AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Sirius Hardware catches up to XM


One of the reasons I chose XM radio over Sirius last year was that the XM hardware was smaller than the comparable Sirius units. Sirius has announced new products to show that XM no longer has the same advantage.

The coolest item is the iPod-sized S50. The S50 is designed to record satellite radio while hooked up to a dock in your home or car, then you unplug the portable unit, and thanks to its on-board 1 gigabyte flash memory, you can listen to hours of recorded Sirius content and/or mp3s downloaded from your computer.

Droxy (Digital Radio)



Sirius also introduced the Starmate Replay. This is a direct competitor to the XM Roady2. The Starmate is a little more expensive, but it records up to 45 minutes of content. It has some interesting features like automatically updating you when your favorite team starts a new game, and flashing an update when the score changes. Since Sirius has the NFL contract, that's a useful feature.