The police around Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville Texas have a fancy new communications system that broadcasts their 10-4s and 187s up to 50kms, which coincidentally enough is screwing up a fancy radio-controlled networked sprinkler system in that general area. Turning off the sprinklers may not sound like it does anything except for making the grass die, but that's exactly what local residents are pissed off about—pissed off enough to get the FCC involved. Too bad for residents that the precedent for FCC decisions on cases where two frequencies overlap is to award use to public safety. If they don't, those same residents would be enjoying that fresh, green lawn when they're burning to death. [Dallas News]

Read More »

The second version of the Slacker portable personalised radio player has appeared on the FCC site. Called the Slacker G2, it can store 4GB of music, and has 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, and FM receiver capabilities. You can check its back after the jump.

Read More »

From Samuel Rhoads-Clarke, KitRadio is part DIY radio, part mini-artwork diorama. It's designed to teach you about the inner workings of a gizmo that we take for granted as a "black box" item nowadays, or "become familiar with the technology behind the product" as Samuel puts it. To that end, the wooden box and components with brass images attached are self-assembly, and create a tiny urban- or farm-scene diorama when they're completed. Sounds totally bizarre, and slightly cute at the same time... just the right thing to get techy kids interested. No word on whether it'll become a product rather than a prototype. [Dezeen]

Read More »

Thank goodness the brightest television inventors of our generation aren't the prudish sorts who will pull words like "cunt" from our morning weather report. Because then even the sunniest days would be filled with the subfusc clouds of rain.

* If the repetition of the word "cunt" didn't give it away, this video has an NSFW audio track. [via bbGadgets]

For most of us, the deciding factor against getting satellite radio are those pesky subscription costs. Now Sirius has just signed a deal with Automobili Lamborghini to offer the car customers free lifetime service of Sirius. One word of caution: The deal starts with the 2009 Murciélago. So make sure you don't buy a 2008 Lamborghini only to find yourself jacked with huge, unexpected fees.

AU: I'd very much doubt that this is for Aussies, but if anybody out there is looking to buy a 2009 Lamborghini, feel free to let us know.

Read More »

It's not official yet, but FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (one of five relevant votes) has decided to allow the merge between Sirius and XM satellite radio providers. However, there are a few caveats that the companies would need to... Read More »

XM Satellite Radio and EMI Music have settled the lawsuit over the recording of digital songs by XM users. Nobody knows the terms of the deal, but it probably involves virgins and kittens' blood. [Reuters]

Read More »

Forget the boringly-plastic iPod boomboxes we've shown you before: I want one of these. It's in period aviation "Spirit of St Loius" style: wooden cabinet, shiny dials and satisfyingly chunky switches, meant to look like a WWII battlefield radio. Inside there's an iPod dock, CD player and AM-FM radio that's also an alarm clock. It's powered by 8 "D" batteries, so you can haul it along to picnics in the park, and measures 48 x 22 x 20 cms. The one drawback: it's price is also satisfyingly chunky at US$586. [Product via BBGadgets]

Read More »

Just two days after touchdown, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander—photographed here by Mars Odyssey— is having problems with their UHF radio, which was used more than a hundred times before but now is refusing to work. Without it, you can't give orders to the spacecraft, but don't fret: fortunately they can use the orbiter to relay signals, as well as activating the secondary radio unit available on board. NASA said the problem was caused by a "transient event." What does that mean? They don't know for sure, and that means we can pick our own.

Read More »

This Smart Dog USB hub is a bit of a three-in-one marvel. As well as the four USB ports, the bow-wow acts as a shonky computer speaker. Then, if you rip the head off this iridescent puppy, you've got yourself a portable radio with autoscan capability. Cost is US$19.15. [Gearlog via UberGizmo]

Read More »