Aluratek AIRJ01F USB Internet Radio Jukebox

• USB plug-n-play (no software to install)
• Search for music by Genre or geographically (over 300 countries) and 13,000 channels
• Save all your favorites right to the USB drive and take it with you when you travel.
• No monthly costs!
• Keep a list and vote for your favorite radio stations to tabulate TOP 10 genre and region lists among all users.

It's pretty straight-forward: it lets you listen to thousands of radio stations that broadcast on the Net. As I write this review, I am sitting here, on the US East Coast, listening to some Icelandic rock station. In the past couple of hours I browsed through radio stations based in France, the Philippines, UK and, I believe Thailand. Pretty cool, eh?

But, let's summarize:

Installation: super-easy. You stick the USB thing into the proper port and you get prompted to allow for the software to install on your computer at least that's what Vista does.

Interface: you get 2 top-10 lists that can be expanded to top-100, by region or by genre. The tops are not too useful, unless you really believe that the number one talk station in the world is broadcasting from Bulgaria but, it's fun to have them there. The categories are usually hit and miss you are almost as likely to find music on a 'talk' station as your are to find actual talk but... it's no big deal, believe me. The stations are also classified by Genre and Location and, within each of these, you can sort them by 'country' not all stations have a country assigned to them and Kansas and Kenya are both viewed as 'countries'. You can include individual stations on your favorite list and you can vote them up or down. There is also a 'history' section, a 'help' section and a link to the maker of the product. Oh, the bottom of the window is reserved for advertising but, I bet, you are NOT likely to stare at the Aluratek windows while listening to the radio so it's not bothersome.

Reception: each station shows a number of bars, telephone style 4 bars are supposed to be the clearest and no bars you probably can't get. The quality of your connection is, without a doubt, dependent of your own bandwidth. Depending of it and depending on many other factors, your connection may break from time to time or you may not be able to connect at all but, so far, I am happy with what I get.

Why I almost took out 1 star?

The interface could be improved. What I definitely miss is the ability to enter my own little notes to the stations that I mark as 'favorites'. The way they appear now which could be something like 'WKZR' or maybe a string of Chinese hieroglyphs is not always descriptive enough.

To summarize: if you spend a few hundred $$ for your laptop, I can't think of any good justification for not spending $20-30 on this little device.

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October 2, 2008 Update

I learned from a related discussion thread that there are 'free' sites that allow access to thousands of radio stations with some search capabilities. http://www.vtuner.com is one of them. Some may prefer to use such a site for their radio listening and save some money. Personally, having purchased this device, I am more likely to use IT than Vtuner but this is my personal preference only.

Buy Aluratek AIRJ01F USB Internet Radio Jukebox Now

The Aluratek Internet Radio Jukebox is great for finding & surfing radio stations around the world and playing them through a single interface. It performs this task very well. I had it up and running on my home PC in no time, just as advertised. Reasons I didn't give it 5 stars:

The interface itself is clunky, cryptic and a bit slow. It's easy enough to use, just kind of awkward.

It does not necessarily work on "locked down" office workstations. Although it doesn't need to install software to run, it does need to put a special driver in your Windows directory. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but something to be aware of.

All in all, the Internet Radio Jukebox is great for exploring Internet radio stations. If you'd like that process made simpler and more convenient, then you'll probably be happy with it. Otherwise, it's no different from just bookmarking your favorite stations with your Web browser.

Read Best Reviews of Aluratek AIRJ01F USB Internet Radio Jukebox Here

I got the jukebox for Xmas. I got it to work on Vista Ultimate and have no complaints. The jukebox is a complete waste of money! A person can down load Winamp(free download) and go to www.shoutcast.com and get over 10,000 streaming radio stations at no cost, Further the shoutcast website also has a shoutcast player! All of these services are free. Why pay $20 plus for a USB flash drive when you don't have too. Further you can't loose a Winamp player or Shoutcast Player!!

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I discovered this Aluratek AIRJ01F USB internet radio stick as an Amazon promotion. The idea that I could be anywhere in the world but easily hear my local radio stations sounded great. (Or vice versa -easily find broadcasts worldwide.) After checking the handful of reviews, I decided to take a chance -hardly a big loss if it didn't pan out. Well, I'm glad I did. It arrived in two days. I opened the package. The instructions said, "Plug it into the USB port." I did (on my laptop which runs Vista) and, lo and behold, the application immediately began to run, and a huge directory of worldwide web radio stations came up, organized in several different ways, and easily searchable. In seconds, I was listening to my home town radio station. One click later, I was checking out a station half a world away!

Then a friend called and, in passing, he mentioned that he never gets to hear broadcasts of his old college's football games, because the school is 600 miles away, and he often travels, anyway. I recommended this! Could he figure out how to get the webcasts without this inexpensive device? Maybe....No, obviously not. This makes finding numerous stations so easy, no matter where you are or what computer you're using.

One issue: I tried plugging it into a secure laptop which runs Windows XP, and the self-starting app did not run automatically. I'm still trying to track down the ActiveX setting which is preventing this. But, no problem, anyway: All you have to do is create a shortcut to the application on your desktop, and then clicking that will start it up.

Nifty and inexpensive little thing, makes staying local, or going global, with your web radio, so easy! These will make great Christmas gifts, too!

I was feeling nostalgic, remembering listening to BBC radio dramas when I was in college in Europe. I've tried to find them online with no luck.

Then I bought this tiny gadget.

I plugged it into my computer's USB port, and it's like going back in time. It works just fine on my computer running Windows XP. I can listen to radio dramas from the UK, music from Virgin Radio, Celtic stations from Ireland, and other favorites from around the world. I can also explore stations I've never heard of from pretty much every country on the globe.

Mind you, this device isn't perfect. It can take a few seconds for a radio station to start, sometimes you'll find a dead link, sometimes the sound drops a bit, though usually not much and certainly not as much as any other form of radio streaming I've found. Despite the drawbacks, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is missing a favorite radio station from another country. There's no reason to feel homesick anymore.

Likewise, if you're traveling with your laptop and you like to listen to American radio, you should probably take this with you. I've been in countries where I've had the hardest time finding anything on the radio I liked. With this device and a laptop with an Internet connection, you can take this comfort from home anywhere you go.