The Daily Gadget

There are many options available online that allow you to listen to music.  I’m of the opinion that a pure technology approach to song selection is not yet the optimal way to deliver the best music listening experience for the user.  Some services use popularity to select songs to play or create restricted Genres.  No service combines automation, optimization and personalization to the extent that Pandora.com does.

Pandora is a free membership based online music listening service, and is arguably the most innovative and feature rich online music listening platform available today.

The Music Genome Project:
At the heart of Pandora is the Music Genome Project. The MGP is a comprehensive analysis of music done by a team of fifty musician-analysts who listen to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound – melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics.  The MGP looks at close to 400 attributes for each song.  The net benefit of the MGP for the user is that Pandora has by far the best music recommendation technology available.

Getting Started:
After you complete the free signup, Pandora prompts you to create your first “Station”.  You can create a number of stations with Pandora.  Your Pandora stations differ from terrestrial radio stations which play a preprogramed roster of songs from specific genres or eras, in that you are by and large the program director.  The Pandora service fills out your stations playlist with songs and artists it deems similar enough to ones you instruct Pandora to play, and based on your input to the songs it suggests.

You begin by naming your station and then manually adding the names of Songs and or Artists you want added to the station.  Pandora searches its data base and verifies each entry before adding it.  Pandora’s data base of music, albums and artists rarely fails to show a match in response to your entries.  Pandora will start playing music immediately.

Pandora main interface:

Once the music for your station begins each song is represented by a graphic that will scroll from right to left in the Station window as new songs are presented.   The song is represented by a graphic featuring the album or artist, and also contains several important controls that enable you to block the song for a month, move it to another station, bookmark it or the artist, and buy either or both.  Pandora gives you the option of buying a song from either Amazon or iTunes, but CDs only from Amazon.

Below the Station/Player window Pandora offers a tabbed music details and account control window.  The related music information is extensive and even includes Lyrics.

Rating music in your Pandora Stations:
If you like a song you can simply give it a Thumbs Up by clicking on the thumbs up graphic, and if not a give it a Thumbs Down.  Giving a song a thumbs down ends the song, and the song will not be added to the station playlist.  Pandora automatically plays a new song.  You can also skip a song.  In the free ad supported service you are limited to 6 skips per hour, per station.  If you switch stations your counter resets but your are limited to 12 total skips per day across all stations.

With Pandora if you don’t rate songs, Pandora will continue to replay those songs but with considerably less frequency than the ones you give a thumbs up to.  The more songs and artists you add and the more you rate, the smarter Pandora gets at both suggesting music and tailoring a better playlist for your station.

Pandora continues to play new songs while replaying your Thumbs Up rated songs so while it is not a pure “set it and forget it” service, the more you listen and rate songs, the better the experience gets.  Since the action required to rate and add songs is minor, the active participation becomes an enriching experience musically speaking.

Pandora automatically adds a QuickMix Station to your Stations list that plays music from as many of your stations as you select or all if you do not change the default settings.

Streaming quality on the free ad supported Pandora is limited to 128K, which in my opinion is better than XM Radio.  The new Pandora One paid subscription increases the stream rate to 196K, as well as adding some additional functionality.  I run my computer directly into my stereo system and the sound quality does not disappoint.

I find that I frequently Bookmark songs and Artists while listenting to Pandora, and then occasionally I access my Profile page so I can listen to the songs again, explore other work by the artist and even find work by “Similar Artists”.   I’ve bought more MP3 singles as a result of Pandora than any other avenue.

Pandora To Go:
With Pandora it’s easy to create stations for any genre and have those stations accessible anywhere at anytime including on your mobile device.  Your Pandora stations can be accessed on your Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile devices and numerous phones on the Sprint and AT&T networks.  The mobile audio quality is lower than 128k but I find it more than adequate for the gym or the bike path.

Your Profile:
Pandora creates a feature rich personal Profile page that tracks your Bookmarks, allows you to review and edit your Stations, buy music and much more.  The interface is surprisingly easy to understand and navigate.

Pandora Profile Page:

Sharing:
On Pandora you can search for and see other members Stations and even share your stations with your friends.

But wait, That’s not all!
As if the depth and breath of the features and functionality mentioned above are not enough, Pandora also offers something they call the Pandora Video Series.  The Video Series is part blog, part VH1 or MTV like property.  Lots of interesting content there.

Ad free version – Pandora One:
The new Pandora One paid accounts are advertising free and cost $36 for a year.  With the Pandora One account Pandora also relaxes some of the skip and time out limitations.

Part of Pandora One is the optional Pandora desktop app.  The Pandora desktop app installs on your PC or Mac, and runs on the Adobe Air platform which requires a separate install.

Pandora desktop app (part of Pandora One)

Pandora is currently for U.S. listening only.

Summary:
Beyond the issue of whether Pandora is for you, the combination of the main interface for adding and rating music combined with the Profile page clearly makes terrestrial radio largely irrelevant and practically obsolete.

I’ve completely stopped listening to terrestrial radio except when I am in my car.  I fully expect Pandora to be the first fully interactive streaming music service to bridge the online to terrestrial divide, but that’s an entirely different discussion.

Pandora is well worth trying if you really enjoy music and want a highly personalized, individually relevant, and universally accessible music streaming service.

by Ron Sheridan

This review appeared in print edition of the May/June 09 issue of Domainers Magazine

by: Ron Sheridan

The Kindle is the latest generation of hand held ebook readers with a very special feature Amazon added called Whispernet.  Whispernet is a 2 way wireless data transmission system that enables content to be set to every Kindle wirelessly, and for the most part instantly.

According to Amazon “The Kindle Store has more than 250,000 books available, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs… Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle.”  You may want to keep in mind that most books ever written are free now and can be found online.

One of the major reasons the Kindle is important and will maintain a leadership position in ebook readers imo is the same reason Apple dominates MP3 players and the distribution of legal digital music downloads.  That reason for Apple is iTunes and for Amazon well Amazon.  Amazon has all the pieces in place to deliver a far superior customer experience and dominate the content delivery marketplace.

Being and avid reader will not make one an immediate Kindle buyer.  The Kindle’s convenience features are likely the biggest reasons the present crop of people are lining up for the Kindle. I for instance need the flexibility to read what I want where I want and when I want.  I also like that I can email docs to my kindle, and read them at my leisure.

The Device:  The Kindle Costs: $359.00, and comes with built in rechargeable battery, an A/C Adapter, a USB cable and a Carrying Case with a somewhat weak design

The Interface:   The Kindle features the latest e-Ink screen that offers a bright contrast monochrome screen excellent for reading but thats about it.  The Power On / Off and Whispernet On / Off buttons are located on the rear.  The bottom of the screen has a status bar that contains a Power indicator, along with a wireless signal strength indicator.  To interact with the Kindle you use the integrated “Mouse” which is a scroll stye and push control input device built right into the front of the Kindle.  The back cover comes off to give you access an SD card slot to increase the storage capacity for your Kindle.  From the factory the Kindle has approximately 1.4GB available available for user content which is plenty.

Features: The Kindle also supports audio books and MP3 files, and has an audio output jack for headphones and rear-mounted stereo speakers.  The battery life is great.  I’ve run mine for several days between charges.  There is a Bookmarking feature for saving places you want to return to, an on call dictionary as well.  The “Experimental Features” include a Web Browser.  The browser is about as fast or faster than a cell browser but it works great.  The mouse adds a level of UI kludge but it’s workable.  And it’s free.

Using the Kindle: You will need an Amazon account to buy books or periodicals via Amazon.  You can also do it old school and use the USB cable or SD card options to add content.  Amazon has made it possible for you to upload files via email.  There is a stated $.10 fee per transmission which I have yet to be charged.    Amazon gives you a dedicated Amazon email addy and you must specify what inbound email addresses you will be is sending from.  Data formats supported are:  PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.  I recommend leaving your Kindle on if possible as periodicals do not arrive past the original delivery date.  Emailed files do however.

Amazon creates a back up of your Kindle files and stores them for you.  You can reload files from Amazon anytime from anywhere.  The cloud is your friend.

Book prices are in the $10 range which on the surface seems reasonable I guess.  The Periodicals are way to expensive imo.  I get the NYT and it costs $$13.95 a month.  No ads however.  you can order Blogs for $5 – $15 a month but seriously why would you?

Summary:  If you like and need to read a lot, and can live without the paper turning experience, the Kindle will not disappoint.  there is not a better ebook reader available in my opinion.

I’m a big believer in the power and joy of reading for everyone.  I’d like to see the Kindle turn into a book reading and sharing platform for parents and kids.  Parents could browse books online with their children and make selections that get instantly uploaded to the Kindle for bedtime reading or trips in the car.  That would be very cool.

Since I pened this review I have received my very own New Kindle.  So I’ll do an update once I have reviewed the new version.