ComputerWorld has an interesting item this morning by Mike Elgan. It speculates about new features in the anticipated iPhone coming this summer, including an FM transmitter to send iPhone audio to a car radio. It's also thought that the new 3.0 software will enable stereo bluetooth streaming to a car suitably equipped.

There's no doubt that these features might convince many to either skip satellite radio, or to not renew current contracts.

All that is bad news for Sirius/XM, but the newly merged companies have done plenty to shoot themselves. Many subscribers think the merger was badly done, and many favorite channels were killed with no notice. As an XM subscriber I experienced that first hand when no heads up was given to customers about massive channel changes until the day of the switch last fall. For a communications company, that's pretty poor communications.

With an iPhone that can stream stereo Bluetooth, services like Pandora, LastFM, AOL Radio, and Simplify Media become more mobile in the car. I'd have to think twice about renewing XM or Sirius. Although new car sales are in the dumper, a great many new vehicles are delivered with iPod adapters, giving even more impetus for users to take their own music with them rather than to be stuck with a costly, and seemingly diminishing satellite radio service.

The whole theory behind Sirius/XM was to get radio worth paying for. To a degree, the iPhone and iPod have changed that equation, because you can take your favorite music with you, either your own or music from the new streaming music services. But getting the music into your car audio system was a chore if you weren't pre-wired for it. If indeed Apple makes the integration of the iPhone into the car easier, I think satellite radio will have to re-think its business plan, a plan that is already in tatters.

How about you? Do you subscribe to Sirius/XM now? Has the economy changed your plans? Would new options to get iPhone audio on your car make you think again about that costly subscription plan?

When the App Store first launched last Thursday, I saw Pandora and AOL Radio and immediately wondered if they would work on my first generation iPhone using EDGE. The quick answer is yes, however, you do make some sacrifices in one of the applications. Read my full review below to get the full details.

About Pandora (Download Link)
Pandora is a part of the Music Genome Project and allows you to create "stations" of your favorite artists. Pandora then pairs those artists to others you might like and plays an unlimited playlist based on your favorite artists. Pandora tracks your likes and dislikes and will play songs based on those results. Pandora lets you find new music for free, and who can argue with that?



About AOL Radio (Download Link)
AOL Radio is a CBS Radio partner that provides online streaming radio stations. Unlike Pandora, AOL Radio is a true streaming radio station in the sense that you can play local stations which support in-audio advertising. AOL Radio can use the location feature in order to find CBS affiliate stations that bitcast near you.



User Interface
Both Pandora and AOL Radio follow a similar user interface design: they both look like the iPod feature on iPhone/iPod touch. Both of the interfaces are nice, however, I have the same gripes for both. The volume controllers in both seem to be independent of the iPhone's volume controller. This can cause the audio to be distorted if you turn it up too much in the applications themselves since you can use the volume buttons on the side to control the audio volume as well.

Secondly, I would love to be able to quit the application and have the audio keep playing (I know, this is an Apple/SDK restriction, but it would still be nice). You can, however, lock the phone and keep the audio playing (which is a nice feature).

Both applications allow you to purchase the currently playing song from the iTunes WiFi Music store. AOL Radio also provides a link to find out more about the currently playing song on AOL Radio's site.

WiFi (or 3G) vs. EDGE Use
When you are playing the music over WiFi (or the 3G cell network), you get awesome audio quality. Both applications seem to provide audio quality that matches that of purchased iTunes songs. On EDGE, however, AOL Radio falls short by providing very low quality audio (I would guess 56k audio). However, Pandora on EDGE seems to maintain good audio quality when you have a signal that is greater than 2/5 bars.

So, who wins?
Since both of these applications are absolutely free and have equal pros and cons, I would recommend downloading both to see which one fits you the best. If you are on a 3G iPhone, both will work well no matter where you are (assuming you're within 3G coverage). However, if you have a 2G iPhone, you might prefer Pandora because it provides better audio quality over EDGE. You can download both applications by clicking the download links above.

Disclaimer: The Unofficial Apple Weblog and AOL Radio are both owned by AOL.