Sirius filed a statement with the SEC(Security & Exchange Commission) early this morning which details that they have known that their radios have been under investigation with the FCC since April. They received a letter on June 20th informing them of the same thing, and responded to the letter on July 12th.

They state similar themes to what Directed Electronics told us on July 5th, that there were at least two radios(the S50 and Starmate Replay) that were not in compliance. The only difference, is that apparently one or more Sirius employees were approving radios with stronger FCC transmitters than what was allowed, even knowing the restrictions. Sirius says that they will fix this problem and have a new ‘internal review board’ to make sure similar problems do not show up in new Sirius radios.

What the big question becomes now that Sirius has admitted the problems is ‘Did David Frear lie?’ In late May, David Frear stated that the radios that violated the FCC standards have all been fixed, when they clearly were not. The filing is also unclear as to whether the radios they suspended production on received the necessary changes to begin production again.

Update: Sirius has suspended certain radio shipments but we do not know which radios at this time.

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Microsoft recently announced (after much leakage) their Zune media player. This player will be in direct competition with the iPod, although it will offer more features but as to what those are have not been confirmed. It is rumored, however, satellite radio may be one of them.

ThinkSecret.com recently wrote an article containing the following…

“Along with Wi-Fi, Microsoft is said to be considering a satellite radio receiver option for the device…”

A partnership with a large company like Microsoft would certainly help Sirius. It is safe to note that any partnership with Microsoft’s player would more than likely wipe out any future chances at a partnership with Apple.

We’ll keep you updated if anything develops.

Original image courtesy of Engadget.

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Sirius Backstage member manuelpl posted today on Backstage 2 links to the first Sirius universal boombox. Yes, that’s right, there are new receivers coming up that will also fit this bad boy.

The pic was found by manuelpl on gopremco.com.

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Former spokesperson for the RIAA, Ms. Rosen now leads a consulting group whose clients include XM. In this interview with Wired magazine, she talks about DRM and how recording rights ought to apply to SDARS services like XM and Sirius. She makes references to Sirius including this part in regards to the earlier announced settlement:

“There’s been a lot of bad information reported about this, both on what the device does and the business choices XM has made. People have said, well Sirius chose to pay additional monies for their devices but XM didn’t. That’s not true. XM did offer to pay additional monies, in fact, at greater levels than what Sirius is paying, but the record companies, I think, were just looking for a lawsuit on this one because they’re hesitant about these devices going forward.”

I thought it was interesting from a wider angle of music-lovers, but also applicable to SDARS fans (like us).

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Orbitcast.com has the story…

Just over a month ago we learned that Wistron NeWeb (WNC) will most likely be the manufacturer behind the upcoming Stiletto Satellite Radio/MP3 Player. The date - the 2nd half of 2006.

Well, lo-and-behold, it turns out that Humax has something up their sleeve as well. Humax, the Korean firm behind the Sirius S50, is expecting to have a “new model” starting in the 3rd quarter of 2006, according to this report (PDF).

Here’s the snippet:
Humax started the satellite radio business in 4Q05 when it supplied its S50 model to Sirius, the North American satellite radio operator. Thanks to growing demand and increasing Sirius subscribers, the business posted moderate earnings results. However, the S50 was a high-end product focused on design and specialties and thus failed to meet customer needs. Accordingly, 1Q06 sales growth was negative and we expect stagnant sales and dwindling inventory levels in 2Q06. The company is to supply Sirius with a new model starting in 3Q06.

Full Article

Just to clarify, this a seperate unit from the “Stiletto.”

The question is will this player be plaqued with the problems of the S50? For those who experienced the issues this player could be a hard sell (to those who actually know humax made the S50 anyways). You can bet this moderator will be waiting for some reviews on this puppy.

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Satellite Standard Group aka SSG today spotted a new Sirius unit, neither SSG or Backstage are sure if this will be a real unit or simply a concept drawing. Nothing is known about this unit as far as release date and features (except the obvious) are concerned .

SSG’s article.

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2 new Sirius products have shown up on the panaoem.com..

(NOTE: Links to receivers no longer work, the pictures have been removed from panaoem.com)

Sirius Streamer 3…

Sirius Streamer GT3…

So, what’s new? Nothing as far as features go. The look obviously has changed and they have decided to return to the amber colored screen. You can click on the links above the pictures for more information.
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Today at the Convergence 2.0 Conference Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius, showed off the new live portable.  It is my belief that the unit pictured is only a demo unit however.
Here are some quick pointers from theTech Effect article (click link below for full article):
-The unit is in beta testing.
-It is still scheduled to be released this summer

Thanks to techeffect.thedealblogs.com for the images you see in this post.
Thanks to Backstage Member banzaimf for the tip.

Full Article

Comment Here/See close up picture.

We will keep you updated if any more pictures surface.

SIRIUS has released new firmware for the S50 this evening.

Improvements and features in this release include:

• New 4 Hour Scheduled Recording Limit
• Change in the Sort Order of Recorded Shows
• Improved Stability

Expect the S50 product page to be updated with release details later this week.

To update your S50 to the latest firmware:

• Launch the My Sirius Studio application on an Internet-enabled PC
• Connect your S50 unit via USB.
• Click on the gear icon ( ) next to the S50 device icon, or go to File -> Device Settings, and choose “Check for Software Update”.

This is a screenshot of the screen showing an update is available.

You can discuss the new S50 release here and get support on the SIRIUS Backstage S50 forum.

SIRIUS’ direct sales web store has halted all shipments of radios featuring built-in FM transmitters this week. The move comes after a NAB report [Download PDF] detailing out-of-band tranmissions caused by overpowered FM-modulators.

According to retailers, Directed Electronics, the distributor of most SIRIUS radios, has also stopped filling orders for certain radio models.

Other e-tailers such as TSS-Radio.com and Crutchfield continue to sell the affected radios.

No word on when SIRIUS will resume selling the affected radio models.

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