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The rumors were true. At an invitation-only media event in New York City this morning, Sirius XM (SIRI) debuted the first-ever radio dock for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Dubbed SkyDock, the $119.99 peripheral uses iPhone OS 3’s support for third-party hardware to transform Apple (AAPL) handsets into full-fledged satellite radios. Designed to run off a car’s cigarette power adapter, the SkyDock charges your iPhone while you listen to it. It works in concert with the Sirius/XM iPhone app and supports the ability to tag songs for download from iTunes. Better yet, it gives users access to all XM and”The Best of SIRIUS” channels, even those the company infamously excludes from its online feed, like Howard Stern, MLB Play-by-Play and NFL Play-by-Play.
A wise move for Sirius and one that will no doubt go over quite well with folks who are interested in listening to its programming, but unwilling to pay for a full sat-radio upgrade to do so. No word yet on a firm release date. The device has, however, been granted preliminary approval by the FCC which is still evaluating it.