![]() It’s probably just my personal preference, but I like the Tivo model of Time Shifting better. It’s a bit disconcerting to rewind through All Things Considered and suddenly hear Nickel Back. With the radioSHARK, the buffer keeps going, even through station switches. First, on the Tivo, if you switch channels, the buffer resets itself. I assume it has to do with the buffering and playback, but on a P4-2.8 HT box with SATA drives, this sound glitch is just absurd. It was also annoying because when TimeShifting was on, the audio stutter became more pronounced. A quick trip to the preferences (after figuring out how to get to it), I enabled TimeShifting and hit pause again. It turns out that the PC (and maybe Mac) version has TimeShifting disabled by default. I pressed the button again and still nothing. I pressed the pause button and waited for the audio to stop. That brought up a sub-window to the GUI that had a pause button, fast forward and rewind arrows, and two additional buttons that I later decided were ‘skip to beginning’ and ‘skip to end’ (which weren’t documented). On the radioSHARK GUI, there was a button labeled TS, which I correctly assumed meant TimeShift and pressed. It’s a brilliant concept that I picture being integrated into the majority of consumer electronics in the future. ![]() For those not familiar with the concept, ReplayTV and Tivo pioneered the idea of allowing their users pause, rewind, and when applicable, fast-forward by displaying saved video instead of the live feed. Of course, the first thing I had to do was TimeShift. The radioSHARK worked, just not that well. I noticed that my entire system reset when I tried to look at the size of audio buffer. I noticed the three crashes that the app had in the first four hours. Audio seemed to be poppy, interrupted with just barely perceptible stutters in audio that would come and go. Then I started to notice the radioSHARKs flaws. I laughed as All Things Considered talked about the presidential election. I giggled like a schoolgirl when I discovered the ability to time-shift live audio almost like my Tivo. I was enthralled by the scheduler, setting up shows to record. ![]() I said I wanted to love the radioSHARK, and at first I did. I was impressed how easy it was because Griffin Technology is primarily a Mac company and I was testing on a Windows XP box. Let’s just say I plug it into my PC, dropped in the CD, and 5 minutes later, I was listening to the local NPR station through my computer speakers in all its poppy glory. A quick trip to the Apple store and I had this little fin-shaped wonder. So when I heard about the radioSHARK I was excited. I’m a big fan of radio and I’ve been disappointed that it took so long for a company to develop and AM/FM turner for the PC. The radioShark, with software compatible with PCs and Macs, retails for $69.99 (U.S.) at wanted to love the radioSHARK from Griffin Technology, I really did. The marriage of radio and computer technology represented in the nifty radioShark makes it more than the sum of its parts. People love how computers give them control over their entertainment options. The scheduling functions are very easy to use, with date and time settings like a calendar program. The radioShark's equalizer settings actually make the unit better than most desktop radios in terms of improving the sound quality of the radio signal. It can be downloaded for free (/itunes) and will allow you to take your recorded radio on the road if you own an iPod. The recorded audio can be saved as a track in the WAV, AIFF, and AAC file formats, though not in MP3, and your greatest hits of radio can be transferred into iTunes, the best music management software for PC or Mac. If you hear something you like, back up and hit the record button. On the right are buttons for scheduling, equalizing (tweaking the treble, midrange and bass tones) and time-shifting.Ĭlicking that time-shifting button rewinds, pauses, or fast-forwards the audio. On the left are buttons to change bands, scan the dial, and record. On-screen, the program looks like a radio dial, with three handy buttons on each side. The radioShark plugs into a computer's USB port. Out of the box, I liked the stylish design and the ease with which its software installed on the two computers I tested it with, an Apple iMac G5 and an Hewlett-Packard machine running Windows XP Media Center. Its LED lights glow like luminescent gills - blue when the radio is live on-air, red when the computer is recording off-air. The radioShark is an AM-FM tuner shaped like a cool white dorsal fin. ![]() The device allows you to pause and replay live programming, for example, or schedule recording so you will never have to miss your favourite CBC Radio program or shock-talk jock. RadioShark applies new "time-shifting" capabilities, which have only recently been made available for TV viewing, to AM and FM radio.
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