Sirius XM Unleashes the Lynx – Four Days After Christmas
If Sirius XM was looking to target hungover Christmas shoppers with a wallet full of mismatched gift cards, they have succeeded! At around 4pm today Sirius XM announced the launch of the Lynx, their new 2.0 portable radio.
Some have said that this new $249 gadget is no game changer but, it does deliver some important features such as time shifting, that fans of satellite radio have been asking for all along. Like the recent iPhone/iPad app update, the Lynx will give subscribers the control to listen to what they want, when they want and not be locked into someone else’s schedule.
The list of key satellite radio features include;
- Tune Start™: Automatically starts the currently playing song from the beginning when tuning into a “favorite” channel.
- Radio Replays: Subscribers can build a library of up to 200 hours of automatically recorded programming from their “favorite” satellite radio channels.
- Pause, Rewind and Replay: Listeners can replay up to 30 minutes of live Sirius XM content on the currently tuned channel and the 5 currently displayed favorite preset channels.
- Featured Favorites™: A dynamic set of presets that can be automatically added as favorite channels, allowing users to easily discover new and specialty programming.
- Show Finder™: An electronic programming guide offering a complete list of what’s on over the next 7 days by channel, with the ability to set reminder alerts.
In addition, the Lynx also offers a few key Wi-Fi features;
- Start Now allows subscribers to go back 5 hours to select and listen to previously broadcast programming.
- View program information, album art, and read artist bios.
- Rewind to hear programming again or skip forward to hear what’s playing next.
- Pause live radio and pick up right where the listener left off
- Access to Show Finder™, the electronic programming guide.
Both the vehicle and home kit boast simple to use and setup bluetooth functionality with a suggested retail price of $69.99. At over $300, the total package isn’t going to be cheap (especially with upcoming price hikes) but, for die hard fans, it may be worth the price.
Isn’t this a XM only radio? If so, epic failure by not supporting Sirius community.
I bought THREE… two for gifts,
Merry merry.
Sirius announced in October that the Lynx would not be out for Christmas, but would be out by the end of the year! I don’t think they could have called it any closer. One story is saying that one site that was taking pre-sales is already sold out! WOW!
Yep,
Crutchfield.com is OUT OF STOCK!
I don’t see why anyone besides hard core siriusxm users would get excited about this radio. First, it is way too expensive for most people. Second, this sat 2.0 is just not exciting except for some existing subscribers who have “favorite” shows that they wish they could listen to when they want in the car.
As far as the above user who says he bought 2 for gifts. I personally have purchased a few siriusxm radios for gifts for other people in the past. Unless you are giving this gift as an upgrade to an existing subscriber the LYNX is a horrible gift. For the price of the Lynx, you could get an Onyx and close to 2 years of subscription service + internet radio for their ipod/iphone/tablet! Or get the Edge to be able to pause and rewind in the car…..On the other hand with your Merry Christmas gift..Here is a “cool” radio and now you have to pay about $18.00 a month to use its features!? bad deal! Any gift that has a subscription attached is a bad gift in my book. You have to give at least a year service as part of the gift…Add that to the price of the Lynx and it really is a BIG gift…The only good thing about this is it shows the future of siriusxm capabilities. When this functionality is built into new cars, it will be a great radio. As a over $300.00 device…”FAIL”!
I still think they blew a HUGE opportunity–Get it out 2 months ago in large quantities and market/advertise the hell out of it for the upcoming Xmas season–bringing it out in limited quantities just after Christmas—Great marketing guys!!
Unfortunately, you are right. Let us hope that this is their last snafu, and 2012 will be much better.
You’re kidding, right?
“Their last snafu”???
They do this on a daily basis. They are constantly bungling decisions and strategies. It is as if they are doing it on purpose it is so bad.
They aren’t really bungling decisions and strategies; they are incapable of making decisions… and there is NO strategy! I have always thought the same thing as you – that they are intentionally doing everything they can to assure that the company NEVER succeeds, and remains in a constant state of limbo forever. I have never seen such mismanagement in my entire life. Could they be any more pathetic?
And along the way the will make this year $400M in profit and next year they project $700M in fcf and probably a profit larger than that. And along the way they will add close to 1.6M subs this year where the economic and in particular political climate is as lousy as it can be. I just wonder who is kidding whom??? If you are comparing them with apple, you are wasting your time.
to much hype products must haves….kindle fire..ipad2…video games systems,lets give the sirius xm area a best buys a fresh cool interet/sat radio 4 years left on stern and i have a strong feeling the commercial will be placed during americas got talent s breaks during shows stern is controversial and people will get his vibe again,were dealing with very smart business men guys.
(jewish decent) they are not dumb when it comes to smart business moves.
CHESS NOT CHECKERS FELLAS!
I can’t believe they did not also put an antenna for full portable use, so now I will have to wait for the next generations.
3 years ago I would have said “wow, cool”. It looks like a nice radio but it’s pricey and doesn’t do much more than my star mate replay that I bought 5 years ago. Unfortunately, the smartphone has changed the landscape. If they could use the android platform to integrate other options I could see the advantage of this but without gps hardware or a 3g chip the additions will be limited. The future of satrad will unfortunately be in the oem channel unless a smartphone company or another company like Garmin steps in and includes satellite radio hardware into their devices. There always be the gadget head that will be the exception to this rule but for mainstream folks, carrying around a phone that can stream music or work in a dock, and be used to navigate as well as the other millions of add-ons that it can do will always be more practical.
They did not have enough radios to get it out before Christmas. They sold out immediately due to pre-sales. I called both crutchfield.com and siriusxm.com and they both said they are totally sold out. At crutchfield they said that they had “thousands and thousands of presales”. The shipment only went toward these pre-sales. These people are all gonna need Subs – thousands and thousands!
Not to take a critical tone, but is this what 2.0 is in a nutshell?
– Caching of 5 stations for non linear play back (i.e. pause, FF, REW, tune start, 30 min buffers…)
– Art and info via wi-fi if available
– A few more (greatly) compressed stations that are not compatible with most existing equipment (from an earlier article)
In retrospect, I guess that really is all that they can do.
The sound is incredible like the difference in regular tv and HD. I got the 2.0 Edge just for the sound!
The sound is better on stars 2? Its the standard talk channels that sound tinny on regular sirius radios. Except for Stern and OandA whose talk channels run on the music stations compression. If you are telling me the regular talk channels and lesser sports radio channels sound better, i may upgrade to a future radio that offers more. My sportster 5 is a dream to use.
When is a radio that supports 2.0 coming out for Sirius customers?
My stiletto 2 crashes every couple months and requires device recovery. I went to buy a Lynx at Best Buy but they say I CANNOT move my LIFETIME Sirius subscription over to the Lynx since it’s XM. WTF!!!! Not the same company? KMPA!!! Kiss My Pimply A**. Very stupid business policy
As I am shaking out the many features of my new Lynx, I just discovered a RIDICULOUS software issue. When screen is off/locked, as you would probably prefer when putting in your pocket to listen to recorded content, the A2DP Bluetooth controls are also ‘locked’ out (unusable)… are you kidding me?
ALSO, you CANNOT connect a bluetooth headset while vehicle kit has headphone/line-out jack occupied. WRONG! Bluetooth should trump line-out or at least have option to.