Aluratek AIRJ01F USB Internet Radio Jukebox by Aluratek
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Digital camera reviews of Aluratek AIRJ01F USB Internet Radio Jukebox
Digital camera Review: Don't waste your money
Summary: 1 Stars
Not at all what I thought it would be. Mostly Asian stations. Not as many stations as advertised.Digital camera Review: Easy way to find and play Internet Radio Stations
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read the favorable reviews in the local newspapers, I decided to get the Aluratek Jukebox. It is wonderful. I plugged it into my USB port and in under a minute I had thousands of choices of stations to pick from. I would recommend starting with the top ten choices in whatever category of music that you like. I wanted to listen to some country music and quickly found a few stations that I enjoyed. Just be aware that if you plan on using the Jukebox at work, some companies block streaming media and then the Jukebox will not be able to deliver its music.Digital camera Review: Excellent product
Summary: 5 Stars
Easy to install, excellent quality. I will reorder for a gift to a family member.Digital camera Review: Excellent way to experience the world
Summary: 5 Stars
I am able to listen to different types of music without having to search the webDigital camera Review: Expand your mind, computer
Summary: 5 Stars
It's pretty straight-forward: it lets you listen to thousands of radio stations that broadcast on the Net. As I write this review, I am sitting here, on the US East Coast, listening to some Icelandic rock station. In the past couple of hours I browsed through radio stations based in France, the Philippines, UK and, I believe Thailand. Pretty cool, eh?
But, let's summarize:
Installation: super-easy. You stick the USB thing into the proper port and you get prompted to allow for the software to install on your computer - at least that's what Vista does.
Interface: you get 2 top-10 lists that can be expanded to top-100, by region or by genre. The tops are not too useful, unless you really believe that the number one talk station in the world is broadcasting from Bulgaria but, it's fun to have them there. The categories are usually hit and miss - you are almost as likely to find music on a 'talk' station as your are to find actual talk but... it's no big deal, believe me. The stations are also classified by Genre and Location and, within each of these, you can sort them by 'country' - not all stations have a country assigned to them and Kansas and Kenya are both viewed as 'countries'. You can include individual stations on your favorite list and you can vote them up or down. There is also a 'history' section, a 'help' section and a link to the maker of the product. Oh, the bottom of the window is reserved for advertising but, I bet, you are NOT likely to stare at the Aluratek windows while listening to the radio so it's not bothersome.
Reception: each station shows a number of bars, telephone style - 4 bars are supposed to be the clearest and no bars you probably can't get. The quality of your connection is, without a doubt, dependent of your own bandwidth. Depending of it and depending on many other factors, your connection may break from time to time or you may not be able to connect at all but, so far, I am happy with what I get.
Why I almost took out 1 star?
- The interface could be improved. What I definitely miss is the ability to enter my own little notes to the stations that I mark as 'favorites'. The way they appear now - which could be something like 'WKZR' or maybe a string of Chinese hieroglyphs - is not always descriptive enough.
To summarize: if you spend a few hundred $$ for your laptop, I can't think of any good justification for not spending $20-30 on this little device.
October 2, 2008 Update
I learned from a related discussion thread that there are 'free' sites that allow access to thousands of radio stations with some search capabilities. http://www.vtuner.com is one of them. Some may prefer to use such a site for their radio listening and save some money. Personally, having purchased this device, I am more likely to use IT than Vtuner but this is my personal preference only.