A few months ago, someone broke into my car and stole my Delphi Roady, which is a satellite radio receiver from XM Radio. I'm sure the radio was quickly converted into crystal meth, but the poor sap who ended up with what looked like a really cheap satellite radio was in for a shock: I'd called XM and had them cancel the subscription.
Of course the supply chain among traffickers of stolen goods doesn't include consumer warnings, so the final owner must have been surprised when the radio didn't work. Each radio has a unique identifier and if that identifier is reported stolen, it can be blocked forever from communicating with the satellite.
That satisfied my sense of revenge, but I was still out of radio.
The answer: Take it with you when you leave the car. Remove the magnet for the pharmaceutically challenged and other villains.
But what a nuisance.
They don't call it a Roady for nothing
Another factor in enjoying satellite radio on the road is the length of your daily commute. I live downtown, with a 25-minute commute. Certainly not enough time to justify dismantling the radio from its wires and moorings every time I get out of the car.
Others drive longer. On Sept. 7, the makers of Saturn cars staged a self-promotional rally to see which Toronto exurb has the longest time for a 60-km commute: Burlington, Newmarket or Whitby. Newmarket won with a commute that lasted one hour, 37 minutes and 21 seconds. People with commutes like that are more likely to enjoy the satellite broadcasts.
Long trips of several hundred kilometres are satellite-radio friendly too, unless one has good company. In a car one either talks or listens to the radio, but I find it difficult to do both. And that leaves the lonely traveller as the ideal customer.
But these drivers still have to remove the outboard radio when they arrive and when they get home (my car was burgled in my own carport, behind my house). And there's no guarantee that an in-dash system won't get stolen either.
I had a Sirius issue — suction
I replaced my XM Roady with a Sirius StarMate, fastened the suction cup to the windscreen and was ready to roll. But I soon tired of removing the radio every morning and night, and bought the home setup kit, which includes a metal stand, an AC power adapter and a separate antenna. I had to supply my own speakers.
The radio's been in the house pretty much since the spring.
My interest in satellite radio is strong. I tired of listening to MP3 files downloaded from Kazaa long before the industry shut the system down; I concluded that having my own library was very nice, but I still needed some surprises, and satellite radio promised me a range of music that keeps introducing me to new artists as well as old ones I'd forgotten. I get much more satisfaction from satellite radio than from my MP3 collection.
So a combination of radio and MP3 player sounds like a good idea, and XM's Inno, made by Pioneer Electronics, seeks to fill that gap.
Portable, good-looking and with a place to rest
The Inno is a sexy little box (5.5 cm by 9.5 cm, 1.5 cm thick), all black brushed chrome and glass, and the four simple controls on the front are outlined in a cool, soft blue-grey light that makes it easy to operate in the dark. It's about as big as an older iPod, meaning you can take it anywhere, and it's about as simple to operate. Full marks there. There's a stubby 2-cm antenna sticking out the top, and a connector for the included long antenna as well.
