SD Pocket Radio Now Available

Posted By: Ryan Sunday, August 31, 2003 5:33:36 PM

iBIZ has begun shipping first Secure Digital Expansion Card (SD), FM radio for the Palm OS. The Pocket Radio enables a standard PDA with an SD expansion slot to tune into FM radio stations.

The SD Pocket Radio can receive FM Stereo Radio, (Frequency Range: 88Mhz - 108Mhz),and features, Auto Scan/Auto Memory Presets, Soft Mute and Volume adjust and includes Stereo Earphones.

The software provides up to eighteen different preset stations, search and seek functions allow the user to tune to a desired frequency/station and then hold down one of the preset buttons to set a station into one of the presets. It also has the ability to output the signal to either headphones or external speakers. The SD Pocket Radio is multitasking so users can perform other PDA functions while the music plays on.

iBiz SD Pocket RadioIt is compatible with the Palm m125, m130, m500, m505, m515, i705, Tungsten T, Tungsten T2, Tungsten W and Handspring Treo 90 (with Handspring SDIO patch installed). It retails for $49.99 USD.

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Cool, but useless

trophyofgrace @ 8/31/2003 7:01:33 PM #
First comment!

This is a cool device, but who would need it? Companies give out those little radio's the size of a potato chip every day at expo's.

---
Tyler Puckett
Palm m505 and m125.
64MB SanDisk SD Card

RE: Cool, but useless
useybird @ 8/31/2003 7:46:15 PM #
I heard this radio uses RDS to tell you not only the frequency, but the call letters and type of programming too.

-------------------------------
Microsoft is the root of all evil.
Right, Bill?
RE: Cool, but useless
PFloyd @ 8/31/2003 11:48:36 PM #
RDS would be quite cool but there's no mention of it on the site and nothing in the sample screen to indicate RDS.

RE: Cool, but useless
Take1 @ 9/2/2003 12:10:03 AM #
How about an .mp3 player something like this radio (separate audio chip/jack to avoid the anemic, flat audio on the Palm) with a CF II slot that connects to the universal connector instead of sucking up the SD slot? Add a built in rechargeable battery and a charge pass through(so both the Palm and the .mp3 player can charge at the same time).

Heck, how about putting in a separate DSP chip like sony and make it a super iPod like device with super audio/video capabilities. The Palm would only be used to display the audio/video software and render the video.

If it can be made thin enough (i.e., not an iPaq sled sized monstrosity) and be priced at around $150 - $200.

Slightly expensive

TTrules @ 8/31/2003 7:01:39 PM #
First comment! This radio looks realatively cool, but I don't think that I want to pay $50 for it.

One palm to rule them all!

-Sniffer

RE: Slightly expensive
TTrules @ 8/31/2003 7:03:53 PM #
OK, nevermind. Not first comment.

RE: Slightly expensive
trophyofgrace @ 8/31/2003 7:11:56 PM #
I agree. It's expensive. I believe this same company made the same thing for the Visor. It too was expensive. This is a total waste of your SD slot if you ask me. A novelty item that won't last.

They have those little radio's for like $5 at Wally World, or pick them up for free at any major expo as I said, FREE.

---
Tyler Puckett
Palm m505 and m125.
64MB SanDisk SD Card

RE: Slightly expensive
I.M Anonymous @ 8/31/2003 7:14:22 PM #
And the SD interface is used mostly for power. If you could listen to the radio over the PDAs speakers and record on the PDA, it might make it worth it.

RE: Slightly expensive
bobes @ 9/1/2003 5:02:34 AM #
definitely too expensive... I'll just stick with the radio on my mobile :)
RE: Slightly expensive
Altema @ 9/2/2003 12:45:07 PM #
I had thought this would be neat for a day at the park, as it would be smaller than a portable. However, here I am staring at a handheld radio with FM, AM, cassette, and 3 band equalizer... for $5.

Too much convergence

rcartwright @ 8/31/2003 7:14:32 PM #
I know its a serious product, but I swear that this sounds like something that the PHB (pointy haired boss) would order Dilbert to design. I think I prefer a seperate radio with seperate power.

Life is a great adventure or nothing.

Interesting Accessory

ozz @ 8/31/2003 7:16:47 PM #
I can see where this would be a cool accessory if you were killing some time and wanted to listen to the radio but 1) you would have to be carrying the SD Radio Card with you for impromptu use and where would you carry the SD card...in your pocket? ....in your backpack? It could get broken easily. 2) the obvious question left out of the story is battery life. Wouldn't this drain the battery pretty fast? My guess is it would.

_________________________
Lord, help me become the person my dog thinks I am!
RE: Interesting Accessory
MarcosV @ 9/1/2003 12:26:07 AM #

If you ask me, I think an AM/FM tuner built into a Palm device would be a great addition.

OK, nobody asked me.. but still

If you do a lot of flying, you would know it can get quite booring sitting in an airport terminal for the better part of a day. Yeah, you can play MP3's but that requires a lot of storage and preparation to copy over the musinc for the trip. It's also quite taxing on the CPU. With a radio built in thoug, you could listen to endless music as well as up to dat news and talk shows whle you do other stuff on your PDA.
If integrated, it could also utilize the headphone jack and speaker on the device. Battery wise, it would be much much less than play MP3's since the CPU itself would ahve almost no work to do.

They are already jamming all kinds of other features in PDA's now.. why not?

What the hey? go for broke ;)

As for this product, obviously I like it, but will probably wiat for a price drop before grabbing one..

Marcos


RE: Interesting Accessory
Stefan D. @ 9/1/2003 9:18:10 AM #
Hello!

I would like to use an integrated FM/AM-radio or a combination of radio and memory card. A radio only SD-Card is not tempting for me until it costs only 15 € / 15 $.

With kind regards



With regards

Stefan D. from Mannheim, Germany

AM & TV, not FM

drw @ 9/1/2003 12:48:16 AM #
Music does nothing for me. How about AM talk radio or a broadcast SD TV tuner? Or even police scanner. Anything but FM (uhg).

---
David
RE: AM & TV, not FM
hkklife @ 9/1/2003 10:20:27 AM #
For me to even begin to consider someting like this more than an overpriced novelty, it'd have to have:

-multiple bands supported(Am,FM,Weather Band& TV sound)
-RDS-capable (not hugely supported here in the USA, I know, but it'd be useful for Europe)
-Built-in memory (at least 2mb) so that radio broadcasts could be recorded. mp3 encoding/aeroplayer & pocket tunes integration would be a huge bonus but highly unlikely.
-Pass-thru capabilities to output all T|T or Z71 (for example) audio at a reasonably loud volume with good sound quality-unlike these models' built-in headphone amps!

Until then, I'll just stick with my little Aiwa pocket radio that lasts forever on a single AA battery!



Great! A $ 600 radio to replace a $ 10 radio!

lechter @ 9/1/2003 1:28:05 AM #
How 'bout a GPS?

Zire 71 Support Coming Soon

rexracer @ 9/1/2003 3:09:29 AM #
I'm getting one but the Zire 71 supported one is coming out around mid-September. That's what I was told by Ibiz.


RE: Zire 71 Support Coming Soon
asiayeah @ 9/1/2003 5:10:56 AM #
It would be more interesting if the next Zire 71 has built-in AM/FM radio, which allows radio recordings. Let's see who's going to make the first PDA with built-in AM/FM.

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

Tivo style recoding

petew @ 9/1/2003 8:32:04 AM #
That'd be good, being able to schedlue a unattended recording.

Spin-off idea...

Strider_mt2k @ 9/1/2003 8:56:00 AM #
This would be an extremely cool form factor for a scanner or world-band radio as well.
I could see some great Amateur Radio interface potential there too.

It's funny to think about a "long wire" antenna or some fancy array terminating at one's handheld.

73 DE N2NLQ


It doesn't even use the existing headphone jack?

JonAcheson @ 9/1/2003 1:28:05 PM #
From the looks of it, it has a second headphone jack built into the radio card. So, I'd have to switch jacks to switch between FM radio and MP3?

That's kind of clunky. Why not use the jack built into the device? It would have made the radio plug-in smaller and cheaper. And it needs to be much cheaper. As it is, FM radio isn't worth $50 to me.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

RE: It doesn't even use the existing headphone jack?
seanhennessy @ 9/1/2003 2:05:14 PM #
Exactly. So far as I can see this thing is barely integrated into the device. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to make recordings of what you're listening to? Well tough, you can't. The SD slot is for power and basic controls, nothing more.

Really this offers nothing that couldn't be better done at half the price with a separate unit. An opportunity missed, if you ask me.

Seán

RE: It doesn't even use the existing headphone jack?
vjrequena @ 9/1/2003 2:47:13 PM #
NOt all the plam have headphone jack.

Think of that

RE: It doesn't even use the existing headphone jack?
helf @ 9/2/2003 12:04:43 PM #
Why would you want to use this anyways? It sucks your palms batts and takes up your otherwise useful sd slot. You'd be better off buying a little 10bucks am/fm radio.. I have one thats abotu the same size as that sd card and runs for ages on one AAA :)

RE: It doesn't even use the existing headphone jack?
asiayeah @ 9/2/2003 12:51:09 PM #
The FM radio would need to have some form of antennas, usually the use the wire of the headsets for this purpose.

One reason they choose to have their own audio jack, is that they cannot reuse the existing audio jack for the antenna usage.

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

FM only?

arielb @ 9/1/2003 2:28:25 PM #
is this just a typo? No AM? useless without AM radio-can't listen to the news or anything

RE: FM only?
Strider_mt2k @ 9/1/2003 4:07:20 PM #
AM is hellaciously difficult to both miniaturize and make free of the radio noise digital devices generate.

It would be nice though.

What about the Kyocera 7135?

jonecool @ 9/1/2003 8:12:08 PM #
Anyone know if this will work with the Kyocera 7135? The latest Update from Verizon now supports true SDIO (supposedly). I just had mine upgraded to MZ1.0.44, I think it may work with the radio but I'm not sure...

Any info would be appreciated!



FM Radio... ick

gizmo3x @ 9/2/2003 3:48:01 PM #
If there was a device that would let me play XM radio through my Palm I'd be interested... but FM?? That just seems pointless to me.

Packet Radio?

timepilot84 @ 9/2/2003 11:11:15 PM #
When I first saw the headline, I thought it said SD Packet Radio Now Available and the nerd in me did a little back flip. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Won't fit Treo 600

marykb @ 3/2/2004 7:51:55 PM #
The card won't fit the slot next to the stub antenna.
Any other FM radio card options?

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