Pandora comes to Android, world's networks that much closer to buckling
As must-have mobile apps go, Pandora ranks high on the books -- with the proliferation of 3G and WiFi, it comes dangerously close to obsoleting the need to carry around your own 8, 16, or 32GB worth of tracks -- and another big-ticket platform has now joined the compatibility short list. This time around it's Android that's getting hooked up, offering a home screen widget and background playback (we'd expect no less on Android) over whatever type of network connection you've got handy. Using Wham! as a station seed is still indefensible, but we'd say the argument for scooping up a G1, myTouch 3G, or Sprint Hero (when it's available, anyhow) just got a bit stronger.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]



















Awesome! I love Pandora and I love Android.
As Pandora is US-only, I doubt that networks world-wide care much.
I was thinking that also.
Clever rabbit gets the carrot.
I miss Pandora from when it was a global service but I can still get it in the office since our network seems to connect to the Intertubes in the US.
interesting.
I think this android thing has a future ;)
installed, doesnt work on my kaiser that thinks its a magic thinking its a hero, anyone have it working and on what device?
Is pandora really that great? I dont wanna flame or anything but i have always used last.fm instead. I really doubt pandora is coming to s60 v5 (N97) or is it? I wouldnt mind checking it out but it seems the sames as my choice. I still wanna check out an android phone :( ive been wanting to get one lately and the hero is really pushing me over the limit :|
I prefer Pandora. I have used Slacker and last.fm but eventually come back to Pandora. I usually like the songs Pandora's algorithm chooses for me based on my preferences. I actually didn't even know that Pandora limited the number of songs you could skip (free version) until I read about it because I rarely skipped. I can't tell you how many bands I had never heard of that are now favorites due to Pandora. I am not knocking last.fm. It did it's job perfectly well and is very similar to Pandora. Maybe it is because I used Pandora first and last.fm...well...last.
I'm the opposite. I tried Pandora and was really excited about it until it started giving me songs from classic rock when I chose something like Type O Negative as my seed. (wtf!) Last.FM has been much better for me in that regard. I haven't gone back to Pandora, but I might try it again if they don't give me something like Night Ranger for my Nirvana channel.
@Andir
The whole point is to expose you to music you MAY like based on what you already like. I get stuff all the time that is WAY off base but it is a simple matter to thumbs-down a song and never have to hear it again on that station. Works the same way in last.fm Perhaps last.fm just plays it a little "safer" with it's suggestions. Maybe I'm just blessed to like Night Ranger AND Nirvana.
I think last.FM is more constant with it's music. I can put a song in and it will actually give me songs that sound like that song based on the tags. Pandora (if I remember right) uses some sort of beat algorithm or something like that which will pick songs that mechanically are similar, but sound totally different: Like Nirvana -> Night Ranger ... yeah, they both use drums and guitars.. woo. But I expect STP, NIN, and other grunge/industrial rock, not any random song. With the tags in Last.FM, I can do this.
They could be getting better... but like I said. I haven't tried it recently.
I've never discovered a single new band I liked on Pandora or last.fm...maybe it's that my seeds are Caribou and Dan Deacon. I just like it to leave on at a party or while I'm doing homework so I can listen to a consistent sound.
Too bad it's US only :(
all I can say is finally, finally, finally. i personally emailed pandora about an android version many times. glad to see it paid off.
Good, now you can get on that email campaign to the SyFy network to resurrect Farscape.
Wake me when they build a phone with a decent processor & a 3.5" screen. Until then I'm on hold regardless of what software is available. There is so much that the Android OS has to offer but it fails in that it's being used on under performing hardware. No Multimedia phone should have a 2.8" to 3.2" screen but for some reason everyone who's using android is determined to use these small screens.
Because any screen bigger than the iphone's is way too small;)
Oh, and anything bigger is way to chunky
Your wait is almost over
http://www.nokia.co.uk/find-products/all-phones/nokia-n900
The processors running current Android phones are a little on the clunky side, but come on, 3.2" is unusable but 3.5" is perfect? While you're using the device there's almost no difference at all, it's the same resolution and it's still plenty big enough to touch-type on.
Personally, I prefer the 3.2" screen because it allows the device to be quite a bit narrower than an iPhone and it just fits in your hand a lot better. I know thin is the big thing right now, but I don't mind slightly more thickness and a little bit smaller screen in order to get something that actually feels like a phone in my hand.
Any phone with a screen bigger than 3.2" is best suited for people who carry purses.
Damn, I just sold my Magic.
I'm in Canada though so there's usually a radio playing nearby anyways :)
dang, I just sold my Magic too.
good thing I live in canada, there's radio's blasting all over the malls and certain streets :D
Yea pandora finally on android even more reason yo upgrade my line to the hero
Will it work in Europe?
No.
Yeah... 'cause I'm sure the major cell carriers here don't void your contract in the fine print for streaming music over your $75/month for 10kb data contract.
Funny I didn't see a similar article when Pandora announced an app for Windows Mobile some months ago.
That's because Microsoft opened the box long before that.
not available in the uk market :(
Until T Mobile's users can tap into more robust networks this is just another app with a flaky connection. I was in the mall yesterday and saw a guy huddled over his G1 near a rack of clothing. I asked him if he was price checking UPC codes with his Phone. He said he would be if he could possibly get a signal in the mall.
Must be the Mall at your location, I can get 3G in Waterbury CT, or just use the free WiFi someone has setup in the mall :)
must be a problem in your area, sir. I get 3G here in Milwaukee WI just fine, even in some of the worst coverage areas.
Ever since T-Mobile introduced 3G in the Cleveland area I've been getting unbreakably strong signals everywhere I go, and I'm at least an hour west of the city. I'm extremely pleased with T-Mobile's network.
I was worried about this as well because we don't have 3G in my market and I couldn't believe it would sound well over Edge. It lagged a tiny bit (read: less than a minute) when it was first setting up my station but now that it's running it sounds great (as great as it can on the phone's speaker, that is. No clipping or buffering or anything. I'm pleasantly surprized.
I just moved to Hong Kong and I miss using Pandora. It's such a convenient and wonderful service, I wish they could offer it world wide.
Is there any diference in the Pandora app for Android, Pre, iPhone, etc?
Still no Pandora for that goofy oddball S60 OS on the phone I have.
dammit, i returned my mytouch 3g yesterday...
but even with the add-on of pandora, i would still be unsatisfied with the on-screen keyboard and word recognition software.
Did you try any of the other keyboards? The one that comes built-in is just one of several options available to you. It isn't an integrated part of the OS, it's just a specialized app.
Some people really seem to dig the HTC keyboard, which is pretty easy to acquire online and sideload.
I agree. HTC has the BEST dictionary out of all Android keyboards. I could type every letter next to the letter I want, and it gets the word I was trying to type 97% of the time.
I didn't install other keyboards because of the reviews it got. overall, i was expecting a keyboard that responded like apple's, but HTC's was laggy, unresponsive to touch unless I press hard and used the wrong words. For instance, I'd want to type the word for, instead HTC assumes I'm typing fir. Another quip I had with the phone was with the browser. pictures aren't sized correctly to fill the screen however font size does. just browse engadget.com and you'll see what I mean.
if ur HTC keyboard app is laggy it must be something wrong with you, im running it on a Kaiser just fine, half the time i dont even slide my keyboard out
daveb, the mytouch sucks.. you're just any other fanboy out there defending junk you purchased.
Finally! Two apps that should have bee around from the start make their appearance in the past day. Good day for android!
how bout a symbian version.. come on!
It doesn't work on the HERO! Nooooooo! Message: "Sorry your device is currently not supported. Model: Hero" My dreams are crushed.
And why does it need to read my contact data??
Installed it on my myTouch3G but get this error;
Unexpected HTTP error occurred code: 501 while StartupAsyncTask.
Any one else seeing this error?
Famous last quotes: "Who needs more than three home screens?"
Damn, I don't have room for any more widgets. Need to clean my desktop and my room. I'll get to it tomorrow.
If you delete some of those widgets your phone will suddenly run a lot faster too. The current batch of Android phones just aren't powerful enough to support tons of widgets running at all times. I was quite surprised when I deleted all of my widgets and remembered how snappy this OS can be when it isn't bogged down by all that crap.
or you could just root your phone. It gave me 5 home screens and it made the phone 100% snappier than before
this is exactly what i thought!
I've been playing with it all morning and it's pretty solid. In the grand scheme of things it's pretty near identical to the Last.fm app that's been available for almost a year now, but I tend to like Pandora's song selection a little better.
Imeem tried to send my phone to hell and back, and Last.Fm just sucks. getting pandora. Will let you know how its working on my MT3G soon
works. rocks.
*YAWN* Wake me up, before you go-go...
I've been waiting for this!! This app is nice. I'll be keeping my G1 around for a while longer.
I don't know if anyone has said this yet because I'm too lazy to read all the comments, but I was very pissed off to find out after reading this post AND downloading the app, that the HTC Hero is not supported. At all. How do you not support the current Android phone. I mean, I know the G1 users rule the market right now, but the Hero is the newest phone, and aren't these developers/manufacturers/carriers/etc. supposed to be working towards the future? It just seems ridiculous to me to develop an app that only supports the most widely used phone, but is already quickly becoming obsolete. Way to work toward the future, Pandora devs. Ya stupid turds. I've had a Hero for a couple weeks now, and just can't get past the absent QWERTY and the small screen size. I'm thinking of going back to my iPhone, in hopes that maybe the Motorola Sholes will show up at AT&T or T-Mobile sometime in the near future, but I only heard that rumor from one source (Phandroid.com), and it doesn't seem very promising to me. Oh well. Yay, future...
Okay, so I placed my hands softly on my Hero today and prayed that Pandora would somehow magically work. And it did. No error message like yesterday saying something like "Hero phone not supported". Hmmm. No update, same app, same everything, no error. Sweet. Apparently, the HTC Hero is now supported. Maybe it was just a temporary problem, seeing as how I downloaded the app as soon as I heard the news that it was on the market, and maybe they hadn't had time to get every aspect up and working yet. Oh well, at least it's working now! Yay Pandora.
YES! This just made my day!
Feels good to have an Android phone!!!
It appears that it is no longer in the Android marketplace (search for "pandora" yields nothing). My continued attempts at downloading the app I previously found in a search yield "download unsuccessful". Going to pandora.com from the android yields a nice big button that says "download pandora". Clicking on it yields an error: "There are no matches in the Android Market for the search: pname: com.pandora.android"
What's up pandora? Does this currently work for anyone else?