It was only one day ago that TiPb asked, where is the official Sirius XM iPhone application? Well it seems like our question has, for the most part, been answered.

“The SIRIUS XM app will deliver an expanded programming lineup that includes SIRIUS XM’s exclusive sports talk, news, comedy, and 100% commercial free music channel, as well as new talk, comedy, and music showcase channels.”

Turns out the application will be free but — and that’s a big but — there will be subscription fees. You can either have a stand alone streaming subscription which is $13.00 a month or have a normal subscription with an additional $3.00 a month fee tacked onto what you are already paying. There is still no word on when the application will be released but our guess is you will see it around the time iPhone OS 3.0 drops this summer.

So there you have it folks… Excited? Disappointed? Let us know what you are thinking in the comments!

[Via BusinessInsider]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Sirius XM App Finally Gets Outed!

Confession: I haven’t listened to FM radio since… well, since I got my iPhone, but it seems FM isn’t just for Top 40 any more. 9 to 5 Mac, which found more details on the previously mentioned Broadcom BCM4329 wireless chip, which could include:

the ability to receive and send (the previous model could only receive) information through FM radio signals which theoretically could be used to broadcast sound into car stereos..without external adapters. It could also be used to pick up FM radio music, news and sports broadcasts on their iPhones and even, in August, on iPods. Currently the FM reciever is only used to pick up communications from the Nike+ peripheral.

Of course, just because the chip supports it, doesn’t mean Apple will surface that support, or use it for anything other than what it already does (like Nike+).

But here’s the thing: are the rumors flying just a little too fast and too far now? Are we really going to get everything and a bag of quad-core chips in the next iPhone hardware release, or are we — as per standard internet protocols — just hyping ourselves up for massive disappointment come June?

[via MacRumors]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Next Gen iPhone to Support… FM Radio?!

Well it is official, Sirius XM will be streaming it’s satellite radio content sometime this spring according to CNBC. This announcement has come very quickly after Nicemac announced they were closing shop and this is exactly what we predicted was going on from the first time StarPlayr was “not accepted” by Apple. Mel Karmazin, chief executive of New York-based Sirius said:

“It behooves us to consider every possible way to grow our subscriber base.”

Good idea Mel, unfortunately no other details have emerged as to price or an exact date they plan to roll this out. So all of you Howard fans out there can finally breath easily, you will soon be able to stream Sirius XM content right on your beloved iPhones.

Bobba Booey to ya’ll!

[Via CNBC. Thanks to Mike for the tip.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Sirius to Stream Content to iPhones (Officially)

This past week has not been a good one for Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Reports of the company preparing for a bankruptcy filing have been all over the news. On the bright side of things, uSirius StarPlayr, which allows you to listen to all of your favorite satellite stations streamed directly onto your iPhone, is on the horizon.

It seems the only delay at the moment is the final approval from Apple. Looks like it may be 2-4 more weeks before we see this in the App Store. Some of the features of StarPlayr are:

• Works with iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch
• Edge, 3G, WiFi
• Sirius or XM accounts
• US and Cananda
• Suggested Retail Price $12.99

So with a price tag of $12.99 how many of you are willing to pick this up to carry your favorite channels with you on the go?

Update: Yes, you indeed do need a monthly subscription to Sirius Xm.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

uSirius StarPlayr: Sirius XM Radio on Your iPhone

Well I’m sure by now you have heard the latest Smarthphone Experts Roundtable Podcast! (If you haven’t had a chance to listen you better get on it, great podcast!)

You may have heard our very own fearless leader, Dieter, chime in on one thing that he hates about iPhone 3G, the fact that you can not turn on Wi-Fi while the radio is off (in Airplane Mode). Or so Dieter thought. You can indeed turn Wi-Fi on while the radio is off! And doing so is a snap!

First go into your Settings – Turn on Airplane Mode – and then turn your Wi-Fi connection on.

Now you can enjoy browsing the internet, checking emails, or anything else data related all without the radio on!

[Ed: Thanks also to Stephen Sizemore for bringing this up in the podcast comments! Let us know how that works for you, b'okay boss?]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

How To: Turn on WiFi While the iPhone 3G/EDGE Radio is Off

Patent filings sometimes clue you in to the direction a company is headed with their devices. Sure, some are crazy and others are ridiculous, but you can get a general sense of what the company is trying to accomplish in those stencil-like drawings and comic-like blurbs.

Well, Apple has filed a patent that strongly hints toward developing an add-on/dongle/hub/dock-type device that will accept AM, FM, HD, or satellite radio along with cable TV, satellite TV, antenna, or IPTV. The multiple connecting devices, as shown in the patent filing, could range from being a dock, a stereo, or even a computer.

What makes this Apple patent unique is its ability to “tag” information about the current movie, TV show, or song, allowing you to save the information presumably to let iTunes develop a list of movies, shows, and music you might be interested in.

Honestly, I’m lukewarm about this “media extender” device coming into fruition partly because I would hate to have a dongle attached to my iPhone and more importantly, can’t imagine Apple pushing media that isn’t sold through their iTunes pipeline.

Either way, this patent filing makes for good conversation. What do you think?

ReadVia

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TV on the iPhone? Patent Says Yes!

(Today’s Lightning Review comes from BaLLi5t1c, a full review of the awesome Pandora Radio app (available on iTunes for free!). BaLLi5t1c gets a 25% off coupon to the iPhone Blog Accessory store. Want one yourself? Post a review in our forums — full details here)

This is my first time writing a review for an iPhone app, partly because I just received my 16GB Black this past Friday and partly because I’ve been basking in the glory that is the App Store, and I couldn’t think of a more deserving app than Pandora Radio to review.

For those of you who have never heard of Pandora Radio, I’m sure you’re wondering what it is exactly and why I would make such a bold statement in my title. Allow me to enlighten you.

To put it lightly, Pandora Radio is a heaven-sent program/application that will allow you to stream music that you’ve never heard of but probably should have, music that you listened to many moons ago but somehow let slip into obscurity with those passing moons, music that is probably still in your current rotation in iTunes, and anything in between. Not too shabby, eh?

You might ask, “BaLLi5t1c, how does it do all of that without me hand-picking all of the artists and songs that I want to hear?”

(Disclaimer: This initial section is just to give would-be users an idea of how great this program works from a real-world/user perspective. I have a “Functions” section below that details what you can expect from the menus and features of the app itself. Feel free to skip to that portion if you just want to find out the basics/technicalities of Pandora Radio.)

The logistics are anything but simple and I won’t even pretend to understand all of the intricacies but if I were to hypothesize, I would have to guess that it boils down to old-fashioned voodoo magic. Ok, I admit I’m no scientist and my hypothesis is far from accurate but if you do want more detailed information on this truly spectacular process I would advise checking out Pandora Radio – Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music for an overview and FAQ for an in-depth explanation (other than voodoo) of how it all works.

As soon as I installed the app, I clicked on “Create a Station” and typed in Three Days Grace as the artist I was interested in. The first song that played was, as you might have guessed, by Three Days Grace. I enjoyed that song so I hit the “thumbs up” icon but wanted to delve further into what this handy-dandy app could offer. I hit the “next track” button and a song played that I had not listened to since back in 2006 when I played it several times a day for at least a month (10 Years – Wasteland in case anyone was curious). By that point, I was seriously intrigued but wanted to see what else this puppy could do. I hit “thumbs up” and then went to the next track and I couldn’t believe my ears. Disturbed – Stricken fired right up which coincidentally happened to be the artist whose newest album had been playing in my car non-stop since I purchased it several weeks ago. That was when I thought to myself, “Get out of my head,” then after realizing what I had stumbled upon, immediately retracted that thought and clicked “next track.” I’ve not looked back and I couldn’t be happier. The icing on the cake? It’s ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Functions:

The layout is pretty straight-forward and I don’t anticipate anyone having issues navigating the menus/using the app itself but if you do and don’t feel like perusing through the site or FAQ for your concerns, I’ll do my best to answer any questions you might have right here. As you can see in the screen shot below, all of your current stations are listed (determined by what you search for using the “+” in the left-hand corner) and there’s a “QuickMix” station which basically melds all of your tastes together and samples them accordingly (Note: Stations included in the “QuickMix” can be edited from the site listed above).

Once you’re actually listening to a station, you’ll be looking at a very eye-catching screen with various options allowing you to manipulate and refine your experience even further. In the screen shot below, you can see the “thumbs down/up” buttons which are pretty self-explanatory meaning that you either like the song or you don’t and WILL have an effect on future choices presented to you through this application (read more on the impact your actions have in the FAQ listed above). There are also options to bookmark the song and/or artist and even purchase the song via iTunes which can be accessed by clicking the little up arrow between the “thumbs down/up” buttons.

If you are curious as to why a particular artist/song was chosen for your listening pleasure, you can click the button in the right-hand corner (kinda looks like a few bulleted lines) and it will bring up an in-depth explanation that may or may not go right over your head but it’s comforting to know that the selections aren’t just lucky guesses.

To ensure that users are actually rating the music/not just browsing for the sake of browsing, you’re limited to six (6) skips/next track selections per station per hour. So, if you have multiple stations with similar artists you can workaround this in a sense because you get six (6) skips on each per hour.

Note: If you hit “thumbs down” on a song, it will stop playing and go to the next song. This is considered a “skip” and will count towards your allotted six (6) per hour.

Pros:

• Accuracy with which it picks and chooses artists/songs based on your tastes is simply astonishing.
• Quality of the streams is definitely above-average and will please practically anyone utilizing this incredible app.
• Speed of streaming is quite impressive. My first encounter with the app as recounted above was on the EDGE network and the load-times were definitely tolerable then. On 3G and Wi-Fi, you’ll be going through songs at almost the same rate as you would by clicking “Next” in iTunes.
• Cover-Art/aesthetics when you’re actually listening to a song is top-notch.
• Easy-to-navigate menus and two volume controls based on your access to the device (on-screen slider and dedicated volume keys on side of the device).
• Seamless integration with your account via Pandora Radio – Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music and the ability to access all of the same features and then some while on the site.

Cons:

• Playback volume leaves a bit to be desired when just listening via the external speaker making it difficult to entertain multiple people in the same room without huddling around the device.
• The initial menu where all of your stations are listed is almost too simplistic visually. It’s not that it doesn’t do the job but it pales in comparison to the view you enjoy once you’re actually listening to one of your stations.
• Inability to edit/remove bookmarks and re-name stations unless using the online portal (Pandora Radio – Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music) slightly tarnishes the otherwise brilliant experience.
• Makes you want to worship your shiny Apple toy more than you already do!!!

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 – Highly Recommended

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Lightning Review: Pandora