Sirius wields portable Stiletto

Satellite radio firm ships its portable, Wi-Fi receiver, letting users listen to both live and recorded music on the go; Yahoo Music software included.

Sirius Satellite Radio took its Stiletto out of the box today, unveiling its first portable Wi-Fi-ready receiver that lets users listen to live radio and transfer music wirelessly.

The sharply named device can store up to 100 hours of content, is able to record live satellite radio, and can play any music in the MP3 and Windows Media formats. The Tivo-like device automatically records the channel the user is listening to for up to an hour, letting the user pause and rewind the broadcast while listening.

Sirius has already released one device that lets users record and store content, but that device, the S50, requires the user to connect it to a car or home dock to receive live programming. The Stiletto can connect to the radio service from wherever there is a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The receiver has a 2.2-inch color LCD display and the ability to pause and replay up to 60 minutes of live content. It will be available next month and will retail for $349.95, largely in line with similar devices from Sirius rival XM, the XM2go. Sirius delayed the release the Stiletto several times, most likely to make the devices compliant with Federal Communications Commission regulations.

The Stiletto includes Yahoo Music Jukebox software, so users can buy music through that service onto their PC and transfer it to the receiver. Users can also bookmark a song on live radio and it will show up in a favorites list within Yahoo, prompting the user to buy the song through Yahoo. The setup is similar to a XM+Napster integration that XM uses.

Sirius has 64 commercial-free music channels, as well as two Howard Stern channels, a Martha Stewart Living channel, and a host of talk-radio channels.