaptor for the SL100 generation boom box?
3. Anything else I should know about adopting the SL2 at this point?
Great new forum; glad I found it. Thanks all, and wish me luck.
1. I don't have memory problems. I've had a few times where I've missed recordings and it coincided often with channel updates. Sometimes I need to just take out the battery because the Satellite time and the Stiletto time aren't in sync, causing my unit to not go to the channel.
2. The adapter for the Soloist is for a clean look and to make it more secure. It's not entirely necessary to make it work. The SLBB1 won't work with a Stiletto 2. The new SLBB2 Universal Stiletto Boombox has inserts that can be moved to adapt to both sized Stilettos.
3. The Stiletto 2 kicks ass IMO. It's solid. I had a few bugs when the merger was changing up the backend of the channel updates and stuff, but haven't had any as of late.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
I also missed a recording on the night of the update. I usually turn off the recording if I know there is a channel update but the last one was a surprise and it did not record. I shutdown the next day and it has recorded normally since.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Unlikely. It will be a PnP box. True portable + interoperable would be later (if ever).
Well, the current ExpressRC for XM allows the recording of up to 10 songs. I see no reason why they couldn't build on that and allow for recording channels and or songs too in a PNP. I personally have no need for a Portable, so if they offer a PNP that can have many of the same functions I'd jump on it. Surely I am not alone in that.
PNP with song recording, programmed recording and of course song/artist seek, replay features, sleep timer. The should do a color display and a non-color display for pricing reasons. I'd get the colored one cause I love the color display. Yeah, I'd be there.
PNP with song recording, programmed recording and of course song/artist seek, replay features, sleep timer. The should do a color display and a non-color display for pricing reasons. I'd get the colored one cause I love the color display. Yeah, I'd be there.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
I am just going by a quote from Mel about the radio. He said it would not be portable.
I'm not saying that you're lying, I haven't read anything much about these new interoperable radios that are coming out soon. The PnP would probably not be hard to make, XM had there first portable units out first and it took a couple of years later for Sirius to make one finally. So it will probably be the same thing all over again.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
But if they make the lineups almost 100% identical, the demand for a interop will be almost 0. Why spend the R&D developing it? If you wanted the sports, just get the BestOf package.
Well this works in most cases except for those that want MLB. However, I think there are plenty reasons to do an intagrated radio, because clearly at some point they are going to want to move to one system or the other and combine the bandwidth. Granted this is years down the road. But once the market is saturated with these type radios, them moving to one system will be very simple. The longer you wait in doing this the longer you put off the ability to make this switch over.
It seems based on what I see on this forum and by calls people really want new features and exciting new gadgets. As far as content the services will be merging a lot in the next 8 months or so. By the time that's done having XM and having SIRIUS won't be all that different.
Besides the Stratus 5 and Starmate 5 and the new XMP3 there isn't anything new coming this Holiday season.
I'm sure next Spring though some new hardware should be coming out.
Besides the Stratus 5 and Starmate 5 and the new XMP3 there isn't anything new coming this Holiday season.
I'm sure next Spring though some new hardware should be coming out.
I'd be happy with a new portable. My SL2 is still running great, so I'm not in a hurry.
I'd be thrilled if the XM R+D staff and engineering dept took over the Sirius departments. I'd feel better waiting for them to develop radios that are more reliable. And if you had a problem, if the people on the other end of the phone knew what they were doing. . . . it would be paradise!
I'd be thrilled if the XM R+D staff and engineering dept took over the Sirius departments. I'd feel better waiting for them to develop radios that are more reliable. And if you had a problem, if the people on the other end of the phone knew what they were doing. . . . it would be paradise!