Logitech Squeezebox Radio

Rummage about in the Squeezebox Server's settings and you can now download a third party iPlayer plug-in that gives you access to all the BBC's Listen Again content. This feature does require that you have your PC or NAS box running, but it’s still better than a slap in the chops.

The Facebook app on this model shows others what you're listening to

Logitech is coy about the Radio's power output, but does reveal that under the fixed speaker grille lurks a 2cm soft-dome tweeter and a 7.6cm woofer. While the Radio lacks quite the same degree of wallop and musical ability as the Boom, it still doesn't sound at all bad for something of its size. You can easily crank the volume up to a room-filling 11 without things going sonically titsup.

Like seemingly every other connected gadget in this day and age, the Radio comes with an application store, which Logitech calls the Apps Gallery. Currently, the gallery holds 26 free apps including direct links on-line radio networks such as Shoutcast, a selection of music-on-demand services, custom radio including Last.fm, podcast aggregators like Mediafly and the inevitable Facebook and Flickr. You can find a complete list here.

With such a small screen we are not wholly convinced about the value of the Facebook app but we can see why Logitech has included it. Send a 'What I'm listening to' update to your Facebook page and a small icon of the Radio appears by the update. Click on it and you get taken to Logitech's web site. Now that's viral marketing.

Sadly some of the shine is knocked off the Radio by an act of frankly shocking tight-fistedness. Logitech doesn't supply the Radio with either a remote control or a battery –both of which are rather sold together as an ‘accessory pack’.

An Apps Gallery also exists to further enhance the Radio

To make matters worse the pack won't be available until February of 2010, and that's in the USA, so who knows when we will get it on this side of the Atlantic.