GPS, once a fabulously expensive tool for the military, has dropped in price enough to become part of everyday life. Businesses are moving in to offer satellite tracking of everything from school buses to errant spouses, selling security but also raising privacy concerns.

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Originally from washingtonpost.com

XM MyFi first impressions:

1. I’ve tried using it as a portable several times. If you’re stationary, it works fine. If you’re moving, it is essentially useless unless you use the ultra-geeky mobile antenna. Without using the antenna, the signal keeps cutting out when you move. I tried clipping the antenna to the back of my hat, and the MyFi worked great while I was moving. The only time it cut out was when I walked under a grove of trees. Admittedly, my wife said I looked like a dork with the wire running up my back, and people did tend to walk away when I approached (even more so than they usually do).
2. It works well as a stereo add-on once you place the home antenna against a window and align it, but I think I’d rather have a component size receiver that could possibly use my DirecTV dish as its antenna. I have the unit in the kitchen, and the signal will sometimes cut out when I use the microwave or 2.4ghz cordless phone. The 2.4ghz phone also kills my wifi connection.
3. It should have a boom box attachment, because this would make a nice kitchen radio or a nice picnic stereo if it had the boom box attachment. It sounds like an opportunity to sell a small stereo with an aux input for the kitchen.
4. It works well in the car. All I had to do was plug in the dc adapter, place the magnetic mobile antenna on the dash (the top of my dash is metal), and tune the radio to 88.1. In under a minute, we had bluegrass playing from the only speaker (right rear) that still works in the 87 Plymouth Gran Fury.
5. The remote has a previous channel button, but the receiver doesn’t have one.
6. Instead of beeping to tell me one of my favorite artists is playing, it should automatically record the song.
7. It needs page up/down buttons.
8. Instead of recording 5 hours of 1 channel, record 5 hours of all channels or at least a couple of channels that I choose.
9. I’d like to be able to pause what’s currently playing, like Tivo.
10. I’d like to be able to record the song that’s currently playing without wiping out everything that’s already recorded.
11. My wife wanted to take the MyFi to work until she found out it wouldn’t work because she isn’t near a window. She took a clock radio instead. The MyFi definitely did not make the favorable impression on her like Tivo did. She liked the music selection, but considers the device more Steve’s toy than anything else.
12. I’d like more public radio channels, but apparently Sirius has an exclusive agreement with most of them.
13. I like XM’s selection, programming, and lack of commercials. I think that did a pretty good job with the MyFi’s user interface, but if I had to pay $350 for a portable music device, I don’t think I would have bought it. I can get a 20G Ipod for $295 . That leaves $55 to purchase an Itrip2 FM Modulator and mobile power cord with dock connector. The XM monthly fee is $9.99, which would be 10 songs per month from the Itunes store. XM Radio online is an additional $3.99 per month, and that would be another 4 songs per month from the Itunes store.