June 11 - 12:55am EDT   Satellite radio provider XM is preparing to launch a native iPhone client to access its commercial-free broadcasts. Ars Technica notes that the company's executive vice president and chief marketing officer Vernon Irvin spoke to attendees at the Federated Media Conversation Marketing Summit that his company currently streams to select AT&T phones, and will expand to natively support the iPhone at an unspecified future time. [full story]

April 30 - 4:30pm EDT   Both Sirius and XM satellite radio providers decided to postpone their respective shareholder meetings as they await the FCC's approval of their merger. XM had a shareholder meeting scheduled for May 23, with Sirius execs assembling on May 20, suggesting the two don’t expect the matter to be resolved at least until the end of next month. The FCC is reviewing concerns that analysts believe include "public interest" issues such as pricing of the service, which would effectively have no competition on the satellite radio market. [full story]

April 29 - 1:10pm EDT   Three of Logitech's networked music hubs -- the Squeezebox, Squeezebox Duet and the Transporter -- will soon gain direct support for Sirius' Internet Radio service, the latter company has announced. Using a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection, owners will be able to select from over 80 different stations, including talk programming such as Howard Stern and NFL Radio. More critically, the support will come as a software update, and will be controllable away from a hub or a computer, via remote. [full story]

April 25 - 4:45pm EDT   Sirius sent a prototype Starmate 5 satellite radio receiver to the FCC for testing, revealing some images as well as specs. Other than the color difference of an otherwise identical body, it's not clear how the Starmate 5 differs from the current Starmate 4. One hint as to a unique feature is mention of either an XM or Sirius radio signal used in testing in a memo between a member of the testing firm and FCC authorization staff. [full story]

March 28 - 3:10pm EDT   XM and Sirius are putting pressure on the Federal Communications Commission for a quick merger approval, legal documents show. A filing submitted to the FCC by an XM lawyer shows that counsel for both XM and Sirius visited the FCC on Wednesday, and discussed matters not only with chairman Kevin Martin, but his chief of staff and senior legal advisor. The filing was required by FCC regulations, and is likely meant to ensure that all lobbying efforts are above-board. [full story]

March 24 - 11:05pm EDT   The US Federal Justice Department today approved the highly controversial XM-Sirius merger, with some in the industry claiming that despite over 10 years of rebellious behavior against the FCC, the decision will grant monopoly status to the two companies. Just over a month ago, the two satellite radio content providers had officially announced the desire to merge, which many Sirius shareholders voted to approve. [full story]

December 17 - 4:35pm EST   Universal Music and XM Radio have settled a lawsuit over a piece of third-party hardware, reports say. The item of contention was Pioneer's Inno player, which is able to record XM broadcasts in addition to playing MP3s; the problem is that it can naturally record Universal artists without permission, something the record label objected to. Under the terms of the settlement, Universal will be the first company signed to a multi-year agreement covering all XM radios with "advanced recording functionality," potentially opening the door to safe recording on many other devices. [full story]