In an announcement made by Sirius XM recently, the company is introducing a higher quality live Internet feed which they will begin charging for in the near future.  I received the following email today with information regarding the change to their online stream as well as an indication of the price adjustment that will be required for anyone who does not renew their service on or before March 10th, regardless of whether you just renewed.

This has me wondering, with the coming release of the Sirius Star Playr application in the iTunes store (supposedly set to $12.99 initially), is Sirius XM setting themselves up here to try and retain a customer base that may already be deciding to switch to free Internet streaming elsewhere?  What exactly is the future of satellite radio?  I mean, I love my XM subscription because it keeps me entertained on my drive to work and back without having to wait through 90% commercials, but should I really entertain the option of extending my committment with XM to longer than a year at a time?  I just don’t know that I’m ready for that committment yet.  And if that means that I won’t benefit from the Star Playr application being on my iPhone, then I guess I’ll have saved myself the $12.99 for the app plus the $35.88/yr for the streaming service that Star Playr relies upon.

Giving in to the hype from other iPhone users, I downloaded the Qik application through Cydia on my jailbroken iPhone, and recorded a couple of very pointless videos to test it out.  I may play around with this a little more, but don’t expect anything too fancy.  My life just isn’t fascinating enough for you to watch everything I do.

My initial thoughts on Qik:

1. This seems very cool for those who are on the go and want to share what’s going on with friends or followers, assuming you have something of importance to share, which so far I have not.
2. I find it interesting that the Qik iPhone app is technically capable of streaming live video to the web, even over the AT&T Edge network, yet it can’t view the videos that it has uploaded. Perhaps this was a design flaw, or maybe they’re holding out for an official App Store release.  Who knows?
3. It appears to be simple enough to add your Qik videos (both the live stream and recorded sessions) to a web page or blog using the code that is provided with every video.
4. It’s a place to hold my iPhone videos so they don’t have to be stored on the phone itself.  I tried the Cycorder apps, but frankly didn’t have time to figure out how to add it to a stream on my website.  Qik does this automatically, so what more could I ask for?

See my video samples at http://www.qik.com/webguyatwork if you’re up for a good laugh (or not).

For the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that iTunes running on my PC wasn’t recognizing my iPhone at all. My wife’s iPod Nano came up just fine though, so I started wondering what was up. Realizing at some point I would need to connect for a backup and future upgrades, I started looking into fixing the issue.

The following steps are intended to help you out of a similar situation without going through what I did to my iPhone, which ended up requiring a full restore from scratch. I’ll let you know how I went wrong.

To get your PC to recognize your iPhone, you’ll have to essentially uninstall every piece of Apple software that you have running (assuming you’re just a standard iTunes user):

DO NOT FOLLOW THE PROCEDURE TO PUT YOUR DEVICE IN RESTORE MODE
(I did before I ran all of the steps below, and it cost me a lot of additional time and headaches.)

1. Navigate to your Add/Remove Programs (Programs and Features on Vista) area within the Control Panel.
2. Start removing these apps (in this order, do not reboot until they’re all removed):
   • Quicktime
   • Apple Mobile Device Support
   • Apple Software Update
   • Bonjour
   • iTunes
3. Reboot your PC
4. Using Internet Explorer (I know, I know, shoot me later though), browse to apple.com/itunes and click the download link for the latest version of iTunes. From here, run the install program directly from the link, do not save it to your computer. (I do not know the reason for this, I just followed the instructions per a video I saw on Youtube).

You should not need to reboot after the re-installation of iTunes is complete.  My copy even found my library automatically, which I assume is due to some saved settings in the registry.  Connect your iPhone in and, voila!

Disclaimer: The procedure listed here worked perfectly for me AFTER I already put my phone in restore mode.  I am 99% sure that it will work WITHOUT putting your iPhone in restore mode first.  I just happened to find the steps after I had already bricked my phone. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!!!

I’ve had my iPhone since April, and while I probably should have held back and waiting for the 3G to arrive, the original iPhone is holding its own in the world of very useful applications.  The ability to extend the phone with custom developed applications is what originally drew me away from its competitors.  Having the iPhone has certainly opened my eyes to the usefulness of the social media scene with its location-aware services.  Below is my short-list of favorite location-aware applications from 2008.

#1. Twinkle – http://tapulous.com/twinkle

I created my Twitter profile during a presentation on social media at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in June.  The presenter showed the site and I immediately signed up and started sending messages and building the start of my network.  Since then, I’ve discovered Twinkle, my favorite Twitter client on the iPhone to date.  Part of building a good social network is to find people around you who are posting messages.  Twinkle’s “nearby” feature can be tuned from as close as your local neighborhood (mine’s pretty quiet) to everyone in the world.  I’ve found a lot of good people by using this feature, and it’s one that I frequent throughout the day, every day.

#2 Brightkite – http://www.brightkite.com

The Brightkite application is very simple to use and allows you to view what’s going on in nearby locations, including integrated photos.  The nice thing about Brightkite also is that it posts your updates to your Twitter timeline so you don’t have to post similar updates in both applications.  This application was just updated on December 15th to resolve an issue with using placemarks on the iPhone.

#3 – The Weather Channel – http://www.weather.com

Though I don’t use this one on a daily basis, it is very cool that it knows where I am and will automatically get the weather for my

current location without me having to type in my zip code every time.

#4 Google Earth – http://earth.google.com

This application is a bit bulkier than the built-in maps feature of the iPhone. However, it’s a very cool little maps application for locating yourself quickly and finding your favorite places around you.  Tilt the phone up for  a more level view of your current location.  From my house, I can tip the phone up and see Lake Michigan, some 60 miles away!!!

What are your favorite location-aware applications?  Maybe you will persuade me to try some of them out.  Submit your replies below.

I downloaded the i.TV application last night from the Apple App Store in iTunes.  Within minutes of trying out the application, I could tell that it will quickly become more and more useful in my television planning activities.  I really don’t get a whole lot of TV watching time each week, so for the shows that I do happen to catch, I like to know which nights they are on and which channels to catch them on.  This application is clearly going to help me remember to watch the shows.

The first thing you do when the application lauches is pick your zip code.  This automatically detects the television carriers and channel lineups in your area.  By choosing the right carrier, you get an accurate picture of the show lineups in real-time.

Select a few shows and give them a “thumbs-up” to add them to your favorite media.  By switching to your favorite media screen, you can see when your selected shows will be playing next.

Another great feature is the theater search.  Find out the playing times of movies at your local theaters.  I recommend this application for anyone who is addicted to their weekly programming.  If you haven’t already tried the application on your iPhone, get it for free from the iTunes App Store today!