The iPhone 3G blog

Sirius XM Radio, always on the lookout for ways to attract fee-paying younger subscribers, is now after the Apple crowd.

After the introduction several months ago of the XM Skydock, the iPod/iPhone accessory is finally on the market, at a price of $120; even Apple stores are to carry it.

Instead of buying an aftermarket satellite-radio kit, iPhone and iPod Touch owners can place their devices in this dock, which has the antenna necessary to pull in a satellite signal. The Skydock itself plugs into a cigarette-lighter power port and also charges your iPhone while it’s docked. An FM transmitter beams your music to your car stereo, so you can play the signal over your speakers.

Access to XM Sirius content costs $13 a month. An added feature is the ability to tag songs you hear for later purchase on iTunes.

Of course, FM transmitters are notoriously finicky (trying to find an available, clean frequency can be hard, particularly in cities). If your car has an auxiliary in connector, you can plug the Skydock directly into your car stereo.

The bigger question is this: While there’s a certain appeal to the serendipity of radio (who knew they were going to play that Scitti Politti song?), doesn’t a well-stocked iPod or iPhone, chockablock with music and podcasts, sort of obviate the need for pay radio?

Tonight we get a first glimpse of whether Chinese cell phone users bite when the iPhone (finally) officially goes on sale here. The iPhone’s star power could draw crowds to the launch events tonight – which are being held separately by Apple and China Unicom in Beijing. But as for sales: many die-hard iPhone fans already have the handset, and given the high prices being charged, it’s going to take real die-hard fans to buy the Unicom iPhones.

We wrote about the price issue in today’s Journal, but here’s a more detailed breakdown of what prospective Chinese iPhone buyers are looking at: China Unicom is offering three models of the iPhone. Without being bundled with a service package, the phones will go for 4,999 yuan ($732, for the 8-gigabyte iPhone 3G), 5,880 yuan ($861, 16-gigabyte 3GS), and 6,999 yuan ($1,025, 32-gigabyte 3GS). China Unicom is offering 8 levels of third-generation wireless service packages, ranging from 126 yuan ($18) a month to 886 yuan ($130) a month, which will allow users to download data at higher speeds and run applications like streaming video. Read more… »

disney-app

The Walt Disney Co. is releasing an iPhone application that rewards users for poking through the Disney.com Web site and could one day offer exclusive bonuses for activities such as shopping at Disney Stores.

The free app, which debuts in the iTunes app store Wednesday, offers bonus animations to users who follow clues to take cell-phone pictures of characters from movies such as “Up,” “G-Force,” “Ratatouille,” and “Wall-E” on the Web site.

Taking the correct picture unlocks an exclusive video and downloadable content such as frame images that can be overlaid on photos, or wallpaper images for cell phone screens. Disney is calling the feature “Click2Life,” because it makes characters captured in photos appear to suddenly become animated in one’s hand.

In the future, the family entertainment company said it could allow bonus content to be delivered to phones based on their location, pinpointed with GPS coordinates, such as inside a Disney Store. Future photo keys could also include movie posters to drive interest in the company’s upcoming releases.

Jason Davis, vice president of Disney.com, said the main purpose of the app was to deepen fan relationships with Disney characters, rather than just drive traffic to stores, theaters and online.

“We treat it just as a unique content experience,” Davis said.

The app also corrals all of Disney’s 17 apps together in one place, allowing users to shop for other programs and manage ones they have already purchased, some of which sell for $4.99.

The app is unrelated to a so-called “Keychest” technology that Disney is developing to give consumers access to movies across multiple devices with one purchase.

Start Your Car From Your iPhone is possible? The answers is ok.

Remote starters are always a popular holiday gift in Northern climes, so particularly lazy shoppers will be heartened to learn one can be downloaded on iTunes.

iphone-smartstart

The Viper SmartStart from Directed Electronics is an iPhone-compatible remote starter capable of warming up or cooling down a car.  Even if you’re not a fan of letting your car idle in a parking lot, Viper says the SmartStart could come in handy for remotely locking or unlocking the doors, popping the trunk or even sounding the car alarm.

Best of all, instead of pointing a squared-off keyfob at a car that’s parked a mere 30 feet away, you can start your car from anywhere provided there’s a cell phone signal.

“Our customers have consistently told us that the two most important features in a remote starter are range and user interface,” Directed Electronics president Kevin Duffy said in a statement. “We developed the Viper SmartStart in response. Range is virtually unlimited, and iPhone owners can use the elegant touch-screen interface they already carry in their pocket.”

The SmartStart can either be installed separately for $499 or mated to an existing remote starter for $299. There’s also an annual service charge, which tacks on an additional $29.99 a year. The system is also compatible with the iPod Touch, but its range is limited to within existing WiFi networks.