Listening to XM and/or Sirius Radio Streams on iPhone

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Level 1

46 points

Listening to XM and/or Sirius Radio Streams on iPhone

Hey everyone! I did a little research today, and found an easy (relatively) way to listen to XM or Sirius radio on the iPhone. First off, this is NOT a hack, and requires no installs on the iPhone. All this requires is a Windows PC (sorry, mac-users...I have a mac too, but my wife has a PC, so I used hers), an Orb account (free), Windows Media Player and a program called UXM. Again, this is not a hack, just a way for iPhone users to enjoy XM. (I do not take responsibility for anything anyone does, as the following instructions were not written by me. I have taken them from everythingiphone.com, and all rights etc. belong to them) cheers! It works well, not really ideal but its a start.

"Things you will need to get started.

1. An xm subscription
2. uXM from http://www.millardsoftware.com/
3. Orb server from orb.com
4. An iPhone

Download an install uXM (to the PC). Click the settings button and enter your email address and password you use to stream xm online.
Click start.

Download and install the orb server (again, PC). Part of the install process will help you create an orb account. Once you have uXM and orb running on your PC (I could not get this to work in parallels on my mac) go back to the orb.com on your PC and sign in/orb 2.0.

Click Open Application.
Click Audio.
Click Favorite Channels under internet radio.
Click the 'add custom' link that is on the top of the page.
Type in the xm channel name.
Double click the uXM logo in your tray (next to the clock) and click the URLS button. Choose the xm channel you want to stream from the pull down menu.
Click the clipboard button.
Return to the orb website and paste the url in the url field.
Click save.

Now get out your iPhone and go to orb.com and sign in.
Click Audio.
Click Internet Radio Favorites.
Click the channel icon for the channel you just saved.
Click play.
Click the small play arrow in the lower right corner of the QT screen.

Your stream should start. Mine seems to hung up at about 11 seconds. I just hit the back arrow and click play again and it work fine.

Wash, rinse, repeat for your other favorite xm channels."

Again, to repeat myself, this is not a hack, nor does it violate the iPhone's warranty, etc. It uses safari's quicktime plugin, that's it!

Note: For Sirius users, the UXM website millardsoftware has a Sirius application as well. Just follow the same steps, but on the sirius app. I don't have Sirius, so I don't know how well it works.

iMac G5 20" Macbook-White, iPhone, iPod 5.5, iPod Nano, Powerbook G4 12", Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 23, 2007 5:51 PM

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Answer 1

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 23, 2007 8:49 PM in response to Varick

Has anyone else tried this? I've noticed a few views, but no one has replied...any luck? I'm listening to XM right now.

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Answer 2

Sep 23, 2007 9:42 PM in response to Varick

it works, took some time to set-up but it works

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Answer 3

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 23, 2007 9:47 PM in response to hdtraveler

Did you try XM or Sirius? I was able to set up every XM station (except for the sports stations, they aren't available) and give it a thumbnail image like those on the XMRadio Online service. It looks really nice. Plus, with the Orb program (I had never even heard of it until today) you can store playlists of music and stream them from your computer, or listen to other internet radio stations a la the itunes radio stations. Its a lot like DotTunes, but free, so ya know...I haven't tried the other features besides the XM radio. Let me know if anyone else gets this to work. I'd like to think that, ultimately, XM or Sirius would make a Safari plugin that's a little more fancy than this, or maybe Apple will let them have a pretty little icon. Someday...

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Answer 4

Sep 24, 2007 6:39 AM in response to Varick

update I'm useing xm , I was useing it on wi-fi and it worked good I tried it on edge today and it has to be restarted I don't think there is enough bandwidth on edge

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Answer 5

Sep 26, 2007 9:54 AM in response to hdtraveler

I followed all the steps above, and I'm getting this error:

unknown exception on your PC running ORB

Can anyone enlighten my on this one?

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Answer 6

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 26, 2007 10:47 AM in response to thesweaterkid

Make sure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player, make sure your firewall is open to the ports needed (Orb support site has a list of open ports), and, if necessary, reinstall ORB. Let me know.

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Answer 7

Sep 26, 2007 3:22 PM in response to Varick

I just installed uSirius and Orb and fired it up on my iPhone - AWESOME!

I've always been disappointed that my local Rec Center won't allow my Sirius Stiletto portable to have access to their WiFi Network - they claim it's too much of a bandwidth hog. I know I've been able to hit their WiFi with my iPhone - I've been able to surf while on the treadmill. Looks like I'll be able to listen to Howard now while at the Rec Center working out in the mornings!! EXCELLENT!!

GREAT find! Thanks for the info! I've been wanting to be able to listen to Sirius from my iPhone since I got it.

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Answer 8

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 26, 2007 4:24 PM in response to sneirbo2k7

Awesome. So the uSirius program works well? Good to hear. Does it allow all channels? I know that uXM doesn't have the sports channels or weather channels yet. I'm really surprised we are the only people to think this is cool...I'm loving it!

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Answer 9

Sep 26, 2007 4:56 PM in response to Varick

The uSirius program worked well - very easy to figure out.

I just added my 6 Favs from my presets off of my Stiletto - Howard, Lithium (Alt Rock), Coffee House (Accoustic), 60's, The Pulse (90's) and Super Shuffle. Those 6 worked and I could switch between each of them quickly. I didn't check to see if every channel worked, as long as Howard 100 worked that's all I really cared about.

I like that the feed buffers - you can rewind if you missed something.

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Answer 10

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 26, 2007 5:04 PM in response to sneirbo2k7

Good to hear. Let me know if your ORB program randomly checks out on you. I have been having a little bit of trouble with that, think it might be my IP. We'll see.

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Answer 11

Sep 26, 2007 5:48 PM in response to Varick

This is so awesome. I'm using the Sirius High-Bandwidth feeds and every channel I am adding is working flawlessly. Thanks for this. This is a great find!

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Answer 12

Varick Author

Level 1

46 points

Sep 26, 2007 6:18 PM in response to Anthony Skorochod

Because I forgot to in the original post, I would like to thank 420greg of everythingiphone.com for the write-up above. I'm just the copy+paste guy. And, if you try the above method and have problems, there are a few threads concerning Sirius and XM on the iPhone at the same website. As a disclaimer, some people on the website do condone "unlocking" or modding the iphone, however, again, the posts concerning satellite radio have nothing to do with this. I do not condone unlocking the iPhone for any reason, only adding this post for reference and problem solving purposes. Cheers!

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Answer 13

Sep 27, 2007 7:13 AM in response to Varick

Hi and thanks for this info. It is really great to get more out of my XM subscription than ever before. It doesn't seem to work very well on the EDGE system. Any suggestion to improve the performance on EDGE?

Also, can I stream NPR or other feeds? If so, how do you do that?

Thanks!

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Answer 14

Sep 27, 2007 7:17 AM in response to Anthony Skorochod

Can you check your Orb feed for the SIR-Premium channels you added? I'm using the standard SIR channels and I see that Orb is listing the output as 35kps. SIR-Premium is streamed at 128kpb, I'm just curious if Orb is pushing it out at that rate, or if it lowers it down to 35kps for the sake of performance.

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Answer 15

Sep 27, 2007 5:32 PM in response to Varick

Just wanted to say Thanks!!

This is great. I can now listen to Sirius anytime, anywhere.

Thanks again for posting this info and passing it along to all of us.

Bravo!!

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