Sirius CEO reveals portable receiver/DAP

While XM is already offering its customers live feeds on-the-go through the well-received Pioneer Inno and Samsung Helix, rival Sirius has been rather slow to the starting gate in this department, as its flagship S50 portable only plays back content that was recorded while it was docked. Now, however, it looks like Sirius is finally on the verge of releasing its first DAP with built-in satellite receiver, and Tech Effect even managed to snap a picture of the device when CEO Mel Karmazin briefly flashed it during his keynote at this week's Convergence 2.0 conference. Unfortunately Mel only broke out the chunky-looking player to illustrate a point he was making about the iPod ("I wish it didn't exist," he said, probably only half-jokingly), so all that's known about this unit is its size and the fact that it sports a headphone jack. Still, Mel promises that he'll have the product in stores by the end of the summer, and since it's reportedly in the midst of beta testing, we're expecting to see some leaked specs and photos sooner rather than later -- much sooner if any of you testers would be so kind as to drop us a line.

[Bobo @ Jun 29th 2006 7:08PM]

It's so sleek and stealthy... like a cement brick is sleek and stealthy.

[rollupp @ Jun 29th 2006 8:11PM]

It looks like an icecream sandwich. No thanks Sirius.

[Aaron @ Jun 29th 2006 8:23PM]

Maybe you should take into consideration that its still in BETA....sheesh...I'm doubting what you see in his hand is the final size/style. Plus, most live portables by XM aren't all too tiny, either. I'd expect a nicer looking pic of it later down the line as we near the date. Take what you see here as a treat, but don't consider it to be the end product.

[Pete_L_P @ Jun 29th 2006 8:37PM]

If he's promising to ship this product by the end of the summer, there's clearly no time to be changing the products size and shape.

It's certainly not very trim or appealing. It doesn't look like it will fit into your pants pocket, never mind a shirt pocket.

Pete

[Droo @ Jun 29th 2006 8:49PM]

Car manuacturers obscure the identity, etc. of cars for testing all the time.. This could be the guts in a generic casing so he can have it out and about as well as so people can get feedback.

If I recall they did similar with the Xbox360, had different models for in public so people couldnt' properly jump to conclusions.

I'll wait to see until it comes out.

--D

[MrSoprano @ Jun 29th 2006 8:56PM]

They are a little late. Been streaming music on the go from Sirius on my new Motorola Q Smartphone. Works great and is free!

[IK @ Jun 29th 2006 9:07PM]

LIES LIES LIES

thats the nintendo wiimote!

[Joe C. @ Jun 29th 2006 9:53PM]

Great have got my S50 on the 13th of this month. I tell you this much it lags behind much of the main stream in terms of use the interface is clunky and the program to load your songs on blows. I wonder if this one will be an imporvement.

[Opie and Anthony @ Jun 29th 2006 9:57PM]

I can't wait for this, Sirius is way better than XM!!

[anon @ Jun 29th 2006 11:09PM]

XM has had something half that size for almost 2 years now.

[Jim Norton @ Jun 30th 2006 12:37AM]

Yeah, man, that Sirius. Boy do they have it.

[ChillyWilly @ Jun 30th 2006 12:55AM]

I'm ready for one. It will be nice to have when riding my scooter around town. It won't replace the iPods, but it will still be a nice addition for listening to Sirius programming.

[Tussel @ Jun 30th 2006 12:57AM]

Please. You thought XM reception was bad, they have 4 times the amount of ground repeaters Sirius has. This thing is a flop just waiting to happen (remember the S50?). Sirius should have used the 600+ Million dollars on in house design and technicians. Who is making this thing? Xact? RCA? Sirius is that ugly red haired step child nobody cared about now that Stern isnt around to whore it to the masses.

[Droo @ Jun 30th 2006 1:45AM]

Sirius is using Wistron to develop their nextgen product. They made the Starmate, Starmate Replay, Sanyo CRSR-10, etc.

Tussel, your bias is about a 10, needs to be about a 2. We get it, it's obvious over on Orbitcast too.

--D

[Rishard Chapoteau @ Jun 30th 2006 3:41AM]

The thing I'm most shocked about is the supposed end of summer release. Before the S50 shipped, didn't we see what it looked like well before its release? Maybe its just my bad memory. I just don't see it coming out in 2 or 3 months.

[marshak @ Jun 30th 2006 4:37AM]

looks like a bar or isoap.

[TZK @ Jun 30th 2006 6:11AM]

Who gives a shit what it looks like - what are you going to do? get the XM model? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhAhAhHAhahahahAhAHha........

XM SUCKS. They lost all their weight, and are annorexic too. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA PUUKEEEE

[Scott @ Jun 30th 2006 7:23AM]

If the reception is decent, if the battery life is acceptable, if the features are there, and if it doesn't get really hot, then the size of the thing in Mel's hand is fine with me. Wait, that didn't sound quite right...

[Frank the Frowner @ Jun 30th 2006 9:32AM]

I once read somewhere that it it takes more muscles to hold the new Sirius portable unit then the XM portable unit.

[bluedawgtt @ Jun 30th 2006 10:24AM]

Tussel, you realize why XM has 4x the cellular repeaters right? Their satellites are hovering about South America beaming info at a severe angle. Think mountains. I had XM for two years from their launch date and had terrible reception when going through tall trees or the Cascade mountains. Sirius satellites are directly above the United States broadcasting downward. Problem solved.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jun 30th 2006 10:51AM]

YES! I have it on good authority that it is in fact a MULE and NOT FINAL HARDWARE.

[STEPHEN C @ Jun 30th 2006 11:53AM]

Streaming Sirius on Motorola Q? How is it done? I tried using the Pocket Internet Explorer to log in, but could not get it to display the channels. Thanks!

[iband @ Jun 30th 2006 12:02PM]

bluedawgtt - Sirius suffers from reception problems, especially in the home (just visit siriusbackstage.com). Now Sirius will launch a new sat that will be stationary (ala XM) and add many more repeaters to help with its signal problems.

[flamer's grill @ Jul 1st 2006 4:13PM]

Jim Norton reads engadget?!? Awesome!

I have XM and have been toying with the idea of getting one of their portable thingies, but I really think I am just gonna invest in a PPC-6700 and stream xm over ev-do. $299 for the 6700 and the reception is probably better.

[ET @ Jul 2nd 2006 12:57AM]

StevenC. Try SiriusCE. I use it to listen to Stern and Sirius on my 6700 every day:

http://www.emulamer.com/SiriuCE.html
(It's free)

After reading the posts in this thread, it's clear that news such as this (Sirius vs. XM, Microsoft vs. Apple, etc) are why comments on Engadget get periodocally disabled.

Kids, you might want to ask your mommy if posts like that are appropriate. If you aren't a kid, then I hope you realize how ghey you sound. Who frickin cares. I have both Sirius and XM, and much prefer Sirius. So what?

Anyhow, looking forward to the portable (even though with SiriusCE and my PPC-6700, I really don't need a portable).