OTHER TECH

This update of the original SKYFi tuner has a sleek, modern look and good control layout - on the remote as well as the front panel. A socket on the bottom edge plugs into a mounting cradle. Mounting kits for car and home systems ($70 each) - and boats ($200) - are sold separately and include the appropriate antenna and power supply. The radio can also plug into other devices designed to accept it, like the SKYFi Audio System portable boomboxes ($100 and $200).

A new feature called 30-Minute Replay keeps the last half hour of whatever you've been listening to in memory, so you can go back and hear something again or pick up where you left off if you were interrupted. Call it TiVo for the radio. You can also add a ticker for up to 20 stocks that scrolls along the bottom of the display or set it up to scroll sports scores and other types of information instead. Except in a mode that scrolls the song titles, the display isn't fully readable from across a room, but that's the only annoyance I encountered (and one that won't come up at all in a car). Nicely done.