Internet radio isn't really a big thing in Australia. Which is interesting, as the traditional radio stations are certainly providing the streaming media to be able to use it. Perhaps it's a "build it and they will come" mentality -- but more likely it's just users here don't want to blow their monthly quotas on Kyle and Jackie O.
If you do feel like stretching your download-limit-legs however, Internet radio fortunately opens you up to stations all around the world, and tends to be categorised by genre -- meaning you should be able to get something you like.
Taking it one more step away from the PC is ASUS' AIR -- which is an acronym, making it the ASUS ASUS Internet Radio. Yeah.
Design
It's a chunky little box that's made up to look like a retro radio, and while you can go black, you can also complete the old-school feel with the faux wood grain edition.
While the entire left half is made up of the speaker, on the right side is a volume knob, navigation pad, power and preset buttons, as well as a blue/white LED screen, which packs in three levels of brightness.
It's not a very good screen though -- it ghosts horribly (made even more prevalent by the panning effects used) and while the resolution is passable, it's not the best looking text we've ever seen. The screen even feels retro, like a Commodore 64, and during the 27 second long boot up it displays an animated ASUS logo that hammers home this feeling.
When the Radio is turned off (which actually puts it into standby, meaning you bypass the crazy-long boot time), the time is displayed in a large font, with a smaller date above it.
The volume knob has been weighted nicely, but the knob itself is sadly just cheap plastic. Using it when the navigation screen is set to a radio station means it sets the volume higher or lower as expected, but anywhere else it's a navigation wheel -- which is sort of nice, but means you can't adjust the volume from the base unless you're on the station set screen, and at the same time negates the point of having the navigation buttons right next to it. You can even click the volume wheel in to act as an "enter" button.
Thankfully the remote has dedicated volume buttons, even if the mute button is awkwardly placed between them, but it's no substitute for a good knob. Ahem.
Features
Dialling into an Internet station is made reasonably easy by the 10,000 odd stations provided at start-up, and we were happy to find most of the big local radio stations ready to go. While the genre sorting wasn't always correct, if you feel the need to customise you can always delete stations or add your own.
Up to 250 of your favourite stations can be stored, the first five of which can be accessed quickly through buttons on the base unit, while the first ten can be quick-accessed on the remote.
The buffer can be set to two, four or eight seconds to overcome any Internet connection issues you may have, however this will introduce inevitable lag when switching between stations.
It supports streaming from MP3 or WMA based stations, but don't expect to stream from your local network in any fashion -- this is for Internet radio only.
It can be used as an alarm, although it seems that you have to have the system in standby for it to go off – otherwise you'll get nothing. It can beep at you, play a built in tune, or just play the last radio station you were on. To shut it up, just hit a random button.
Rather fancily it features eight languages -- English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
On the specs side it supports 802.11b/g (with WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption) and 100mbit Ethernet, and comes with a detachable aerial. On the front is a headphone port, while on the back is RCA out if you want higher quality sound, and a 3.5mm line-in jack.
When using the line-in, the AIR functions solely as a speaker -- a nice little feature, however the volume knob doesn't work, requiring you to set the volume at the source.
On the wireless front, the unit isn't truly wireless, as it still needs to be plugged into the wall -- a laptop type battery solution would allow it to be truly portable.
Performance
Sound was passable for a radio, but certainly not spectacular. There's no way to tweak the output either -- what you hear is what you get. The unit coped well with the variety of low to high quality sources you tend to find on Internet radio. It did sound better while your ear was directly next to the speaker, but somehow we doubt this is most people's listening position.
If you're on dial-up, or low-speed broadband you'd better pass this one up too, as ASUS recommends a one megabit Internet connection for flawless operation. You had better make sure your quota is up to task too, as leaving a 128kbit station on all day amounts to 1.35GB of downloads -- we're sure most will use it sparsely though.
The ASUS AIR is a decent appliance. The biggest thing working against it isn't build quality, quotas, or Internet speed -- it's whether or not the public can be bothered.
Fitzy
11/05/2008, 07:19 PM
rating
6/10
The idea is fine (making overseas programs accessible) however many of those are not received smoothly. Downside is expense of eating your allotted download quota.
Pros: Works rather well when output is sent through another system i.e. stereo.
Cons: The Ethernet connection doesn't work at all on mine - although the WiFi does.
Don't use it anymore as the downloads eat up your quota very quickly.
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Frog
29/04/2008, 02:09 PM
rating
7/10
Hi Derek, I tried again today, I can listen to 2gb smoothly. I wrote to supplier's technical support, they feedback me that the url adding is inconvenient, they don't suggent to use this. AU stations are smoothly listened. Don't you want to try again?
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Derek
25/04/2008, 09:58 AM
rating
3/10
I bought this internet radio as I listen to sydney stations 2gb & 2ue and it will not pick them up. And I also found that it would not pick up a lot of the pre programmed stations. I tried putting the stations in manually, by their URL but still no luck. I am returning it to the shop a very dissappointed customer. I also emailed the suppliers as per the book but got no reply. Bottom line, buy it from a shop where you can return it.
Pros: Not many.
Cons: Does not pick up all stations that is programmed for.
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Craig Simms
02/04/2008, 05:09 PM
Hi Peter, you'll notice the RRP is listed as $299 above the product box. The buying choices below are generated automatically, and unfortunately sometimes it latches on to the wrong product. I've removed the entry for now and notified our tech team of the mismatch.
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Blah
02/04/2008, 01:57 PM
rating
2/10
radio? for a moment i thought the macbook air would have a competitor
Cons: internet radio is such a bad idea
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petermchardy
02/04/2008, 01:38 PM
rating
7/10
Cant find it on minidigital ... Get a grip CNET this happens all too often.
Pros: Great idea.
Cons: Cannot be had this cheap anywhere.
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