Pulsar

Rogue Amoeba has a new app called Pulsar that streams XM/Sirius radio. So if you have an account, it might be a better way to stream it than via their own web sites. We've had "free" XM via DirecTV for a few years now, then Kim got an account when she got her Infiniti. I really dig it. The Deep Tracks channel is one of my favorites, almost always playing something good and rarely something I've heard more than a couple times in my life. X–Country (cross country) was also a great one, playing fantastic alt country and twang (their slogan was "In twang we trust") like Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Old Crow Medicine Show, Drive–By Truckers, etc. Since merging with Sirius the channel has changed to the much hokier name Outlaw Country, sounding like something that would be a soundtrack for NASCAR commercials and only available at Wal-mart. It's somewhat the same music, although often moving in a hokier direction. The old Classic Tracks is now Classic Vinyl—also a good one, like finding a good ol' album–oriented FM radio station coming out of the past, where you suspect the DJ chose most tracks so he'd have time to go outside a burn one.

The one big caveat to satellite radio is the sound quality. You'd think a digital feed would be perfect. Nope, cuz it's compressed, both aurally (like FM stations do) and digitally (like Real audio or shitty mp3), so the highs always sound like somebody is holding a plate in front of your tweeters and moving it around. That's too bad, especially because it usually sounds worse than analogue FM.