adamyntium

Pandora Mobile highlights awesomeness but also severe lame-itude

Do you know Pandora?  If you’re in the United States, where Pandora is legally available, you may have come to enjoy this awesome uber-customizable music radio over the past years.  If you’re not in the U.S., perhaps you’ve discovered the beauty of anonymous proxies :cough:, which I’m not going to mention here :p.

But perhaps you didn’t know that Pandora has become available on mobile phones!  More good news:  It’s available for free on phones that run the Windows Mobile operating system, free on Sprint phones, and free on (some versions of) BlackBerry phones.  Ironically, it’s also free on the iPhone, and I say ironically because AT&T apparently is charging—I swear I am not making this up—$8.95 per month to its other mobile customers for the privileges of using Pandora.  I mean, I love Pandora and all, but even if I were insane enough to be contributing to the income of the evilness that is AT&T, I sure as heck wouldn’t fork over that much dough for Pandora.  For an on-demand mobile music service?  Perhaps.  But for streaming radio?  You’ve got to be kidding.

One other note on the Pandora Mobile offerings:  Apparently, I’m not supposed to be able to access Pandora Mobile because T-Mobile phones are not supported.  Which is odd, because I’m enjoying streaming music via Pandora on my BlackBerry Curve (on T-Mobile) right now.  Go figure.  I also shouldn’t mention that I was also able to do this while in Ireland a couple of weeks ago (listening to, appropriately enough, The Corrs on St. Patricks day 😀 ).

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Anyway, if you’re an iPhone user or a non-AT&T subscriber, give Pandora Mobile a go!  If you’re an AT&T subscriber, well, heaven help you, and for reasons way beyond this Pandora issue.

[Gee, Adam, tell us what you really think about AT&T :D]

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Okay, okay, I’m thinking I should flesh this entry out a little bit 🙂

Some stuff I like in the mobile app:
– Seems to work internationally (though I can imagine this being “fixed” [sigh])
– Works as a true background app on my BlackBerry!
– Can play through my BB’s speaker (actually sounds decent!) or a headset
– Song-to-song time isn’t bad
– Nice graphics, simple, intuitive interface.
– Access to all my stations 🙂
– Can even view “Why [did Pandora play] this song?”
– Thumbs up / thumbs down works.

Some stuff I don’t like:
– Takes a while to start up the app
– No way to see detailed info on artist or song

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All in all, pretty damn cool! 😀

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Adam Lasnik

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Comments

8 responses to “Pandora Mobile highlights awesomeness but also severe lame-itude”

  1. Marlene Avatar
    Marlene

    Sadly enough, AT&T is the ONLY cell phone company that has reception where I live.  I’ve tried all the others, my house is a total dead zone for all but AT&T.  Woe is me.

    Reply
  2. RiepK Avatar
    RiepK

    Pandora is not available in your country due to license constraints… :(. Too bad….

    Reply
  3. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I had not heard of Pandora, and I’d love to give it a try, but I have AT&T!  Curses, foiled again!

    Reply
  4. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    I’d still give it a try.  I don’t think you’ll be charged without warning 🙂  Maybe AT&T’s gotten nicer?  Never know…

    Reply
  5. Grinder Avatar
    Grinder

    Hey thanks for the heads up!! I just downloaded Pandora on my Blackberry. I have the Curve(8300?) with AT&T and it seems to be working just fine. My phone is actually a few years old so I wasn’t sure if it would work or not, but it does. I did just download they new BB software so that might have something to do with it working, not sure if it would have with the old software. Thanks again!!

    Reply
  6. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    I have looked at Pandora a couple of times. I do love my new phone which is the Motorola Q. It is much like the Blackberry and comes in handy when I am selling Framingham MA Real Estate As a Realtor the ability to connect with the office email is fantastic!

    Reply
  7. Stocks Avatar
    Stocks

    I had not heard of Pandora, unfortunately I have AT&T!  I think the Blackberry is great but what can you do when you can’t get holdof one?

    Reply
  8. Calvin Avatar
    Calvin

    How interesting. Obviously, customer friendliness isn’t the only thing AT&T is skimping on. The technical loopholes you described greatly remind me of the things that happened in many places where I worked … where the employer overworks and underpays its employees … and forces them to work on issues out of their core competencies.

    Reply

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