Griffin Technology's radio SHARK 2 Review

I've been testing the radio SHARK 2 by Griffin Technology for a few weeks and a few of my friends have asked me when I would be writing my review of this product on my blog.

Griffin Technology has released 2 versions of the radio SHARK. The visible difference between the 2 versions is that the first release of the radio SHARK is white and the second release of the radio SHARK is black. My review is on the radio SHARK 2 which according to people who have tried/reviewed both versions being the later release of the product is also the better of the 2 products in terms of sound quality and radio reception.

The radio SHARK improves AM/FM radio in much the same way as a generic PVR improves television. It gets its name from the shape (it is shaped like a shark's fin).

The radio SHARK is an AM/FM radio that connects to a PC via USB and allows users to record programs as well as time-shift live radio. Using the radio SHARK, you are able to "pause" live radio with a user defined buffer of up to 99 minutes (with the included radio SHARK 2.1.0 Build 214 software). The radio SHARK is USB powered so you won't need a spare power outlet in order to use it.

In terms of the AM/FM reception, I find the audio from the radio SHARK 2 to be quite good. The radio SHARK 2.0 comes with an external antenna that can be used in the earphone jack. I find that even without the external antenna (or anything) plugged into the antenna/earphone jack, the sound quality is still quite good.

In addition to the external antenna and software CD, the radio SHARK 2 also comes with a USB extension cord. For best reception, I recommend placing the radio SHARK as far away as possible from the computer. I also recommend placing it away from any device that produces strong radio waves like a microwave, wireless router, etc.

When the radio SHARK is on, the lights on the side of it power up (can be user controlled via the included software).

I find that the software included with the product to be somewhat limited. It does what it was designed to do (pause live radio, instantly record the radio, automatically schedule recordings, manually tune to a radio station, change from AM band to FM band, add a particular radio station to your list of favourites, and jump a few seconds forward/backward during a radio broadcast). However, when listening to the radio, there is no time indication on the buffer. The visual buffer length is the same size regardless of how much time is buffered. The software records in 3 formats (WMA, WAV, or MP3) and the software also integrates the recordings into iTunes if necessary. I have not tested the iTunes integration since I didn't have an iPhone, iTouch, or iPod at the time of my testing.

I like the radio SHARK 2 but I found a bug with it. After running the program for a few hours (~5 or 6 hours), on my Vista PC, the audio quality would become incomprehensible for some reason. The sound quality after using the program for 5 or 6 hours becomes very distorted and it seemed as if it was overlapping 2 different radio stations into 1 so it was almost incomprehensible. I have tried various settings in order to fix this myself but haven't been able to. The only solution that I found was that in order to temporarily fix this, I would have to exit the program and restart it. This would of course reset the amount of audio that was already buffered to zero and the buffering would start from zero. I contacted technical support regarding this problem and other than having me uninstall/reinstall the software, they were of little help.

Since the product doesn't prominently appear on the company's homepage, I think that the product will be discontinued soon and they won't fix the problem. I have been able to.

If having the product run 24 hours is important to you, I can't really recommend the product based on my issue with it on my Vista PC. However, if you only plan on running the program for a few hours a day as well as being able to either schedule or manually record your radio programs/stations, it is a decent product. The only thing is that after the scheduled recording, the program will continue to run and after the 5 or 6 hours of running, the sound quality will become distorted again. If your next scheduled program occurs before you're able to reset the sound quality (be exiting the program), you will be recording something incomprehensible. I have created a script which exits the program after my scheduled recording finishes which helps solve this problem.

What I like about recording my radio programs/stations onto my computer's hard disk is that I can use the Aluratek's Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built-in WiFi and connect to my PC (configured as a media server) so that I can listen to my radio programs when I want even when I'm not in front of my PC. I can also place these radio station recordings onto my MP3 player or onto an iPhone/iPod/iTouch and listen to them when I'm outside of my home network.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Aluratek's Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built-in WiFi Review

I've tried Aluratek's Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built-in WiFi for a few weeks and here are my thoughts regarding this product.

Even though I've experienced a few bugs with this product, overall, I like it. However, I consider it to be somewhat expensive with a suggested retail price of $160+taxes+shipping (USD) when it isn't on sale and would probably not spend that much for what amounts to a fancy FM radio alarm clock with built in WiFi.

The internet radio stations are organized relatively well. They are organized by country or genre. My only negative comment is that sometimes the genre is not correct. For example, CJAD (a Montreal news talk AM station) is in the "news" genre and not the "news talk" genre. There are some other "mistakes" for example, I went through the "business" genre because I wanted to listen to some business news/stations and there were a few stations that sounded like regular news stations.

There are lots of internet radio stations listed in the menu. Some of them weren't playable. According the manual or the company's FAQ, this is probably because too many users are currently listening to that internet radio station.

The first thing that I did when I plugged in the internet radio was to update the firmware since it wasn't able to connect to my Linksys router for some reason. After updating the firmware for the internet radio, I was able to connect seamlessly.

The time can be manually set or it can be automatically set via NTP. I've noticed an occasional problem with the date and time. The problem is that sometimes it would randomly change to a totally random date/time. When I first started using the internet radio, this happened when I accessed the menu either via the remote control or by using the buttons on the radio itself. After contacting technical support and updating the firmware, the date/time didn't randomly change after I made a few menu selections using the remote control or the buttons on the top of the radio. However, I still have a problem with the day/time changing to a random date/time sometimes when the alarm goes on and I press the snooze. This problem doesn't happen all the time when I press the snooze or stop button but it does happen occasionally. Aluratek's technical support department has been helpful but my problem with the date/time randomly changing after pressing the stop/snooze button when my alarm goes on still happens occasionally. I haven't investigated whether this is because the time is set to synchronize with a NTP server and/or whether I'm using WiFi. Because of this bug/problem, I don't recommend using it as an alarm clock unless you're one of the people who never press the snooze button when the alarm goes on.

The unit does not have a battery backup but it will remember certain settings during a power failure. When the power is returned, if the clock is set to synchronize with the NTP server, the date/time will be correct.


One of the things that I like about this internet clock radio is that it has WiFi and it also has a LAN connection. Using the LAN connection, the internet clock radio can also double as a network access point for some of your other wireless devices. I haven't investigated this option since I am able to access the WiFi signal almost anywhere in my place so there is little need for me to use the internet clock radio as an access point.

The internet clock radio has a USB port which is used to update the firmware. The internet clock radio can also play MP3 files off a USB device (hard drive or USB memory stick) plugged into the USB port.

One of the features I like a lot about the Aluratek's internet radio alarm clock is that it can access a PC that is configured as a media server or a non-PC media server and play the MP3 files from a media server which is connected to the same internal network. I have a collection of MP3 audio files on my PC and I'm able to listen to the MP3 files on my internet radio clock in my bedroom.

The unit's display is somewhat bright and it cannot be dimmed. The display can only be turned on or off. There is also a preset so that it can always stay on or it can stay on for up to 30 minutes after the last command/button is pressed either on top of the radio or on the remote control.

If you have any questions/comments regarding my review on Aluratek's Internet Radio Alarm Clock with Built-in WiFi, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.