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Accoding to Geek Coffee, Motorola iRadio is to be tested in May:
David Ulmer, the Marketing Directory of Motorola's Media Solutions Division, said the company plans to test [Motorola iRadio] in several U.S. markets in mid-May and launch nationwide in the fourth quarter.
Mac Daily News prints a few iRadio comparison facts regarding satellite radio:
"The iRadio service, which will let customers download 10 hours of content at a time, will be available at the subscription cost of about $5 to $7 a month. When not driving, customers can listen to content on a phone with a headset," Cohen reports. "By comparison, Sirius and XM charge about $13 a month for access to more than 100 channels; online music content provider Napster gets about $15 in the same period for unlimited downloads to a computer, or digital music player. Apple's iTunes music library charges about 99 cents per song."
Pocket Lint mentions iRadio here, along with an interesting phone pic, though I'm not sure if it's an actual Motorola phone or not:
According to Motorola: “the iRadio will provide Internet broadcasters with the ability to extend their services to the places where people listen to and enjoy music the most, such as in the car or while jogging.”
For a moment, I thought this 3d2f Software Directory post was about Motorola's iRadio service, but it's not. Still, it was an interesting-sounding application..!
iRadio is a new way of capturing and collecting music from radio stations over the Internet. Integrated easy search engine allows you to find favorite radio by genre or keyword, to choose bitrate and other characteristics. You can listen and record radios at the same time. iRadio receives much more information about listening track: track parameters, name, stream name, stream type, bitrate, genre etc. iRadio automatically saves every new track in a separate file with the corresponding file name.
Pretty cool. I'll probably stick with podcasts in the mean time, however.
CNET adds a little fire to the Motorola iRadio flame...a little late, perhaps?
The No. 2 maker of mobile telephones is set to unveil a service called iRadio that will let users download pre-selected audio content from a range of providers on their home computers, dump it on their cell phones and listen to it on their car stereos."
UPDATE: The CNET article displays for 4 seconds, then is redirected to an "article expired" page. Not sure why...
Deborah Cohen talks about the cost of Motorla iRadio:
iRadio requires a substantial up-front investment. A customer will initially lay out about $200 for a mid-range Motorola phone with at least 256 megabytes of storage, built in iRadio software and Bluetooth, a low-range wireless technology that streams content from the phone to the car radio or home stereo, Ulmer said.The service also requires buying a $75 wireless audio adapter that must be installed in the car radio, either by the customer or a service provider. A USB connector to hook the phone to the desktop computer comes packaged with the handset.
Hm...that's not a small amount of cash...
Gizmodo a the scoop from someone who attended the Future of Music DC Policy Conference on Motorola iRadio:
The “iradio” service is a subscription radio service, but one that is more like licensed music podcasting. from the details he gave: 1) the service is not streaming based, meaning the content will be downloaded over the internet to a computer (or other device?) and then transfered to the playback device (phone & car or home stereo); 2) it will be heavily drm’d so that individual songs from a “stream” cannot be picked out; 3) the playback device (cell phone) would stream stereo audio to other devices (eg: cell phone to car stereo) over bluetooth 1.1 (i specifically asked if this would require newer bluetooth 2.0, or even 1.2 devices, and he smiled and said no, and that they were achieving transmission speeds of over 700kbs, which he said was sufficient for stereo audio); 4) that motorola was actively looking for content streams; 5) the service would be subscription based for around $4 to $6.
Interesting news..!
Yet another MSpot article about streaming internet radio to cell phones. Motorola iRadio is mentioned again:
Companies like Motorola also want a piece of the mobile radio action, and recently announced plans for its iRadio service.
The Tennessean wrote about the many ways in which the music and technology industry is trying to monetize music via wireless channels.
Motorola iRadio was mentioned:
Motorola is ready to launch a cell phone that is compatible with iTunes and has a partnership with MTV. Later this year, the phone manufacturer will launch iRadio, which technology guru Ken Rutkowski describes as the ''coolest and most practical'' service to come out of January's Consumer Electronics Show.It's a software application that can download 10 hours of customer selects, including music, news programs, weather, traffic and video to a cellular phone, then transmits that content wirelessly through a car radio or home or office stereo.
"We have phenomenal levels of programming coming," he said.
"There's money to be made and consumers are willing to pay it. Labels and artists now have an opportunity to deliver radio content to consumers who most want to hear their type of music. They've already told us, 'I want stuff that appeals to my lifestyle.'"
An article about MSpot Radio, a service that will offer 13 internet radio stations to Spring PCS subscribers, mentions Motorola iRadio:
The market for Internet radio delivered via mobile devices appears to be heating up. Recently, Motorola announced a new service, iRadio, which allows users to record Internet radio streams on their PCs and play them over their phones.
The competitive landscape expands...
