Why did sirius discontinue this unit?
346579
I love it. So much better than the starmate 7. I wonder why Sirius discontinued it. All I see now are Onxy units. Which only work with XM. Very happy to find a starmate 8 on Amazon.
4075041
Mine is only 5 months old, with 7 months remaining on an alleged 12 month warranty.  Lasted 5 months then one day radio suddenly could no longer acquire a signal.  Checked antenna connection on back of docking station - OK.  Checked antenna wire for nicks, cuts or kinks - OK.  Popped radio into another docking station and it had no trouble acquiring a signal.  Finally, pried open back of antenna to have a look...completely corroded inside, no WAY it could be transmitting a signal to the docking station in that condition.  Sirius recommends that the antenna is installed outside the vehicle for optimal reception (there is even a high-powered magnet on the bottom for this purpose) and then supplies you with an antenna that can't take more than 5 months of weather!

Contacted Sirius via phone and e-mail.  Their final word after literally a WEEK of runaround: "Sorry, the warranty doesn't cover the antenna."  They said they were "happy to help!" and directed me to a website where I can PURCHASE a new antenna at roughly the cost of a whole new docking station.  Worst customer service I have ever encountered.  Expect hassles, frustration and perpetual problem-ridden-equipment expenses.
4080277
I bought my first satellite radio in my life in August of 2007 ( Sportster 4 w/ Car Kit) and my antenna went bad after a month (Message said: "Antenna not detected") Sirius was great about quickly sending me a replacement, though I had to pay another $30 in labor to have it professionally installed (again). Just over a month later, I am now getting bad reception with the occasional message: "Acquiring Signal" and no audio. So I called Sirius to get ANOTHER antenna and they wanted to send an entire replacement Sportster 4 w/ Car Kit, have me play around and find the bad parts and THEN ship the unused parts back AT MY COST!!! I could not get them to pick up the tab on an approximate $6 shipping charge. I don't mind paying this if this was the only time, but this is the 2ND TIME IN 3 MONTHS OF OWNERSHIP THAT THIS PRODUCT HAS GONE BAD!!!  Consequently, we had bought a 2nd Sportster 4 that stopped working in a week (the unit itself went bad) but they quickly sent a replacement to us. Seems like there's some quality control issues at SIRIUS.

***Addendum 4/2008: Had another antenna fail on me and had to replace it. Sirius customer service was quick to send a free replacement, and an install card to cover my costs for installing the new one. But I'm getting SICK AND TIRED of having to keep replacing these damn things!!!
4108866
It was great for a while. I bought this back in January 2016. But with the newer android phones the android auto freezes up on the radio. Although continues just fine on the phone. Pandora app and other misc apps no longer function. Last firmware update for this radio was September 2015. Contacted Kenwood and they pretty much said they weren't supporting it anymore. "We have no update for your radio planned at this time."
3115773
This timer was pulled from distribution and discontinued for good reason.  Intermatic designs and manufactures some of the best timers available, but this one fell extremely short.
2101735
Sure it now costs twice as much before they stopped manufacturing but hey, should have gotten it sooner!  This rocks (Lithium, Alt Nation).  I can now use my JRV-212T in dash stereo to control SiriusXM. Sounds AWESOOOOOMMMME. Get yours today. You will not be disappointed (unless they run out, in that case, oh well, sucks to be you).
1092810
This was a decent item...shame they discontinued it.
267437
Since all that was available were reconditioned units, I assume this model has been discontinued by the manufacturer. I've been very happy with a previous iHome model and thought I should get this rechargeable unit while still available. The unit works flawlessly and sounds very good for a small speaker. Its primary purpose is for "personal space," but the sound can also fill a room, if there are not too many other competing noises.
836630
I've had that radio for over 2 years now and it was major upgrade from my old one. I do like the auto recording feature and the option to use it as portable radio even though I never took advantage of it. I was really excited for the MP3 feature, but very soon found out that it's completely useless since it doesn't give you very good search options - like IPod for example. You can browse by Artist, Album, Genre, Songs but you can't drill down like Genre/Artist/Album, you get everything in each category and that's it - very poor design and not practical if you load 8G + of music. The wheel is very touchy and if you try to use it the car it's almost dangerous since you have to look at the screen and hope that it wouldn't skip your selection. I would have liked the options of buttons for stations on the car dock so you easily change them when you drive without looking (SkyFi2 had them). Battery life is average at best, but if you are to use it with live satellite radio it would last for about an hour. My biggest beef with XM is that they haven't release any new decent radios for over 2 years now. You would think with the fast pace of phone and portable device development you will have some more sophisticated radios by now, but I guess not. Also I can't believe they still ask over $150 for 3 year old design, this should be almost free with the subscription rates we pay. I guess you can do that when you monopolize the market.
820974
I ended up having to upgrade my Ipod (after 5 years it finally crashed). In the process I decided that I would go to an Ipod touch and add the SiriusXM app. With that I was now in the market for a new receiver for my pick-up, and this is the only option.

I origanally was a Sirius subscriber before the merger. What woud have been AWESOME to know is that the two are still not compatible. I had to get a new subscription and a new account! I now have two recievers one Sirius and one XM. Not exactly the streamline process that I wanted. SiriusXM customer help was NO help.

If you were originally a Sirius subscriber beware. You WILL be required to get a new account. Activation fee and all. Not happy with the process. Almost ready to return everything. But now I would have a $75 fee to cancel the subscription.
388490
I had the unpleasant surprise of being one of the people that had their wireless devices being discontinued after it was past its warranty period. In other words, even though my unit is still in excellent working condition, it apparently was discontinued and no longer can be registered to receive weather forecasts. Weather Direct changed their service provider and during that process they decided that my model is no longer to receive weather forecasts. In order for me to continue to receive their service I would have to purchase a new one even though the one that I have had been working prior to the change of service. That tells me that the unit was still working until they decided not to recognize it. It is not like they have so many models to provide service to. They just simply decided that I had received service long enough and now they decided to cut me off until I purchase a new unit. The gateway itself still works. I just cannot get my wireless device to receive signal from the gateway. All I get is a message saying, "NO GOOD". I did everything that their website instructed me to do.
It is also true that their weather forecasts are not very accurate. I just simply used it as a means to get a general idea of the upcoming weather. In general, it gave me an idea whether the upcoming weather would be sunny or not. The other aspects were not very accurate and I did not expect it to be. For example, it would show sunny day for the upcoming day but it would be cloudy. If it indicated rainy day, it would usually be rainy or there would be drizzle. But then there would be inexplicable predictions for sunny day and it would be rainy. A few times I had a forecast of snow but I live in Hawaii!
I received this product as a gift and have no plans of purchasing a replacement receiver as Weather Direct instructs me to. If I ever am unfortunate to receive another one as a gift, I will return it to the store from where it came from. I will never purchase any of their products due to their poor business model. I will be writing to the Better Business Bureau and encourage others to do the same.
2364893
I used this stereo for a while and it was ok but lacked in features so its understandable why it was discontinued
3183510
...it appears the company decided to discontinue it.  Too bad.  I had to find an alternative from a different company. Now I use Wrigley's sugar free Cobalt blue.
936912
This unit is defective.  There is a documented problem with the fine tuning in lower and upper sideband and although this problem has been fixed in NEW radios, Electronnix is still selling the defective radios.  This radio was manufactured over a year ago and should have been taken off the market and not being sold through Amazon.  VERY DISSATISFIED that Electronnix (KAITO) would still be selling this radio to unsuspecting buyers.  BUYER BEWARE buying this unit from Electronnix (KAITO).
1033480
I purchased this item in March 2013 to replace an Oregon Scientific product that quit working.  I really liked the features and the unit worked great until a few weeks ago.  I noticed that the alert function stopped working. I was getting weather alerts on my cell, but nothing from the radio.  I've tried re-programming it several times.  Powered it down including removing the batteries and unplugging the AC adapter then reprogramming.  This radio has gotten great reviews, but looking at some of the one star reviews I have to think this is a common problem with this radio.
3881788
My wife loves Sirius XM.  I personally cannot stand it.  The quality had gone down due to limited bandwidth per channel.  If it was my choice I would cancel it.  I did give it a respectable 3 stars since it sounds much better than the OEM Subaru tuner.
1362858
This is a discontinued model, could not get this to operate and this is the 2nd unit I purchased but cant return since I had it hooked up to electrical box, get the updated newer WiFi model.