Talkster

XM and Sirius satellite radio subscribers have a great new way to listen to broadcasts at home, the office or anywhere else that a relatively fast internet connection is available. Both companies offer «streaming» online. Now there are Yahoo «Widgets» available to make streaming simpler for both services.

When I found out that you could stream Sirius music channels over the Internet I was really pleased, until I tried it. The player is flash-based and pretty clunky to use. It also appears to time out after extended periods of playing, although I can't say whether this is a bug or a feature.

Enter the Sirius Tuner. The Sirius Satellite Tuner is a widget that runs under Yahoo's Widget Engine. The interface is small player window with controls for volume as well as three banks of ten presets to allow you to preprogram your favorite Sirius channels for easy access.

Blogcritics.org: SciTech Watch: Sirius Widget

The XM Widget includes a 3-day free trial for nonsubscribers:

Allows XM Satellite Radio subscribers to access XM Radio Online through a convenient Widget rather than the normal interface that takes up your whole screen and times out after only a few hours of listening. Browse the channels, play the audio streams directly with Windows Media Player embedded through COM, and set up to 30 presets.

If you're not an XM Radio subscriber, you can take advantage of their 3 day trial. If you are an XM Radio subscriber but you've never used XM Radio Online, you will need to register to get a username and password.

XM Tuner

Sirius,XM,satellite radio,Widgets