My holy trinity of iOS 4 multitasking aware Apps is now complete. Starting with the original iPod App we could listen to our music in the background on the iPhone (iOS devices) and continue working in other Apps. With iOS 4 we can now do this with 3rd party Apps. The next one on my list was Pandora Radio and lastly the Sirius XM Premium Online App. So now I can not only listen to my music and free internet radio, but I can also play my favorite Sirius/XM stations in the background while I work in other Apps. So if you're on an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 running iOS 4 and you have a Sirius/XM Premium Online Account, you can now listen and do other things at the same time.
You can get the Sirius XM Premium Online App for FREE here on the 
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
You can do all that if you’ve got Apple’s latest products. But if you haven’t, multi-tasking music magically works with iTunes as it always has (and as you note), but not with Pandora or Sirius. Are bits from the iTunes Store somehow easier to process than those from other sources? Are they smoother, rounder, and perhaps a bit smaller to fit through little tiny holes on computer chips? I think not.
Also, for some strange reason an iPhone 3G or an iPod touch (2nd gen) can stream, via a Bluetooth stereo protocol, many kilobits of music data each second but then, we are told, those same devices choke up when asked to handle a pitifully few dozen bits a second flowing in from a Bluetooth keyboard. Again, the physics seem more than a little odd.
Terry, you’re a nice guy and and thus inclined to say nice things about people, including Apple. But no mention of iOS4 is complete without mention of what it doesn’t do. For millions of Apple customers, iOS4 is more like iOS3.2. Apps can be stacked in folders and a few other tweaks, but for many iPhone and iPod touch users the upgrade is like a penny tip. It says, “We know you’re there, but we don’t think that highly of you or your needs.”
I’ve got good reason to be ticked off. I have a Bluetooth keyboard sitting idle because it can’t talk with an iPod touch I bought just last year.
Michael, I feel your pain. However, the purpose of Best App Site is to review and talk about the Apps. If an App supports a new feature such as multitasking in the current OS, it’s probably going to be mentioned here. As far as Apple not supporting that feature on the iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G, is well, Apple’s problem. Again, I’m not defending it and you have every right to be angry, but your anger should be directed at Apple for not supporting your device.
My daughter has a 3G and I did not upgrade it to iOS 4 after hearing all the complaints about lost performance. Again, that’s a beef with Apple, not the App Developers that support the new features.