Pandora excited about the Pre

jcunwired · 05/15/2009, 11:01 AM

VatorNews - Pandora radio, mobile and beyond

"We think Palm Pre is an absolutely spectacular device"

jcunwired · 05/15/2009, 11:58 AM

Bumping this post, I think its significant.

neodorian · 05/15/2009, 12:02 PM

Well I think this will really be the device to sell streaming services like Pandora to a large audience. One of the reasons I first got into smartphones was so that I could listen to shoutcast streams when I was on the road (patched through to car stereo) or via headphones. I never got into XM or Sirius for that reason. I don't drive enough cross country to need sat radio on most days and cell signal has always been strong in my city.

iPhone can do Pandora but they don't push it as ITMS is their cash cow. BB can do it but it's marketed as a business device. WM can do it but the client sucks.

A well-integrated Pandora on Pre could really increase their userbase and make them some advertising dough. Who knows, Palm may even pay them a little for the license since it is such a good selling point.

All I know is Pandora is a good friend of mine and I look forward to a phone with good integration.

roturn · 05/15/2009, 12:07 PM

Pandora sucks on a Sprint Blackberry, I hope the service works better on the Pre, but I suspect the problem is bandwidth. It stops playing after a song or two and freezes up while it is caching.

miles4000 · 05/15/2009, 12:17 PM

Wow, he had nice things to say about the Pre. Nice!

bryanharig · 05/15/2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roturn

Pandora sucks on a Sprint Blackberry, I hope the service works better on the Pre, but I suspect the problem is bandwidth. It stops playing after a song or two and freezes up while it is caching.

I think that has more to do with the 8330's neutered processor. Pandora works fine on the GSM curve.

vicn77 · 05/15/2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roturn

Pandora sucks on a Sprint Blackberry, I hope the service works better on the Pre, but I suspect the problem is bandwidth. It stops playing after a song or two and freezes up while it is caching.

pandora plays fine on my 8330. though i wish the sound quality was a little better.

WMicke · 05/15/2009, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roturn

Pandora sucks on a Sprint Blackberry, I hope the service works better on the Pre, but I suspect the problem is bandwidth. It stops playing after a song or two and freezes up while it is caching.

The problem isn't bandwidth, it's your Blackberry... I'm using Pandora on a Samsung Instinct w/ Sprint, and I never have any problems w/ streaming... now I could wish for a better interface w/ more volume (the Pandora app on the Instinct cannot access the device volume control, and always comes off sounding quieter)... but the bandwidth is just fine.

roturn · 05/15/2009, 12:54 PM

It must be my 8130 then.

Hope that's the truth cause Pandora is a great tool for listening to music.

DougB541 · 05/15/2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roturn

Pandora sucks on a Sprint Blackberry, I hope the service works better on the Pre, but I suspect the problem is bandwidth. It stops playing after a song or two and freezes up while it is caching.

My Pandora on my blackberry on Sprint works PERFECTLY.

Nothing but good things for me.

wynand32 · 05/15/2009, 02:37 PM

From what I've seen in the demos, the Pre will be a vastly superior Pandora device so long as sound quality is decent (I don't expect great sound from Pandora in any case). To me, given its single-tasking nature, the iPhone isn't even a player (no pun intended); it seems absolutely ludicrous to me to have Pandora stop playing when I've switched to another application.* And compared to the others listed, the Pre simply has a vastly superior UI for a background app like Pandora.

Golly, I can't wait.

*Incidentally, if anyone replies to this post that one can jailbreak the iPhone and run an application that will run an application in the background, I will hunt your iPhone down and subject it to a strenuous thrashing for having so clearly hypnotized you. (Just kidding. Mostly.)

Eguy · 05/15/2009, 04:49 PM

I have been looking forward to Pandora since they announced it at CES. I use it at work to drown out noise and in the background at home when I am working. It is a GREAT free service.

showson1 · 05/15/2009, 04:51 PM

Pandora is cool and all, but I REALLY hope that Slacker Radio comes out for the Pre.
Blows away Pandora, in my book.

zionixi · 05/15/2009, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roturn

It must be my 8130 then.

Hope that's the truth cause Pandora is a great tool for listening to music.

I have a pearl. Mine works great. I had the problem you were talking about with slacker player, but switched to pandora because it just works better... It could just be your area.

I've been listening to pandora on my phone for the last hour actually with no problems, I'm receiving texts, emails, and facebook messages all-the-while.

zionixi · 05/15/2009, 04:56 PM

as an aside, I think its awesome how I can multi-task with my 1 1/2yr old BB pearl, listening to pandora, while i'm checking my google maps, while I'm texting.

and yet... hey iphone... couldja help me with... oh... one app at a time?... oh, well ok...

Eguy · 05/15/2009, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zionixi

as an aside, I think its awesome how I can multi-task with my 1 1/2yr old BB pearl, listening to pandora, while i'm checking my google maps, while I'm texting.

and yet... hey iphone... couldja help me with... oh... one app at a time?... oh, well ok...

I think it is awesome that we can have a video playing while looking at google maps while texting and emailing while playing a game on the Pre

Merovingian · 05/15/2009, 05:49 PM

How does Pandora make money?

Eguy · 05/15/2009, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merovingian

How does Pandora make money?

Ad's every once in a while and if you use the website version, there are clickable ads in the background. Also there is a subscription to remove all the ads. I use Open Pandora which takes all the ads away and has full keyboard support.

zionixi · 05/15/2009, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merovingian

How does Pandora make money?

sponsorships

RoyFripple · 05/15/2009, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eguy

I use Open Pandora which takes all the ads away and has full keyboard support.

Isn't that kind of counter-productive since it makes Pandora no money? I understand not wanting ads, but it's an incredibly great free service. Using something like that just hurts the company and could affect the availability of the free service if they aren't making enough money to make ends meet. I may very well be misunderstanding what it is you're using though, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as on topic: This is probably THE most exciting app for me as I listen to Pandora at work everyday through the browser. I'm sure the company doesn't want me streaming music all day, but I need something in the background and we don't have any radio reception at my campus. This will allow me to follow the rules and still listen to Pandora, plus I'll actually have a smartphone (just have an AT&T SLVR right now, boo).

The Pandora app looks incredibly well integrated, too. It looks better than any other ones I've seen yet.