The Open Book Alliance formally launched the manifesto this past week with which it’s challenging Google’s settlement with authors and publishers. The organization now has a Web site and quite an array of allies–which include, of course, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and Amazon (AMZN). And as if Google doesn’t have enough on its plate, turns out that all along, Microsoft has been holding regular “Screw Google” meetings, the bastards. Uh, I thought that’s what people pay good money to learn in Business School. On a happier note, Howard Stern fans everywhere were happy to learn that Sirius XM (SIRI) has debuted a device that can turn an iPhone or iPod touch into a full-fledged satellite radio.

Over in Personal Technology, Walt reviewed Snow Leopard and found it to be an improvement on its predecessor, but with a lot of the upgrades under the hood invisible to most users. Not the typical object of desire we’re trained to expect out of Apple. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answers reader email about choosing a vendor to buy a computer online and setting parental controls in Firefox. In The Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret explores the trials and tribulations of BlackBerry and iPhone users switching one for the other.

More next week.

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.

Below, the official release:

SIRIUS XM RADIO INTRODUCES THE FIRST DEVICE TO RECEIVE LIVE SATELLITE RADIO CONTROLLED BY THE iPOD TOUCH AND iPHONE

XM SkyDock™ allows customers to enjoy live XM and “The Best of SIRIUS” in their vehicles using the iPod touch or iPhone

NEW YORK–August 26, 2009–SIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) today introduced XM SkyDock, the first satellite radio controlled by an iPod touch or iPhone. The XM SkyDock is also one of the first products to take advantage of the new hardware control capabilities of iPhone OS 3.0.

Designed for easy use through the existing vehicle audio system, SkyDock has a built-in XM tuner controlled by a free App that users download from the App Store. The App allows control of the XM tuner using the capabilities of the iPod touch or iPhone Multi-Touch user interface. SkyDock will also charge iPod touch and iPhone devices while listening to live satellite radio.

“XM SkyDock will allow millions of users to add live SIRIUS XM Radio capability to their iPod touch or iPhone while in their vehicle,” said Bob Law, Group Vice President and General Manager, After Market Division, SIRIUS XM Radio. “XM SkyDock makes their favorite programming from XM and ‘The Best of SIRIUS’ available to iPod touch and iPhone users anywhere they drive, coast to coast.”

Listeners can use their iPod touch and iPhone to listen to all their favorite sports, talk, news, entertainment and commercial-free music programming, including Oprah Radio, MLB Home Plate, the PGA TOUR Network, Opie & Anthony, Bob Edwards, Jamie Foxx and Blue Collar Comedy. For the first time, subscribers can also listen to the complete “Best of SIRIUS” package, including Howard Stern and his two 24/7 channels, Martha Stewart Living Radio, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, sports play-by-play and the Playboy Radio channel, all controlled by the iPod touch and iPhone.

Listeners can also tag songs they hear on XM’s music channels for later purchase from the iTunes Store–including songs on XM’s 24/7 artist branded commercial-free channels such as Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville, Elvis Radio, Eminem’s Shade 45, The Grateful Dead Channel, B.B. King’s Bluesville, Willie Nelson’s Willie’s Place, Siriusly Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Radio. Other features include game alerts and sports ticker, artist and song alerts as well as a stock ticker.

The XM SkyDock is a perfect companion to the SIRIUS XM Premium Online App, which allows subscribers to receive SIRIUS XM’s Premium Internet service on their iPhone and iPod touch when they are out of the vehicle and on-the-go, at home, or at the office.

XM SkyDock comes with SIRIUS XM’s patent-pending PowerConnect™ technology, which simplifies Do-It-Yourself vehicle installation, working through the existing vehicle radio and making it easy to move from vehicle to vehicle. An Aux In Cable is a standard in-box accessory to facilitate Aux In connections in vehicles with Aux In capability. SkyDock’s flexible stalk optimizes the iPod touch or iPhone placement in the vehicle. Customers can view the touch-screen interface in portrait or landscape modes. Accessories include Magnetic Mount Antenna and spacers to accommodate the various iPod touch and iPhone product generations.

XM SkyDock is compatible with iPod touch (1st generation), iPod touch (2nd generation), iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. All models require iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

XM SkyDock will be sold in stores and will also be available at www.shop.xmradio.com with an MSRP $119.99 in fall 2009. The XM SkyDock App will be available at the same time.

This device has been granted preliminary approval by the Federal Communications Commission but is still undergoing evaluation by the Commission.

For more information on XM, please visit www.xmradio.com.

“Reaching more than 1 million downloads so quickly is a strong testament to our world-class programming and Sirius XM’s instant brand recognition,” Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer, said in a release trumpeting the milestone. “Our goal is to give people access to the best audio entertainment wherever they go with what we think is the best music and audio entertainment application available on the App Store.”

The app, which debuted on June 18, quickly became the top free offering in the the App Store’s music category and has held that spot for some time now. So it’s certainly one of the more popular music apps available. That said, it’s also one of the most poorly rated. Sirius XM’s app has an average rating of just two stars out of a possible five. Of its 56,952 user reviews, just 8,822 give it five stars. But 37,818 rate it a single star. And most of those do so citing Stern’s absence as the reason. So while it’s true that Sirius XM Premium Online is the the top free app in the music category, it’s also seems to be its leading disappointment. Makes you wonder how many of those one million downloads were deleted, either after the user noticed Stern’s absence or the $2.99/month subscription fee.

Absent from the new Sirius app are a number of the broadcaster’s more popular channels, among them Howard Stern’s, which Sirius often claims are responsible for driving more subscriptions than any other. Also missing: MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play and Sirius NASCAR Radio.

That the company calls this app “Sirius XM Premium Online” when it fails to include much of the broadcaster’s more popular content is ironic. That it expects subscribers to pay an additional $2.99/month to access it after a week-long free trial is silly (Note: If you are already a Sirius XM Internet subscriber or subscribe to the company’s Premium Online service, Sirius waives that fee). Without Stern and those other channels, there’s really no reason to. There are far too many other ways to listen free music on the iPhone that don’t require a monthly subscription fee–Pandora, for example. Or Last.fm. And NormSoft’s Pocket Tunes app has been streaming Stern for months now.

Surely, Sirius knows this. So why not include Stern et al? Did a rights issue prevent Sirius from doing so? Did it convince itself that Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville and Oprah Radio were compelling enough reasons to download the app? Or perhaps the company is planning a standalone Stern app for which it will charge separately. Or maybe Stern is working on that himself.

And seriously, doesn’t Sirius XM pay Stern too much not to include him?

In any event, the app is an enormous disappointment. Which is too bad. Because Sirius really could have used the few additional subscribers Sirius XM Premium Online might have attracted. With the souring economy weighing heavily on the auto industry–-a mainstay of Sirius’s business–-and partner Chrysler navigating bankruptcy, the struggling company is bracing itself for nasty subscriber losses this year.

If this is all that Sirius XM has to offer on the iPhone, it would have been wiser to do what Netflix (NFLX) did with its Watch It Now online streaming service–provide it gratis to active subscribers as a loyalty bonus. Without Sirius XM’s top-tier content, there’s little to differentiate its iPhone app from Pandora and Last.fm. And Pandora and Last.fm are free.

UPDATE: A quick review of the Sirius Internet Radio FAQ reveals that it is indeed licensing restrictions that prevent Sirius XM from offering NFL, MLB and NASCAR via the Internet and presumably via the iPhone as well. Those same restrictions, however, do not seem to apply to Howard Stern’s channels, which all appear in the Sirius Internet Radio lineup.

UPDATE: Sirius XM has declined comment on the Stern issue beyond what was already said in this morning’s press release.

“They’re going to show me the Pre and then take it away. They’re trying to build excitement for this thing. If people don’t buy this I don’t see how Palm keeps going.”

– Radio personality Howard Stern gives the Palm Pre a little prelaunch buzz.

But the same cannot be said for Martine Rothblatt, the entrepreneur who founded Sirius (SIRI) nearly 20 years ago. She feels Sirius’s chances for real success may have died years ago–dealt a mortal blow by the FCC, which delayed its launch, depriving it of the competitive advantage it might have had over MP3 players like the iPod and later free Internet radio services.

“There has been a huge growth in terrestrial alternatives,” Rothblatt told Fortune. “As we move from third-generation to fourth-generation cellular, there’s going to be ever more bandwidth available to distribute content totally via terrestrial cellular infrastructure. And that will leave fewer and fewer unique market attributes to satellite radio. Technologies have their ideal times and places, and in my opinion the better time for satellite radio was 10 years ago.”

So much for that first-mover advantage…

A grim assessment for Sirius, which had just seemed to be getting an edge on its daunting troubles. But Rothblatt has a point. Internet radio is gaining traction and once cellular networks evolve to the point where they can deliver it to cars and other devices, how can satellite compete? Howard Stern’s going to retire sooner or later…

PREVIOUSLY:

• Sirius to Shareholders: Put Down the Mylanta
• Call Me Mel “Save-My-Own-Keister” Karmazin
• Sirius-EchoStar-Liberty: Ménage-à-Blah
• Sirius: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Ergen
• A Bankruptcy Filing, Mel? Surely You Can’t Be Sirius…
• Sirius Rolls Out New 24 Hour Investor Keening Channel
• Sirius Debt Problems? Call EchoStar! No Upfront Fees!
• Sirius XM: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
• Your Report Card Is Your Stock Price? Guess Sirius Is Making Straight $.13’s…
• Trade You 77 shares of SIRI for 1 Month of “Sirius Everything”

This morning the DOJ approved the merger of satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) (home to Stern) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) (home to Winfrey), a move that will create a satellite radio company with about 14 million subscribers.

In a statement, the DOJ said it found no reason to think that combining the only two satellite radio players in the market would create a pay-radio monopoly. “After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and that the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers,” the DOJ explained.

“The Division reached this conclusion because the evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite radio customers for several reasons, including: a lack of competition between the parties in important segments even without the merger; the competitive alternative services available to consumers; technological change that is expected to make those alternatives increasingly attractive over time; and efficiencies likely to flow from the transaction that could benefit consumers,” said the DOJ.