XM Skydock: First impressions from an iPhone user
Hesitance.
Ever since the dawn of the XM and Sirius radio business models, I’ve always asked myself, “why on Earth would anyone want to pay for radio?“. After all, I had a six-mile commute to work, and you couldn’t take it inside with you and get a signal, so you’re essentially paying X amount per month to listen to the radio about 20 minutes a day. I mean, what’s the deal? I’ve already got a FREE radio, not to mention 16 Gigabytes of MP3′s on a USB stick connected to it. If that gets old, I can even fire up Bluetooth on my iPhone and stream music straight from it so… What’s the big deal… right?
For a 10 minute commute every day, the logic above is fairly flawless. Lately however, my weekly commute changed to about 3.5 hours each way, twice a week. During which, I’m constantly searching for local radio stations on the way to and fro. I’ve heard every song that I own on my USB stick until I’m pretty much ready to throw it away, and I’m bored to death about mile 47 of my 170 mile sojourn.
Enter the XM Skydock..
The XM Skydock is — in essence — an XM receiver that doubles as both an iPhone dock and charger. As you can see by this picture, it plugs into the cigarette lighter, then the iPhone (or iPod touch) docks at the top of a semi-rigid stalk, allowing the interface software application to be in easy reach while driving.
In the Box..
When you first open the box, what you see is the receiver stalk. There are also a couple of spacers for differing levels of iPod/iPhone cases, a manual, a quick start sheet, a channel guide for XM radio, an “AUX” cable to provide direct audio to capable players, and the magnetic antenna which is the most difficult part of the “easy” installation.
Installation…
The box describes the installation of this system as “simple and easy”. For the most part, I agree, with one caveat.
- plug in the stalk into a cigarette lighter
- download the iphone/ipod app
- Activate your service with XM radio
- type in the UID/password into the app
- set your radio to the correct channel (or plug in the provided AUX cable)
- .. and finally, learn all about the magic of how to route the wiring of an externally mounted antenna — which looks like a baby “wall wart” charger — through your door’s weather stripping (without destroying it) then through the dash to hide the wires..
For step 6, most people of average intelligence will probably want to go ahead and hire out your local audio installer geek for help. Better $20 to him than $200 to replace the weather strip and a mangled antenna.
Special consideration: When I first plugged up the system, I thought it would be a simple task to simply toss the antenna up on the dashboard and drive. After all, the dash has an unobstructed view of the sky.. Right? Apparently not..
Seems that — unlike FM radio — satellite radio is very, very “line of sight” between the antenna and the satellite itself. If, for example, you find yourself driving East and the satellite is “behind you”, the antenna is easily blocked by the roof of your vehicle and you get music that fades in and out randomly as the signal is lost. Better to go ahead and mount it outside to get a clear view and just be done with it.
The Software…
Downloading the Sirius/XM Skydock application is pretty straight forward, like any other free app store app, Just make sure you get the Skydock app and not the streaming app, which won’t work with the skydock. I may provide pictures later, but there are plenty on google.
The interface for the software is seemingly very intuitive although sometimes a bit hard to read at arm’s length. You can change channels, search, get weather reports, and even “tag” music you hear for later downloads in iTunes (for those of you who do such things). I have no real complaints about the interface, and it would have been far better than trying to use the built-in interface of my Pioneer DEH-6100BT deck at 70 miles per hour.
In the End
The Good
- The sound quality is amazing when connected through the AUX cable (as opposed to using the built-in FM tuner)
- The variety of music and programs seems pretty good
- It’s a fairly simple system to install, only the antenna may trip you up.
- You can actually listen to the same program while driving for more than 20 minutes (when normal FM stations start to fade quickly)
- You can keep up to 12 favorite channels, making it relatively easy to find something to listen to.
- The software can even prompt you when your favorite programs or tagged artists start playing.
The Bad
- Installing the antenna is not for the meek.
- If you have an older car, like I do, the weight of the iPhone sometimes causes the entire interface to “rotate” (or better to say “fall”) out of position when you hit bumps in the road.
- Bumps in the road shake the iPhone, making it sometimes appear unreadable — depending on how much your highway department sucks that is..
- For someone with big hands, it’s easy to hit the wrong button sometimes, especially if you’re not concentrating on reaching for the screen.
- Some iPhone cases, such as my Speck ruggedized will “fit” but it’s very, very tight — even with the dock arms fully opened. I don’t however want to trade out the life-saving thick rubber case protection for anything that might not survive my unerring tendency to drop the phone on concrete.
- Sometimes if you don’t dock it “just right”, the screen lock will engage and turn off the screen (which I don’t want). That however may be case related.
The Ugly
- “Commercial free” is total and utter bullspit. Music channels aren’t bad, but any of the talk, news, or other channels spend seemingly 40% of the time with the same “buy gold”, “get out of credit card debt” crap that you get on standard radio. 6 minutes of Glenn Beck. 4 minutes of listening to some maxi-zoom-dweebie tell me how to make my penis larger.
The commercials themselves are ALMOST enough to make me want to cancel XM radio. On the bright side, there’s always a music channel you can swap to during the incessant and neverending commercials. I would almost be willing to pay another $5.00 a month just to get rid of them. Almost.
Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about it, but most of my negative emotions are about the overzealous commercials playing every 5 minutes. Otherwise, I was able to drive that 3.5 hours this weekend and never listen to the same thing twice.
Love “Blue Collar Comedy” radio. Love the “classics” channel where they replay 30′s and 40′s radio shows. Love the “80′s on 8″ channel and for the first time, I am able to listen to the entire Glenn Beck show from start to finish. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, dunno yet. Your mileage may vary.
Hope this review helped. If you have questions, please feel free to drop us a line below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Wayne
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App Review: Air Sharing 1.1.4
If you’re like me, you often find yourself needing to transfer files from one computer to another (in another location) without the use of the Internet or even a blank CD/USB stick.
Several months ago, I found Avatron’s “Air Sharing” application which turns your iPhone’s internal memory into a network-accessible hard drive. As of this writing, I find myself constantly using it to keep up with everything from my button collection (images I use to create buttons) to transporting my daily diabetes log.
Air Sharing's settings screen
Once you go through the settings and enable things like your security options and so-forth, then enable sharing, you can attach to the drive via either a web browser, or in my case — on the Mac — as another network drive on the Finder.
Preparing for this review, I noticed that since the release of the $4.99 Air Sharing, there are cheaper apps out there which allow basic file sharing but none seem to have the options available that Air Sharing provides. There’s even an “Air Sharing Pro” for $9.99, but I haven’t yet broken the seal on buying $10 apps yet. I will however be writing the authors to see if I can get an eval copy for a future review.
The Good:
- Great utility to have in your iPhone arsenal. Makes it simple to take files with you and believe me, there’s no safer place to me than on my phone.
- It allows EASY management of files and even allows entire folders of stuff to be moved around quickly and painlessly.
- You can view files such as Word, Excel and so-forth on the screen.
The Bad:
- At $4.99 for the regular version being reviewed, it should have a few more features, such as the ability to print and/or e-mail files. These functions however, as well as file management, is reserved for the even moreso expensive “Pro” version.
- This is perhaps unfounded, but being the paranoid that I am, I find it a bit creepy to introduce a way for co-workers on the same network to see your phone’s files. Therefore you REALLY need to go into the settings, set up a username and password for it, and turn off “public access”, then possibly even change the port number to something crazy so that only you will know it’s there.
Screenshots:
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App Review: DVR Remote
If you’re like me and you have a Tivo HD, TiVo Series 3, or TiVo HD XL, you’ll LOVE the DVR Remote application from Stutsman Software.
DVR Remote is an application that allows you to control your networked TiVo from remote by syncing the application by way of your Media Access Key. Once you turn on Remote Access through your TiVo, you simply provide the Media Access Key to the DVR Remote app and suddenly you’re in heaven.
First and foremost, coolness factor aside, is the fact that you can now use the on-screen keypad as a keyboard for your TiVo device! (see screenshots below)
This is the one inexcusable oversight that TiVo seemingly refuses to fix about their machines. I suppose they’re scared that someone will use a keyboard to gain access to the device and do evil things, but for the rest of us, using the TiVo remote to scroll back and forth between letters/numbers has been torture for years.
Short of that, let’s see if I can give a short rundown of this glorious application;
Pros
- See / control your Now Playing list
- Set up show recordings from remote
- Easy access to the Mobile TiVo viewer (aka http://m.tivo.com)
- Multiple devices can be set up and controlled
- You can set up Favorites lists to quickly go between your fave channels.
- If you don’t like the default “TiVo-ish” look, there are 5 other skins to choose from
- You can edit/change the layout of the on-screen remote buttons to suit your own needs.
Cons
- Your TiVo *must* be on a home network
- You cannot control your TiVo if you’re not using that network with your iPhone (both the TiVo and iPhone must be using the same wifi network, in other words, you can’t control your Tivo while you’re at the movies.
Screenshots:
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App Review: AccuFuel for iPhone
Next on the list of incredibly useful iPhone applications is AccuFuel, by appigo. In the days where gas has bounced between tolerably high and a painfully gouging $4.50+ USD per gallon (7 litres) in the US, I’ve begun to try and keep track of my vehicle’s fuel usage. Whenever I fill up, I simply pull out the iPhone, fire up AccuFuel, enter the miles on the trip meter, enter the gallons filled, enter the price I paid, and click done.
With those few steps, I now know how well my vehicle is performing. Whether I’ve been a bit of a heavy foot, or spent time on the highway, this little application has done wonders to help me pinpoint all the little things I can do to improve my fuel economy.
For example, I know from experience that when my tires are low, I can expect to lose 1 mile per gallon in fuel economy. In another, I dramatically saw the difference of 3 miles per gallon improvement when I replaced the stock windshield on my 2008 Honda GoldWing from the “OEM” style to the swept-back “Tulsa Tall” style windshield.
At only 99 cents via the App store, this is one of my most used, and highly recommended applications.
Pros
- Pinpoints mechanical issues
- Easy to use
- Allows multiple vehicles to be tracked (see screenshots below)
- Allows you to track both full, and partial fillups
Cons
- Allows you to track price per gallon, but I haven’t found any way to display a chart of that information
- Would be nice if you could export it to Excel or even to send history via e-mail or other means for printing.
- No native support for motorcycles (though you can manually enter one if desired)
Suggestions to the Authors
- It would be a great thing (albeit maybe not fuel related) if you could add a way to track maintenance items like oil changes, etc.
- “standard” entry type (where you enter the car’s odometer as opposed to the trip meter) should use standard number entry rather than the difficult scrolling numbers
Screenshots:
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App Review: Bookworm for iPhone
As of late, I’ve been stumbling across all sorts of fun little games for my iPhone and thought I’d share my thoughts.
One of the latest is a puzzle game called “Bookworm” by PopCap games.
In this game, you are presented with a screen of tiles which sort of look like tiles from the board game Scrabble. The object of the game is to select the tiles in sequence to spell words that are 3 letters or longer in length. If you spell longer words, you’re given jeweled tiles which act as point multipliers when you use them. If you spell short, easy words, you are presented with tiles which are on fire and eat through letters below them the longer you wait to use them.
What I think really surprises me is that this little distraction is both challenging and a fun at the same time with a bit of anxiety built in.
Pros:
- Fun and challenging
- Good layout
- Great way to lose track of time
Cons:
- Some times the tiles are a bit small for large hands.
- No network or multiplayer options.
- Can be a battery eater.
At $2.99 USD from the App Store, PopCap Games has a potential hit on their hands with this one.
Screen Shots:
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Mafia Wars on the iPhone
Just loaded the Mafia Wars app/game on my iPhone. If anyone wants to add me to their mafia, 4403 1366 75
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SegWayne radio — “I’d give good money if he’d shut up”
I love the title, but once again, Friday night and I’m bored to death. Can’t sleep, so I thought I’d see how far I’d progressed down the padawan’s path to podcasting (say that 5 times really fast)… Anyway, click the play button for my review of the Apple iPhone 3g.
SegWayne Radio – 082908
Wayne Hunt
segwayne.com
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iPhone sinks from "maybe" to "probably not".
Been thinking about this and the weight of the “no” has overrun the “yes” in determining whether or not I want an iPhone.
With the phone release yesterday, AT&T let go of more information. In my particular case I have two reasons to go with AT&T. The first is a dying cellphone, the second is that T-mobile won’t reach inside the building at work, meaning I basically can’t use the phone during the day. AT&T is the only provider that seems able to reach.
I was willing to overlook the fact that AT&T essentially *doubled* the cost of my phone bill for fewer minutes per month (especially considering rollover). However, in order to connect to the wifi at work which uses WPA2 encryption, AT&T wants to consider me a “corporate customer”. Not only that, but they want more money to add on text messaging (which is pretty much the biggest reason to have a smartphone)
So, considering that I normally use about 600 minutes per month, I’m looking at;
$89.99 for basic service (900 minutes)
$45.00 for “corporate” service
$5.00 for 200 text messages
——
$139.99 plus taxes versus T-mobile’s $39.99 plus tax for 1500 minutes
In the end, I’m not willing to triple my cellphone bill just to have the iPhone. I could just as simply pay $200 for a new T-mobile smartphone and just forward messages to my work phone during the day..
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iPhone goes from an absolute, to a maybe..
Almost a month ago, I was giddy and schoolboyish about the new iPhone 3G rollout. Now I’m not so sure, and I’ll tell you why;
1) The hype has been overwhelming, and nothing good ever comes from things that are over-hyped.
2) I’ve no intention of standing in lines for hours on the 11th for the privilege of giving Apple, or AT&T $300 for a phone.
3) No home activation. This means that I’ll have to activate the phone in store. I have no problem activating the phone/accounts (save for costs, discussed later). It’s just having to wait longer in line at Apple with the potential of them sending me to AT&T’s store for whatever reason. Apple stores have phones, but AT&T stores are the ones trained on the speedy activation.
4) Cost of the AT&T plan. — I use about 500 minutes a month. Right now, I have T-mobile with 1500 minutes for $39.99 per month plus about $10 in assorted taxes/usage fees, etc. Adding Internet and 500 text messages takes me to $59.99 plus the requisite taxes, etc.
When I go to AT&T, I’ll have 900 minutes plus rollover and that’ll include the Internet and messages (maybe?) for $89.95 (currently guessed price). *BUT* it’s my understanding that even though it’s a personal phone paid by me, they will consider me a “corporate customer” (read: more money) if I try to access the Exchange server at work, which as you might imagine, sucks hard…
It’s not the cost of the phone. Hell, I paid $200 for my currently dying PEBL, and almost $300 for my 60gb iPod. I also realize that — as my only phone — I’ll always have a cellphone bill. It just shouldn’t, in my never-so-humble opinion, cost $100 per month.
THAT being said… as a piece of ironic cruel fate, thinking my contract ended in October 2008, I called T-mobile last night to examine my options as far as replacing the current phone and getting better coverage in my office only to discover that my current contract with them ends on Monday the 14th…
This means that *if* I’m going to jump, it might as well be now…
To Phone, or not to Phone, that is the question.
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Apple's new iPhone 3G, coming soon
Apple’s chief Steve Jobs unveils faster, cheaper iPhone – Jun. 9, 2008
Thanks go out to a new-found bud over at “The Shameless watching of TV” blog who got me interested in the iPhone. Since my Motorola PEBL is already dying a quick and horrid death after only two years, I had made up my mind yesterday that I was going to pull the proverbial trigger (complete with swap to AT&T) when quite serendipitously a new “3G” version was announced yesterday.
“Twice the speed, half the cost” is the rallying cry from Apple with the new versions tallying in at $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) respectively. The new phones, still apparently tied to AT&T’s wireless service will be released July 11th, and I’ve made up my mind that I’ll just have to bite the bullet and grab one ASAP.
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