While the consumer response has been chilly so far to “HD” radio, Sony has entered the market with their first radio, the XDR-Se3HD. Expecting to hit retail shelves in July for $200, it will also feature normal “clock radio” features, plus there is a jack that can be used for your MP3 player (or dare I say, Sirius radio).

For those of you that have no idea what HD radio is here’s a primer:

Free, over the air, “approaches” CD quality, HD stands for “Hybrid Digital” not High Definition. You can listen to 3 “streams” per radio station. Ex a Rock station can also send say a talk radio stream, and a classical stream on the same frequency

Pluses:
- It’s Free, over the air.. no extra subscription.
- 1300 radio stations available nationwide plus regular AM/FM stations
- A Very nice classic rich cherry looking design.

Minuses:
- Quality and choice of HD radio just isn’t as good as Satellite Radio, it’s still old school boring radio.
- The style, while nice may not fit into today’s living room that is mostly either black or silver in color.
- sound quality could be better

Hit or Miss >> Must Have Rating (out of 5)

3.5 – Hit!. If you are interested in HD radio, this Sony seems to be a nice unit, but make sure it will fit in with your other electronic decor.

GPS magazine got the first look at LG’s new Portable Navigator unit, the LN740. The review is large so go here to read it.. but we’ll recap here with our rating.

Pluses:
- The best routing/re-routing engine on the market today!
- Slim, simply gorgeous 4-inch design
- 6 hour battery life
- The unit announces street names
- 7 million points of interest, which additional category/sorting support
- can be used with Navteq’s real time traffic data (* requries a minus- ugly antenna)

Minuses:
- screen could be brighter with better resolution
- text & icons could be bigger for readability & usability
- color scheme and “night vision” need to be improved
- mp3/photo cannot be used when navigating — um who made that decision??
- No quick access to “home”
- uses 2006 mapping data, rather than 2007 data.
- high price ($500+) with lacking bluetooth support.

Hit or Miss >> Must Have Rating (out of 5)
4 – Hit!. Even with the minuses this is a very good product from LG. It surpasses the current #1 devices on the market in a number of areas. If they improved the display this would be a can’t miss item.

I’ve still yet to find a nice looking, well working FM transmitter.. DLO atleast serves one purpose, although not the one most have hoped for.

Less than a year after it’s CES refresh, version 3.0 of TransDock is now available.

Pluses:
- looks nice
- AV output from your iPod to your vehicle’s in-car display
- built in USB
- RF steering wheel remote (the minus can be that it may get in the way)

Minuses:
- price $129.99 — yowzers that’s a high price for a simple function with question reception
- no upgrade in transmission — which is poor

Hit or Miss >> Must Have Rating (out of 5)
2 – Miss The price is a big drag on this product, if there was an upgrade in the quality of the reception, the rating may be higher, but alas it is not.