For those fed up with the glacial movement of Pandora on the Windows phone platform, a new alternative has hit the streets: Slacker Radio.

Showing up on various forums, the .cab and service is actually very, very polished. It is the official version, but SlackerRadio themselves have not published it on their site yet.

No compromises here as you get album images, lyrics, band bio, reviews and a wide selection of music to choose from.  Audio quality is also extremely good, trouncing Pandora's 64kb stream. Plus they got that whole "let me power off the screen without disrupting the stream" thing. 

Two negative's we've noticed: landscape support is not there and we've had a few songs cut out towards the end for some reason (not uncommon with Pandora either). 

Of course, there is the free "basic" version which limits you to something like 6-skips per hour while the program steers you towards the "full" version with upgrade notices in parts.  Likewise, you don't get all those lyric bonuses in the free version.

If you want the subscription, it's $4.99 per month (on a month-to-month basis) or $3.99 a month on a 12-month plan (billed monthly). You can also try out the subscription for 7 days for free.  We suppose if streaming is your thing it's not a bad deal: the quality of the product is quite top notch. If you just like streaming your own music (as opposed to the jukebox, random streaming), give nanoGroove a shot.

Grab the file at XDA or scan the MS Tag below to automatically download it.

Edit: Whoops!  And just as fast Slacker Radio has remotely pulled the plug. The app currently doesn't work and we have to wait for the fine folks at Slacker Radio to drop this app "officially".  Sigh. [Here's their official reasoning]

Well, it's not a mighty re-flash of the whole ROM, nor does it bring any new features to the table and in fact, it actually looks kind of dangerous to apply (see below), but Samsung has released a radio firmware update to help with dropped calls on the Verizon Omnia II (see hands on video).

Yeah, not exactly thrilling, though we suppose if you have been experiencing poor call performance, you may want to look into this lil' patch.

Now the caveat: its a finicky update, meaning it official doesn't work on Windows 7, only XP. Going further, a few users have reported problems with "bricking" their phone during the update.  We don't want to be alarmist, but make sure you follow the directions exactly as described.  Oh, and if you run the update in compatibility mode in Win7, evidently that can work too.

Get the patch right here...if you dare!

[via CareAce.net]

It's been quite some time since Resco has updated their Radio program (see earlier review), so it's no surprise to see them set their sights on giving it an overhaul.

So far, not too much has changed as can be seen below.  There is still a limited selection of stations (you can manually import Shoutcast) and no way to search for new stations, in that regard, Kinoma Play is still easier with full Shoutcast integration.  List of changes so far:

• Touch optimized list of radios (All Stations)
• Letter bar for easier navigation in Categories
• Icon for stream quality visualization

Still, if you just want a streaming radio app, Resco Radio is a beaut with its simplicity and speed (plus you can record streams, natch).  It's running smooth on the my Touch Pro 2, so go and give it a shot and give the Resco team some feedback!

Internet Radio is one of the things that I like most about the Internet. Having moved around a lot, it’s nice to be able to continue listening to the radio stations that I’ve become accustomed to. Finding an Internet Radio application for Windows Mobile that is worth the cost isn’t the easiest task. SPB Software came out with their Internet Radio App (SPB Radio) late last month to good reviews.

Read the rest of this entry »

There's an update available for the Motorola Q9h on AT&T. But before you get all hot and bothered, here's what we know:

• No, it's not Windows Mobile 6.5.
• No, it doesn't appear to enable some secret WiFi capability.
• No, Windows Marketplace for Mobile is nowhere to be found.

Maybe it finally opens the Q9h to those over-the-air updates we learned about nearly a year ago. (We're not holding our breath, though.)

About the only thing we can tell is that the radio (as in the thing that connects it to cell towers) appears to have been updated. If you go to Settings>About, our radio version has gone from MODEM4_U_40.11.40R_04 to MODEM4_U_40.11.40R_07.

Also, under Settings>Phone information>APFlex, we've gone from NONORMANATTCORE00040 to NONORMANATTCORE00043. And in the same location, AP has gone from 01.09.28R to 01.09.28DR.

So, if you're not having any problems making calls and getting data, you might what to leave well enough alone. This is a ROM update, after all, and that means you'll be wiping your phone clean. (Is it weird that we did so without thinking twice, at 10 p.m. on a Friday night? Nahhhhh.)

If you're the type who lives on the bleeding edge, hit up the Motorola update tool (get it here if you don't currently have it), and flash away. And if anyone knows anything else that's changed, hit us up in the comments.

Via Everything WM. And thanks, Mike, for the e-mail tip!

Here's a grilling an interview with a couple of HTC Europe execs from Polish smartphone site PDA.pl. [via] It can be a little painful to watch, for both sides, but the questions asked are reasonable:

• Where's the 3.5mm headphone jack?
• There's hardware for an FM radio, but why no software?
• Why aren't "older" phones getting the latest version of TouchFLO 3D?

We can live without an FM radio. This is 2009, after all. And getting custom ROMS with different software is no sweat on HTC phones. But we'll jump on board the 3.5mm headphone jack beat-down. Like it or not, that needs to be standard.

Update: Yep, looks like there are issues with the video. So, here are the answers -- highly paraphrased, of course. And, really, any answer works for any of the questions. Here goes:

1. Want a headphone jack? Use the crazy little adapter HTC provides. Or get a Touch HD.
2. Um, we'll look into it.
3. HTC has many great new phones.

We’ve seen a number of the Windows Mobile apps that we know and love make their way to the dark side, but the flip side of that trend seems to be kicking in.

One of the iPhone app store’s finest, WunderRadio, is making its way to a Windows Mobile device near you. WunderRadio has gotten rave reviews from various locations in the Blogosphere as an Internet Radio application. Having partnered with RadioTime.com, WunderRadio offers mobile access to over 36,000 radio stations.

WunderRadio will reportedly be available for 30 day promotional prices of $9.99, after which it will set you back $14.99. Notable features include GPS functionality to find local radio stations and the ability to listen to popular programs after they have aired.

Via jkOnTheRun

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It's been long speculated that devices such as the Sprint Diamond and Touch Pro have build in FM radios that are disabled. The question is are they disabled at the hardware level (bad) or software level (good)?

Well the news is at least for Sprint Touch Diamond users it is at the software level and you can now enable that ancient technology and get FM jamming through your touchy device.

Thanks to No2Chem, famous for his custom ROMs on various HTC devices, you can go ahead and grab his latest project right here.

Bad news? Don't expect any such FM goodness on the Sprint Touch Pro (see gallery):

HOWEVER, the Touch PRO is a different – I suspect that either the radio gpios are disconnected completely, or radio support is disabled in the SPL. As to why Sprint/HTC decided to take out the FM Radio, I’m not sure… Perhaps they had difficulty obtaining FCC approval, I’m not sure… Or maybe HTC wanted more money to include the FM Radio…

Win some, lose some!

The Consumerist has a couple of bits about the likely end of Internet Radio:

the due date for online radio stations to pay higher royalties for streamed music has been pushed back from May 15 to July 15 by the Copyright Royalty Board.

Read: Internet Radio: Web Broadcasters' Date To Pay Royalties Pushed Back - Idolator

That's good news, as it gives the bill that could save Internet Radio a little more time. I've been told that my doomsaying about Internet Radio is a little premature ("It's been doomed before"), let's hope I was just panicking for no good reason.