XM is not doing the inno any favors with the lack of proper advertising becuase in my mind the inno is better than the ip’oo’d.

Once you have listened to XM radio you will not be able to listen to FM or even HD radio ever again.

Do yourself a favor and get one if you do not have one already. I bought two of them for just over $200.00 and both of them came with the home kit and one of them came with car kit so I have all bases covered and I would recommend getting the car kit if you get anything because the base for the car kit enables the FM transmitter that allows you to listen to the inno on ANY FM radio station.

The greatest features of the inno that I use all the time are:

Record – Hit the XM button in the center of the d-pad and it records the channel or the song starting from the beginning of the song as long as you were on the channel when the song started and the song has not been playing for more than 10 minutes.

Schedule Record – You can also set up time frames to record a specific channel so if your talk show starts before you get up it will automatically record during the time you set up.

TuneSelect – You hit the center button then down and you are able to tuneselect the artist or the song. This will tell the inno to alert you any time the song or artist is playing on any channel. I end up bouncing around to different channels all day long with this feature.

Terrestrial antenna – I was pleasantly suprised I was able to listen to my inno at my desk where there are no windows at all. Lucky I work downtown in a major city.

Audible.com – After signing up there I am able to listen to audiobooks and archived talkshows.

Napster – I was a Napster subscriber before I was an XM subscriber. Napster is a great companion for the inno to manage the songs and playlists on the inno. You are also able to associate your XM radio ID with Napster to listen the XM anywhere you have an internet connection through the Napster application. I just wish that XM and Napster would allow the Napster to go feature of Napster for the inno.

The Stiletto also has some other nice features — Internet streaming over WiFi (including high quality streams for a couple dollars per month extra), better options for timed recording for example — but the inno still wins on portability, battery life, and usability of portable reception without an external antenna. Hopefully the merger will encourage Sirius and XM to combine the best features of their respective devices soon

–Rob

Yes, that would be a solution that I could try. Or I could just get a magnetic antenna for the hood of my car

I’ve been recording Hearts of Space on 77, This American Life on 133, Echoes (2 hours of groovy contemporary music) on 133. Inno … it’s Tivo for your XM channels! If you just set it to record some channel you like, then switch to My Music mode, Find -> By Recording Session (or Channel) -> pick the one you like … you’re in business, uninterrupted music for the drive.

Catch is … the Inno has to be cradled to do a scheduled recording. Or you have to manually record while listening (in which you’ve already heard the stuff once, unless switch to another music source).

I have a few minor complaints (in my review on Amazon), but have found a few workarounds which prevented me having to buy a car kit or 2nd home dock kit. A “PDA stand” from my Think Outside Bluetooth keyboard holds the Inno up at a perfect angle. Using a 2nd AC adapter and the adapter dongle, it can sit at my desk and power some Bose Mediamate speakers or Triport headphones just danndy.

The little remote that comes with the home dock … also works with the handheld unit! Whoever thought of that deserves an extra week’s vacation.

The complaint that it doesn’t work with Mac … is limited to the included software, which you oughtn’t really need. I’ve hooked my Inno to Windows XP and Linux (RHEL 5), both have mounted the drive and allowed me to add my own music. Works like a charm.

I don’t have the car kit (my pre-owned Acura came with an XM radio, and 3 months free service, which is what got me hooked), so a car charger was of interest, too. Solution: I have a 12 VDC car -to- USB port adapter PDAPanache.com sold me for a Cassiopeia E125 years ago, it works with the Inno’s USB cable and charges it. Not as elegant as a myradiostore.com charger, but if you have other USB-powered gadgets you might want to charge in your auto….

For car chargers, try http://myradiostore.com/ … they have a lot of individual accessories for sat radio, and probably have power adapters. It’s also worth noting that the Sirius power adapter for their current home docks works with the Inno, so perhaps the car adapters do as well.

Just as a further comment, I’ve been walking around with both the Inno and a Sirius Stiletto for a week or so and at least where I am — Birmingham, AL — the Inno wins the portability contest hands down due to XM’s far superior repeater coverage. I’ll probably have more to say aboiut that when I review the Stiletto (whenever that is

–Rob

http://www.myradiostore.com/power-accessories/inno-helix-power/myfi-car-power-adapter.html

I, too, have one of these. Purchased a refurbished model (WARNING: Refurbished models are NOT eligible for the rebate, a fact I found out the hard way), and it’s been good…mostly.

My first unit had a problem with the battery retaining its charge after a few months. If I fully charged the unit and left it off the base overnight, I’d lose the charge by morning! Sent it back to the vendor and they had to give me another refurbished unit.

Still, having said that, I love my Inno! Great reception, even indoors (living in one of those major cities like Rob said, with the terrestrial repeaters), great sound and well worth getting, especially if you like variety.

Terrestrial stations around here are…limited…so the choices XM offers is greatly appreciated.

One thing…if anyone out there has one of these, I do have a question. I’d like to get a car charger, but I don’t want the whole car kit. Any suggestions?

Problems that I noticed for me with this configuration… My drive into work in the mornings takes approximately 20 minutes. About 1/3 of that time, both sides of the road I travel is lined with high trees. Every morning I lose the XM signal repeatedly as I drive to work. Once I get in town, it’s not much of an issue unless I’m driving North. When I drive in that direction, the built in antenna does not have a good view of the sky, so the signal drops out. I know if I had a car kit, this would not be an issue because I’d have a magnetic antenna fixed to the top of my roof. But I opted not to go that route.

Another prob I notice is that if the receiver drops signal for too long, when it does pick the signal back up again, it automatically switches back to the default open channel that radios are set to before activation. This is very annoying because I’ll be driving and it’s not too easy to keep your eyes on the road and fumble through channels at the same time. :confused:

I’ve also noticed that signal drop outs cause the battery life to greatly suffer. I’m guessing that it takes way more juice to search for a signal, than to just use an existing signal. For that fact, I’m luckly if I get 1hr of total usage from a full charge. Pretty bad huh?

Although I like the inno form factor and idea, I don’t use it much anymore because the signal cuts out too many times on my drive. I know it’s my fault for not installing a car kit… That’s something I should definitely consider doing if I intend to keep the inno.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/pioneer_inno_portable_xm_radio

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