Symbian in Motion

[Update] Internet Radio by Nokia

by Zach at 9:00 am | December 04th, 2007 | Category: Application Reviews, Freeware, Multimedia, Updates

Nokia has finally updated their freeware Internet Radio app and wow did they do a great job! The old version did the trick but it was messy at best - users had to install two separate files and stations had to be added manually by placing PLS files in a particular directory. How very un-S60! ;)

Nokia’s new update is a gem though - very clean with plenty of added functionality. It installs with a nice big station directory and users can add additional stations by searching or manually with a URL. Bravo Nokia! Let’s have a look…

The first thing you’ll notice is the UI. Internet Radio does not use theme graphics for the background. Instead they’ve pulled some graphics from their latest Nseries theme and tweaked it a bit. This app streams radio over a data connection of course so it’s nice that they have included data and battery indicators.

As seen above, navigation is simple and logical. Using the browse option you can drill down the station directory by genre and pick the station you like. Simply select it and the app will quickly buffer and begin streaming your choice. You can also easily add any station to your favorites list from the Options menu.

Unlike the older version of the app you can browse the directories while streaming a station without interruption. I also like that when you select a new station while streaming, the audio quickly fades out instead of hitting a brick wall as with most S60 media players. Nice touch!

As I mentioned above, manually adding your favorite stations is quite simple. From the Options menu simply select Add station manually and enter the URL and desired name in the appropriate fields.

Equally as simple is the search function. Enter a keyword and the app will search a directory of station names. I wish that it supported tags or descriptions as well with the search function but the ability to manually add a station makes that request less important. It’s so easy to add your core stations manually that I doubt I’ll ever make use of the search. It’s a good thing too because I wasn’t able to find any of my favorite stations by searching.

I doubt I’ve been unclear to this point but I really like the job they’ve done with this update. This new incarnation of the Internet Radio app will be included with the out-of-the-box software on newer Nseries devices and rightfully so. I’m happy to be rid of the old version and after only a short time with this app I already prefer its simplicity to LCG Jukebox which is what I had been using for net radio. Now if I could only get a decent last.fm client all of my net radio needs would be taken care of! I’ve been trying Social.fm lately but it’s a bit too young and buggy for me to fully get behind or even review here on SiMo just yet.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to Nokia’s Internet Radio page and get to streaming! Initial compatibility is listed for the N95, N82 and N91 but it’s working on some additional devices so give it a shot (try the N91 version first).

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