As someone who works in the computer industry and spends an insane amount of time online, it’s very rare when I find anything new that actually impresses me, much less amazes me.
I just found something that amazes me.
iPhone 2.0 came out last week, and with it the long-awaited App Store, which gives users the ability to install Apple-sanctioned applications on their devices. Tech sites have been fawning over this app and that app, but until now I hadn’t found anything I thought was all that impressive. I’ve been trying a lot of the free ones to see which are worthwhile and which are a waste of time. Today, Digg linked to an article on the Pandora iPhone app. The blurb on their site claims:
It’s a new kind of radio – stations that play only music you like. Type in the name of your favorite artist, song, or composer and we’ll create a radio station featuring that music and more like it.
Here’s the thing: they actually live up to their own hype. I entered one of my current favorite bands, The Postal Service, and it created a channel of their music and other, similar artists. I listened for over an hour didn’t hear anything I didn’t enjoy, most of it completely new to me. While that, in and of itself, was really impressive, it still isn’t what amazed me.
The review I read said it was possible to play over AT&T wireless Internet (not wifi), but I didn’t believe it. AT&T’s EDGE wireless data network is usually dog-slow whenever I try to bring up maps or browse the web. The only thing it’s typically good for is checking my mail. I assumed that as soon as I was out of wifi range, the connection to Pandora’s servers would go to hell.
To test it, I took it along on my lunch drive to Taco Bell. As soon as I was out of the office wifi connection range, it switched over to EDGE and kept playing, literally, without missing a beat. I can now easily imagine listening to internet radio while on a long car trip, which I’ve felt for a long time was going be the next progression in in-car radio technology.
As far as the audio quality goes, it’s nothing spectacular. I’m pretty sure it’s monaural sound, and it sounds a bit compressed sometimes–but for any car where you have to turn the radio up over the sound of road noise (like mine), those differences are unnoticable.
I’m really, really impressed by Pandora. If you want to try it out, you don’t need an iPhone or iPod Touch. You can go to pandora.com and listen right in your browser.
[Sorry about another iPhone post, folks.]
July 17, 2008 at 11:39 am
I love Pandora Radio. My friend Seth out on Seattle told me about it last year and I have totally enjoyed it since.
July 22, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I just linked to your blog again Marc from thamike.com (Awful Show). They just interviewed the guy who created Pandora on their last episode so I thought this was relevant being a non-biased plug.
How’s the car situation?
July 22, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I’m glad you like Pandora. The Awful Show has been fans of theirs since we started over two years ago, that’s why Tim has been on for interviews more than any other guest in that time. Love it, support it, pass the word on, and show up to their events if they come to a place near you. Pandora IS the next evolution of radio and now that wireless streaming is becoming practical, hopefully so is podcasting. ;)