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Pandora Radio 2.0 for iPhone Released

Wednesday January 7, 2009 12:01 pm PST by Eric Slivka
Pandora has released Pandora Radio 2.0 [App Store] for iPhone and iPod touch, bringing a number of new features to the free personalized Internet radio service. Pandora's music service automatically generates playlists based on a user's stated artist, song, or composer preferences, and user feedback on Pandora's selections continuously refines its future recommendations. New features include:

- Cover Flow-like browsing of song histories
- Song progress bar
- Ability to share a user's personalized radio stations with friends via e-mail
- Artist biographies
- 30-second previews of bookmarked songs
- Ability to create new stations directly from songs and artists appearing in an existing station

Pandora has been a fixture on the App Store since it launched in July 2008, and saw considerable early success. Despite some uncertainty due to potential increases in royalty fees paid by Internet radio broadcasters to record companies, Pandora Radio has remained among the most popular free App Store applications.
[ 36 comments ]

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mattfr
Posted: 41 months ago
Thanks for the news...

... but that app's still unavailable in France App Store! (is it a US-Only App?)
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Oskee2001
Posted: 41 months ago
The really cool thing would be if they included a built-in browser! sometimes when i'm commuting i'd like to be able to check email and the papers.
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JW008
Posted: 41 months ago
Upgraded this morning, so I had it on the drive to work! It's a big step up--it's the only app I downloaded on Day 1 and still use to this day!
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alexbates
Posted: 41 months ago
It sounds like it has a lot better features and has a similar UI of the iPod part of the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is something I will be getting! I bet it will bump back up to the #1 spot in the App Store's "top free" section.
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lazyrighteye
Posted: 41 months ago
A very nice upgrade of an app I use daily.
I've really enjoyed discovering new-to-me music... on the go.

A feature I'd really like to see Pandora devs add to this app is the ability for it to run in the 'background,' or whilst I'm using other apps (much like the built-in iPod). Currently, if I want to check Mail or Safari or Calendar, I have to quit out of Pandora first. Not a deal breaker, but would be nice to have this fixed/added.
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rickdollar
Posted: 41 months ago
Now, if it would just give us a link to the iTunes store for the previous or current song playing since it's okay to buy from iTunes now. Well, 80% of it anyway.:)
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riversky
Posted: 41 months ago

A very nice upgrade of an app I use daily.
I've really enjoyed discovering new-to-me music... on the go.

A feature I'd really like to see Pandora devs add to this app is the ability for it to run in the 'background,' or whilst I'm using other apps (much like the built-in iPod). Currently, if I want to check Mail or Safari or Calendar, I have to quit out of Pandora first. Not a deal breaker, but would be nice to have this fixed/added.


I might be wrong but I believe running an app in the "background" is prohibited by Apple in the developers agreement and technically. This has something to do with the battery life issues and API conflicts.
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bmms8
Posted: 41 months ago
even if you were able to run it in the background, i dont think you would be able to use safari at the same time. i use backgrounder since i have a JB phone. once i open up safari and browse, pandora will stop playing since its streaming i assume. ipod app on the other hand is playing from memory.
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diamond3
Posted: 41 months ago
No, but a program like sportacular lets you go to the news, click on a feed, and then it opens up the web page inside the app. It doesn't allow back or forward buttons, but you can still browse the internet. I would think this feature wouldn't be hard to implement in pandora.
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lazyrighteye
Posted: 41 months ago

I might be wrong but I believe running an app in the "background" is prohibited by Apple in the developers agreement and technically. This has something to do with the battery life issues and API conflicts.


Ahh, could be - not read that agreement.
And I might have been thinking about how the iPod can play in the background of other apps (Touchgrind comes to mind) and not the other way around.
Regardless, thanks.
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