The Infinite Dial

The trades have been quick to embrace the news that Polk Audio's next version of the I-Sonic radio will allow HD Radio listeners to tag and download songs from the iTunes Music Store. Radio, snubbed by the last round of iPod upgrades, is understandably excited about any connection to the iPod.

But don't get too excited yet.

As iN3 Partners' Robert Unmacht points out, "If all these things happen, you get to [buy] your song for 99 cents:

"Radio Station must be in HD;

"Radio Station must Apple encode;

"Radio must have HD;

"Radio must have iPod dock;

"Radio must be able to read and collect encoded data;

"iPod must have correct software on it to collect stored data;

"iPod must be docked with its [own] computer (iPods work with only one iTunes program);

"The computer must be on-line;

"The song must be available from iTunes;

"Your song downloads and is ready for play in iTunes and on the iPod."

Beyond that, several observers have noted that radio is giving Apple and iTMS a lot of agenda-setting power these days. With Apple having made it clear that an Internet Radio turner is not yet coming to the radio, maybe some of HD Radio's manufacturers would be better served to come up with a handheld version of The Infinite Dial. And if they come up with one that just happens to hold 10,000 MP3s, they might also get me to switch from iPod and iTMS, something nobody has even come close to doing so far.