More cool stuff discovered at DemoFall 2006

Even cool guys like me can't get the scoop on everything before a Demo show; there are some latecomers that show up and knock 'em out of the park with the "ooh" factor. That's why we go to the show - to make sure we find out about them. Here's two more products that impressed me at last week's show in San Diego (full coverage of DemoFall is online).

Forget the Zune, the real iPod killer that starts with a Z could come from Zing Systems. The company teamed up with Sirius Satellite Radio to produce the Stiletto 100, a "live portable radio" device that streams Sirius programming and also has storage capabilities for a user's own MP3 and Windows Media files.

In addition to the satellite receiver, the Stiletto 100 has a Wi-Fi radio that can receive the Sirius stream when a user doesn't have a good satellite signal (such as a lot of indoor locations). I was very pleased that the device supports not only Wired Equivalent Privacy, but also Wi-Fi Protected Access, for users who have a secured wireless network in their homes.

Other Stiletto 100 features are about 2GB of storage for as much as 100 hours of content automatically recorded from favorite Sirius channels, the ability to schedule the recording of as much as six hours of talk or music, and a button that the user can press to save as much as 10 hours of favorite individual songs from Sirius broadcasts.

The Stiletto 100 is scheduled to start shipping this week for about $350, with a $70 vehicle kit and $70 home kit available.