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Top choices to record video, listen to tunes, call friends.

… For iPod lovers who have used other schemes to bring their playlists on the road, such as gizmos that locate empty radio frequencies, plugging your player right into the stereo provides vastly superior sound.

For less than $200, depending on the retailer, this car stereo also plays CDs, can be adapted for satellite radio and, oh yes, plays terrestrial radio. One drawback: I've misplaced the manual and can't figure out how to reset my clock for daylight-saving time.

Another great item for the car is a GPS navigation system. While new models seem to pop up each month, I'm fond of the TomTom Go 910. The reason is simple: It's small and portable. If you're a road warrior and find yourself renting cars across the country, the TomTom fits nicely into a bag and will plug into whatever car you rent.

The satellite identifies your location, and you're ready to hit the road. Another nice feature is the ability to store MP3 files and digital photos. Really, that's unnecessary, but you never know when showing the clients a cute picture of your kid, and your innovative use of technology, will seal the deal.

Prices vary for GPS devices, and this model can be found online from $600 to $700.

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Arguably, Sirius and XM have matched each other's hardware options. And now their attention is on programming.

As the underdog, Sirius has made a lot of noise lately, nailing down an exclusive deal with the National Football League, for example.

Subscribers can tune in hometown broadcasts of their favorite teams no matter where they're traveling. To reinforce its NFL image, Sirius has helped create the $99.99 Sirius Sportster, a handheld receiver that can issue alerts when the team takes the field. The receiver can also display scores of other ongoing games.

Sirius spokesman Ron Rodriguez says the NFL deal has energized subscriptions this fall. More than half of the NFL fan base doesn't live in the city of their favorite team, he notes.

XM is the satellite home of NASCAR and a variety of college sports. Mr. Patterson says XM passed on the NFL because it could not justify the expense for 18 weeks of programming.

In August, XM hired Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, a shock jock team fired by Infinity Broadcasting Inc. two years ago. They've been packaged on a premium channel available for an extra $1.99 a month.

In July, National Public Radio announcer Bob Edwards, former host of Morning…

…news official. Here's what it means for subscribers.

Question. | What's the point of the merger?

Answer. | To effect cost savings and create a more competitive product. The companies have been dueling to the death to nab high-profile content, paying hundreds of millions to lock up exclusive deals with a Howard Stern or Oprah Winfrey, NFL, NBA or NASCAR (which just this month shifts alliances from XM to Sirius).

Stopping the infighting, and combining XM's 8 million subscribers and Sirius' 6 million, gives them a much bigger bat to make deals with content providers, a larger audience to spread out costs and a more attractive product to lure new customers and advertisers (for the non-music channels).

Getting rid of content redundancies - such as similarly programmed rock, country, Latin, classical and mainstream jazz formats - will save a few bucks, while surely ticking off loyalists. Combining support departments, from marketing to product development, will save a lot more money.

Q. | I'm already a satellite radio subscriber. Will I need a new radio?

A. | For the immediate future, no. But to take full advantage of the combined service's expanded offerings - likely to include back-seat mobile video channels for the kids, more foreign language outlets and maybe music-on-demand downloads - you'll eventually…

…or capital structure. EBITDA is frequently used as one of the bases for comparing businesses in our industry, although our measure of EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. EBITDA does not purport to represent operating loss or cash flow from operating activities, as those terms are defined under generally accepted accounting principles, and should not be considered as an alternative to those measurements as an indicator of our performance. (2) Total net subscriber additions for the three months ended December 31, 2005, include 782,420 retail (includes data services), 114,084 OEM, and 1,811 rental car net additions. (3) Ending subscribers at December 31, 2005 include 1,127,350 family plan subscriptions at a multi-unit rate of $6.99 per radio per month. (4) OEM Promotional Subscribers are subscribers who have either a portion or their entire subscription fee paid for by an OEM for a fixed period following the initial purchase…
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That concerns guys like Peter MacGillivray, a vice president with the Specialty Equipment Market Association, an industry group that represents aftermarket audio manufacturers and other auto accessory sellers.

"There is some concern from our members they may be shut out in the future because auto electronics systems have become so advanced," he said. "A car radio is no longer just a car radio."

In some new cars, safety equipment such as air-bag deployment is housed in the same space as the radio, making it dangerous to tamper with a factory-installed stereo.

MacGillivray loves the notion of having a USB hub in a car.

"Our industry can do so much more with an entry port like that than just plugging in an iPod," he said. "There are opportunities in that technology."

Those opportunities are coming, even if the current technology isn't perfect. My USB hub, for instance, didn't work initially with my older, prevideo iPod. A $50 attachment was needed to make nice, but for newer iPods, including the video model and the Nano, the JVC unit works perfectly out of the box.

And no matter what new gadget comes along, my JVC system is flexible enough to handle…