The NDA from the Secret Room at the XMas In August event has been lifted as of October 15th. I can finally talk about this thing! Legg Mason took almost no time to leak out info on it after the event, and PC Magazine followed up in early September with their own bits of leakage - but for those of us who were contractually bound, we couldn’t say a word about it.

Unfortunately, the NDA also had to be lifted on a weekend, so no pictures of this fabled device are available yet either, nor do I have a product sheet that specifically gives the final production details on this new device. I saw it, I touched it, and I talked to the PR peeps all about it - but damnit, I couldn’t take any photos of it. So, please be aware that all the information you’re about to read is based on my memory, and is based on the pre-production version I saw over 2 months ago. Things may have changed since then.

Tentatively, we’ll call this device the Dell DJ Satellite. I have a feeling it may take on another name but that’s just speculation. Like XM’s upcoming Samsung neXus device, the “Dell DJ Satellite” is a combo MP3/XM Satellite Radio player with live functionality when the unit is docked.

But unlike the neXus - which will come in 25-hour (512Mb) and 50-hour (1Gb) flavors - the Dell/XM unit will have 6Gb of capacity which is a whole lot more hours of listening (though I’ve never been a big fan of describing “hours” of listening — too many factors involved). When docked, the unit will receive XM Satellite Radio and will allow for saving of XM content to the unit for later listening. You can of course mix in your own MP3s with the satrad content. Like the neXus, the Dell unit uses XM’s Connect-and-Play technology. There were several other plugs on the back of the cradle, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what they were for — obviously much more than just plugging into your computer. Take a guess on that.

The unit I saw was small - very small. A nice sleek device that was black in color, and from what I was told, features a titanium backing - this thing was hot. There was the possibility that the DJ will come in different colors, though at the time I couldn’t get any specific answers. Pink was a definite possibility. I really can’t describe how sleek this thing looked, and I really wish I had pics for all to see, but honestly it’s gorgeous. From what I remember (validated by the various leaked reports) the display is a color display — though I can’t recall how many colors exactly.

The XM/Dell unit will also be equipped with an FM tuner, not that anyone should be using that feature, but it’s nice to have it available just in case you want to listen to some commercials for a while. The PC Mag article mentions two separate Dell units, but I can’t confirm that - all I saw was one unit, and 30Gb of capacity was never mentioned. But again, things could have changed (and I’m sure we’ll find out for sure soon enough). Like the neXus as well, the Dell DJ Satellite unit will have the XM + Napster functionality allowing for tagging of songs for future purchase.

Price? Don’t know the exact price of course, but I was told it would be comparable to current models. Dell prices it’s Pocket DJ at $169 and it’s big-boy DJ ranging from $199 to $239 — so that can provide an educated guess for the price positioning. Stay tuned as we’ll all find out all the full details as soon as the product sheet is released.

Anyway, so that’s that. You can rest easy now, because yes, it’s all true.