Mac360 Easy Search
Enter your search keywords below »

Mac360 Power Search
Click below for advanced search options »

Latest Mac Reviews Mac360 Forums New Encore Reviews
Home  »  What's New  »

XM Satellite Radio: From Apple? No, From AOL.

AOL XMI love music on my Mac. My iTunes collection is over 3,000 songs and it’s all on my iPod. I also listen to ‘radio’ via iTunes, but quality suffers and selection is dubious.

XM satellite radio on the Mac? Yeah, I’d like that. Apple doesn’t make it availble but AOL does.

XM radio (part of it) is available through a new application from AOL, long known for leaving Mac users in the dust with anemic applications. The latest is called AOL Radio.

AOL. Always on the creative edge for product naming schemes. If you have an AOL account you can listen to the broadband streams of higher quality music. How much higher? I’m still trying to figure that out.

The download of AOL Radio is just over a single megabyte in size. The application is simple enough; brushed aluminum, like the iTunes of old, the Safari of today.

In typical AOL form, the interface could not be much simpler. There’s a play button and volume slider in the upper left corner. Station presets in the middle, along with a colored screen that displays the ‘radio’ channel and song.

To the right (still at the top) is an embossed music note icon and a typical Mac search field.

At the very bottom of the AOL Radio application is a huge AOL logo and icon. Huge. There’s not much that’s subtle with AOL.

Between the top and bottom is the good stuff. Music ‘sources’ in a column to the left, and music ‘stations’ in a column to the left.

That’s it. Click a source, then click a station related to the source, and music starts. That’s it. But I’m repeating myself.

The ‘sources’ are what you’d expect. Classical, Country, Dance, Hip Hop, Jazz, Kids, News, Sports, Talk, Pop, Oldies, Latino, Rock, and so on.

Near the top of the sources list are two XM Satellite Radio options-- XM Radio Top 11, and XM Satellite Radio, each filled with numerious XM radio stations, or channels.

XM ‘60s, XM 70s, and 80s and so on. There’s XM KISS, XM The BLend, XM The City, and shooby dooby doo.

The XM Satellite Radio Source has a few dozen XM channels (stations) that cover the spectrum of music. Jazz, Love, Neo Soul, urban Top 40, Chart Topping Hits, Classic Album Cuts, even Unsigned Bands Only.

Need something different? Try The Sound of Africa. What? There’s no Broadway and Showtunes radio station playing in Colby, Kansas? XM on Broadway to the rescue.

AOL Radio’s preferences are typical Mac; limited. Broadband, Dialup. Show song, Update iChat status, Station Presets for AOL users, and an option to change the display colors (top center bar).

Did I mention ‘that’s it?’

Did I mention the quality? Very good. Streaming on broadband was excellent and buffering didn’t take much extra time. Your mileage may vary. I have no way of knowing (yet) the actual quality of the audio that’s being streamed.

iTunes streaming audio is modest, though AOL Radio sounds good.

Not having XM radio in my car or home, I can’t tell if the entire XM station collection is available, but there’s plenty.

Now all we need is an application that will record that streaming audio to the Mac for export to the iPod. Hmmmm.

Click Here for the download link to AOL Radio version 1.0.

Off Topic Note: Mac360 has discounts and special pricing on Microsoft Office for Mac ($125), Apple’s iWork ‘08 suite ($62), and Adobe Photoshop Elements ($70). Where? At the newly remodeled Mac360 Store. Shopping at our local version of Amazon helps to support Mac360.

   • Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Friday, October 7, 2005
   • Category: What's New • 1 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now
  Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for this article.

Talk Back to the folks at Mac360
Mac360 readers talk back. View their comments below or post your own comment to this article. Comments are moderated by the Mac360 staff. Or, post comments in the Mac360 Forums. It's mostly anonymous, there's no obligation, and no cost, so join in-- it's free, fun, low in calories, low in carbs, non-fat, and mildly addictive-- like chocolate and blondes.

Readers Talk Back:
Jonathan says:

AOL Music sucks. Almost everything about AOL does these days. I would much rather go for something simple. There are tons or sites out there these days that offer such services. Check out http://www.blip.fm. Awesome concept. Another good one for older music is http://www.sonicboomers.com. But XM has come a long way. I even heard there might be an XM and Sirius merger one of these days..well, we’ll see..

Jon

   — Posted on Tue Jul 22 at 2:01 am by Jonathan

  Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for Comments on this article.
     Back To Top

Talk Back to Mac360 and post your own comment

Your comment may be anonymous if you want (it's OK to use a cute name, or something everyone can remember). An email address is only required if you want to be notified of new comments by other posters, and is always shielded from email spam harvesters.

We moderate the comments, so keep it on topic, relevant, worthy, and funny. Or, pick any two. Yes, SPAM links will be deleted, so don't even think about it.

Talk back and enter your comment below:
Your Name:
Your Email:(optional: needed only for comment notification)
Your Location:(optional: your city, state, country)

Enter Your Comment Below:
Remember my personal information?
Notify me of follow-up comments by email?

Please enter the Mac360 "Magic Word" from the image below:



     Back To Top
What's in the FORUMS?
Newest Daily Topics



Also in Mac360
Recent Articles