Walt Mossberg is considered one of the most influencial people in technology. He has the abilities to make or break products by a simple wave of his hand (or something like that). For those not necessarily entrenched in the tech punditry world, Walt Mossberg writes several columns (Personal Technology, Mossberg Solution and Mossberg's Mailbox) for a cute little rag known as The Wall Street Journal. And he's set his sights on the Pioneer Inno.
Overall, Mossberg gives a decent review of the unit. Very detailed and in-depth. Where he really fall short though is on the subject of reception. Here's some key snippets about this:
It's hard to overstate the reception problems that plague the Inno. We lost reception while driving through a short tunnel, walking through a row home and wandering through our office, away from the window. Even in an office with an entire wall of windows, we had to sit right next to the glass to get XM Satellite Radio reception.
Walking around downtown Washington, just a few blocks from the White House and a few miles from XM's headquarters, the Inno constantly dropped the XM signal, even though Washington, by law, has no office buildings taller than about 12 stories. Walking just a few feet into a Starbucks killed the signal altogether. When we sat down on a bench in a small park, the reception got much better, but still wasn't perfect. For a device that's primarily a radio, this is a killer flaw. Of course, you can listen to the Inno's stash of recorded music during these signal dropouts, but, when the failures are as frequent as ours were, this need to keep switching modes turns a supposedly pleasurable experience into a huge annoyance.
It occured to me while reading this that Walt Mossberg doesn't have much experience with satellite radio in general. But then I remember the old WIRED article from May 2004, where Mossberg was profiled and XM was a specific case of his "power" when he criticized XM's units. He later wrote a follow up praising XM for their redesigned units, and in fact saying "And that makes XM Radio a service I can wholeheartedly recommend."
So see, what Mr. Mossberg is trying to do here, is write the review from the expectations of the "average" listener. Not the seasoned geek. And the assumed expectation is that the average Joe Sixpack is going to consider the Pioneer Inno as a regular radio and not a satellite radio.
And I have to admit that indoor reception is the single biggest inherit problem with satellite radio. A problem that the Inno's recording/scheduling features are essentially trying to resolve - short of blanketing the country in repeaters - it's the next best thing. Afterall, people enjoy podcasts just fine (to Mossberg's credit - he doesn't) which are basically scheduled recordings.
What I just wish he would have done is not laid blame on the Inno itself, but rather about satellite radio technology in general.
Oh well, I guess when it rains... it pours. I feel for everyone at The Eck right now.
[Wall Street Journal]
[also available at SSG]
I have read all of your comments and responses; I felt the need to chime in.
I am a seasoned XM user, I started with the Delphi 2 years ago and all the trimmings (car kit, home kit, and Boom Box), added is my Roady2, and rounding out my collection is the Inno. The (my) Inno sucks, there is very spotty signal, battery life is terrible and the MP3 player now has began to power cycle my unit. With my other units I get great reception, but the Inno...
When at my son's football practice, out in the yard, or walking around the neighborhood the unit cuts out way too much. Before some of you question the location of the unit or my ability to understand sat communications, I install commercial sats around the country (did I mention I live in Baltimore, 40 min. from XM HQ). With that, the overall concept is good, however the product does need more attention. Another issue I have (not really with the unit) is the firmware update includes a script to lock-out the MP3 capability if you do not maintain an active XM account, for all of that you'd be best served with an iPOD.