This is the portable radio that’s supposed to rescue HD Radio from obscurity. It was showed off at last week’s CES, but since its name wasn’t the Palm Pre no one gave a damn.
It’s the KRI Armband Portable HD Radio Player, and, as the name suggests, it’s a portable HD radio. (Remember, the “HD” in “HD Radio” doesn’t stand for “high definition,” but is merely a marketing device that aims to piggyback on the success of HDTV.) There’s also a built-in MicroSD slot, nominally making it an MP3 player, too.
Orbitcast, a fine, fine site, says that it also has some sort of over-the-air recording capability. Will the RIAA freak out like they did two years ago with the Samsung Helix and Pioneer Inno? Donna wants to know.
In other radio news, my household has been chosen to be a part of Nielsen radio’s stat-tracking thing. (I received the initial “you’ll be getting a giant packaged with official Nielsen materials shortly” yesterday.) The notebook will be filled out thusly: Opie and Anthony, Monday-Friday, 6am-9am, 92.3FM; every other entry will show that, nope, this household is not listening to that drivel known as terrestrial radio. Please plan your business accordingly.
If one looks at the pictures in the Orbitcast article, notice the size of the power cord, and the thickness of the device – deceptive. HD chips draw at least 200mw and the chipset is 1″ x 1.2″ x a few millimeters deep. Not even practical.
Nicholas, if you want, tell Neilsen that your notebook represents two households and put me down for a “ditto”