Griffin RadioShark
What I have wanted for some time is TiVo for the radio. The Griffin RadioSHARK is it. It's a $70 USB device that plays, pauses, and records live radio on a Mac or PC.
I want the convenience of being able to listen my favorite shows on my own schedule. If I get interrupted, I want to be able to pause the program. More than that, I want to be able to schedule recordings in advance, and I want to listen to them on my iPod. The RadioSHARK obliges.
I kept expecting something to go wrong, but nothing did. Setup was a snap, and reception was good. As I was going away for the weekend, I programmed it to record "Prairie Home Companion" and "This American Life", two of my favorite shows. When I came back, there they were. There is even an option to add a scheduled recording to an ITunes playlist, so as soon as I synched my iPod, I could take them with me.
One nit: You have to enter the date, time, station, and duration manually as there is no integrated program guide (though there is one you can get online at RadioTime.)
-- Mitch Kapor
RadioShark
$63
Available from
Amazon
Manufactured by Griffin
Favorite (15)
Laral
I own the now defunct Griffin RocketFM. I ordered it knowing full well that the transmission range was abysmal and that I would have to mod it to get even marginal reception. The output power is too low. That's no doubt why Griffin was selling the $40 unit for $17 including shipping. After installing a simple 1/4 wave wire antenna to the unit it works OK. At least I can play music and internet radio on my garage radio through the kitchen wall. You really have to find a dead frequency though because any broadcast signal interferes. Sometimes your chosen frequency gets encroached upon and you have to go through the very tedious process of finding a new one and retuning the transmitter. Sometimes a seemingly dead frequency suddenly appears not to be dead when you retune the Rocket. The included software, though buggy, at least makes tuning easy. I see that the Shark suffers from the same low power problem: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B0001WW3F2/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar . Probably same kludgy solution. Just wait a bit and the price will come down.