'satellite radio'

I've been a Sirius Satellite Radio subscriber for ages, but I'm ready to pull the plug. I still think some of the music and talk channels are pretty good, but the sound quality has always been iffy. The treble sounds like it's underwater; it "swishes" and sounds garbled. I got around that by playing Sirius over my Tivoli PAL table radio, and since the PAL doesn't have a tweeter it softens the sound enough to make Sirius less irritating. The Tivoli is also on the other side of the room, and that helps to … Read more

Kia Motors revealed the prices of the 2012 Kia Rio sedan starting at $13,400 MSRP (plus in $750 destination charges). The Rio comes in three trim levels: LX, EX and SX, all powered by the same 1.6-liter gasoline direct injection (GDI) that boasts 138 horsepower and 123 pound-feet of torque.

The base trim, the LX, comes with a six-speed manual transmission, or customers can upgrade to an a six-speed automatic transmission for $14,500. The top-of-the-line SX trim starts at $17,500 (plus destination charges). All three trims offer an estimated 30 mpg city and 40 mpg highway.… Read more

Antuan catches hell for his review of the Mustang Boss 302, we tell you where to get Satellite Radio 2.0, and we ponder potential problems with direct injection engines.

• Are there problems with direct injection?

• The CNET review of the Mustang Boss 302 that's dividing drivers

• Satellite radio 2.0 features

• CNET's LOLCars gallery!

Hyundai bails on EVs, satellite radio just got more expensive, when is it cheaper to fly? (there's an app for that), and we drive the new (but maybe not new enough) Honda Civic Hybrid.

• Hyundai seems to be bailing out on battery electric cars

• The world's fastest hybrid car is...

• An app to tell you when it really is cheaper to drive.

• Is OnStar spying on you, or just doing business 21st century style?

• CNET Reviews the 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid… Read more

Livio Radio, developer of a free car Internet radio app for iPhone and Android, and Dice, developer of audio integration kits for OEM car stereos, have teamed up to provide a solution for streaming Internet radio to your car without ripping out the stock receiver. It starts with an app on your iPhone and ends with hardware that takes over your car's satellite radio input.

Livio's app delivers more than 45,000 Internet radio stations and Internet streaming AM and FM radio stations via your smartphone's data connection. (The app's free version steps down to 300 … Read more

Alpine Electronics puts its weight behind SiriusXM satellite radio in the car with its announcement of a new line of single-DIN CD receivers that will bear the new SiriusXM-Ready badge, marking their compatibility with the car audio supplier's new SVX100 SiriusXM Connect Vehicle Tuner Kit. For the first time, Alpine is offering a bundled SiriusXM tuner and CD receiver package, giving customers a turn-key option for getting satellite radio content through their cars' speakers.

The star of the show is the SXV100 SiriusXM tuner, which provides access to a number of advanced satellite radio features in addition to the … Read more

Some satellite radio subscribers woke up this morning wondering where their favorite stations went. Today, Sirius XM completed its network unification, combining all satellite radio stations into a single channel lineup. All cars equipped with satellite radio now have access to the same stations and in the same order, but it also means that some stations have been combined, renamed, or have changed places on the dial.

For the most part, the station unification involves a simple reordering of channels. For example, in cars equipped with XM satellite radio, listeners will now find Hair Nation on channel 39 instead of … Read more

Sirius XM will release Satellite Radio 2.0 this fall, according to a source close to the company. The next generation of the satellite radio subscription service will feature time-shift recording capabilities, increased storage for portable hardware devices, and on-demand content channels.

Because of licensing limitations, you can't record and store Sirius programming in your car. If you miss Howard Stern on the way to work, you're out of luck. But new satellite channels will host popular programs, and make them available for on-demand playback, according to a Sirius insider. That's means the big game will be … Read more

Sirius XM has hit the 20 million subscriber mark, and it's calling on a member of The Beatles to commemorate it.

Starting tonight at 5 p.m. PT, several Sirius XM channels, including Paul McCartney's Band On the Run Radio, Howard 101, and Classic Vinyl, will air Paul McCartney's concert live from the Apollo Theater. The concert, which was first announced last month, is accessible at no additional charge for current Sirius or XM subscribers.

It has been a good week for Sirius XM. Last Thursday, the company announced that it had re-signed Howard Stern to another … Read more