Rumor has it that XM Satellite Radio will announce a deal with the Indy Racing League within the upcoming weeks.

While there's nothing official yet, we can easily assume that they'll probably be carrying the Indy Racing League Radio Network.

XM currently has an in-depth partnership with NASCAR (XM Channel 144 and XM Channel 145). No word on whether the IRL deal will include the ever popular in-car audio coverage currently available with NASCAR.

Thanks candlebougie!

After all the speculation about something cool involving an OnStar/XM combo, GM's FindTheMessage campaign was in fact all about OnStar and StabiliTrak being standard equipment on all GM cars.

How disappointing. :(

GM launched a cute little national billboard campaign that reveals a new, one word billboard each day. On Monday, January 31, when all 17 words are revealed, a sentence will be formed. The campaign revolves around the FindTheMessage website, which craftly reveals each word so you can try to figure out what the message is.

Unfortunatly, a lil' over a week ago the message was cracked due to some poor programming techniques and the first line to the message was (gasp) revealed. It reads "This is the last time you will ever have to feel alone on our nation's highways" which, still leaves a lot of room for guessing.

The original speculation is that it's an announcement that GM will offer OnStar in all of its vehicles. Others speculate that this has something to do with XM Satellite Radio because the contest is sponsored by XM. And out of the two, the OnStar announcement sounds pretty reasonable - right?

But what if it's a combination of both XM and OnStar? What if AutoWeek's article jumped the gun a bit before the big announcement could be made? Could the FindTheMessage campaign be a big announcement about OnStar / XM Satellite Radio integration? Wouldn't be too far of a guess considering how this campaign has been handled so far.

But let's add a bit more to the speculation. With a recent Patent Application by GM. Below is a diagram from GM's patent on MVCS (mobile vehicle communication service) 100.

According to the patent application, MVCS 100 is implemented as an OnStar system, and as an XM Satellite Radio system. The application is for a "system for pulling information from a mobile vehicle within a mobile vehicle communications system." This, combined with XM and OnStar would be pretty kickass technology - and definitely worth a detailed and hype-driving announcement like FindTheMessage.

"This is the last time you will ever have to feel alone on our nation's roadways. Because everyone should hear these words."

Just food for thought. :)

(Slow week.) ZDNet wrote up a nice article illustrating the XM Patent we talked about a couple days ago.

Not necessarily anything new, but nicely puts it together for everyone who doesn't want to read the huge patent application.

The patent filed by XM Satellite Radio is starting to cause quite a stir, especially on Wall Street. Bear Stearns reiterated an "outperform" rating and $45 target price on XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) stating it shows "a potential road map for the tremendous future of satellite radio."

The patent includes potential future devices with increased functionality including MP3 capabilities, removable storage, multi-tuner recordability, legal downloading, Buy-It-Now buttons, cellular compatibility and DVR-like functionality.

This is getting the day-traders into quite a frenzy.

Remember when the Sirius / iPod Satellite Rumor first came out? Dreams of combining your own MP3 library with endless streaming satellite radio content on a single device were dancing in our heads. But then came the swarm of speculation and doubt that something like the iPod Satellite just could not be.

But now the Rumor Mill has started up again. Only this time, it's not with Sirius, but rather XM.

First, there's the MacObserver article by Brad Gibson which serves to squelch the rumor, but seems to have fired up the masses because of the questions it raised.

Sure, XM has been in talks with Apple, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything... yet. "We talk with a lot of companies," said Chance Patterson from XM, "That doesn't mean they have committed to building in our chip or our service. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future, but it doesn't mean it's happening sometime soon. We have no imminent announcement."

And sure, XM's new Connect-and-Play proprietary chip and signaling protocol would be perfect to make the iPod XM-Ready, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything... right? "There is no reason why we can't embed the XM 'Connect-and-Play' technology into MP3 players, like the iPod," XM Director of Product Marketing, Phil Whitworth said, "There are no limitations to making XM technology a part of small, digital media products. We're excited about exploring those possibilities with manufacturers and those discussions are on-going."

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As Mr. Whitworth adds, "It's too early to set a time line on a XM ending up in digital devices, but it's on our radar."

Only, if that's the case, and XM isn't necessarily gung-ho about the whole concept (or more accurately, can't talk about it right now) - then why did they register a new XM Trademark: the SkyPod?