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.

The company’s shares spiked, rising about 20 percent to 54 cents on news of the government’s expanded “Cash for Clunkers” program and the positive impact it should have on new car sales and, by extension, new Sirius subscriptions. That analysts had been predicting a second-quarter loss for the satellite radio company, along with the loss of thousands of subscribers, did little to temper enthusiasm. Though it seems to have done so today, now that those predictions have proven true.

Reporting second-quarter earnings this morning, Sirius posted a net loss of $157.3 million, or four cents a share on revenue that rose one percent to $590.8 million. Excluding one-time charges, though, Sirius lost only a penny a share, matching analyst estimates.

As analysts had foreseen, subscriber count slipped again. Sirius ended the quarter with 18.4 million subscribers–a one percent drop from a year ago. All told, the company lost 185,999 net subscribers during the period. And that’s prior to the addition of a $2 royalty fee.

Looking ahead, the satellite radio operator raised its outlook for the year, cautiously optimistic that the car sales that drive subscriptions will pick up in the second half of this year.

“Based on these results we are increasing guidance again and expect to exceed over $400 million in adjusted income from operations during 2009,” CEO Mel Karmazin said in an earnings release. “Growing our revenue in the face of broad declines in the advertising and automotive markets is a remarkable accomplishment, and we are well positioned for a rebound in auto sales.”

Shares in Sirius are trading down 7.41 percent at 50 cents as I write this, which is still 10 times their 52 week low. And, to be fair, they are up almost 10 cents in last 10 trading days and up about 320 percent year-to-date.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sirius XM said it will raise Karmazin’s base salary to $1.5 million from $1.25 million beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, and grant him an option to purchase 120 million shares at an exercise price of 43 cents a share. His reward for steering the company clear of bankruptcy after driving it right up to its very edge, I suppose.

Sirius (SIRI) investors who’ve seen their stock plunge to 46 cents from $2 a share can be forgiven for questioning the wisdom of such a move and wondering if perhaps there wasn’t a better use for a quarter of a million dollars at a time when the company is buried in debt. But there’s nothing much to be done about it now. Suffice it to say, the odds of Karmazin being forced out at this point are likely pretty slim.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Fee Increase Coming for Sirius XM Subscribers [Internal Doc]
• Sirius Founder: You’re 10 Years Too Late, Karmazin
• 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”

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”

A wise move, since Sirius needs to drive sales and consumers are cutting back on the purchase of new cars, one of the company’s main sources of new subscribers. Indeed, in its latest quarter, Sirius said net subscriber growth slowed markedly, falling to 82,900 from 1.1 million.

Good thing too, because that uncertainty was pretty worrisome. Buried in the company’s recent Notification of Late Filing with the SEC, along with the now standard warning about the souring economy’s effect on business, was this little disclosure:

Management has not yet completed its evaluation as to whether substantial doubt exists relative to the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a reasonable period of time. A significant element of that evaluation relates to uncertainties associated with funding of amounts stipulated in the aforementioned Investment Agreements. These uncertainties may not be resolved by the time the Company files its Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the event such uncertainties remain unresolved, management anticipates that KPMG LLP’s auditors’ report relative to the Company’s 2008 consolidated financial statements will contain an explanatory paragraph indicating substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

In addition to resulting in termination of further funding pursuant to the Investment Agreements, the inclusion of such a paragraph by KPMG LLP would result in a default under certain indebtedness of the Company, XM Holdings and XM Satellite Radio Inc. (“XM Inc.”) which defaults, if not cured or waived prior to the expiration of the applicable grace period, would result in an event of default under other indebtedness of the Company, XM Holdings and XM Inc. Such events of default, if they occur, provide the lenders the right to demand all amounts due under the respective agreements immediately due and payable.

What this means is that if KPMG’s assessment of the company is that it’s not able to continue as a “going concern” and the company had not at that time resolved its debt issues, it would automatically default. Presumably, now that Sirius (SIRI) has closed the Liberty (LINTA) deal, that’s no longer a possibility. Looming crisis averted.

David Faber: The stock price is very low.

Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin: It sucks.”

– Mel Karmazin states the obvious in a July 2008 interview with CNBC

At Sirius XM’s (SIRI) annual meeting Thursday, shareholders approved a reverse stock split plan that empowers the board to split common Sirius shares by a 1-for-10 to 1-for-50 ratio by end of 2009. They also approved the issuance of up to 3.5 billion new shares. Should Sirius need to, it can now effect a reverse split that will raise its stock price above the $1 necessary to avoid delisting and sell new shares to meet the almost $1 billion in loan repayments it faces next year.

Sounds like a reasonable plan on the face of things. Trouble is Sirius is trading at around $.14. And at that anemic price, proceeds from a sale of 3.5 billion new shares would amount to just $490 million–less than half the amount of the debt coming due next year. Sirius clearly hopes it won’t have to issue all 3.5 billion shares the vote approved. To do so would dilute existing holdings and drag its share price still deeper into the mud. It would, however, keep the company in business–in the short term. Sirius’s long-term viability is another problem entirely, one that’s not easily solved. With an almost $5 billion loss in its last quarter, subscriber growth plateauing, and the U.S. auto industry–a major source of new Sirius sales–in decline, the satellite radio provider really needs to do something to shore up its ailing business. And its plans to drive subscriber growth, outlined in the second slide below, may not be enough to do it.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Your Report Card Is Your Stock Price? Guess Sirius Is Making Straight $.13’s…
• Save Sirius Coalition Having Trouble Saving Sirius
• Karmazin: Ask Not What Sirius Can Do for You; Ask What You Can Do for Sirius
• Trade You 77 shares of SIRI for 1 Month of “Sirius Everything”
• Sirius CEO: This Sucks

During a conference call to discuss the company’s horrifically bad financials, Karmazin described Sirius’s performance as “impressive,” considering the current economic climate. “It is very impressive that with severely declining auto sales, high unemployment and a generally weak economy, that our revenue grew 16 percent on a pro forma basis in the quarter,” Karmazin said, stressing the company’s 17 percent increase in revenues. “Many other good companies are not growing as a result of the issues in the U.S. economy. So we believe showing double-digit growth to be very impressive, especially if you compare SIRIUS XM’s results to other media and entertainment companies.”

Sure. Thing is, most other media and entertainment companies don’t have almost $1 billion in debt that comes due next year. Nor are they so reliant on the auto industry, a key driver of new satellite radio subscriptions. So perhaps Karmazin’s most apt, and honest, statement on Sirius’s (SIRI) current plight was this one, delivered a bit later in the call.

We think the environment sucks. It is not like we’re doing something wrong. It is that, unfortunately, we do not have a whole lot of control over what cars are getting sold. We do our best.”