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Sirius in Negotiations With Apple
An anonymous reader writes "Sirius Satellite Radio Chief Executive Mel Karmazin announced that his company is in talks with Apple about bringing satellite radio to the iPod. Karmazin met with Steve Jobs Monday and he says the technology is the easy part. The hard part is negotiating just how they will split the profit from equipment and monthly subscriptions." We've covered this before, but now it seems they are getting "more Sirius," or something.
I know he's just trying to make sirius look more viable since they seem to be losing out to XM, but shouldn't he consider Apple's general attitude towards not announcing stuff ahead of time and keep his mouth shut.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Gee, I don't think I've ever seen that incredibly hilarious pun anywhere else...
Evidently Sirius will be teaming up with Mr. Adam Curry who helped to make podcasting famous (and could arguably be the "inventor" of podcasting).
This kind of a system may benefit both Sirius and Apple. Rather than trying to make some sort of Apple/Sirius bastard child, perform an Audible like system: subscribers to Sirius could get satellite shows and download them as podcasts as well automatically through iTunes, or do a "Sirius Lite" with delayed Podcast versions of shows available for a monthly fee (again, like Audible).
Apple sells more iPods (especially if they do it as an exclusive), Sirius would get more subscribers (heck, I've no interest in a satellite radio system, but I'd pay a small monthly service fee for good radio/music shows I could auto-sync to my iPod - key word "good"), and consumers - eh, I'll let individuals decide if its good for them or not.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
From TFA:
said the company has "had discussions with everyone," including makers of cell phones, digital music players and other devices.
It wasn't just Apple, its just a generalized thing
Steve Jobs: Nope.
Sirrus: I'll be your friend!
Steve Jobs: Nope.
Sirrus: If you don't put us in the iPod, I'll sign an exclusive deal with RealPlayer!
(pause)
Sirrus & Steve Jobs: AHAHAHAHH!
Sirrus: That's a good one. But seriously, how about putting us in the iPod?
Steve Jobs: Nope.
-Crow T. Trollbot
The CRTC has not approved services like Sirius and XM in Canada yet, but expect to have either or both here soon. It's basically high quality digital, (largely) commercial-free, subscription-based radio programming.
I don't know that there's any technical reason why you couldn't receive satellite radio in Canada, but neither company will sell it to you. Likewise, if you're an American passing through Canada there's no reason why your satellite radio wouldn't work. I guess that reception in Europe and elsewhere would depend on how they have their satellites positioned and what kind of orbits they are in.
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
Sirius signed a contract with Stern, who will be producing quite a few shows. The big question is will his listenership follow? If a large enough percentage of them do, Sirius stands poised to take the lead in the satellite market share race. Maybe a monster one.
Hooking up iPods with Sirius would be quite interesting . . . maybe an XM killer.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Aside from having to strap an antenna on your head to use this (you'll know what I mean if you've ever used any portable satellite radio), the awful and somewhat embarrassing sound quality will be VERY noticeable when it's played right beside actual CD quality audio. It's gotten so bad with both Sirius and XM that normal non-nerds are complaining about it.
Most of the time you ignore it...but going from a track ripped in Apple lossless format to satellite radio will be like jumping back 10 years in technology.
You, my friend, are crazy.
While XM's sattelites are generally way, way, way out there on the horizon near 30 degrees, Sirius has a sattelite (three in opposing orbits) over 60-90 degrees overhead. This is why XM has to worry about a repeater network and that Sirus doesn't have to deploy nearly as many repeaters. (ie: cities with tall buildings, not just places with semi-tall buildings) Its not an indication that 'Oh sirius has less repeaters so its not as good.' Its: "Oh, they picked a far better technology for mobile radio reception from sattelites."
-- dieman - Scott Dier