Review: Pandora Radio

Overview As an unabashed fan of Pandora Radio for the internet, this application for the iPhone is a dream come true. And if you're a music aficionado, a bored office worker or a tech geek, you probably already consider Pandora a basic necessity. But don't worry; even if, to you, Pandora is just the name of a dangerous mythical box, you too will be rocking out and finding new artists, all for the convenient price of free.

Pandora is an Internet Radio program that creates playlists based on an artist of your choosing. Breaking down that artist's music into over 400 different attributes and using a complicated mathematical formula, Pandora finds similar artists and streams a seemingly endless playlist. Functionality As you open Pandora you're asked whether or not you're already a registered user. If so, perfect; sign in, and you'll find all of your radio stations saved and ready to go. If you haven't registered before no worries, the process is super-simple and takes about 2 minutes.

If you're new to Pandora, they'll give you a code to enter into their website. Jump on mobile Safari, or your computer, type it in, and register. Once you do that, tell the phone you've registered. Mere seconds later, you'll be signed in and have radio stations based on artists selected during registration, ready for your listening pleasure. It goes without saying that you'll need a signal to listen in, which is a downside compared to the iPod, but unless you're riding the subways or live in a place where your phone wouldn't function anyways, it shouldn't be too big of a problem.

Click on one of your stations and get ready to discover all kinds of artists the Music Genome Project identifies as similar to the one you chose. If you like a song you can bookmark it or the artist, or buy the song from iTunes directly. Of course, you can also create a new station by simply clicking on the stations menu and pressing the plus sign in the corner. While the Music Genome is seemingly 99% accurate when it comes to matching your musical desires, if it gives you something you don't like, you can skip a certain amount of songs per hour. And to tell the application that you like it, just press the thumbs up button at the bottom of the screen. Don't like it, and don't want to hear it again? Thumbs down.

If you're interested in the science of it all, you can discover why the Music Genome Project grouped an artist in the radio station you specified (just click the 'three-lines' button in the upper-right corner). It's all pretty interesting, actually, as it gives a very detailed explanation of the why and how behind it all. Review As I said, I've long been a gigantic Pandora fan, using it when I'm looking for new music or want a break from my stale old iTunes playlists. The iPhone application has all the same functionality of the website, and integrates seamlessly with it. Your iPhone created radio stations are uploaded to the internet, and internet created stations right to the iPhone. It's easy, efficient, and, for what it does, perfect. The one knock on Pandora is that, unlike its chief rival, Last.fm, it lacks a few special aspects. First, unlike Last.fm, it does not give you a biography of the band, or upcoming concerts, which is especially important to live music buffs. It is also without a social networking option, so that you cannot share your stations or recent playlists with friends. However, on the bright side, it does not have the hours of buffer time that Last.fm does when used on an original EDGE network phone; the music streams perfectly, with one song fully loaded right after the one before it. Summary While it lacks a few useful areas, Pandora perfects what it does offer, which is endless new music and seamless internet integration. The buffer-free song loading and the incredibly accurate Music Genome Project make this app a must have for music lovers.

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