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XM Satellite Radio's MyFi: iPod Killer or Not? Chris Amos, 08.03.05 In retrospect, it was probably inevitable. But twenty years ago, who would’ve thought that the personal portable cassette player known as the Walkman would spawn the flood of portable music players that so many of us can’t live without today. The XM Satellite Radio MyFi is one of the latest iterations as well as one of the more capable devices we’ve seen in a long time. The XM MyFi is the first fully portable satellite music player available. Previous compact satellite players functioned only when hooked up to a base or docking station. This relegated them to use only in vehicles or at home, and required cumbersome additional equipment including a rat’s nest of wires and plugs. To the contrary, the MyFi can be plugged up directly without a docking station, charged and taken with you anywhere, just like competing MP3 players and Discmans. Another revolutionary and convenient feature of the MyFi is that it offers two distinct play modes. In “Live” mode, you can listen to XM programming straight up, as the broadcast occurs. But, as those with satellite TV service can attest to, you always need a clear signal to have reception. This can be affected by anything from pulling into a gas station to driving through a heavily tree-lined street. And there’s nothing worse than getting cut off at “H to the izzo-” in the middle of a Jay-Z song. In “Memory” mode, you can record up to five hours of programming and then play it back at your leisure. By pressing the “2Go” button, you can record current programming or you can set your MyFi to record a specific channel at a later date. This is a great feature, made even better by the ability to pause, fast forward, rewind and repeat your recording, just like an MP3 player can. It took some time to get used to the controls on the MyFi. A central directional keypad is used to navigate between functions and I often found myself either choosing a function I didn’t want or changing stations inadvertently. The unit’s lockout feature prevents this. You can pre-program up to twenty of your favorite songs, which the MyFi constantly scans for. You can also program as many as thirty of XM’s 200-plus channels into your MyFi. Certainly, the iPod has spoiled all of us and set a high bar in terms of convenience and ease of use, but how small is small enough? The XM MyFi is substantial, but is not overly heavy to carry around. Besides, its bright silver case looks slick and will inevitably draw comments like, “What is that you’re listening to?” The MyFi’s pricetag is fairly steep – about $300 – but includes just about everything you’ll need to enjoy XM programming in a myriad of environments, like a remote control, headphones, cables and mounting brackets. Signal strength in the home environment was good, but you should use the supplied external antenna for optimum signal strength. When used in the vehicle, reception was sometimes erratic, but overall it was good. Again, the supplied magnetic mount external antenna should be used for long term installations. The unit can be set to broadcast through any unused FM station (FM modulation) on your home or car stereo, or you can utilize the unit’s “out” jack to transmit directly into a stereo auxiliary jack or through an in-car cassette adapter. Like cell phone users who choose one carrier or network over another, I am more compelled to purchase audio or video entertainment devices based less on the device itself and more on the content it plays. My biggest gripe with the MyFi was not with the unit itself, but the programming that it broadcasts. Surprising to most, all satellite radio outlets utilize play lists, just like commercial radio, the key difference being that satellite radio is mostly commercial free. With XM, however, the content felt too generic on its urban stations. The old school R&B and Hip Hop channels (The Rhyme) didn’t seem to delve deep into the crates for their content, settling instead for “Rapper’s Delight”, “Hip-Hop Hooray”, Cheryl Lynn’s “Got to Be Real” and multiple plays of the Gap Band’s “Outstanding.” Overall, I was impressed by the MyFi’s functionality, looks and versatility. If XM and Delphi, its manufacturer, added a memory card slot to allow playing of recorded MP3 content, they might have the first legitimate iPod killer.