Hi, I'm Jay Goldman. You are watching Mr. Mobile on Butterscotch.com. Today we are going to take a look at Sirius XM satellite radio apps for iPhone. So if you're an Android or Blackberry user I'm afraid that this episode just isn’t for you. However, iPhone users this is actually really cool. Now, bear with me for a second because this is going to get kind of confusing. If you're in the States it’s one application you can get it from the App Store. That’s because Sirius and XM merge a little while ago and so now there is only one application that is Sirius XM satellite radio application you can find in the App Store you're good to go.
If you're in Canada, they weren’t allowed to merge for a whole bunch of legal reasons and so there actually two separate applications. You're going to have to pick which one you want to download depending on which subscription you already have or if you're a new user you can just pick which one you want to use. There are however some caveat. So the applications are exactly the same and it’s the same application we’d get in the US functionally speaking and we’re going to go through the application in a second to give you in sort of idea of what you can do from it.
There are some programming differences in Canada that you need to be aware of so, if say for interest looking for Oprah or OP and Anthony make sure you take a look through the two different catalogs of programming so that you know which one you should actually download. Also there is an accessory which we’re going to get to in a moment which works on the XM site. So that maybe a reason for you to pick one for the app. There is some exclusion for programming on the iPhone whether you're in Canada or in the US and these are probably pretty deals.
So for example in the Sirius side there is no hollowed stern on the iPhone. In a lot of Sirius, listeners were actually bought that to get stern, so no stern on the iPhone. Make sure you're aware of that. On the XM side if you're in Canada there are no sports play by play available on the device and so if you're a big sports fan and you're looking for play by play games to listen to on your phone probably not the app for you.
The apps are free. You can get them in the iPhone App Store and there’s a limited trial available on both of them. So once you download it and start listening you can just listen for a little while without paying for anything. Once that trial is up you will need to part the subscription. You can do that from the phone directly or if you have an existing Sirius XM subscription you can just add this directly to it. If you just want to stream onto your device you can pay $7.99 a month that covers your subscription. If you want to use other satellite radios that you already have and you want to stream on your phone it’s an extra $2.99 and you can just add that to your existing. Note that with both of those options that gives you streaming on the phone and on the computer as well.
So it’s not just the iPhone that you're adding. It’s streaming in general. This is great if you have a car that doesn’t have a satellite radio built-in and you don’t want to log around the separate receiver and have to plug-in and all that kind of stuff. You can just use your iPhone. However you're currently connecting your iPhone to your car stereo to stream music to it. You can do that and now you’ve got your satellite radio throughout.
Now, this is sort of satellite radio is worth noting. You are actually using your data plan on your phone to listen to the music. It is streaming to the phone over the data connection and so if you're on an account with your iPhone that has a limited amount of data or you're on a iPod Touch this won't actually work for you in the car part. If that’s the case you many want to look at add an accessory which you can get for about a $120.00 called the SkyDock which converts your iPhone into a satellite receiver. The SkyDock plugs-in to a cigarette lighter port in your car. It’s got an articulated arm on it and the iPhone pops into the top part of that and once you’ve done that the iPhone becomes an interface to your regular satellite radio and all the receiver hardware is actually built-in to the SkyDock. So you're no longer using the data connection now.
You are getting regular streaming satellite radio and that means you have access to all of the programming so now your Howard’s stern and your sports and everything is available. But you're using the CC interface and the nice thing there is it will charge your iPhone for you while it’s in the cradle and it’s also a hands-free holder basically or cradle for the phone. So if you're listening to your radio and you got a call come in the music will fade out. You can take your call and you’ve got a microphone and the speakers obviously from your stereo and when the call is done music will fade back up and you're good to go.
One caveat on that as I mentioned earlier the SkyDock will only work with XM. The XM in Canada, in the States you have no problem. So if you're a Canadian and you want to use the SkyDock you probably want to go XM rather than Sirius. The application works pretty much the same way as regular satellite radio does. So you’ve got a category index at the top level. You can pick anyone of those categories that jump into the channels that are available within it. Nice thing here is it actually lists this on its plain right now when you're going through the channel guide. You can tap directly on channel to start playing that channel. It’s got some favorites. You can add your favorite channels to that, very simple to add a favorite. You just tap on the icon of the channel at the top, tap on the add the favorites and it will appear in your list.
The other nice thing about the integration here is that you can actually add songs to a shopping list as they're playing and then you can buy those directly from iTunes. So when there’s a song playing you just tap on that icon at the top again. You see there’s an add to iTunes button. You just click on or tap on the Buy from iTunes. You’ve got the option now at the bottom here to buy now or add to your shopping cart and if you add to your shopping cart they’ll just appeared in an on going shopping cart and then whenever you want to buy then you can tap and to buy now.
One little note, there not every song is available on the iTunes Store. So although they all have the Buy from iTunes on them not all of them will actually work and sometimes you can get an alert that pops up that says “Couldn’t find this in the iTunes Store” but otherwise really handy way to sort of bookmark music as it’s playing while you're driving along or walking down the street or whatever and then come back later on and be able to buy it.
So you can get the SkyDock at any consumer electronics which ever the Best Buy that kind of thing anywhere that you’ll probably buy an XM or Sirius satellite radio. The apps are available in the App Store. You can listen for free or add them to your subscription if you’ve got one already, great way to get some XM music on your phone or in you car. I'm Jay Goldman. This has been Mr. Mobile on Butterscotch.com. Thanks for watching and we’ll catch you next time.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services