Review: XM SkyDock

I love my Sirius XM satellite radio. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t listen to the service either in my vehicle or at home. The only issue I have with it is that I must carry the small receiver with me wherever I go. I probably could leave it in the vehicle when I’m not using it, but what if someone broke in? I’d hate to have to buy another one. So you can imagine my delight when I heard about XM’s SkyDock, the cradle that turns my iPhone into a Sirius XM satellite receiver. Could this be it? Could this device be the solution to my satellite radio woes? While it isn’t perfect is comes pretty darn close.

The Design

The XM Skydock is a large cradle you install in your vehicle which holds your iPod Touch or iPhone (in this case, I used my iPhone, so let’s just refer to it from here on in). Essentially the guts and brains of the Sirius XM receiver are in the SkyDock and your  iPhone is used basically as a screen and interface. The dock doesn’t have a suction cup mount or vent clip, instead it rests in your vehicle’s power adapter port where it draws energy to power your iPhone and charge it while you drive.

Your iPhone sits on the end of the dock’s arm, fitting snugly into a clamp which prevents your device from falling out while you drive. The arm itself is flexible, allowing you to adjust the screen for reflection and best viewing angle. You need to use quite a bit of force to manipulate the arm as it’s very stiff. This is a good thing. This ensures the arm doesn’t move around once you have your device in place. You’ll come to appreciate this if you tend to drive on rough terrain or have a tendency of driving over speed bumps at ridiculous speeds.

The Setup

In order to use satellite radio you must have an antennae which is in clear line of site with the satellites. The SkyDock is no different. You still need to connect it to a small magnetic antennae which is included on the box. Once your antennae is attached and mounted outside your vehicle you can plug in your cradle and proceed with the setup.

You have two options for audio, Line or FM. If you use Line (labeled as Audio in the picture below) then you must connect the SkyDock with an AUX cable to the AUX input in your vehicle. Most vehicles these days have AUX inputs. If yours doesn’t you’ll be choosing the FM modulation approach. This transmits the audio from your SkyDock to your vehicle through any unused FM station of your choice. Both choices take a matter of minutes to setup. Very easy.

Once you have installed your antennae you can

Navigation

Once setup is complete you can start listening to your radio. Keep in mind Sirius XM considers the SkyDock to be a receiver and you will have to register it and pay a monthly subscription to use the SkyDock. It doesn’t matter that you may have another receiver registered, Sirius XM charges for each receiver in use.

The user interface is actually quite slick. The main screen shows what artist and song is playing, and what channel you currently have it on. If you want to manually browse other channels just swipe your finger left or right and a preview window pops up, showing what else is playing. You can also narrow your search down by viewing one music category at a time by pressing the category button on the bottom of the screen. This will bring up all the major musical categories like pop, rock, country or blues and can help you scan only the channels you are interested in.

Like on other satellite receivers, you can “Tag” a song if you like it. That saves the song information into the iPhone’s memory so when that song comes up in the future you will be notified with a chime. A simple press of a button will automatically change the channel to the one that is playing your favourite song. You can also choose to be notified whenever your favourite artist is performing, or, if you really like a particular song, you can instantly buy it on iTunes.

Tag songs by song title, artist, or purchase songs you like through iTunes

Besides music, you also have a shortcut to traffic and weather on the main navigation page. This service focuses on major American cities at this time, so Canadians will have no reason to use this feature.

Overall, the touch interface works very well. Some of the icons (like settings and categories) are a bit small so navigating while driving may be an issue. You can however choose to have your phone in upright position or horizontal so if you choose horizontal the buttons do appear slightly bigger.

Taking Calls

If you’re using an iPhone in the SkyDock an obvious question comes to mind. What happens when you receive an incoming call? The answer is simple. The music stops playing and your phone rings. You now have one of two options to take that call. The first is you can remove the iPhone from the SkyDock and talk as you normally would, then return it to the dock when you’re ready to listen to music again. It works, but it’s not very convenient. The other option is to use a Bluetooth headset. Using Bluetooth allows you to answer the call without removing the phone from the dock. Highly recommended! If you use Bluetooth you will also hear the chime when your favourite song has come on another station right in your ear. (Chime can be heard through Bluetooth headset…music does not come through.)

The Downsides

While I thoroughly enjoyed using the SkyDock I did notice a few issues. One is you have to remove any protective case from your device. Cases add extra thickness to the phone preventing it from sitting properly in the SkyDock. In fact the connector will not fit properly into the base of your iPhone or iPod. You MUST remove the case which I found to be a pain as I always like keep my phone protected.

Another disappointment is you can’t store actual songs in your iPhone or iPod’s memory. I’m used to using the Xpress RC receiver which holds up to 10 songs in the memory. That gives me the ability to listen to them anytime I want. This is not an option with the SkyDock which is a bit surprising since you have a large hard drive just waiting to be filled up. Although that may be just the problem: if you store too many songs in memory, how is Apple going to convince you to purchase songs from iTunes.

If you prefer you can choose to have just your favourite channels displayed on the screen

Finally, while I loved the fact that the SkyDock tells you when your favourite song or artist is playing, the alert chime is much too quiet. When using a Bluetooth headset the chime was easier to hear as it’s right in your ea, but quite often without Bluetooth the chime gets drowned out by the song you are listening to.

The Bottom Line

As an iPhone user who listens to Sirius Satellite radio where ever I go, I loved the new XM SkyDock. Installation is a breeze, the user interface is simple and the features are great. Yes, I’m disappointed by the fact that I can’t store my favourite songs in memory but I can over look that for the time being. The SkyDock is a must-have for iPhone and iPod Touch users who are “Serious” about their Sirius XM satellite radio.

The Good

Easy Installation
Charges your iPhone/iPod Touch
Nice user interface

The Bad

Must remove case on iPhone or iPod Touch
Can’t save favourite songs in memory like on the Xpress RC
Favourite song alert too quiet