Radio - TNG

Stop the presses! Torian has released the Infusion portable internet radio, which just might be (sorry, Neo) The One!

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The first check I got from my first summer job when I was a teenager was used to purchase a portable transistor radio. The job -- picking fruit -- left me pretty much isolated all day, and having the radio in my pocket killed the boredom and kept me in touch with my favorite music. Back then there were a few regional stations and even some which, once the sun went down, covered half the country, but almost all broadcasting at the time was local, cutting to network only for national and world news.

Fast-forward to 2005; regular radio has been homogenized, reduced to a few networks and a few genres, with most stations so similar in sound and format that even regular listeners sometimes need to hear the station identification to know which one they're hearing. There can be little doubt the death of "real" radio is a significant factor behind the tremendous growth of the market for iPods and other portable devices, and the success of the iPod Shuffle, which gives the user almost no control over the way recorded selections are played, negates the claim that portable MP3 players are merely a way to carry the living room stereo into the street -- people want something more than cookie-cutter programming.

Companies like Sirius and XM have tried to fill this demand with satellite radio services, but the cost of doing so has simply added a few more big corporate types to the still-small list of those who decide what you'll hear.

For those who have discovered internet radio, the situation is entirely different. Live365, Shoutcast and others offer both tremendous variety and pinpoint focus with stations for everything from fringe politics and old-time radio to indie music the networks won't play for months, if ever. But internet radio only works where you've got a computer and an internet connection . . . until now.

Several companies have brought devices to market which combine internet radio and portability; Linksys has achieved moderate success with its tabletop portable which connects via WiFi (802.11b/g) networks, and Massachusetts development company Ressen is poised to introduce a pocket-sized WiFi portable it calls the Radeo, which appears to have the potential to finally replace that old pocket transistor radio, at least wherever WiFi access is available. For me, that would be a good start.

Do you listen to internet radio? Would you listen more if you could carry it with you in the backyard, to the coffee shop, etc.? If you've tried any of the "internet appliance"-style internet radios, I'd like to hear your comments!