Okay, I've never bought into the Satellite radio thing... until now.  Sirius partnered with world reknowned design firm, Ziba to create a one of a kind portable satellite tuner and recorder with support for MP3 and WMA all rolled into one called the Sirius S50, slated for release on 10/31 with a $359.99 SRP.

See, I'm a closet "Howard Stern" fan. Growing up in the Tri-State NY metro area, I listened to Howard in high school and was happy to rekindle the relationship when his syndicated show came to the Seattle area a few years ago.  Now he's leaving the regular airwaves and frankly, sports isn't enough of a reason to get me to satellite.  But neither is Howard- I want a device that lets me record radio and more.

Call it podcasting via satellite- the device doesn't include a satellite receiver in it- it can compress up to 1GB (50 hours) of radio broadcasting you can listen to when, where, and how you want to.  BusinessWeek called it, "Radical" in a recent study on the creation of the device.

What is?  The one-two punch of my Creative Zen Micro's audio plug crapping out after too many flights shoved into my bag, and a strong desire for CD-quality radio in my Toyota Prius (that is before the engine cuts out on the highway, but so far, so good. 

If this thing supports subscription Windows Media content such as Yahoo Music Unlimited (sorry Napster- your personalization stinks in comparison), I'm set and have approval from the wife for two in-car mounts- hers and mine.

Damn, that's a lot of product links, and I don't even get compensation for them.  Anyone wants to give me a Sirius S50 for extended eval (or any other digital media gadget) let me know :).

Finally, someone gets the memo- stop trying to copy the Cupertinos and do something unique.

Image courtesy of OrbitCast.com