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Sirius XM Introduces 'XM SkyDock' Satellite Radio Adapter for iPhone and iPod Touch

MN1974 said:
Get yourself Wunderadio to get real radio from all over the world, or get yourself Pandora to get really cool music, and forget about having a satelite radio on your iPhone.
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Give me a ****ing Internet connection in every part of the country, including INTERSTATES, and I'll think about your suggestions. But also given that I listen to Opie & Anthony, who aren't on Pan****ingdora, the suggestions are a wash.

Not everyone listens the same way that you do. Short-sighted ****.
 
talkingfuture said:
I wish someone would make a DAB receiver for European iPods.
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Not just you Europeans either. DAB is getting good coverage in many places arround the world.

I could see it going in to the iPod Touch. Seeing as various regions are playing with Assisted GPS over Digital FM or even just triangulation based on FM radio Towers instead of cell towers. To improve geotagging for the new camera.
 
I have a lifetime sub to both XM (w/best of Sirius for Stern) and Sirius (wife and I). Love the service. I'm already at the point of listening to free satellite radio. No more bills. No more hassle.

If I could share my lifetime with this dock, I'd buy it. It's not worth paying $13 again, though (or whatever the monthly is nowadays! :cool:).
 
Wintrmte said:
Interesting. I wonder if you'll be able to get the Howard Stern channels? You certainly cannot with their iPhone application, which really, really blows.
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Yes, you get Stern. It's not just an FM mod dock. It has an XM chip in it. The iPHone/Touch only serves as the controller. Once you choose a station, the dock with the chip gets the signal and broadcasts it. You will need an XM subscription and to get Stern, you can add the Best of Sirius, just like any other XM radio. My question is about the antenna....there must be one if you can use the Touch....
 
Only one configuration for 100+ device??

I certainly hope they left out the fact that you DON'T have to plug it into your cigarette lighter. What would be nice is the GPS style large suction cup mounts with a power supply cord to go to your lighter plug. In most modern cars they bury the plug since no one really uses them anymore for smoking.

If this device cannot be adapted to a windscreen I think it will fail.

LanPhantom
 
coolbreeze said:
I have a lifetime sub to both XM (w/best of Sirius for Stern) and Sirius (wife and I). Love the service. I'm already at the point of listening to free satellite radio. No more bills. No more hassle.

If I could share my lifetime with this dock, I'd buy it. It's not worth paying $13 again, though (or whatever the monthly is nowadays! :cool:).[/QUOTEI

I am pretty sure that you can switch your lifetime to the new device. They charge about $65.00 to make the switch. If this is a major upgrade for you, i would do it. I think you can only make the "switch" once for the $65.00
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BC2009 said:
This looks like a pretty cool technological accomplishment just like the TomTom vapor-dock. However, from a tech perspective, I wonder why these folks are not making stand-alone bluetooth accessories that will allow me to pair multiple accessories with my iPhone?

Why not let other folks manufacturer docks and just put out a bluetooth XM receiver or bluetooth GPS receiver that I can mount anywhere in my car that I have power?

Enough with the technological analysis, on to the business analysis.....

1) It costs like $15 to activate a SINGLE radio for XM/Sirius

2) It costs about $12 per month to get service for the first radio

3) It costs about $9 per month for each additional radio

4) If you want to listen to Howard or other premium chanels outside your car (i.e.: away from your dock) you will need to shell out another $3 per month for "Premium" online service
(not even sure if that will work on your iPhone when not docked -- I've heard it won't work via the XM app, but another app does it -- maybe the SkyDock unlocks that feature in the XM app)

Tally all that up and then count the number of threads where iPhone users complain about paying $5 per month to AT&T for text messaging and you do the math.

This is perfect for the iPod users who are always in their car, love Howard Stern to the tune of $12 per month, and do not want to use any other kind of dock. However, I think for most of us it will just be interesting technology that we won't be willing to pay for.
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I don't think that SIRIUS XM expects most iphone users to go out and get the dock. You have to figure that out of 14 million iphone/ipod touch users if they can get a small percentage of that they will be happy. figure a very small percentage..1% =140000 new subs...thats very conservative...Now consider they get 5%, 10% do the math..There main base is still new and certified used cars.
 
Many people assume that most iphone/ipod touch users are "techies" that love pandora and have unlimited plans, they all have 1000's of songs on their ipod. And all they ever listen to is music. People listen to Opie and Anthony, Howard Stern, talk radio in general, sports, sports talk, exclusive content, spiritual talk, adult talk (playboy), gay/lesbian...african-american talk, Oprah radio, etc..not every iphone/ipod user has 10,000 songs that they want to listen to only. If no one listened to radio and only music...check the salary of Howard Stern, Rush Limbagh, etc...Personalities on regular radio also get paid 10's of millions a year to talk...not to play music! SIRIUS XM has pleny of exclusive high in demand shows you cant get on PANDORA, or your 1000000 song playlist! I know some people that only watch broadcast tv and dvd's so they dont have cable or satelite...does that mean cable or satelite is a waste of money? It depends on your tastes...some people i know listen to their playlists over and over..that's fine..you don't need satelite...others need more content than that..
 
If I want to listen to music, I plug my iPhone into the car dock, set to shuffle, and go to town.

I don't listen to music all the time, though. I, like millions of other people out there, enjoy talk radio. I like being able to flip on a 24/7 news channel and get instant updates without waiting for the top of the hour and the 5 minute news slug from the local AM station. I like having access to ESPN radio. I like being able to flip on shows like Opie & Anthony or Stern to entertain myself on a long commute.

Really, 90% of the value of my satellite radio subscription is uncensored, commercial free, on-demand talk/news. The music is just an added benefit.

For that reason, I like the idea of this product.
 
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yg17 said:
emulator said:
who listen to radio?
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I do. I've been a Sirius subscriber for 5 years and it's worth every penny. I find that most of the people who put it down have never actually been a subscriber.
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I subscribe. It ain't worth it. Gonna cancel when my promotional period ends. (was a sub for 3 yrs)
 
macnerd77 said:
Sirius XM = Epic Fail
Pandora = Epic Win
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These are two VERY different businesses.

You must be a 14 year old who just learned new puter l33t talk.

Pandora is cool. What's their revenue?

"Pandora is losing so much that, as Westergren said, "The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we're doing is wasting money." Almost 70 percent of Pandora's revenue goes to paying royalties, he added."



Sirius bought Howard and made the service. Yeah... what a failure.

"In other words, we already knew that Sirius revenue climbed 25% to $283 million"


@macnerd77 - if I saw you on the street I would castrate you to help cleanse the gene pool and then distribute your tiny genitalia to the four corners of the planet and have them turned into chum for fishermen.

I dislike you immensely for your dumb opinion.
 
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mattster16 said:
ktb53 said:
So is it going to transmit the signal to your speakers via FM like those other cigarette lighter adaptors? If so that's going to completely suck and discounts a major point of having clear sat. radio in the first place.
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Satellite radio is not clear. It is at best slightly better than FM. This is because to save costs, XM/Sirius lowered the bit rate supplied to each individual customer in order to accommodate more users on the same equipment. I had XM years ago when it was fairly new and the quality was much better than it is now. It's so bad now that I decided not to renew my subscription after the 6 mo. trial that came with my car expired.
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Uh, no, they lowered the bitrate to squeeze more channels out of their limited bandwidth. The number of users has nothing to do with it, it's not like a cellphone in contact with a transmitter. The sat receivers are passive, and the sats themselves have no idea how many receivers are picking up the signal.
 
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jwilli44 said:
I'm hearing a lot of negativity about the sky dock. I'm hearing "I will use Pandora", "I dont listen to radio", "iphone users are cheap", etc...At last count there were about 14 million iphone and ipod touch users. If xm can get 1/14 that will be great. that's 1 million subs. Now let's think about the common negatives stated. 1. I will use Pandora,
First, Pandora won't work in your car if you have an ipod touch, second, you need unlimited data and a data signal for your drive. Some iphone users dont have unlimited data, $12.95 is cheaper than the data plan, and service nation wide. Pandora is just music, computer generated no personality, Not everyone is happy with a mindless jukebox of songs...sure you can customize it but it is all done by some computer algorithm...Would you go to a party and listen to Pandora? Or would you prefer a human dj? Id take a dj...

:Iphone users are cheap? sure everyone prefer free apps to paid apps...who doesnt, However if they were "cheap" would they have iphones...iphones are more expensive than many phones or mp3 players. They pay for quality..This dock is not marketed to the 12 year old girl with an ipod....This product is aimed at an adult with an ipod touch or iphone who don't like wasting time downloading songs, legal or illegal. Want "plug and play entertainment in car", just dock seclect a chanel and go...Sometimes listens to things besides music...news, sports, talk, comedy, unedited and checked by fcc. XM has chanels for everyone...every genre of music, every genre of talk...african-american, all political views, gay/lesbian, Oprah, howard Stern, cnn, fox, etc..This brings more to ipod touch/iphone usage in car to more than listening to your same old music collection. Can Pandora play a brand new release of a song before it is released? Xm has artist previews of songs before they hit stores..interviews, etc..
: I wouldnt criticize the dock yet, the dock is made to be "easy install" and be transferable between cars.. If you want a permanent more stable installation, im sure that would be available. They should be able to hard wire the power and free your cigarette lighter and mount the dock anywhere you like. The same is offered for xm portables.\
: Last is the price of $119.00 That is the MSRP, that can be adjusted for holidays, or perhaps they can offer 3 months free or something on the service, it will be released for the holidays...dont you think they will have a "sale"? cmon people think how products are marketed!. I don't have an iphone or ipod touch...but I can't believe ipod users are so dense that all they want to hear in their cars is their personal collection of songs or Pandora songs! That is what 16 year old girls do...but is that what all ipod users are?None like talk, comedy, Oprah, Stern, political talk, sports, etc...I bought my xm portable years ago, due to frustration of downloading and making playlists...Sometimes, i am not i the mood for music! I want to hear talk shows, or comedy...or a genre of music i never heard before...I havent boght a cd in years, My computer is virus free due to not using illegal sites to download songs..I have entertainment for just about any one in the country at the turn of a chanel, from my mom, to kids, to a priest if needed...
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You're missing the point. If you want sat, great, get it. But you're much better off buying a standalone receiver than making your iPhone into one.
 
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netdoc66 said:
This is equivalent to a software dongle. Just one more reason to hate Sirius & Stern's back to back vacations.
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Seriously, that guy is on vacation so much it makes me sick. Plus only Monday thru Thursday!
 
DTphonehome said:
You're missing the point. If you want sat, great, get it. But you're much better off buying a standalone receiver than making your iPhone into one.
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I'm not denying that, this SkyDock is a complete ripoff, but people who know nothing about Sirius/XM and have never used it are ripping on the service itself with ridiculous claims.
 
VideoShooter said:
These are two VERY different businesses.

You must be a 14 year old who just learned new puter l33t talk.

@macnerd77 - if I saw you on the street I would castrate you to help cleanse the gene pool and then distribute your tiny genitalia to the four corners of the planet and have them turned into chum for fishermen.

I dislike you immensely for your dumb opinion.
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My gosh that was funny. Thank you Shooter for speaking up about the 12 year old diggers who like phrases like, "Epic Fail".
 
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