Blog Entry
Apr 07

XM Online Radio 1.7

Posted in Development, Gadget Stuff, News & Updates

At long last, we are ready to release the newest version of the XM gadget. Yes, the beta gadget is right below this one, but we’ll go over all the changes in a bit more detail on this post.

So for starters, we re-wrote this gadget practically from the ground up. Hopefully this will help out on any stability issues some of you have experienced and allow for a faster and more efficient music listening experience. Let’s hit up the rest of the changes:

Changes:

1. New Start Button: Finally, a proper way to get this gadget started.

2. Redesigned Channel Flyout: Lots of new stuff here. The flyout is 25px longer, the expand and collapse buttons have been redesigned and there is a new channel search (#3). Also, the channel lists are a little bit tighter, which should make it feel more integrated. Song preview’s also work better as they will update every 15 seconds or so if the auto-preview option is on.

3. Channel Search: In the channels flyout, you’ll notice a new bar. Type in this bar a channel number, name, or search for anything currently playing and it will display the search results for you. Pretty handy so far if you don’t want to skim down a long list. No TuneSelect features yet, but this is the closest we’ve come to that.

4. Login Save Is Gone: Oh, well, it didn’t really work anyways. Besides, we replaced it…

5. XM Logo Now Clickable: Clicking the top logo pops out a links flyout with some handy links and options like re-building the channel list (without re-adding to the sidebar), and logging out of the gadget (erases the password and refreshes the gadget).

6. Images Optimized: Not a real big one, but it’s nice cause it gives us the ability to add stuff like…

7. Player Themes: There are now 6 player themes (player only, flyouts are the same, sorry). We have the default (XM Dark), Pink, Khaki, Blue, Green, and Red.

8. Settings Panel Updates: Reset has been broken into parts and assimilated into the panel better. there is a new tab under reset called “Delete” with instructions for the persistent settings fix should it be needed.

9. Channel Flipping More Stable: More timers, but it should be even better now.

10. Music Search Integration: Is a bit better, especially with YouTube videos.

11. Larger DPI Tested: Gadget should work much better with the 120 DPI. Anything larger than that is unaccounted for though.

12. Lots of “Under The Hood” Changes: For the more javascript minded: The loops are tighter, reduced unneccesary try catch statements, reduced global variables and made it more user friendly, re-organized names of just about everything but functions.

Download:

Download @ BuildAGadget.com

Download @ Widgipedia.com

Download @ Live.com Gallery

Enjoy! :)


This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 9:29 am
and is filed under Development, Gadget Stuff, News & Updates.



You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related Posts

48 Responses to “XM Online Radio 1.7”

  1. Eric P. Says:
    April 9th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Absolutely awesome. XM Radio should definitely give you a commission for selling XMRO subscriptions to use with the gadget.

    I’ve only just started examining v1.7, but it looks fantastic. I do have one question about the behavior of the UI I noticed that started with the last version:

    When I single-click the ‘Chan’ button, the Channel Selector flys-out as expected, but the Gadget (and the channel flyout) auotmtically loses focus afterwards. You have to single-click the flyout to bring it back into focus, then you can click the channel you want to listen to.

    I didn’t used to have to do that two-step process. When you cliked the CHAN button, the Flyout already had focus, and you could single-click the channel you wanted.

    I see this on the three boxes I use this gadget on, so I can only assume it’s not something limited to my configuration.

    Man, I’m having to start looking for super nit-picky things like this! I guess that just means it works very well ;-)

    One final question: Is there a way to adjust the amount of buffering the player does in the background before actually starting to play the stream? My network at work is ultra-crappy, and the gadget cuts-out very frequently. It might be nice to have an option to specify a buffer amount if possible.

    Thanks!

    Eric P.

  2. The Staff Says:
    April 9th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    Eric, Thanks! That is a wierd issue with the flyouts, not sure why they would be doing that, maybe something we can take a look into (this is the first report of them doing that in a while that wasn’t directly related to the sidebar having issues).

    Since the player is Windows Media Player, maybe adjusting the settings there might help the buffering process? Not really sure about that one, we’ll have to look into it for future versions. :)

  3. Trish Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 2:44 am

    I think this has to be my favorite gadget! Kudos for the hard work. It just keeps on getting better with each version.

    I do want to report that I am seeing the same thing that Eric mentioned in his comment. The focus is definitely not in the gadget or the flyout after clicking on the CHAN button; I have to click into the flyout to get focus, and THEN click the channel.

    Thanks -
    Trish

  4. The Staff Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    Trish, Thanks! Very odd on the focus problem, maybe it’s being caused by the update process in the gadget… Hmm… We’ll have to take a look at it and see if we can replicate the issue.

  5. Dave Says:
    April 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am

    Great gadget and I use it all the time!! I still am not able to add or use favorites anymore. The last version I was able to use the favorites was 1.5. Does anyone else have this problem? What can I do to fix it? It really is not that big of a deal but I liked to just scan what was on my favorites! I also still only get the channel song previews once in a great while. Thank you for your hard work.

  6. Mark Tullius Says:
    April 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    Dave, I had the same problem. It turned out that my old favorites list contained channels that are not available anymore. So go through the Settings > Reset > Delete tab and follow those instructions. Then after re-adding the gadget don’t import your old list. Build a new one and all should be OK.

  7. ralphy Says:
    April 13th, 2008 at 2:21 am

    dave, i had problems like that but found it was related to my internet connection. what do you use for your connection? if not something reliable and high speed, see what happens if you take your computer to a friend’s house or other place with a fast connection. also try using the low speed setting within the gadget. also try completely uninstalling (they put some nice features in 1.7 that help you get to the needed places) and the sidebar too. if that doesn’t get you anywhere, then i dont have any other suggestions. i know it works on my system and i love it!

  8. Marc Smith Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    I was having stability problems for a while. I ended up deleting the folder (and all previous versions and favorites file) and XMRadioData.xml file and reinstall the gadget, ever since I have had very few problems.

    Though, if I try to change channels too qickly sometimes it gets hung up and I have to close the gadget and reopen it.

  9. ralphy Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    it sounds like almost every problem listed stems from upgrades, not clean installs. maybe you guys should improve the upgrade process so everything is completely removed and starts from scratch - if that is possible? it is nice that you give the ability to preserve favorites and settings but not worth the hassles. it only takes a couple of minutes to redo settings and add 10 or 15 favorites anyway.

  10. The Staff Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    Ralphy, we’re dealing with those issues piece by piece. Belive it or not, these issues stem from either outdated data, odd sidebar issues, and even odder machine quirks. We tend to get most of the bug reports from upgrades as they are the most apparent to people from the start.

  11. Ken Says:
    April 16th, 2008 at 9:24 am

    At the risk of being ridiculed for music choices… Michael Jackson surely is a bit suspect, but I did like some of his music. So I went to check out the Thriller channel…

    and I have this weird problem that is very repeatable. The gadget crashes the entire Sidebar whenever I change to channel 63. It does not happen on any other channel change — but everytime I change to channel 63.

  12. Dave Says:
    April 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am

    Mark T. - Thank you! That did the trick for me and everything seems to be working now! yay!

    Ralphy - I am on 6 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up DSL connection that is very stable and constant. I think it had to do with the gadget upgrade and having at least 1 favorite that isn’t on XM anymore…

  13. The Staff Says:
    April 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am

    Ken, you’re not alone, we just checked out 63 and it crashed the sidebar. Might have something to do with the incoming stream. We’ll take a look over it again and see if it’s a dead channel.

    Everyone, we made a couple patches to the gadget version on this site to help take care of favorites issues, there will be a post here sometime soon and we’ll distribute it to the other sites.

  14. John Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    I can’t seem to get this working. The previous versions worked. When I enter my login and password and then click ‘Login’ nothing happens, literally “nothing”.

  15. Frank Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    I have Vista and had the XM Online Radio for several months and love it. However, today I started my computer and got no sound. I cleared the persistent files with no luck. Then checked for updates and installed the updated 1.7. I removed it from the sidebar, restarted and reinstalled it. Now I enter my credentials, click Login and get a red, “Connection error”…any ideas?
    Thanks.

  16. The Staff Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    John, restart the sidebar and / or do a persistent settings fix (Settings->Reset->Delete).

  17. Josh Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:26 pm

    I came home this afternoon to turn on the gadget (amazing little tool, thank you very much.) and using one of my favorites, chose a channel and clicked play.

    It seems to be stuck in a loop. It displays “Getting Info,” then the display changes to the name of the artist and the song, and back again, over and over without stopping or playing. In fact, clicking on the menu to view the channels will pop up once you click it, and immediately close when the program sems to “changes state” from “Getting info” and the Name of the artist. I put it side-by-side the website link to the player (which is currently working) and it seemed to be retrieving the same information (song, artist).

    At this point, I’ve tried the “persistent settings fix” as well as deleting the .xml and other individual files, as well as a myriad of other combinations for removing and re-adding (multiple restarts of bar and pc and otherwise) to no avail.

    Also, at one point in the ms/windows/gadgets folder, next to XMLRadioData.xml, I occasionally see an “XMRadioDebug.txt” file containing:

    Re-Login / Bad URL

    I verify the password allows me in (on both gadget and website) and then intentionally misspell to verify a rejection of user/pass. A view of the XMLRadioData.xml if it will help:

    xxx@xxx.com
    [[*]]xxxxxxxx
    On
    Theme0
    50
    high
    Amazon
    On
    Favorites
    usvoCookie=xxxx@xxxx.COM|11785042|2|/QRPde6RPv0=|d+sLzDpeVks=|
    oa4uFUol83jn/seTnvjxyQ==|cb8f3cbac33a1fdc3981b4a80e6abb24|Stanley
    |Routin|/xNWfNoIdYSeFC4KFarkNw==|XMROUS

    All favorites and radio settings have been reset as well. Help, I love this gadget!

  18. The Staff Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    Josh, have you downloaded the latest version of the gadget? It does seem very odd that this issue would be happening but we need to know if it’s a problem with the latest version or a slightly older version.

  19. Josh Says:
    April 29th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

    Sorry I left that tidbit out. When I came home, I had 1.5 or 1.6. It had been working the day before, and last night it wasn’t. I went through the process of checking for updates, noticed 1.7 was out, and went ahead to snag that. This also didn’t work.

    I can’t seem to find a mirror to download an older version to check if that is the problem, but it wasn’t working before the update. Other than this hiccup, it has been flawless since around Jan when I got Vista up and running.

    Thanks for the response.

  20. Josh Says:
    April 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    Also, now my Debug file has “Bad Status” in it.

  21. The Staff Says:
    April 29th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    Josh, that error pertains to the Ajax call not coming back as it’s suposed to. Have you implemented any new anti-virus or firewall software lately? Something is blocking the calls out from the gadget or barring traffic from getting in.

  22. Josh Says:
    April 29th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    Here’s a new issue - the gadget works after install on my other, regular user accounts, and then switching back to Administrator account (where I usually reside) it goes back to the aforementioned problem.

  23. Josh Says:
    April 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    I had installed an ISO program the night before, but I’ve since removed that. No other changes to my network have taken place, and to my knowledge no other software has been installed on this box. There was a FireFox update a week ago, but it had worked after the restart.

  24. Jon Says:
    June 7th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    I have a problem logging into the gadget. When i enter my info and click login, nothing happens, literally “nothing” happens, no errors or anything it just does nothing. Anyone have any ideas?

  25. The Staff Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    Jon, restart the sidebar application.

  26. Foosy Says:
    June 17th, 2008 at 12:40 am

    A M A Z I N G ! ! !
    Nice work guys, excellent gadget really.

    Now that it is so nice, can I ask for a feature ?
    I want a capability to store the details of the songs I like. I call this a “Song Favorites”.

    This is the way I see this in the interface: in the sidebar I want next to the artist a small icon (+). When clicked the song details will be recorded in a list.

    The list will be shown in the “Music Search” window on the left in the same way as the IE favorites show. Each entry will be a link that will cange the content in the Music Search right pane. This will allow me for example to buy the song later or even view its youtube videos.

    The list should be able to be sorted by artist, song name, channel (in which it was first heard), or genre.

    Also I suggest tha the top part of this left side pane will be reserved for the current song.
    The bottom will be scrolable with all the saved song-details. Finally, next to eachsong there needs to be a (-) icon to remove it from the list.

    Again, this gadget rocks!

  27. Alex Says:
    June 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    For some reason when I use my valid XM password and login, the gadget says that it is invalid. Any ideas?

    Thanks.

  28. The Staff Says:
    June 19th, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Foosy, we’ll definitely keep those suggestions in mind going forward.

    Alex, you may need to activate the online side of your XM account. Double check that the everything is working by logging into XM’s online player.

  29. Steven Says:
    June 20th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    I think this is a great gadget and by far my favorite. I started using it around version 1.3 and loved it. I had to switch back to XP for awhile but now I’m using Vista again. I see that 1.7 is out but I am having the same problem as John above.

    Absolutely nothing happens when I input my login creds. If I omit my password I will get an error telling me to input the password and the same goes for the username. But, if both are in there nothing happens when I click Login.

    I have deleted the gadget; tried the persistent settings fix; rebooted my computer… any other suggestions? I have also tried searcing for an older version to test but I cannot find one available.

    I really just want any kind of app that will keep XM from disconnecting me for not changing the channel every few hours.

    Thanks

  30. cricz Says:
    June 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    I can’t get this version to work(1.7). Can’t login and if I try with the settings I get an error. “File Retrive I/O Error”. I did uninstall, deleting the gadget from the gadgets folder but not work. I downloaded the 1.1 and works just fine. Don’t think is virus soft or firewall. I noticed that when I install the 1.7 vs it won’t install the XMLRadioData.xml Any help pls!!!!

  31. steve N Says:
    August 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    cricz,
    I went in IE Tools Advanced Security and had to check the “Enable native XMLHTTP support;” then everything worked.

  32. J Says:
    August 16th, 2008 at 8:34 am

    I bet it’s pretty neat if it was possible to log in. I have version 1.7 and it keeps telling me “Invalid Username / Password.”

    When I go to the official XMRadio site I can log in using the exact same credentials, view my account info, listen online from there, etc.

    Is this gadget simply a spyware tool to steal people’s XM usernames and passwords? The evidence in my mind seems to point that way.

    Best regards,
    J

  33. The Staff Says:
    August 16th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    J, glad to hear you got it working from your comment on the other post. We do want to emphasize though that we do not store usernames and passwords at this time, nor will we ever store them in any unencrypted format in the future. This goes double for the password, which we will never store anywhere but locally on your machine.

  34. Sean Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 7:25 am

    Great gadget, just a little buggy. This version works better because I dont have to enter my credentials multiple times to logon. I still have to reset all & re-enter my credentials after rebooting though.

  35. Mark Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 9:36 am

    I have tried reseting the gadget, deleteing persistant settings, and I changed my password (once I logged in with the one that worked that the gadget wouldn’t take), and I still keep getting invalid username/password error. My new password and username definately get me on to the XM site, so I know that’s not the problem. I have version 1.7, but I just cannot connect anymore to use this awesome gadget. Any advice?

  36. The Staff Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Mark, please double check that your username and password work for the online radio side of XM’s website. XMRO has to be activated before it’ll work in the gadget or online.

    Invalid username / password errors are coming from data supplied from XM.

  37. Kenya Graham Says:
    October 3rd, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    I have problems with the flyout. I 1st upgraded and could not get into the favorites or channels. So I uninstalled and removed the residual directories and now I can not get into the login because the flyout won’t stay open.

    Any seuggestions?

  38. Brad Says:
    October 5th, 2008 at 12:28 am

    Installed 1.7 and input my username and password.. Clicked Login and Nothing happened.. Restarted sidebar, and the same thing.. Restarted computer and nothing happened.. Reinstalled program and ran through the same steps and nothing.. The Login button does nothing.. I have an XMRO account and XMLHTTP support is enabled.. I have windows vista and McAfee antivirus blah blah blah.. I’m sure the program works.. Just not yet.. Any Ideas?

  39. Brad Says:
    October 5th, 2008 at 1:28 am

    Ok fixed it.. Istalled it on Google sidebar ran it.. Worked.. Closed that and Ran Vista sidebar and tried it again.. Worked fine.. Weird? Yeah I know.. Just like a polar bear in the jungle..

  40. Jeff Chamberlain Says:
    October 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am

    I seem to be getting an intermitten sound interruption, especially on the talk channels like 202.

  41. The Staff Says:
    October 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    Jeff, Most likely that problem is either your internet connection or the signal coming from XM. If it’s from XM, it should clear up in a few hours.

  42. Jeff Chamberlain Says:
    October 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Thanks for the reply, but this seems to only happen on the talk channels, and has been going on for some period of time.

  43. D Grant Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    It’s not working this morning - after the big lineup change.

  44. D Grant Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Never mind. It’s working after rebooting the system. Sigh.

  45. Peter Says:
    December 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    If anyone has any suggestions regarding a new problem, I’d be tremendously appreciative.

    All of a sudden, the XM Radio gadget does not work…it loads, I can click on start and see my favorites, but when I try to audio stream, the play button grays out…and anything else I hit, i.e. stop, causes the sidebar to freeze.

    I have proceeded through multiple troubleshooting steps:

    1. I rebooted…multiple times
    2. I confirmed that I can audio stream via the xm radio web site
    3. I performed a persistent settings fix
    4. I disabled my firewall (ZoneAlarm)
    5. I manually removed the XMRadioData.xml file and rebooted
    6. I uninstalled the gadget and reinstalled
    7. I manually removed the XMOnlineRadio.gadget folder and XMRadioData.xml file

    with the same result.

    If anyone can help, I’d be thrilled….the gadget has me spoiled, much easier than logging in through the XMRadio web site!

  46. The Staff Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am

    Peter, try disabling User Account Control, Windows Firewall, and Windows Defender to see if maybe they are affecting Windows Media Player in the gadget.

  47. Peter Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    Thanks for the suggestions…unfortunately, disabling UAC, Windows Firewall, and Windows Defender left me with the same problem.

    It it’s any further bit of a clue:

    1. I can access XM through Media Player (as well as the web site, which I guess actually activates the player)
    2. On one occasion, I COULD hear music with the gadget, but only once, otherwise the play button grays out and there is no sound
    3. On one occasion, the gadget produced a recorded voice saying something to the effect that it was attempting to access the XM service via a bad url.

    I’d sure love to figure out what happened here, it’s obviously so much easier to access XM via the gadget than constantly reentering a username, password, and clicking through screens to get to their music via a web browser.

    pg

  48. Ed Says:
    December 26th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    After trying all the XM gadgets out there; they all were crap but THIS ONE IS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.. Thank you!

Do you need support for a product? Click here.
« XM Online Radio 1.7 BETA
Quick Update For XM 1.7 »