CeBIT 2008: Hands on With the Terratec Noxon iRadios for iPod

CeBIT, world's second largest technology expo and show, had quite a bunch of surprises for the technology lovers. Noxon was also present with a broad offering for the radio enthusiasts. Their network audio player lets you enjoy Internet broadcasts, as well as your own music stored on the hard drive. If you're a radio enthusiast, it's time you ditch your AM/FM Radio and tune in to a brand new frequency.

The Noxon iRadio comes with a retro look-and-feel, including the classical rounded corners and a simple, yet stylish color profile. The only discrepancy is caused by the large LCD screen that gives the device a high-end touch. It reflects the currently playing media and the current state of the device.

The built-in speaker delivers crystal-clear sound with enough power for an accurate playback in the whole room. Should you require more than the speaker's power, you can always connect it to a high-definition sound system with additional amplification, whether you're expecting select guests or just getting ready for an informal LAN-party.

The iRadio can be controlled easily, either via the front panel buttons, or via the remote control that ships with the device. It can connect to the Internet using a standard Cat5 cable. If your network includes a wireless router, it can directly connect using the built-in WLAN interface. The iRadio can play all the common music formats, including the ones protected with the DRM10 standard, such as the tracks downloaded from Musicload.

More than that, you can run any choice of operating system on your computer, as the NOXON iRadio comes with bundled software for Windows, Mac and Linux.

No matter how much we would love the idea of having the option of wireless Internet radio available along with the PC-based multimedia collection, the $300 selling price is a little disappointing, given the fact that there are other, cheaper solutions to deliver pretty much the same functionality. But hey, they say that everything's in the looks, right?



Live report by Bogdan Popa and Alex Vochin from CeBIT 2008 Hanover, Germany.