Pandora: A big box of lovely.

I first stumbled upon Pandora Radio a few years ago and fell madly in love with its concept.   For those unfamiliar, Pandora Radio is an online application that creates personalized radio stations for users.  Type in an artist name or song name that you like, and Pandora analyzes that song and plays music with similar characteristics.  In addition, you can rate the music Pandora chooses and it will narrow or widen the scope of your "station" based on your likes and dislikes.  You can also gift Pandora Radio stations to other users--it's an amazing online application, and a great way to broaden your musical tastes and exposure, find new music, and make sure you aren't listening to the same 35 songs on repeat from your iTunes playlist.

You can create and access unlimited, customizable stations.

When I heard they had brought Pandora Radio to the iPhone and iPod Touch, I was ecstatic.  The idea of having all my personal radio stations with me at all times seemed too good to be true.

First, let's review the application overall.  In a word: splendiforous.  The interface is great and easy to use, and once you log in, the Pandora Radio app syncs to all your stations from the account that you have no-doubt built online.  (And if you haven't done that yet, get to it!)  The app really does work best when synced with a profile on the site.

However, you can build new stations straight from the iPhone.  You can review songs just like on the main site and expand your scope of music.  It works, as far as I can tell, just as well as the online version, providing artwork, giving you the option to bookmark artists and songs, and even giving you an option to purchase songs straight from the iTunes store.

Of course, there are limitations to Pandora Radio (both on the big internet and the smaller one they squeezed into the iPhone).  You are only able to skip six songs in an hour, and you can't play a specific song.  This, though, is understandable due to music licensing bullshit.  Pandora is an interactive "build-your-own radio stations" application.  It's best to remember that and not expect it to do everything.

A simple interface that features great album art prominently.

I hear you asking me the question: But, HAL9000, what about the performance?

On a wi-fi network, no problem.  Songs sound beautiful and stream with no interruption, and you can skip songs easily.

I'm told on 3G, things work pretty well, too.  Some pausing and waiting for songs to download, but not bad, all things considered.

On the Edge network, however, there is a bit of a (understandable) trade-off.  Songs take a while to load, and the quality is noticeably degraded.  Still, I salute the Pandora guys for making the app even work at all over the limited Edge network.  Lowering the quality based on your network is a great feature, so complaining is not warranted.

There is only one (small) annoyance for me.  While on Edge only, when I click to skip a song, it sometimes take over two minutes to load and begin playing.  If you play straight through, there is no problem; it is only when you choose to skip a song.  What is odd, however, is that the lag for the first song, when starting the app, is nowhere near this amount of time.  I'm not sure what is going on here.  But, like I said, the fact that the app even works on my outdated Edge phone should make me happy, and it does.

In the end, this is a must-have for your phone, plastered always on your screen.  If you love music, that is (and, really, who doesn't?).  Get this app, and thank me later.  Feel free to gift me stations you think I might like, too.  I'm into west Norwegian yodeling nowadays.

Comments

[zebraFist]

There is rarely a weekday where I don't use this app. This is almost a full port of the web version. Pretty amazing app.

[Agreed]

Echoing what you've wrote, Pandora flat out rocks on WiFi. Some minor delays on 3G, but still pretty damn good. With EDGE, it entirely depends on the strength of signal. A full set of bars and it runs without a hiccup. Dead zones and areas where service dips to 1-2 bars and then it really degrades. Still, this thing is a lifesaver when it comes to long distance driving-as most interstates have a decent EDGE network connection and 3G continues to expand into suburban and rural areas.