Radios (Including Internet Radio)

Slacker Radio… It May be Their Name but That’s as Far as it Goes

I’m a big fan of Slacker radio and love the fact that they are continually adding features and stations. Last night I got one of my favorite emails from them. It began with “This is the first of our announcements this week.” That is music to my ears although this announcement has nothing to do with music.


Sonos PLAY:3 Review

We have had a fair bit of coverage of the Sonos Wireless Hi-Fi System over the past few weeks. As I noted in my initial review of the system, I only had the review units in my home for 23 hours before I went and ordered my own. I was impressed by the ease of use, the overall sound quality, and the vast amount of music that was available to me through the Sonos eco-system. It was by no means an inexpensive purchase but I have not had a single moment of buyer’s remorse. At this point I am a…


Slacker Launches Slacker Premium Radio with On-Demand Access to Music Library

I’m a huge fan of Slacker Radio but I have to admit, it has been a little long in the tooth lately. I mean, they still haven’t got an iPad app which means you need to use the Slacker iPhone app at 2X resolution on your iPad. Ugly!! Moreover, services like RDIO have made selective music streaming seamlessly ease while Slacker has kept to their same old model. Well, Slacker is hitting a milestone today with the release of a new iPad app AND Slacker Premium, a service for selectively streaming the music you want when you want it! So…


Review: Aluratek Bump AMS01F MP3/FM Radio Boombox

Aluratek has brought out a cool little boom box that might just come in handy on your next camping trip.  Aluratek sent me one so I could play with it and see what makes it tick. Initially when I opened the box, I was expecting their AWS01F which includes a wireless speaker as well.  However when I opened it, the instruction book indicated it was the AMS01F.  The only difference between the two packages is the wireless speaker.  Otherwise the rest of it is the same. The first thing you have to do is charge the radio up.  You simply…


Home Gear Review: Aluratek Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built-in WiFi (v2)

I’ve had a chance to check out more than a few Internet radios in the past year or so and I am impressed with the growing feature-set and fidelity we are beginning to see. I have been checking out Aluratek’s current offering and can safely say that while it doesn’t stand out from an increasingly competitive market it does have some compelling features and a price point that make it a worthy contender. Here’s a closer look… From Aluratek: Aluratek’s new Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built in WiFi allows you to easily access more than 11,000 radio stations in…


Internet Radio Review- Allegro Wi-Fi Radio Portable Wireless Radio & Streamer

I HATE Elana’s transistor radio. It has the most annoying crackle when AM radio is on and even FM radio sounds terrible. I’ve tried to throw it out and replace it with a WiFi radio or an iPod touch numerous times. But like a bad penny it keeps coming back. Yup, none of the solutions I offered to Elana as replacements for her radio were good enough for her. She kept going back to that THING. Until now! Grace Audio was kind enough to send me a review unit of their Allegro Wi-Fi Radio Portable Wireless Radio & Streamer. I…


Review: iLuv iMM178 Vibe Plus- Dual Alarm Clock w/Bed Speaker Shaker for iPhone

iPhone/iPod speaker docks are multiplying around my home and at the office. And for good reason. Since I’m not an audiophile the music that is pumped out of a relatively inexpensive speaker dock is usually just fine for me. But while a simple speaker dock is fine for my office (I use a bluetooth system that I love… more on that another time) in my bedroom I want something that also includes an alarm clock. The other day I took a look at one that offers good sound. It costs $150, sounds good but isn’t compatible with iPhone due to…


The Logitech Squeezebox Radio Review

Judie: Last year Julie Strietelmeier and I took a look at the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, both here and on The Gadgeteer, and our general consensus was that we both enjoyed using it. As a matter of fact, I liked using mine so much that I eventually sprung for a streaming Sirius subscription as well as a Pandora Premium membership. I wrote about the Logitech Squeezebox Radio when it was first announced, mentioning its compact size, a 2.4″ color display, Facebook connectivity, and a seven-day alarm clock. Although I put in a request for a review unit, I didn’t hear anything…


Rhapsody Just Got Me Back As a Customer… Rhapsody For iPhone Review

I used to have a subscription to Rhapsody. At the time I was using a Creative Zen music player. (It was in the days when my motto was “Anything But Apple’s Products”. It seems like a lifetime ago.) The deal the company offered wasn’t bad. For $10 or $15 a month I could listen to all the music I wanted. Sure I was renting the music and all of it would (and did) disappear if and when I decided to cancel my subscription. Still, when I thought about wanting to try a wide range of music and transfer it from…


Review: Etón FR360 Emergency Preparedness Digital Radio

It is starting to be that time of year.  What do I mean?  Thunderstorm and Tornado Season that’s what I mean.  That is followed by the Hurricane season.  The best thing to do to st?ay safe dur?ing this season is to take time to prepare now before the worst happens.  One device that will help you keep informed during a storm is a radio.  If you have a portable radio, one problem you always have is batteries not being charged when you need it or you only have the radio on your stereo.  If that’s you, then you should pickup…


Two Reasons I Hate the Slacker / Pandora / etc Internet Radio Apps

As if by amazing serendipity, I had just started writing this when I read Carly Z’s “Adventures in Internet Radio” talking about traveling with Pandora and Slacker. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to love these apps! Loads of music, tons of choices, affinity selection with ‘learning’ system that allows you to help the apps do their job better. In fact, since before Christmas not a week has gone by that we haven’t used either Slacker or Pandora on either my Droid or iPod Touch to play music for the whole family, and when my younger son…


Adventures in Internet Radio!

Driving to Maine from New Jersey is a looooong drive. Even breaking it up with a stop in Boston for a few days, we quickly ran through an audiobook and couldn’t find a decent radio station on the drive. Luckily, I had my Droid handy, and we gave Pandora and Slacker a spin. Slacker…I want to like it, I really do. But on the free version, it doesn’t seem to hold onto a music stream well. It gets four or five songs in and then seems to be stuck, requiring the app to be exited and restarted. It’s a huge…


Spark Radio – iPhone Application Review

$6 for an Internet radio application? That’s crazy, right? That’s exactly what I thought when I went to check out the Spark Radio app. I thought the pricing on it was absolutely ridiculous. After all, you can get a host of different Internet radio applications for free. You can use Pandora or Slacker Radio without paying a penny. And the list goes on and on. So why is it that you should spend $6 up front to get this application? It’s actually quite reasonable question. And there is a reasonable answer… I was given a review copy of the application…


Wunder Radio for BlackBerry is released

One of my favorite applications for iPhone is Wunder Radio (iTunes / review) . In addition to receiving radio stations both locally and world wide, police scanners, weather radio and more – the iPhone application allows me to listen to Sirius Satellite radio while away from my desktop computer. I’ve been waiting eagerly for Wunder Radio to appear on the BlackBerry and today it’s available in the BlackBerry App World for $9.99. Unfortunately the version that’s available only works on BlackBerry Bold and Curve. A version will be available later for the Tour and Storm. Also regrettably missing from the…


WunderRadio for iPhone Review

The Internet is proving to be an interesting outlet for traditional, commercial radio. Many programs like iTunes, offer streams from various radio stations. WunderRadio is from the Weather Underground folk, and it brings you literally thousands of radio stations and streams from around the world.  Let’s take a closer look!


MYINE Ira Internet Radio – Review

Let me tell you about Elana’s radio. (Yup, that’s it in the clip.) Elana cooks… a lot! and when she does she listens to the radio. Sometimes she listens to music, but often she chooses talk radio. And she listens to it on an old-style Sony radio. The thing hasn’t changed since I was a kid. It has one speaker and sounds… well… it sounds horrible. I have asked Elana if she wanted me to set it up so her MacBook could drive speakers in the kitchen, but she didn’t want the hassle or expense. So for YEARS I have…


Slacker G2 Player Flash Review

Slacker is a web based music service that offers both a free and paid version. The Slacker clients stream music via the web as well as many smartphones. I’ve subscribed for about 6 months because the paid version of Slacker allows me to skip as many songs as I would like while listening to the service. What I really like about the paid version is that you can use a special Slacker MP3 player to store music for when you’re on the go and not connected to the web UPDATE: Both the free and paid versions allow you to connect…


Logitech Squeezebox Boom Review

Back when Judie was a fixture The Gadgeteer, she and I would occasionally write dually reviews. This was a term we coined that basically consisted of a review where we would chat back and forth about the product in question. Today we’re going to revive that fun format, with a review of the Squeezebox Boom Network Music Player from Logitech. My comments will be in regular Black text, while Judie’s will be in Blue italics. I have a bit of experience with the Squeezebox as I had the opportunity to review the previous two versions of this device. The first…


SiriusMac 2.1: Streaming Sirius Satellite Radio To Your Mac

Hi my name is Wayne and I’m a Howard Stern addict. Been hooked since High School. That doesn’t mean I’m living in a home surrounded by dirty pictures, obscenities, beer funnels and strippers – though that’s the image everyone seems to have whenever I mention Stern. I find his show a funny voice that gets me moving in the morning. With his move to Sirius Satellite Radio I’ve been listening to Sirius Satellite using their web feed and a very cool and free tool called SiriusMac. Here’s why I think it’s so useful – and if you’re a Sirius Satellite…