Pandora and IHeartRadio arrives on BlackBerry devices

by Darren Murph posted Mar 22nd 2009 at 4:55PM

Jealous of all those radio apps on Apple's iPhone, are ye? Fret not, as Pandora and IHeartRadio are now available for select BlackBerry devices. Dave Zatz has pointed out that neither of the apps are functional on T-Mobile (saywha?), but both should play nice with any other Bold, Curve and Pearl handset. We know what you're thinking, so here's the answer -- BlackBerry Storm support is listed as "coming soon," at least with respect to Pandora. Anyone gave either of these a shot? How has it been?

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, RIM

Tags: app, application, blackberry, iheartradio, pandora, radio, rim

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

LTE @ Mar 22nd 2009 5:03PM

I prefer Slacker radio... already works on the Storm :)

Neutral

Don @ Nov 2nd 2009 10:00PM

It works well but the functionality and UI are far behind DIdiom, at least on the Bold -
http://www.blackberrynews.com/2009/02/23/didiom-launchin-for-the-blackberry-bold-and-storm/

Highly Ranked

rudolphe @ Mar 22nd 2009 6:05PM

"Jealous of all those radio apps on Apple's iPhone, are ye?"

If they could actually use the radio app without closing out whatever else they're doing, maybe!

Neutral

edd @ Mar 22nd 2009 6:36PM

I used to use Slacker on my BlackBerry Curve 8330, but it's a HUGE memory hog.

I'm using Pandora now - it's quick, quality is great, but it's got one minor set back: if I ever receive a text or an e-mail while I'm listening to a song, Pandora will stop playing it and play the message tone (cool), but will then start playing a completely different song (not so cool).

Neutral

hunter @ Mar 23rd 2009 10:34PM

just set your message tone to vibrate under your profile setting and you wont have any problems - i text all day long while listening to pandora on my 8330 curve - i've been waiting for this forever! next in line is a sirius app...

Neutral

BlueScreen Tech @ Mar 22nd 2009 7:00PM

I can only speak about iheartradio. I installed it on both a curve and pearl at work. On the curve it worked fantastically. It would be nice if the local stations gps locator would work a little farther out. I'm 30 miles from Columbus, OH and when I select local stations, it won't even find Columbus. Other than that it worked great. Connected immediately. Sounds great. As for the Pearl I haven't had the same luck. After a minute or two the stream quits. I'm not sure if this is the Pearl itself or not because when the music ceases to work, so does all EVDO on the handset and I have to pull the battery. I don't know if this is the VZW firmware or if its the app or just the phone itself.

Neutral

Aaron Myers @ Mar 22nd 2009 8:13PM

Pandora just doesn't support T-Mobile, but as far as iheartradio - it works fine on the T-Mobile network, I'm not sure where you got that information.

Neutral

Enicko @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:24AM

I have it on a curve - not even listed for the 8300, but it works.

And that's the good part, it works. It doesn't kill the battery as fast I thought it would either. Set up and download were easy and quick. It also runs well as a background program - doesn't seem to slow the rest of the functions down, messaging, calls, camera, etc.

The "needs work" would be the fast forward and pause are a bit clunky in their response. Partly because it runs slow and takes a while to get going.

And then there are the ads (or ad at this point). Unfortunately a bit annoying. I only say that because in the mobile application they are more of a popup box than a clickable background as they are in normal Pandora.

Overall, I think Pandora does about the best job of either being selective or attracting quality ads as any site on the web. I actually don't mind them that much on the normal program, even that pesky Jaguar ad. But on this, one false click and I've passed through a song or even worse clicked on the add for Dockers yet again. I do wear dorkers and have a blackberry, which is besides the point, it gets in the way. And it even appears to happen more than once a song, nasty.

Would also be nice to just have the stations default to being sorted by name, or at least give an option for that.

Overall it's been consistent and it does work, not to mention it's FREE. Pandora as a whole contributes to most of my music lately and it's great to finally have it on my phone.

Between this and the 4.5 update, blackberry probably bought at least a few more months of time with the curve.

Neutral

rio @ Mar 22nd 2009 11:29PM

Slacker for the curve on sprint has fantastic sound quality but it's a memory hog and is quite buggy. Pandora on the same phone works tons better memory and quality but has subpar sound quality (compressed). I have tried the others yet.

Neutral

robert s. @ Mar 23rd 2009 1:22AM

ya im using 8900 and on tmo network and iheartradio works just fine... streams perfectly well... and a friend of mine used it on tmo 8220 and again no issues.... so wrong info.

Neutral

Nick @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:06AM

In my experience, T-Mobile will not allow an app that streams over their network (in the US anyway).

They were very adamant about that when we were building out our news app for their handsets.

Neutral

Michael @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:58AM

Installed it on my 8320, and works just fine over EDGE data and WiFi connection. I think it's a little snappier on than the Slacker app.

Neutral

Ale Cadena @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:02PM

pandora works well on my T-Mo 8320.
No issues what so ever.

Neutral

Kyle @ Mar 24th 2009 12:01AM

My entire department all have T-Mo curves and it works perfectly on it. My Pandora has been on non stop since it was released. Just have to go to pandora.com on your blackberry browser. You know, we all have BES not BIS, maybe that is the problem with T-Mo.

Neutral

Victoria @ Mar 24th 2009 8:33AM

I downloaded Slacker on my 8120 last night.
So far: it takes forever to connect, buffers constantly, then will play for about 2 minutes, buffers some more and eventually stops playing. In 15 minutes of use, I only heard 3 songs..... because of the constant buffering. I had to turn the firewall off to get it to work, not too sure about that. Would also have to upgrade my memory card if I wanted to cache any stations on Slacker (the 1GB I purchased with my T-Mobile Shadow just won't cut it with Slacker). I've only had the Blackberry about 2 weeks.... still learning about the functionality. But as far as Slacker goes, I guess I'm not so impressed at this point. Probably going to check out either iHeartradio or Pandora.

Neutral

Kyle @ Mar 24th 2009 4:52PM

We have to remember that's it's still in beta phase. It's going to have kinks but i think it works pretty great on my pearl for being in beta phase. And as for Storm devices, you should just follow the iheartradio_com twitter for updates! My brother has a Storm and he was loving this app so hopefully he'll be able to get it on his phone soon!

Neutral

Brian @ Mar 25th 2009 11:02AM

iHeartRadio is great. I definitely prefer it over Slacker and Pandora....apparerently they did come out with the Storm version, Kyle. Just released in beta...where's Pandora on that one? iHeartRadio is sure to beat them out!
Love the features. Interface looks great and easy to use for sure.

Neutral