HD Radio on the Zune!

SiPortIC has made a breakthrough in the realm of HD Radio portability. Their single chip Digital Broadcast Receiver now offers HD capability. That chip makes the Zune HD Radio the lowest power device in the running.

Here are SiPortIC’s comments from their press release:

“SiPort perfected the HD Radio solution for portable devices and made the upgrade from analog FM to HD possible, especially for devices that have tremendous constraints in power, form factor and performance,” said Aiman Kabakibo, CEO SiPort. “SiPort worked very closely with Microsoft to address
these challenges and enable Zune HD users to enjoy the rich new digital content of HD radio without compromising battery life, form factor, and cost.”

The chip with the lowest power consumption for its size is a coup for any in the mobile arena. As we all know, the “special features” of our mobile devices generally suck a lot of battery life. Anything that lessens that effect while creating new capabilities is a sought after prize.

Here is another piece from the same source, addressing the obvious importance of this breakthrough for HD adoption:

“HD Radio is a key differentiator for Zune HD that improves Zune’s FM radio functionality and adds new sources of music programming and information,” said Susan Kevorkian, Program Director with IDC’s Digital Marketplace: Mobile Media and Entertainment service. “This is important because we know from our survey research that more than a third of U.S. survey respondents identify FM radio as their preferred source of music, making it by far the most popular source of music overall. Yet a key gating factor to consumer adoption of HD Radio -until now – has been a lack of compelling, competitively-priced devices.”

While HD is an exciting technology, there has been a barrier to adoption since its inception: price. Various efforts have been made to bring the prices down, and with frequent and reliable success I might add. Still, the price point and lack of portability have been a hindrance to the medium. The advent of a pocket-sized HD solution, integrated with all the other features modern consumers expect from radio, could be the breakthrough needed for HD to have the growth spurt it deserves.

Now comes one other essential question: How well does it function? I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the product reviews that I’m sure will hit soon. I’ll let you know what they think.

Image: Avatar /K / CC BY-ND 2.0

HD Radio To Go! Dig the New Zune

Smart device evolution continues, and each step forward heralds new radio capabilities. Wednesday Microsoft released some details about their new HD Zune player coming this fall and it looks like HD Radio is in integral part of the device.

Joshua Topolsky over at EnGadget gives us a rundown on its capabilities:

That’s right folks, the Zune HD is real, and it’s coming this Fall. Microsoft officially announced the next iteration in their Zune line today, making it less of a tripped out pipe dream, and more of a totally tubular reality. The specs, which look exactly like that leak we saw, go like this: 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output (utilizing a new dock — not on-board), and… not much more right now. Microsoft is doing away with the famed squircle in favor a full multitouch device, and they seemed to indicate that some new touch-friendly apps and games would be headed our way, though they were fairly mum when it came to details. The device will boast an IE-based, customized browser, but little else was said in the way of software.

Competing with similar smart players like the iPod Touch, and converging with current smart phones in capabilities, the new Zune will carry all the features that are expected. Video playback, wi-fi, an app store and so on are rapidly becoming the rule rather than the exception. Add in the ability to integrate with their XBox LIVE community,which boasts 17 million international subscribers and it looks like the new Zune will come out fighting! (Microsoft has  promised to demonstrate the integration with XBox LIVE at next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.)

Of course the thing I am most excited about is the HD radio integration. Regular readers know that I’ve been keeping an eye on the portability issue with HD because I think it is really the next huge step. As HD becomes more like traditional radio in its ubiquity the medium will truly become a standard. Just the ability of stations to do targeted sub-channels alone is worth it in my opinion.

The new wave of portable HD Radio capable devices are starting to roll out, I can’t wait to see what the coming year has to offer!

Photo courtesy of Zune

Zune: Tag, You’re It!

The wild and wonderful world of the Internet and traditional radio are once again seeing a convergence. Microsoft’s Zune, direct competitor of the Apple iPod, not only allows you to tune in your favorite FM band station, but is also now rolling out the ability to tag and purchase MP3s of the songs you hear. In addition, while I do not have the details as yet, there is a social media aspect being introduced as well.

Between broadcast and social media, the Zune is leveraging the two most powerful means of discovering new music and tying them directly into the marketplace. It also looks like they are going to start with a strong reach as far as stations are concerned.

According to BizJournals, “as of Tuesday, more than 450 FM radio stations are offering this Song Tagging service.” It only makes sense to assume that as time goes by we will see more station added to a growing list. Another nice thing that factors into this step forward is the fact that the FM tuner in the Zune is fully integrated, as opposed to the various models of the iPod which had to rectify this initial design flaw with an add-on tuner.

It is clear that the manufacturers of the Zune are aware of which side of the bread bears the butter. Also from BizJournals:

“Radio is one of the primary ways people discover new music, which is why we have built an FM tuner into every Zune portable media player,” says Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune.

So as the evolution of radio races towards apotheosis, all I can say is, “Tag! You’re it!”

Photo courtesy of yngrich, used under its Creative Commons license