Review: Sirius XM for iPhone/iPod touch sans Stern

Since I started walking to work, I have been frustrated that there is not an app to stream my subscription to my Iphone. (Pocket tunes works, but I find that I have difficulty connecting at times.) The only thing I listened to on Sirius was Howard Stern. I can't believe they left his streams out. I was beyond frustrated. I'm cancelling my subscription. I can NOT listen to Howard on my iphone for free!

I've got two complaints with the app:

1. The pause button does not actually pause the feed. It simply stops audio from playing. When you "unpause" it re-loads the data from where the stream would be anyway. This is similar to just turning down the volume.

2. There is not a way to favorite or shortcut channels, only songs, which is useless when you want to quickly change channels.

Well I wish they didn't shit on their lifetime subscribers like this but at least they're not getting anymore money out of me.

As a long time Stern fan and one who joined Sirius the week before he started and now owns 3 receivers he lost a lot of respect from me by ignoring it today on the show, when it did come up he quickly talked over someone who asked if it had their channels on it. You know damn well he knows the story and his being quiet is an insult.

Put me in the Pocket Tunes camp.

I was sooo dissapointed when I saw no stern! So I went and bought pocket tunes! for 10 bux and now i get every station i want!!! People, get pocket tunes!

Anyone figure how to return to the login screen after you login the first time? Reason I ask is because I have both a sirius account and a XM account, would like to see the channel selections on both...

Yeah, honestly if I can listen to stern via SiriusMac2 with my internet sub then why can't I listen via my iPhone? Somebody please explain why... And if you say it's in "his" contract then I don't get it. I listen now on my Mac to him via the internet.

Really, very disappointed. Not to mention it's not only "Stern" I would have listed to. I listen to 101 in the afternoon for Bubba as well. Bad move Sirius.

Anyone ever think that having Howard on there would get the app rejected by the App Gods?

I cancelled my Sirius subscription this morning as soon as I could get a customer service rep to believe my story - that Stern wasn't on the iPhone app, which I've been waiting for for a year. The reps this morning were completely in the dark that the app was even released yet and I could hear them talking in the background and looking at the website to figure it out...they were even more shocked and appalled then I was...it was soo sad...you almost hear them thinking "today is going to suck big time and I'm going to be out of a job soon"...I give Sirius maybe another 18 months...then it's over...

By the way, the smokescreen mumbo jumbo about mobile licensing and all that is just that - a smokescreen. Hello...Sirius and Howard have been on a mobile device since 2006...it's called the Stiletto-which allowed you to listen to the satellite feed or wifi feed remotely and both have had Stern. Until this morning I had one in my car and listened to Howard every morning on my hour long commute. But after a year (maybe less) Sirius stopped supporting/updating the original Stiletto (major freaking waste of $$). It was a cool device for about 6 months but totally lost in the mobile technology progress that has occurred since 2007.

After stressing about this for the past 12 hours I've come to three possible conclusions as to why I think this happened:

1) This is a total BS publicity stunt move by Sirius to create buzz in major news publications and Stern will be back on in a week or so...
...if this is the case I think it's really, really distasteful. There would have been just as much buzz created by a really great app that included Stern and Howard could have talked it up and his minions (myself included) would have pushed this on everybody and everyone we know. I would have even bought my wife a subscription so she could have Sirius on her phone.

or

2) Howard has his own app in the works that is going to be way better for Stern fans because it will have additional content- pictures, video, audio, etc... it will still be a free app though for paid sirius subscribers. I don't think Howard would charge for it unless it had a Howard TV feed or something which probably wouldn't happen.

or

3) Sirius doesn't want to cannibalize it's own player devices. (BTW, if this is the reason, they are totally missing the point and it will just again confirm how out of touch with the way mobile entertainment is evolving. This won't help sales of their existing devices because they are archaic for the most part and people are going to the way of one device for for everything they need.)

All the other speculation is off I think...the mobile licensing thing doesn't have anything to do with Howard like it does with Nascar and the other sports...etc..

And there is absolutely no way Apple was involved. It is in their interest to have Stern on obviously because it would persuade many fans to go iPhone/iPod touch as their preferred player.

Dont get mad at SiriusXM for not broadcasting stern. Stern is the one crapping on his fans, His contract is the reason they have to be greedy and charge. Why listen to an unfunny old man anyway? O&A, Ron and Fez on the virus and Ellis on faction are all available. Unless you are a member of AARP what does stern bring to the table? He needs to evolve, He is to old for the type of show he does. It's creepy. I dont care about bubba probably because I have a full set of teeth and dont like fake radio voices.