New Online Website And Device Apps

sgniwder

Member
Nov 10, 2008
81
11
8
Ok, after months of wishing that Sirius would change the apps for their listening methods to become more user friendly, I have to say that they have a ways to go.

The website keeps timing out. I am assuming that this will work suitably once their load balancing is stable, but I cannot figure out several basic items, such as:
  • where to locate downloads
  • on demand seems grayed out, but is sometimes accessible

How is everyone else's experience so far?
 

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
17,485
168
Toledo, Ohio
It's quirky and hard to navigate.
It isn't easy to get to the on demand that you're looking for. I'm hoping that they not only fix the bugs, but adjust the layout and menus more soon.

Sent from Tapatalk
 

wickerbill

Active Member
Jan 20, 2009
291
37
28
Tulsa, OK
I never use the website, but the iPhone app is horrible. They obviously did very little testing before releasing it because it's really buggy. It doesn't save settings when closing the app, like when I tell it to not turn off the screen I have to change that setting to turn it back on every single time I open the app. When listening to an on-demand show that you pause and pick up later, it goes back about two minutes prior to the point where I paused it. On demand has been VERY unreliable since they updated the app and is totally unavailable at times. It's also annoying that when listening to an on-demand show it doesn't show the time of the show and where you're at in the show. It just shows a bar at the top. I hit the 15 second rewind button earlier and it skipped to the back of the show so then I have to fight their horrible time scrub interface to try and find where I was in the show.

The design is also a jumbled mess. It's very disappointing that when they update the app for the first time in 9 months and 6 months after the new iPhones were released, they didn't update the app to support the new resolutions of the 6 and 6 plus. It's sad that all of the free music apps are so much better than the app that SiriusXM charges so much for. What's really sad is I'm not even surprised that they released such a horrible app with the way they left so many bugs and problems unfixed in the previous apps.
 

scotchandcigar

All I wanted was some steak
Feb 13, 2009
23,407
18,657
168
Vacationland
I'd say that, in-general, SiriusXM is running on a shoestring, and has been for years. That's not to say they don't make a profit, but their original business model was satellite focused, and they never got commensurate payback from that, because new technologies left them behind.

So now they're stuck with a service that has a large infrastructure behind it, and a small market share. So unlike the other internet-only services, they can't invest a lot into the part of their business which constitutes only 16% of their service (it was posted recently that satellite users make-up 84% of subs).

Eventually, the satellites will come crashing to the earth, and this experiment will be over.
 

hwkn

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2008
846
321
63
Evanston,IL
Somebody on another site said they went to Googleplay and saw todays date on the XM app[looks like there's a new update fwiw].
 

Ehilbert1

Ooh-Rah!!!!
Oct 13, 2008
4,480
1,220
113
Columbus, OH
I wish the new app had a sleep timer. I hope one day to get a landscape mode on my Note 4. It does look good though.

903a563118d86af91811359aecf1b8fc.jpg


Sent from my Note 4
 
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Kryptonite

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2008
11,670
1,837
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I'd say that, in-general, SiriusXM is running on a shoestring, and has been for years. That's not to say they don't make a profit, but their original business model was satellite focused, and they never got commensurate payback from that, because new technologies left them behind.

So now they're stuck with a service that has a large infrastructure behind it, and a small market share. So unlike the other internet-only services, they can't invest a lot into the part of their business which constitutes only 16% of their service (it was posted recently that satellite users make-up 84% of subs).

Eventually, the satellites will come crashing to the earth, and this experiment will be over.

It was fun while it lasted, but whenever they decide to ditch the satellite portion of it, I guess spotify and FM will be all the truckers have.
 

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
17,485
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Toledo, Ohio
I can see the day, but it's not going to be soon.
They are smart that they are looking at other delivery methods.
They know they have to adapt, but man, I'd have hoped they would be doing a better job with the apps already.
 

wickerbill

Active Member
Jan 20, 2009
291
37
28
Tulsa, OK
On demand is slightly better, but it's still extremely buggy. I find it hard to believe they did any extensive testing of this app before releasing it. The most amazing bug for me is listening to a show that I have downloaded to my phone and I consistently get errors saying that my internet connection is too slow and it's trying to recover my connection. Then eventually it says it has failed and gives me the option to retry or go back to my downloads. During these errors, it keeps playing the downloaded show. What difference does my internet connection have when playing a show that is already fully downloaded to my phone?

The 15 second replay button is also broken on downloaded shows. It almost always skips me back to the beginning of the show. The old app was crap, but I would happily go back to it if given the option. While this update looks a little nicer, the design is a jumbled mess that is harder to use and is missing key functionality like the time of the current show playing in addition to how unreliable it is in actually playing content.
 
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scotchandcigar

All I wanted was some steak
Feb 13, 2009
23,407
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Vacationland
I don't think I can even list all the things wrong with the desktop app. When I go to a channel it puts me wherever it feels like it, I can't go to "live". I have to go to another channel then go back, in order to catch-up to what's currently displayed for that channel. If I go "back" to the last song (or beginning of the current song), again I can't go "live" afterwards. Then I'll be listening to a channel, and it'll skip back a minute and repeat all by itself.
 

hwkn

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2008
846
321
63
Evanston,IL
I recently bought a Samsung smart tv that has the XM app on it but when I try to play it I get no audio through my av receiver.[then again none of the apps on my tv have the audio but get video]
 
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HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
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Toledo, Ohio
That's weird. I wonder if there is a setting to control where your audio output is routed.
I've got a Samsung TV, but it's a few years old. I'm not sure if the settings would be the same. I'll have to see if it has updated to include the XM app.
 

scotchandcigar

All I wanted was some steak
Feb 13, 2009
23,407
18,657
168
Vacationland
I recently bought a Samsung smart tv that has the XM app on it but when I try to play it I get no audio through my av receiver.[then again none of the apps on my tv have the audio but get video]
Do you get audio from your other TV apps like Netflix? I've had to deal with issues having audio come from 2 places (cable box or TV). I had to play with a setting that sends audio through the HDMI, or through a separate audio out (coax or optical).
 

hwkn

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2008
846
321
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Evanston,IL
I read on the samsung site that I may have to switch my HDMI cable in the back of my tv from HDMI1 to HDMI 2 to make the app audio work[something about arc messing up the audio].