I want Sirius/XM to survive. I really do. I've been a Sirius subscriber for years now, with a plug-and-play Sportster radio that I can use in both the car and the home. During this time, I've enjoyed many an NFL and Big 12 football game that wasn't televised in my area. My favorite music and comedy channels have gotten me through numerous traffic jams and cross-country road trips. I seldom listen to free radio in my car anymore; when I do, the song selection, commercials, and absence of song/artist info on the display drive me insane. I pay yearly as opposed to monthly because I know I'll use the service. In a nutshell, I'm as loyal a Sirius subscriber as you'll find, which is why I was excited when I got word of the new Sirius/XM iPhone and iPod Touch app (I'm also a pretty loyal Apple fan) and quickly headed to the App Store to try it out.

Additional Resources
• Read similar reviews in our MP3 Player Review section.
• Read about Neflix on the iPhone.

To understand how the iPhone app operates, here's the back story: Sirius/XM offers a Web-based streaming solution, accessible from a Mac or PC to anyone with a broadband connection, that features over 120 channels of music, sports, news, and entertainment content. Sirius/XM subscribers must pay an additional monthly fee of $2.99 to access the online service (there used to be a stripped-down Web service offered to subscribers for free, but that's gone now), while non-subscribers can sign up to receive the online service for $12.95 per month. The Sirius/XM iPhone app is essentially a means to access the online streaming service, with its own user interface. The app itself is a free download, but you have to pay the monthly fees described above to access any content. The service is streamed over WiFi or AT&T's 3G or Edge cellular network, using variable bitrate streaming that lessens the quality when connection speeds are not where they need to be. The company says that WiFi will provide the best quality, while results may vary when using the cellular network. Sirius claims "near CD-quality sound" and then goes on to quote a 128k rate. In what universe is 128kbps "near CD-quality"?

Sirius/XM is currently offering a free 7-day trial of the service, so I signed up online, downloaded the iPhone app to my phone, and dug in. The iPhone interface is cleanly laid out and intuitive to maneuver; it's very easy to browse categories and channels and to set favorites. The interface shows you what's currently playing on any given station as you browse, and it allows you to instantly purchase songs via the iTunes Store - or you can add them to your shopping cart to purchase later so that you don't have to leave the app.

In terms of programming, the service includes all of the Sirius/XM music-only channels, as well as most of the entertainment, news, and sports talk channels. The online service does not include live play-by-play sports broadcasts, which is the big disappointment for me. The most noteworthy omission, however, is Howard Stern. The company has opted not to include the Howard Stern channels in the iPhone app, even though these channels are available as part of the online service. This just doesn't seem like a wise or logical decision. I personally don't listen to Howard Stern, but Sirius gained a lot of new subscribers when Stern made the jump to satellite radio, and those people probably won't pay the extra $2.99/month for this app if they don't get their Stern. Some are speculating that Sirius/XM will release a dedicated Howard Stern app, but there's been no official word on that.

As for sound quality, I compared the Sirius/XM iPhone app to the other Internet radio apps I have on my iPhone: AOL Radio and Pandora. The Sirius system sounds better than the AOL service and is comparable to Pandora, which also streams at a rate up to 128k. I also compared the iPhone app to my plug-and-play Sirius Sportster radio in both the car and the home, and I found that the dedicated Sirius radio sounds a bit less compressed, with more space in the highs and a cleaner low end. For what it is, though, the iPhone app's sound quality is decent. When the cellular network signal drops too low, you may lose the stream for a second. This happened to me in the car a few times when I was receiving Edge service; then again, my Sportster radio loses reception whenever the antenna passes under an obstruction, so it's kind of a push. The iPhone app doesn't require an antenna or a permanent power adapter, which is definitely a plus.