This seems to have been available on the AT&T Curve for awhile now.

Drawbacks: The "exclusive" channels are all you get. No access to the full XM line. I wanted access to some of the alternative stations, and what was available on this plan is pretty limited.

I had hoped that if I subscribed to XM at home, I might get a package deal- but there seems to be no integration between XM and XM Mobile.

In short, it'd be kind of cool if it didn't suck.

styrofoam

@Geisrud: Unless of course you go with a carrier that includes unlimited data with all Blackberry plans... which includes oh, I dunno, ALL of them?

Verdigris

Satellite radio is such a joke. You have to pay $$ in order for record companies to stuff their crap down your throat. No thanks. I will stick to downloading exactly what I like, and if I really need to get my clear channel fix, I can use an FM tuner for FREE!!

My friend has sirius, and he thinks it is sweet because it beeps every time one of his favorite artists comes on. My iPhone plays my favorite artists all the time, on demand.

BTW, iPhone users have been able to listen to XM on their phones for sometime now using uXM. Not sure why anyone would want to though.

justinpe

And since it uses data service, you gotta pay over-priced unlimited data plan fees also.

Pass - until unlimited data is cheaper.

Geisrud

That's pretty cool, will this include Sirius when they merge?

Late_Night

No multi-service discount?

rbf2000

So what, Symbian users access internet radio for free!

philipbarrett

Almost $100 a year for shitty xm service? BLAH! Give me a good old FREE FM receiver and I'm set!

DucatiGuy

I have an 8830 BlackBerry, but it is difficult to justify this. I could pick up a $5 portable AM/FM radio, and there is no monthly fee.

The repetition, less-than-stellar sound quality, and the additional commercials they kept putting on their stations at XM were reasons enough for us to cancel. $8 a month is too rich for my blood.

Monty

This is news? I've had this app for a while on my Curve. It's not bad, but not spectacular. Not really worth the $8 a month, unless you get you work to pay.

junk

If they had their baseball channels on this I would be downloading it now.

Given how stingy MLB is though I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Rupan

Since Crackberrys are used by business people, you should have said that this is great for you when you sit through a boring powerpoint presentation in a dark room. You listen to this rather than the presenter.

Noobs-R-Us

@TheTick: No kidding. MLB on a Blackberry would rock.

BloggyMcBlogBlog

Wow, that's pretty cool.

markgm

Did you ever try just not going to class and claiming you went? Worked for me!

(Authenticated 1 semester skip record: 32 classes)

Darrone

What, no sports?

TheTick

Well, I did not know that North Carolina left the United states. When I downloaded it the app told me thanks for the interest but this is only available in the US.

evophoto

@justinpe: Satellite is a joke? Hardly. Maybe a joke for cheapskates who can't afford it, who think that listening to a half hour of commercials for a half hour of music on FM with its terrible sound quality and no variety is music.

Satellite is infinitely better than FM radio: no commercials, far more variety, greatly increased sound quality. Anyone who says differently has no idea what they are talking about, and probably complains that every cell phone isn't free, too.

Gofastmazda

so when i download it on my VZW pearl will it tell me that "this feature is not supported on Verizon Wireless Handsets" like it did when I downloaded the Garmin mobile service?

If the service for Verizon wasn't so damn good in my area I would have flushed the stupid thing by now.

Lavallee017

Wow When I was in high school we didn't have cell phones. We had to use walkmans for that

Chris Vee

@evophoto: Did y'all secede? I didn't get the "South Rising Again" memo...

ret3

Pay $15 a month for crap forced down your throat, or buy yourself a couple new albums every month and listen to something you know you will like?

I don't think I would enjoy the taste of shit in my mouth, so I will go ahead purchase my music and listen to it as I please.

BTW, not all satellite radio is 100% commercial free.

justinpe

@Gofastmazda:

I wasn't necessarily arguing that FM radio is better than satellite. I was trying to point out that you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want with an MP3 player. I was also trying to point out how radio (satelite or FM) is nothing more than big record companies force feeding you their crap with a big spoon. You don't think XM or sirius sees payola $? If you listen to the radio (any radio) you are a sheep who can't think for yourself.

justinpe

Love satellite radio. Wish I could do this on my iPhone. Would love to be able to listen to O&A on my phone.

EBone

@Noobs-R-Us:

One third of Blackberry owners are private individuals, not corporations. That's about 4.5 million people.

Sleeper_Service

@justinpe: "I was also trying to point out how radio (satelite or FM) is nothing more than big record companies force feeding you their crap with a big spoon. You don't think XM or sirius sees payola $? If you listen to the radio (any radio) you are a sheep who can't think for yourself."

LOL - the world is full of companies forcing everything of theirs down your throat. Picking one form of it over another doesn't make you any less of a "sheep". You have an MP3 player? Clothes on your back? A car? A television? A computer with broadband internet service? I say *baaaaa* to you my friend, and revel in your *baaaaaa* response.

*click**click*

@justinpe: Guess you don't go to the grocery store either, huh? Just eat the same things over and over again, b/c the name brands "stuff their crap down yer throat". Satellite radio has its advantages IMO as, thanks to it, I've been introduced to many artists I've never had the opportunity to listen to before I had it. Yeah, I'm paying for radio, but I'm also expanding my music interests and collection as a result. And on those days when I don't want to hear anything new, there's the iPod, CDs, or whatever. Of course, you can stick with FM and listen to the same POP and R&B garbage over and over again until a)your ears bleed, or b)you wanna just smack somebody if a few dollars a month is too much for your budget. But I'd imagine skipping one gorge-fest a month at McDonalds or one night per month at a bar would just about pay for it. Ahh, but priorities I guess...

*click**click*

My boss took his BB into the bathroom before...it didn't make it out alive.

Darkest Daze

@Chris Vee: Hah. Real hardship is having only an AM transistor radio to listen to in school. You kids today just don't know how hard it was. :)

infmom

@EBone:

Google uXM

justinpe

@*click**click*:

There are plenty of free sources to expand your music interests including sites like Last Fm. Or you could take the old fashioned route of going to shows and experiencing new music first hand. Also, friends can play a big role in recommending music. It doesn't cost money and you can find artists you like, and then buy their albums and go to their shows to support them. Rather than giving money to Sirius or XM who is taking money from EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner so that they can decide what you hear and which is how you get "introduced to many artists you've never had the opportunity to listen to before."

Expand your mind everybody! Listen to Satellite Radio because they'll introduce you to all of those obscure artists that you never would have heard of otherwise! The record companies should surely decide what is most pleasant to your ears! Step right up! Let them do the thinkin' for ya!

justinpe

i'm getting tired of my xm radio. i am a big fan of stand-up comedy, and i liked xm comedy for a while but now it's full of late-night-tv type commercials for dubious products and get-rich-quick scams. they get me so annoyed that i end up going back to my cd's.

i'm going to see what happens after the merger, and if it doesn't get any better, i'm getting rid of it. the idea of paying for it AND having to listen to awful advertising is ridiculous.

Aaron Stein

The question is, can you expense the XM? Other than

@justinpe: Other than uXM, people who use devices that support Shoutcast/MP3 streams, there is already a public web interface called XStreamXM.

mattbrown

ummm...most people don't leave $500 phones elsewhere while they go into a bathroom anyways

analyticalmind84

I signed up yesterday and took 24hrs to test this before I commented.... the service is horrible.. probably at 26k streaming and it sounds really bad. You can do a 15 day trial so I'm canceling this afternoon after I give it one more shot at lunch.

N@tedog

MMS not SMS (iPhone definitely wins that battle)

justinpe

I have a friend who also signed up. He is very disappointed as well and noted that others had the same impressions after visiting a few blackberry forums. Only 25 channels, poor quality and $8.99 a month? We always get into debates about who's phone is better, my iPhone or his 8800.

He is finally starting to concede on almost all fronts. Now that he knows how much better the iPhone is (at the same price), he is beginning to regret his purchase. The only things he still gets me on is SMS, physical keyboard, and tethering. Although, I prefer the iPhones virtual keyboard because it makes the device slimmer and allows for a much bigger screen. Also, I predict that tethering will be available on the iPhone in a few months once the 3g version is released.

justinpe

@ justinpe:

please dont talk.

Sirius is awesome and I have the comfort of knowing my ipod isnt filled with 10k songs that weren't paid for.

globones

wow I just downloaded the Xm app. for my blackberry Curve. The sound quality is awful. They're crazy if they think people are gonna pay 7.99 a month for this shit. Especially when I have a microSD card in my Blackberry that holds 2 gigs of high quality free music.

txtanner88

@globones:

Ok, talking will terminate, and typing will commence.

You're right Sirius is awesome. I had the opportunity to play around with my buddy's, and I can't tell you how blown away I was. Every time one of his favorite artists was playing it beeped. How frickin' sweet is that? In order to listen to one of my favorite artists, I have to go through the trouble of purchasing their music and then I have to hit play on my iPhone. What a drag. And I have to listen to their music knowing full well that I supported their ability to make music rather than giving it to some huge satellite radio company. Oh how I wish I could go back in time and give all that money to Mel Karmazin, who truly deserves it more.

Get a life dude. Giving money to a company to be your personal DJ is about as cool as your mom dressing you in the morning.

justinpe

@globones:

I would like to expand on the "Mom dressing you" analogy

Mom = Satellite Radio
Clothes = Music/Content
You = You

So your mom shops for you and takes care of all of your clothing expenses. That way you don't have to decide what you like, she can do that for you. Your mom then lays out an outfit on your bed every morning so that you don't have to think for yourself. Every time your mom picks out one of your favorite outfits, she beeps.

justinpe

I just downloaded the one day trial and have to make sure people know...

The sound quality is horrible. Sure, they're having to compress it to stream smoothly on the EDGE network, but FM radio stations sound better than this garbage. Hell, so do AM radio stations.

Quite a ballsy move to charge $8 a month for a service that has horrible audio quality when XM (and Satellite Radio overall, granted this isn't satellite) touts crystal clear audio.

Allistar

@justinpe: I was also trying to point out how radio (satelite or FM) is nothing more than big record companies force feeding you their crap with a big spoon... If you listen to the radio (any radio) you are a sheep who can't think for yourself.

This is a pretty broad statement. Over 60 of the channels are not music based at all. They are talk, sports, comedy, etc...

I bought XM radio for the variety of programming. (I listen to the music channels the least.)

You are basically saying that all radio channels, FM, XM, or Sirius, are controlled by the record industry. And to listen to any of them, would be supporting the corporate machine. Its impossible to like something, no that would make you a sheep, because maybe someone else would like the same thing, and that would be terrible.

Sorry I'm not a better writer, I hope I could convey my point to you.
(And keep feeling independent. You are the only person to have ever bought an iphone, you are unique.)

stephenball1

Please tell me someone out there is working with the iPhone SDK to bring XM to the iPhone, not the 3G iPhone but the plain ol' EDGE iPhone.

JimboDunky