CNET has a review of the Livio NPR radio…a WiFi radio designed around the NPR stations…and only NPR stations. Would you spend $170 for a plastic radio that gets only NPR?
It’s being advertised for “radio-junkies”…ok radio junkies, what do you think?
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I think ownership should be mandatory! Let’s hand out coupons worth $300 and stimulate the economy! Jobs jobs jobs!
To work with WIFi, a device needs a unique MAC ID – so as an extra bonus we can track the location of the radio at all times – you never know when a small child with a radio might be kidnapped and our only hope to save them will be by tracking them using their radio
More seriously – here was the review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-audio-receivers-dars/the-npr-radio-by/4505-6470_7-34057882.html
This looks similar to most other WiFi radios I’ve seen (like those you can buy from C Crane) – they look like they were designed and assembled using parts from Radio Shack.
It isn’t stereo – it weighs 4 pounds and isn’t portable. You can’t carry it around the house, you can’t feed its audio into your stereo system – who really needs 800 stations all playing Morning Edition and All Things Considered in mono? (talk about “Repeater radio”!)…
The radio is based on the Reciva database to get updated streaming URLs. Reciva is a E.U. based company – the station list is thin on “real” US stations (because a large chunk of stations in the U.S. don’t use MP3 streams and/or block attempts to listen without using their players). The radio does not have a licensed Windows Media codec, so can’t decode WMA streams. The MP3 patent terms are too invasive for most for-profit radio station owners to agree to – that’s why most MP3 streams in the US are schools or not-for-profit entities.
They have 9,430 “stations” in the United States, but that includes non-FCC licensed internet only “stations” – a person with a PC in the their mom’s basement playing their collection of non-licensed P2P music randomly using a computer program – and probably not paying any royalties to ASCAP, BMI or SoundExchange…. – but also almost impossible for the royalty groups to track down. Reciva needs to be requiring proof of licensing agreements (that’s the main reason I refuse to list non-licensed radio stations – I don’t want to become the royalty enforcement police)
Ultimately, WiFi radios (or 4G wireless broadband) are going to replace “over the air” radio – but the people making the radios are trying to do an “end around” the existing radio business rather than working with them. “Over the Air” radio still has a very strong listener loyalty, although that is dissipating….
With my iPhone and using $5 ootunes (and the directory here), I have access to about 6,300 “real” US radio stations anywhere – in a device that weighs only a few ounces. I can carry it it my pocket, ride around the Berkshires in Massachusetts listening to a radio station in Florida over AT&T’s Edge network – in all but the most remote places… and pretty much all of the Reciva type internet-only stations if I access the ooTunes station list directly…. what do I need a boat anchor sitting on my bedside table for? (the iPhone can also put me to sleep and wake me up to radio)
If you don’t need/want cell phone service or 3G mobile broadband – the 8G iPod Touch is $199. It weighs 4 oz, has a multitouch color screen, stereo ear plugs, Safari browser for Wifi browsing, email support, 1000s of apps (runs ooTunes)… And runs the NPR app… And you aren’t dependent on a company in Europe to listen to US radio stations (and subject your Internet traffic to EU monitoring and legal scrutiny)