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Sikh activists marched 350 miles across California in October, marking the 40th anniversary of a massacre and calling for protection from what they say is a growing threat — transnational repression from the Indian government.

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SiriusXM app: Two-minute review

Mention SiriusXM and most people think of the service that uses satellites to beam hundreds of music, talk, comedy, news, and sports radio stations to automobiles. That service has become popular for several reasons. First, traditional (i.e., terrestrial AM/FM) radio isn’t what it used to be. Second, for many in rural areas, the ability to receive terrestrial station signals can be limited.

However, there is a SiriusXM internet-based mobile app that delivers virtually all of the content found on the satellite service. While that typically requires a line of site between the automobile and the satellite to work, like the best music streaming services, the SiriusXM app only requires a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. It will work on your iOS or Android-based phone or tablet and is also supported by many of the best TVs, the best streaming devices, and the best wireless speakers from brands such as Sonos and Bose. The app’s content can also be accessed on a computer web browser. SiriusXM’s app has you covered whether you are home, outside exercising, in your car, or anywhere else where you can access the internet.

The SiriusXM app’s All Access” $9.99 per month subscription plan includes an astonishing amount of content that is sure to provide something for everyone. It features over 425 streaming stations and thousands of podcasts courtesy of Pandora, which is owned by SiriusXM. As discussed below, there’s also exclusive content, the crowning jewel of which is The Howard Stern Show and its related programming.

Unlike streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz, and Tidal, the SiriusXM app does not support the playback of specific music tracks or the creation of track-specific music playlists. (Users can train the app through thumbs up and down icons to play the type of music that they like, however.) Also, some of the music channels can get a bit repetitive and the sound quality won’t satisfy those using expensive, audiophile playback gear. Still, with the enormous amount of content available on the app, all of which is served up via a slick interface, we think the only problem will be deciding what to listen to and watch.

SiriusXM app review: Pricing and subscription

The SiriusXM app's Library, Live Sports, and Podcasts screens (Image credit: SiriusXM)

• $9.99 per month
• Three-month free trial 
• No free ad-based tier

A SiriusXM app All Access subscription plan costs $9.99 per month and can be canceled at any time. It provides access to over 425 channels of ad-free music, news, talk, comedy, and sports. Also included are the Howard Stern channels, video, sports talk, live sports coverage, artist stations, Pandora podcasts, and exclusive in-studio content.

If you want also to receive SiriusXM satellite radio for your car, numerous plans start at $16.98 per month. Details about those plans are available on SiriusXM’s website.

As with competitors like Apple Music, there's no free ad-based tier for any SiriusXM subscription plan. Nor is there a comprehensive family plan, although there is a discount for each additional subscription within the family. Students can get the All Access plan for $4 per month. Also, a three-month free trial for All Access will let you determine if it is right for you.

SiriusXM app review: Specs SiriusXM app review: Content

SiriusXM app screens (Image credit: SiriusXM)

• Over 425 diverse audio channels, plus video
• Includes ad-free music and live-action sports
• Pandora podcasts

The content library available with the SiriusXM app’s All Access subscription plan is, to say the least, extremely vast. For example, if you’ve come to the SiriusXM app for music, there are plenty of ad-free music stations ranging from SiriusXM Hits 1 (pop hits from Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, etc.) to Oldies Party (The Supremes, Elvis Presley, etc.) and Miles Davis Radio (24/7 Miles Davis music).

Though the tracks on some of the app’s music stations can sometimes be repetitive, there’s always another interesting station or special event to tune in to. For example, SiriusXM’s Billy Joel Channel is currently broadcasting that artist’s final show from his ten-year Madison Square Garden residency.

Speaking of concerts, one fun thing about the SiriusXM app is the weekly giveaways. Some of the giveaways are tickets to see an artist at a venue near the entrant’s home. Others throw in an all-expenses paid trip to see an artist at a venue far away, such as Taylor Swift performing in Miami, Florida during her Eras tour.

For talk and entertainment fans, the elephant in the room is SiriusXM’s exclusive arrangement with talk host Howard Stern, who has two channels on the platform. Howard 100 broadcasts his show live and then repeats them until the next live show airs, while Howard 101 broadcasts a supplemental “wrap-up show,” archived Stern content, special features, and video clips recorded in Stern’s SiriusXM studio. Other interesting talk and entertainment channels include Business Radio (business, money, and life) and Crime Junkie Radio (24/7 true crime).

If you like sports, there is not only talk and analysis, but extensive play-by-play game coverage. ESPN Radio (sports talk and big games), SiriusXM College Sports Radio, and SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (live tour coverage and talk) are just a few available stations. And there are also sports giveaway contests, such as VIP tickets to see the New York Jets play at their training camp.

Those seeking comedy on the SiriusXM app will want to check out Comedy Central Radio, Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Radio, Raw Comedy (uncensored), Pure Comedy (comedy for the entire family), and Comedy Classics. Yet another recent SiriusXM giveaway contest: an all-expense-paid trip to see Kevin Hart in Los Angeles. News junkies, meanwhile, will appreciate stations from the BBC, CNN, NPR, Fox News, and C-Span, among many others.

There are also several off-the-beaten-path channels on the app. These include Mental Health Radio (by NYU’s Langone Health), Road Dog Trucking (all things relating to the trucking industry), and Rural Radio (agricultural and other issues affecting rural America and Canada).

There’s also plenty of exclusive content to check out beyond Howard Stern such as music stations DJ’d by artists and celebrities and audio and video clips of interviews and musical performances recorded in SiriusXM’s studios. Recent videos that the app suggested for me included interviews of actor Matt Damon, comedian Will Arnet, musician Nelly Furtado, and actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Also recommended were musical performances by Upsahl and Common and Pete Rock, as well as several comedy clips by Jeff Lewis.

If all of the above were already not enough, the All Access plan also includes the full library of Pandora’s podcast stations.

SiriusXM app review: Apps and compatibility

The Sirius XM app is compatible with wireless streaming speakers from Sonos, Google, and Amazon (Image credit: Future)

• Slick and attractive design
• Smart channel surfing and playback features
• No specific track playback, but app learns what you like

I very much enjoyed using the SiriusXM app, which is continually updated and improved and is available for iOS and Android devices, smart TVs, and streaming devices from Apple, Roku, Amazon, and Google. It looks great, is user-friendly, and works well.

The app has three main tabs. Discover is broken down by content type and is where user-specific recommended content, including daily “morning picks” are displayed. The Discover tab is also where frequently and recently listened to channels are located.

Search allows for app-wide content searches and also displays trending and popular searches. Library is where you will find your designated favorite channels (including artist channels) and downloaded content. (You can locally download content that does not contain music.) Another Library tab feature is the ability for sports fans to add favorite teams so they can quickly access team-related information, programming, and contests.

The app does not allow users to search for and play a specific music track or create track-specific playlists as you can with Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and other services, though there is the ability to create what SiriusXM calls “artist-based” stations. To find such a station, just search for an artist in the app and a relevant station will typically appear in the search results. You can then train the app to better play more of what you like by selecting a thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon for each track played on that station.

A channel may play live and/or recorded content. Under one of the app’s default settings, “TuneStart,” music starts at the beginning of a track. This feature, which can also be disabled, facilitates channel surfing since you won’t call up a channel only to hear the end of the track.

The SiriusXM app generally lets users “skip” up to six times per hour for preprogrammed music and comedy channels. Outside of these channel types, skipping is not permitted on some channels and is unlimited on others.

SiriusXM app review: Sound and Video Quality

(Image credit: SiriusXM)

• Sound quality gets the job done
• No high-resolution or spatial audio
• Video looks great

The SiriusXM app offers Normal, High, and Maximum streaming quality settings for both audio and video. No technical specifications for compression format, bit rate, etc. are given for these classifications. Indeed, sample streams on Tidal and Qobuz, and Apple Music’s ALAC (lossless) files typically sounded better than streams over SiriusXM when I made listening comparisons. There are also no options for high-resolution audio or Atmos/spatial audio.

For video, moving from the app’s Normal to Maximum settings on my iPhone 14 Pro Max didn’t appreciably improve picture quality, even in full-screen mode – sharpness and color accuracy were great at all settings. It’s possible, however, that the Normal setting will be the best option for a stable stream if your cellular reception is poor.

Bottom line: For most people, the quality of the SiriusXM app’s audio and video streams will be more than adequate.

Should you subscribe to the SiriusXM app? Subscribe if...

You want an enormous content catalog: Most users will never come close to taking advantage of all of the content available under the All Access plan. If you seek lots of varied content, the app is for you.

You love The Howard Stern Show: SiriusXM is the only place where you will find Howard Stern’s shows and supplemental content. The app is a must for diehard Stern fans.

Don't subscribe if...

You want to be able to play specific tracks: The app does not allow you to play specific music tracks or make track-specific playlists. Look elsewhere if that’s important to you.

You want top audio quality: We prefer other streaming services in terms of audio performance. Look elsewhere if you seek the one with the highest level of sound quality.

• Which is the best music streaming service for you?

Apple and CD PROJEKT RED dropped a particularly potent surprise on gamers this week, with the surprise announcement that Cyberpunk 2077 will be coming to macOS in 2025. Once a much-hyped game with a disastrous launch that turned public opinion overnight, it has since become a darling among gamers again due to its excellent Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC that transformed it into a brand new experience.

And now macOS is getting the shiny new version of this title next year along with advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio. And since it’s launching in 2025, the Cyberpunk 2077 macOS port will be optimized for the M4 chips and the best MacBooks and Macs using them such as the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro.

While this is an incredibly promising development for Mac owners and Apple gaming as a whole, how will Cyberpunk 2077’s port affect the tech giant’s gaming initiative?

History and current situation of Mac gaming

(Image credit: Apple)

Mac gaming has almost always been in an infamously precarious spot, trapped in a vicious cycle of developers not developing for macOS due to lack of support and Apple not giving developers support and tools due to lack of games built in and ported to macOS. It’s important to note that there have been those like the EVE Online devs who’ve defended Apple, having nothing but good things to say about Apple’s support. However, that was considered a rare exception.

In recent years, Apple has ramped up the support for AAA ports, starting with the Mac version of Resident Evil Village that showcased the power of Mac devices as the game ate framerates and resolution for breakfast. Soon after that, Apple made a deal with famed gaming developer Hideo Kojima, bringing Death Stranding Director’s Cut and any other future Kojima Productions titles to the Mac.

Then there were the recent announcements from Apple regarding a host of brand-new and sometimes even exclusive games coming to macOS including Control, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Zenless Zone Zero, Diablo Immortal, Valheim, Frostpunk 2, and Palworld. All in all, it feels like Apple has taken the points I’ve made about Mac gaming to heart and has been applying them. This is what makes this Cyberpunk 2077 news all the more exciting.

Can Macs run Cyberpunk 2077?

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

The most important question to ask is: are Mac devices capable of running a title as large and as ambitious as Cyberpunk 2077? The answer should be a straightforward ‘yes!’ as this port is being specifically designed for Mac devices running the M4 silicon. And I would personally say that it is but with a few reservations.

In terms of the positives, one of the biggest advantages Mac devices like the Macbook Pro and Mac mini have is that they’ve finally moved away from the 8GB of memory for the base model and doubled it. For titles that have particularly demanding hardware requirements, a certain amount of memory is absolutely necessary, and this new crop of M4-equipped PCs fit the bill.

Speaking of M4 chips, the miraculous M-series that Apple develops is perfect for tackling the most intensive and best PC games on the market. What makes the M-series so excellent is how efficiently these chips run. They’re so efficient, in fact, that most Mac devices don’t even have fans built into the chassis because it’s simply not needed. But are these M4-powered PCs able to handle a game like Cyberpunk 2077 which is not only performance intensive but is not particularly well-optimized? That’s what remains to be seen.

How AAA titles could give Mac devices the edge against PS5 Pro

(Image credit: Future/Sony/PlayStation)

If Mac devices equipped with M4 chips are perfectly able to handle Cyberpunk 2077 — not only performance-wise but graphically — then they could pose a serious threat to another updated console also planned for a November 2024 release: Sony’s PS5 Pro.

Going by the entry-level configuration of the M4 Mac mini as an example, on paper it could match or possibly outperform the PS5 Pro thanks to its specs. Then there’s the pricing, as that same baseline model starts at $599 / £599 / AU$1,199, which is cheaper than the $699.99 / £699.99 / AU$1,199 pricing of the PS5 Pro and even less expensive once you account for additional hardware needing to be purchased for the latter.

We also have the form factor between the two machines. The M4 Mac mini is objectively smaller than the PS5 Pro. While one could make a very reasonable argument that the much bulkier size of the latter makes for better cooling than the former, the efficiency of the M-series bridges the cooling gap considerably. You could also argue that optimizing a game for the PS5 Pro would be easier than for the M4 Mac mini, though Apple has also been improving macOS’s developer toolkit, making it more accessible to port and develop games for the operating system.

Final thoughts

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple seems to have struck gold with netting Cyberpunk 2077 for macOS, as this acquisition could cement Mac gaming as a permanent force to be reckoned with. While the recent launches of M4-powered devices should be able to handle such a performance-heavy game, the ability to so do well enough to attract gamers to these platforms will be the real challenge.

If Apple can rise to the occasion, then it could even have an opportunity to match and even surpass the PS5 Pro, which would nab even more support and a larger market for future Mac devices. The M4 Mac mini in particular would be the perfect PC to challenge Sony’s planned upgrade to its console, thanks to pricing, performance, and size.

Not to mention that developing for the Mac mini would be similar to a gaming console. Thanks to Apple keeping its machines consistent in terms of hardware, developers don’t need to account for unknown spec configurations, leaving more time for game optimization during the development process. In other words, underpowered hardware that’s well-optimized can match the performance of hardware that’s superior spec-wise.

Apple has all the right setup to score some easy points but will it make the shot or miss? That’s the real question, and there's a lot riding on the answer.

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• Apple has identified an iPhone 14 Plus issue
• It's the first iPhone service program since 2021
• You can check your eligibility online

While we gave it plenty of praise in our iPhone 14 Plus review, the iPhone 14 Plus is apparently susceptible to a certain rear camera flaw, Apple has admitted – and if it's affecting you, you can get your handset repaired free of charge.

It's been three years since we had an iPhone service program (where Apple admits an issue and will sort it out for you), but as 9to5Mac has spotted, there's now officially one for a "rear camera issue" on the iPhone 14 Plus – which Apple still sells online.

The good news is this is only going to apply to a "very small percentage" of iPhone 14 Plus models, according to Apple. Specifically, the problem is having no preview shown on screen when you're using the rear camera on the handset.

iPhone 14 Plus handsets manufactured between April 10, 2023 and April 28, 2024 are the ones that may have the glitch: Apple has provided a serial number checker so you can quickly see whether or not your iPhone is included.

What happens next

The problem is with the rear camera on the iPhone 14 Plus (Image credit: Future)

If you do have an iPhone 14 Plus that's flagged up as problematic via the serial number checker, you can take it into any Apple Store or any Apple Authorized Service Provider to get your phone repaired, free of charge.

Alternatively, you can contact Apple about sending your phone in for repair through the post. Follow this link to find the relevant page on the Apple Support website, which gives you options for scheduling an in-store repair or sending off your handset.

If Apple determines your iPhone 14 Plus is one of the devices affected, and you've already paid to have the issue fixed, you can get a refund (follow this link for that). You can make a claim up to three years after the first purchase of the iPhone.

There are some steps to follow if you're sending your iPhone in to be repaired, whether for this or any other issue. You need to make sure everything is backed up, and turn off the Find My service, as well as removing active cards in Apple Wallet.

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