XM NavTraffic, XM Radio's nationwide satellite traffic information service for GPS navigation systems, will add nine metro markets this quarter bringing the total number of markets covered by XM NavTraffic to 31.

XM NavTraffic currently delivers real-time traffic information for drivers in 22 markets from New York to Los Angeles. In the coming months, XM NavTraffic will expand into Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver-Boulder, Milwaukee-Racine, Portland, Providence-Warwick- Pawtucket, Sacramento, San Antonio and Wilmington, DE.

[XM NavTraffic]

The AMCP Tech Blog got the jealousy-inducing opportunity to beta test the upcoming Samsung Helix XM2go MP3/Satrad player, and it looks to be a pretty positive review. The first thing I should note is that the previous reports of a "delayed" GUI don't seem to be a problem with the author's version. In fact, several people who played with the Helix/Inno at CES didn't find this delay at all - so at this point I'll file that away as a non-issue.

Another thing to note is that the author definitely appears not to be a satrad-fanboy like some of us are... this could be construed as positive or negative, but getting input from people who aren't familiar with the product is probably a better test of ease-of-use so I'll lean towards the positive for that.

Unfortunately, the one key thing that still remains unanswered is the reception strength of the next-generation XM2go units versus the current XM2go units. I guess you can assume reception will be stronger, but it'd be nice to get some validation on that.

[AMCP Tech Blog]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, XM Satellite Radio has posted the sharpest year-to-year gain in the number of unique visitors to hardware manufacturers’ sites in December, with visits increasing 114% to 3 million from 1.4 million.

Here's the Top 10:
1. Apple, had 35.7 million visits, up 65% from 21.7 million a year earlier
2. Dell, pulled in 18.5 million visits, up 6% from 17.5 million
3. Hewlett Packard, 13.9 million, up 14% from 12.2 million
4. Sun Microsystems, 3.6 million, down 14% from 4.2 million.
5. XM Satellite Radio, 3 million, up 114% from 1.4 million
6. IBM, 2.6 million, unchanged from 2004
7. Gateway, 2.2 million, down 8% from 2.4 million
8. Palm, 2.1 million, up 50% from 1.4 million
9. Playstation, 2.1 million, up 50% from 1.4 million
10. Bose, 1.6 million, up 23% from 1.3 million.

[Internet Retailer]

XM Satellite Radio will offer a "sneak preview" of a new series hosted by Quincy Jones as part of XM's month-long celebration of Black History Month. Featuring stories, interviews and archived recordings, "RNBQ: The History of R&B told by Quincy Jones" is a historical look at the spectrum of popular music created by African-American artists, composers, producers and musicians since its inception.

As a preview XM will broadcast the first episode of "RNBQ," which will cover the 1940s through 1959 including artists, such as Nat King Cole and Louis Jordan, and their hit songs. "RNBQ, Part One" will air on XM's old school R&B channel The Groove on Monday, February 20th at 10am ET, with encores throughout the week.

The complete season of "RNBQ" will premiere in June 2006.

Check out some other highlights of XM's Black History Month programming after the jump...

Both XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio are featuring special programming for the 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 8th, 2006. SIRIUS will be broadcasting special music and commentary programs that will highlight all the excitement and drama of the music industry's biggest night. Their Top 40 hits channel SIRIUS Hits 1 and The Pulse, which features the best music of the '90s and now, will be the home base for their GRAMMY programs on SIRIUS with preview features, live updates on the GRAMMYs and much more.

XM Satellite Radio, the "official" satellite radio partner of the GRAMMY Awards, will be dedicating XM Live 200 to the GRAMMYs completely and will be entitling it GRAMMY Radio. GRAMMY Radio, with exclusive pre-show coverage of GRAMMY Week events, begining on February 6th, and bringing you inside never-before heard events with some of the biggest names in music. On February 7th, you'll get live coverage of the exclusive Clive Davis party as well as a ton of other exclusive programming throughout the week.

IBM brought somemore insight into XM Radio's upcoming voice recognition technology (created by partner VoiceBox Technologies) when they unveiled their new speech recognition technology on Tuesday. The real meat and potatoes is the Free-Form Command feature found in Embedded ViaVoice 4.4 software. For Free-Form Command to work, it must recognize two things: first, that the user is referring to the radio, even if the term "radio" isn't actually used. Second, the software has to be programmed to understand that the term "play" also is a command to tune the satellite radio unit to the desired channel.

It's really very cool to learn about how the software itself works, and this is seriously groundbreaking stuff. Definitely check it out.

[PC Magazine]

Great article in the Daily News today featuring Opie and Anthony and their style at XM Satellite Radio.

One of the interesting things touched on in the article is the corporate thinking that caused Infinity to lose two of their most popular talk shows to satrad (that would be Howard Stern and O&A). Had Infinity realized the potential of a "guy talk" station a couple years ago, they might not be driving the downhill road their on now.

[New York Daily News]
Thanks Trevor!

Back in December I spotted this tidbit on Mercury News, about an in-helmet satrad sound system that Kawasaki is working on. After some back and forth with Kawasaki's Jeff Herzog (who was amazingly open to communications - hat tip to the boys over there for 'getting it'), here's some info on the upcoming sound system device:

Kawasaki's "Sound System" fits inside a rider's helmet and offers AM, FM and satellite radio - yes, both XM and SIRIUS versions will be available. The Sound System essentially consists of headphones and a microphone that fit into your choice of helmet., and a small display console that will attach to the left-handlebar. Currently it's in the development stage, so I don't have any real photos to drool over - so for now you can enjoy this seemingly unrelated photo of a motorcycle helmet on the right.

The sound system includes an intercom for communication with a passenger, will be available in mid-2006 and is targeted towards the long-distance rider. More info coming soon...

XM Satellite Radio will launch in March 2006 a new hour-long sports-themed talk show hosted by Democratic political strategist, commentator and passionate sports fan James Carville. Carville, who is known for his "colorful" debate style, will co-host the program with Luke Russert, his regular off-air sparring partner for all things sports and son of NBC journalist Tim Russert.

The concept for the program was born from the heated exchanges between Carville and Russert during various Washington Nationals home games. This new show will feature the two discussing the top sports stories of the week with the same sense of humor and camaraderie experienced at the ballpark or at home. 

Additional program details will be announced prior to the show's debut.