Sirius Satellite Radio for your iPhone: uSirius Starplayr (beta)
Posted on 05 January 2009, at 6:15 am, by Wayne Schulz
Sirius and XM Satellite radio seem like they may ignore the iPhone as a platform for distribution of their paid radio content. Fortunately third party developers have taken some initiative and seem poised to introduce iPhone clients that will receive both Sirius and XM satellite radio on your iPhone.
In order to receive either Sirius or XM Satellite Radio you must have an online subscription with the satellite service. This online subscription is included with your monthly service fee.
There are three primary ways to listen to Sirius XM Satellite:
1. Satellite radio receiver
2. BlackBerry Paid Subscription (an obscene additional $7.99 per month)
3. Web interface (included with Sirius XM subscription)
Using the web interface the same folks involved with uSirius Starplayr have created cool tools like USirius which I’ve used in conjunction with Orb to stream Sirius to my iPhone and BlackBerry.
What’s attractive about uSirius Starplayr is the setup is instant, you won’t need to leave another computer running (as you do with Orb) in order to stream satellite. The setup is also quite simple – enter in your Sirius XM user ID and password.
Noteable features of uSirius StarPlayr include album artwork:
Using the circular icon with lines on the right side of the screen will display the song lyrics for whatever music is playing.
You can purchase songs being play by clicking the download button. The current vendors are either Amazon or iTunes.
I’ve been using this beta for only a few hours. So far the audio quality is quite good and the program is stable. Watch for an app store debut within the next month.
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January 5th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I can't see Apple approving this app. It directly competes with iTunes business model despite having an iTunes "buy" button. However, i would really like to see this happen. I hope they are also developing an Android version.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:54 am
It doesn't compete at all. It streams Sirius XM. It doesn't sell music.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Yeah it actually helps Apple because people can't buy any of the songs through the APP itself they have to go to iTunes to do it, ala Shazam.
Sad I missed out on the beta – would love to see it in action.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Can you give us some info on the battery life!? Thats my biggest concern the drain on the battery!
January 6th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Hi. I'm a member of the private beta and use this thoughout the day since I'm stuck in an office with no windows and it's the only way I can get my Sirius fix! I can say that uSiriusStarPlayr hasn't placed any unusual wear on the battery (outside of my normal use of the iPhone).
Another interesting note, I recently used this in my wife's car (with no Sirius receiver) on a long trip home (2 plus hours) and it worked surprisingly well, only dropping the signal when I was in extreme areas of poor coverage.