XM Radio Expands Technology Lead Over Sirius
While people could spend all day arguing which satellite radio company has better content (ie Howard Stern (Sirius) vs. Opie and Anthony (XM); Martha Stewart (Sirius) vs. Bob Edwards (XM); Eminem (Sirius) vs. Snoop Dogg (XM); NFL (Sirius) vs. MLB (XM) etc.) there is one place where the competition between the two upstart radio companies has been relatively one-sided. That category is the radios, or more specifically, portable radios where XM’s newest two offerings are superior to anything Sirius has on the market.
(In the interest of honesty, I am an XM subscriber and based a large portion of my decision between the two companies on the technology and Opie and Anthony.)
SIRIUS : S 50 Portable
First, let me tell you what these two XM offerings are up against from rival company Sirius. The S50 boasts the ability to load up MP3’s and record Sirius programs for listening at a later date. It sounds a lot cooler than it really is, though. The S50 is incapable of picking up satellite signals when it isn’t connected to its docking station. So, anything that you listen to on the player will have to be recorded first, before you can listen to it on the go.
Oh, and if you are looking to grab a whole day’s worth of talk radio, you can forget it. The player is handcuffed with restrictions on scheduled recordings. You can have a total of 20 scheduled recordings, but they are limited to 2 hour recording blocks. Does this all sound as confusing to you as it does to me? Combine this with the fact that the FIRST GENERATION of portable XM radios can play content live without the need for a docking station, and it shows you just how far behind Sirius is from a technological standpoint with their receivers.
XM Radio : Pioneer Inno / Samsung Helix
At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) XM Radio unveiled two new radios that should be coming out sometime in the spring. Pioneer and Samsung will be making these two radios and they both have the same basic specs. Like XM radio’s first generation of portable receivers (XM2GO) the two new receivers will be able to pick up satellite signals as you are walking around outside. No docking station is needed, which is a huge advantage over the S 50. Also, this generation of receivers has 1 gigabyte of flash memory on-board so that you can record up to 50 hours of XM content.
And unlike the S 50, there are no restrictions on how or what you can record. In fact, XM has made it even easier to capture individual songs. Under the recording options, you can record by song, channel or scheduled session. Apparently the receiver also uses cached audio so that you can catch the beginning of songs when you grab it from the live feed. Also, while I have never used the Napster downloading service for digital tracks, the player uses a “tag” feature that will let you immediately purchase a song you heard on XM from Napster’s online store when you reconnect the player to your computer. You can fill it up with MP3’s that you already own to create a mix of MP3’s and radio content if you wish.
XM Passport Card
If this wasn’t enough to put XM ahead of Sirius, they also announced something called the XM Passport. The XM Passport is a small card that can be plugged in and out of XM-enabled devices. Obviously, without a lot of XM-enabled devices, this will be kind of a pointless product. But imagine having a little card that can go from a docking station in your home, to a slot in your car stereo and to a portable unit so that you can have a traveling subscription from one device to the other. If you don’t know, the satellite subscription is tied to the radio receiver you own. So, if you have one receiver in your living room in a boom box that costs you one subscription. If you have satellite service built into your car on a separate receiver, that costs you another subscription. With this new passport device, XM could really open up a whole new world of convenience that is currently not possible.
The satellite radio wars are definitely not over. Content will always be a huge part of the battle between the two companies. It is also quite possible, and even likely, that the technological lead that XM has opened up isn’t sustainable. After a while, as the technological leaps turn into baby steps, it will be difficult to differentiate the two services on any basis other than content. Until that time though, XM will have a noticeable advantage on at least one battlefield.
(In the interest of honesty, I am an XM subscriber and based a large portion of my decision between the two companies on the technology and Opie and Anthony.)
Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson Split
Turns out US Weekly and all the other celebrity hound rags got this one correct. I wonder what their accuracy rate is on the rumor mill?
Anyway, I think this means that there is a higher power. Who or whatever that higher power is, it/she/he just saved Christmas. We won’t have to watch some crappy Christmas special with frosted camera lenses, horribly scripted unfunny sketches and fake snow showering down as a simple audience fills the laugh tracks. (Or were those just plain old laugh tracks?)
I am sure Nick Lachey will be better off in the long run too assuming he gets to take a half of her cash. I am assuming she has a lot more.
Howard Stern’s Replacements and the Death of Radio
Infinity Broadcasting Corp., finally revealing its plans to replace the self-proclaimed “King of All Media,” announced a new morning drive time lineup Tuesday of assorted hosts for its 27 soon-to-be former Stern stations. Rather than turning to a single replacement, Infinity offered a variety of names for different markets.
The end is near for radio, folks. This isn’t the first shot, nor will it be the last, but radio as we know it is dying at an accelerating rate.
Before you peg me as just another loud-mouthed Howard Stern fan who believes every bit of his hype, I will head you off at the pass. I am a former Howard Stern fan. I got bored with him. Now I am an XM Satellite Radio fan. I have seen the other side of the mountain and this desolate valley that terrestrial radio has slowly dropped itself into, is barren, cold and boring.
On the other side there is uncensored talking, a la Howard Stern at Sirius and Opie and Anthony at XM. There is more music, including channels for all the decades as well as genre-based stations. They have news channels. They have sports packages for the NFL, MLB and the NHL so you can listen to your favorite sports teams no matter where you live around the United States. They even have traffic stations for most major metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, all terrestrial radio can do is continue to play tons of commercials, continue to automate their formats (JACK FM Anyone?) and pretend that anyone cares about High Definition Radio. They are walking themselves right off the plank to a shark-infested sea of media irrelevancy. It is true that satellite radio costs money, but so does our cable and satellite television. I am sure there were many skeptics who thought nobody was going to pay to watch television. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
The same thing will happen with radio, only it will be worse. Companies like Infinity Broadcasting aren’t going to survive like NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX did. They were included on your satellite and cable TV packages, but none of the satellite radio companies are looking to sign up Infinity terrestrial radio stations for their content. They don’t need them. They are too busy stealing people like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony and a whole host of terrestrial radio personality castoffs that love music and program channels better than some machine ever could.
As for terrestrial radio’s last ditch effort at competing on quality with hi-def, they are missing the boat. The record industry just finished learning this lesson. While they were arguing over the format for future music and whether it should be one of two super high quality standards like SACD or DVD Audio, the consumers were busy sacrificing the quality throughout their entire media collections to take the convenience route and convert their collections to MP3’s.
In the case of hi-def radio, the level of quality will never be enough to outweigh the convenience of listening to music without commercials and without those impossibly infinitesimal playlists. Throw a little uncensored, unregulated talk radio on top of it all and you have a clear view of the death of radio as we know it.
At least that is what I think. Then again, maybe this little rant will sound a lot like the people who were pimping the Mini-disc, Betamax and Laserdisc technologies of yesteryear.
Is that Jack Osbourne?
*** BEFORE ***
*** AFTER ***
Thanks Government – Or how the government wasted time, money and shareholder’s value not understanding technology
But wait. If the game had a mature rating until you found some kind of material that shouldn’t have been there, wouldn’t it go right back to being a mature rated game if you simply removed that content? I am guessing yes.
So, let’s recap this thing.
You got a game off the market long after it was released (and bought millions of times over) since October of 2004.
You have cost the gamemakers’ shareholders value to be in jeopardy.
You gained an Adults Only rating for the game (temporarily in my estimation.)
And finally, you made all those mommy voters feel really good about you come next election season.
So, congratulations on all your wonderful success.
By the way, in case you hadn’t seen this angle, I am guessing that the real hatred of this game stems from the overall violent nature of it, and the sex was just an excuse to finally mount your attack.
The original will be back. The sequels will be coming. They will be rated M. Kids won’t be able to buy them. Kids who are under-supervised will be able to get their hands on them just like HBO and Cinemax.
But really though. Good effort.
Katie Holmes is off the List
I must be honest and tell you how much I used to love Katie Holmes. Now, it is all over. Not only is she whoring her relationship with Tom Cruise more enthusiastically than Dave Thomas ever dreamed of doing for Wendy’s, she is now converting to Cruise’s “religion,” scientology.Live and let live, and all that stuff. I know, but doesn’t this come off as being especially creepy to anyone else?
They announced their relationship in April. And now Tom Cruise is guaranteeing that he will ask her to marry him, and she is moving into L Ron Hubbard’s Little Land of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Ludicrous.
Wait!
Did you hear that?
It sounded like a gun.
I think Chris Klein just blew his own head off.
A Message from CNET Download.com – No More Adware
I was so happy to read this that I figured I would just post the letter. This is why CNET is one of my destinations for geek stuff on the web.
- Dear Downloaders,
- When it comes to fighting unwanted adware and spyware, CNET Download.com has always been in your corner. During the past few years, we’ve brought you the best tools and tips in our Spyware Center, and we’ve maintained a strict policy toward adware by allowing only software that discloses advertising partnerships during installation.
- This week, we’ve upped the ante: we’re launching a new zero-tolerance policy toward all bundled adware. That means every time you download software from Download.com, you can trust we’ve tested it and found it to be adware-free–period. (See how we test.)
- Why are we taking this extra step? In your letters, user reviews, and polls, you told us bundled adware was unacceptable–no matter how harmless it might be. We want you to know what you’re getting when you download from CNET Download.com, and no other download site can promise you will.
- Can we guarantee you’ll never get adware or spyware on your computer? Unfortunately, no. For that reason, we strongly encourage–no, make that beg–you to take extra steps to keep your computer free of all unwanted adware and spyware. Download and install a reputable antispyware scanner today. For a list of the ones we recommend, please visit our Spyware Center.
- I welcome your feedback on this important change.
- Happy downloading!
- Senior vice president and chief downloader, CNET Download.com
- Scott Arpajian
Good Suspension, Wrong Reason
I don’t know if any of you have been following the story about the morning team at Hot 97 in New York who played a “We Are the World” parody making fun of the Tsunami. The song was racist against Asians and tasteless to be sure. They have now been suspended. They are probably going to be fired soon.
- Show host Miss Jones and her entire morning team were indefinitely suspended Wednesday after a week of growing public outcry — and after a number of high-profile advertisers began pulling their support from the station.
This is the only reason that the company needs to fire them. They created a show that advertisers felt the need to pull away from. This should be the end of it, but it goes further.
- “What happened is morally and socially indefensible,” Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Radio, which owns Hot 97, said yesterday in an statement. “All involved, myself included, are ashamed and deeply sorry.”
- What began as a cruel joke about a natural disaster has turned into a catastrophe for Hot 97 (WQHT/97.1 FM). The song, which first aired Jan. 18, included slurs against Asians and jokes about floating bodies and orphaned children. It was set to the tune of the 1985 famine-relief song “We Are The World.”
Is it tasteless? Yes. Was it bad judgement? Yes. Was it indecent? Nope. Racist speech isn’t within the FCC guidelines. The only reason that these people should be fired technically is because they created a show that advertisers pulled away from. They hurt the bottom line. The company shouldn’t even have to make another judgement beyond that.
After hearing the song, I have another position as well. Please write better parody songs. It was a bad parody song. The offensive words didn’t rhyme and the singing was beyond defensible. If you are going to go out on a limb with a potentially offensive parody song, at least make it good and funny.
Maybe it is too soon to be joking about the tsunami.
My Top Ten All-time Video Games List
I have decided to do a list of my favorite all-time top ten video games. This list is not meant to be definitive. (IE my favorite games may not be the same as yours, but I would be glad to hear about yours if you feel like sharing) The list spans time, and platform.
Games have come a long way, and while I haven’t been the most consistent or addicted gamer, I have gone through my phases. You will also notice that one game in particular is missing from this list. That game is James Bond Goldeneye from the N64. Everyone and their mother played that game like lunatics for weeks/months, maybe even years on end. I am not that guy. It is a great game that I enjoyed a lot, but for whatever reason my group of friends and I did not play that game as religiously as the rest of the world. Therefore, it does not make my top ten. I am sure it makes most other top ten lists
Also, I will be giving honorable mentions, which might be similar games that could have made the list or games on the same platform that competed for my attention in the same time period.
Without further ado.
10. Centipede – Apple IIe Home Computer
Centipede was one of the first games that I ever played in my lifetime. We had it on a real 5 and 1/4 floppy disk for the Apple IIe. I remember playing this game, the first home game of my lifetime, until my fingers hurt from pressing the buttons. The only thing that sucked was having to take turns with my brother and sister. Also, it led to an inadvertent childhood punishment. I remember playing it one afternoon and I wasn’t able to finish off a level and I said something about how they “didn’t hit my ship!” because I thought I had been unfairly killed by the game. My mom comes running in from the kitchen and sends me to my room for swearing. To this day, I swear to you that I said the word “ship” and my mom was wrong. Plus, it would be like the back judge in the NFL calling holding at the line of scrimmage. If you are too far away to see the play then you are too far away to throw the flag. Anyway, Centipede was a great game.
Honorable mention – Galaxian, Dig Dug
9. Super Mario Kart – Super Nintendo
One year, we got the Super Nintendo for Christmas and that was when my brother and I realized that this whole gaming thing could have some legs. Seeing the upgraded graphics of F-Zero and other games on the Super Nintendo just fascinated us. But, it wasn’t until we got Super Mario Kart that we were totally addicted. Super Mario Kart had ever element that a game needed. It was part racing. It was part death match. It was part Saturday morning cartoons. There were secret paths that you needed to execute to get a leg up on the competition. You could also set time records against the computer. Just one of the most perfect games of all time, especially for me, being competitive and having a brother to play against.
Honorable mention – R.C. Pro Am, Super Mario 3, Dr. Mario
(note on Dr. Mario: This was a special game for my family and me. It was the first and only time that video games turned into a family event. I used to play this puzzle game with my dad, and mom as well as my brother and sister. A surprisingly fun game.)
8. Doom II – PC
Doom was the start of a whole new generation of games based on running around, shooting things and having them explode in gory 3d glory. I played Doom 1, but II didn’t catch on to the whole 3d blaster until ID Software released the second game in the series. Doom 2 had the coolest levels, the coolest weapons (BFG), and the coolest graphics that the world had ever seen. On top of that, it really introduced gamers to the Deathmatch, which has been an integral part of gaming ever since. At the time when this came out, the world still wasn’t totally connected to the internet. My friends and I were into the Bulletin Board technology which allowed you to dial into local networks using a modem. We used this kind of technology to blast each other in Doom 2 for countless hours and countless frags (kills.)
Honorable mention – Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem 3d
7. Warcraft II – PC
Warcraft II was the first of the war combat planning and strategy genre for me. The original Warcraft was a great start, but Blizzard Software really pulled it together for the sequel. Much better graphics, better control, and awesome multi-player, really made this game as addictive as it was. You start off building peons, to get your buildings together, in order to build the most diverse and powerful army possible. You could be either Orcs or Humans and build alliances, or go it alone. The bottom line is that this game usurped a whole bunch of hours from my life as I sat in front of a computer screen playing General God to all my pixilated minions.
Honorable mention – Command and Conquer, Starcraft, Age of Empires
6. Unreal Tournament – PC
This built upon the successes of its predecessors like Doom II, Quake and Duke Nukem. It took it to a whole new level if you ask me. This game kept the arcade appeal of the Id Software titles and mixed in sniping and some of the features from the more technical and simulated shooting games. On top of the fact that they had very good internet multiplayer support, including capture the flag, and other variations on the deathmatch, it was a perfect game. The support around the world from independent developers and casual fans with programming skills also made this game better. There were mods (modifications) and an almost limitless supply of downloadable levels that always kept the action fresh.
Honorable mention – Unreal Tourney 2, Half Life
5. Ms. Pacman – Arcade
I don’t know exactly why, but Ms. Pacman is far superior to the original Pacman game in my opinion. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my orthodontist had a table top version of this game in his office that I would play while I was waiting. No matter. This game is addictive and fun. I have had a lot of fun throughout my life coming across the occasional Ms. Pacman game and more often than not, setting the highscore before leaving the bar/arcade/mall or whatever.
Honorable mention – Q*Bert
4. Contra – Nintendo
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start – This cheat code has been on the lips of video gamers the world over since this game came out. You don’t know? This is the code that gives you and your teammate a bunch of extra lives before you start a game of Contra. You compete against the game. You also try and compete against whoever you are playing with for the rapid fire and spread guns that are on each level. I can’t tell you how many times my brother and I played through this one until the end. Just too much fun.
Honorable mention – Mike Tyson’s Punchout, Tecmo Bowl, Gauntlet
3. John Madden ‘94 – Genesis
It was hard to figure out which John Madden football game to put on the list, but this is the one that sticks out in my mind because it was the unofficial year of the running backs in this version of Madden. Emmitt Smith could cross the width of the field seven times in the backfield before turning up for a big gain. This was probably the best year for the games when they were in the Genesis/Super Nintendo phases. Sure the “maddenisms” got really old and you wanted to curse your brains out when Madden would say “Quarterback can’t hold onto the ball that long” as your QB was being blitzed and ultimately driven into the ground, but overall this made for some exciting, high scoring video game shootouts.
Honorable mention – Other Madden Years, NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, Bill Walsh College Football, Double Dribble, Blades of Steel
2. Quake – PC
Before Unreal Tournament, Quake really set the world on fire with internet multiplayer. I honestly can’t remember how many people used to play simultaneously in this game, but it was one of the best online deathmatches ever. It was the best real 3d game of its time allowing people to move totally freely from bridges, to floors, to underwater areas where you could be electrocuted by the lightning gun. This game defined the first 6 months of my freshman year of college when we were awkward, lonely and before the girls our age had been properly abused by upper classmen to the point where they would give us the time of day again. (Did I get off on a tangent?) This game is also how I learned about firewalls that existed between Boston University dorm buildings. But, before we developed a social life in college, we had Quake to steal away nights on a campus without cable TV.
Honorable mention – Quake 2, Descent, Call of Duty
1. Diablo 2 – PC
My number one game of all time has to be Diablo 2. This game was addictive, had great multiplayer, had a great storyline which used cinematic sequences to keep the gamer interested, and had maps and levels that were never the same twice. It epitomizes what gaming is today. It also made good use of the Expansion Pack, which is a lower-priced expansion to an original game that comes out later. The expansion pack become standard video game stuff since Diablo 2. I think this game has given more than just the horribly un-lubricated red-eye effect that it gave me. It gave rise to these Massively Multiplayer Online worlds like Everquest, City of Heroes and Worlds of Warcraft. After my Diablo 2 addiction, I am not willing to even try playing games like those.
Honorable mention – Diablo, Crusader: No remorse, Warcraft III
So there you have it. My top ten video games of all time. I am sure I missed a lot of your favorites. Be sure to leave me your top ten list, or at least a couple of your favorites.
Opie and Anthony are Back
After being inactive for over a year now, Opie and Anthony are going to be back on radio. They have signed a deal with XM Satellite radio and will have a show Monday through Friday from 6 am to 10 am daily. That is a time slot shared by none other than Howard Stern. I don’t have XM Satellite radio, so the decision will be an easy one, but I wish I could listen to those guys. They used to make my day in the afternoons when they were on 92.3 here in Cleveland from 3 pm to 7 pm.
Then that ill-fated show, when they “encouraged” listeners to do a very explicit act in a very famous cathedral in NYC, took them off the air. I know that was a stupid thing to do, but I really miss their radio show. They were totally off the hook all the time and had some of the funniest people in the studio. Jim Norton who is a regular in the studio is one of the most grotesquely funny guys I have ever listened to.
I will never forget the one time they had a guy on the phone who ran a business that would test your significant other’s undergarments for signs that they were cheating on you. The interview was quite raunchy, but turned an ugly corner that went about 25 steps over the line. It was about one of the grossest things I have ever heard, but it typified the “nothing is sacred” style of the Opie and Anthony show. Jim Norton spoke up and asked the man on the phone if he had ever tested any underwear that had positive signs of “blood and girl scout cookies?”
The man on the phone didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I have heard some outrageous things in my day, but this was about the most shocking, ever. This is what made their show so great. You never knew what you were going to get and despite what some people say, the shock value alone was worth the listen in my point of view.
So, welcome back to radio boys. Let’s hope someone is recording the show and putting the MP3 files up on the internet so I can supplant the XM Proprietary Satellite Radio thing. I am not going to spend all that money for one show, unfortunately.
