WiFi radios are becoming more and more popular with the increasing Internet wireless connectivity in our homes and offices, and this means that new gear is constantly being designed, addressing the most various needs and individual preferences. Acoustic Research is no stranger to manufacturing great audio equipment, and the CES 2009 was a very good opportunity to showcase two of its brand new WiFi/AM/FM radios, ARIR, with IR standing for Infinite Radio. There is nothing groundbreaking in these two new radios, but they come with a very sleek design and enhanced functionality.
The Acoustic Research ARIR Radios are just perfect for your home or office, and they'll surely look great in your bedroom, living room, or even in your kitchen.
Their moderate footprint makes them easy to integrate in pretty much any setting, while at the same time providing enough internal room for Acoustic Research to load them with all the tech goodies that cause a good radio to be a great one. These new units can be easily connected to the Internet, and even come with pre-paid subscriptions to Slacker Personal Radio, for easy customization – this way, you can be sure you'll have your fav radio news and music at hand anytime, just a press of a button away.
Besides USB/Ethernet connectivity bringing you tens of thousands of stations around the globe, the Acoustic Research ARIR Radios can also receive weather alerts via WeatherBug. Moreover, you can keep in touch with your local news thanks to the AM and FM tuners, while the alarm function will wake you up as needed. The ARIR come with 512 MB of storage to record your fav stations, if important shows are on while you're either away or asleep.
These products also allow you to rate songs using the Heart, Ban, or Tag options, thus endowing radio with a new feature on the interactivity side. The ARIR 200 unit will be available in February for an announced price of $129.99, while its bigger brother, the ARIR600i, will come in mid-May for $199.99. The latter boasts a full-function iPod dock and remote control, and sports a subwoofer for a punchier and more protruding sound.
We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is
.