jeff442

I just downloaded the Pandora app for my Blackberry and I don't know how I got along without it. I don't even bother listing to XM anymore, now that I can create my own stations. If you're a music lover and haven't tried it yet - do it!

dkuehner

I'm interested. How does this work? I have a blackberry bold but it doesn't connect to the TL radio. Do you use bluetooth to connect?

x2thez325

I use it all the time with my iphone, just open the pandora app and plug the phone into the aux port in the center console and put the radio on aux and your in business!

NWI_#73

+1

Richard_P_Harvey

I use it too but frankly the audio quality is only fair to decent, XM is a little better and the ipod of my iPhone is better still. If I'm not going to crank the volume then Pandora is very nice. It's really helped me find new bands that I had not heard of.

dkuehner

AUX input in the center console???

I have an 05 TL and I don't think I have an AUX in. Is this a later model addition? Where is it located? I looked at some photos of an 08 model on AutoTrader and didn't see an AUX in.

I am hoping that is is hidden somewhere.

CometVR4

Aux input wasn't added until '07 models and up, sorry.

darcar

I bought a Slacker G1 player for $50 recently and hooked it up via the Aux jack for a 4 hour drive. Nice option to have.

Had an old Dell DJ Belkin cup holder stand that fit the Slacker G1 perfectly.

I don't have a Blackberry or iPhone, so the portable was worth it. Slacker does have free apps for the BB and iPhone too. The BB is the better one because it can store songs on the phone; the iPhone can only stream wifi, so it's of little use for Slacker in the car.

einsatz

I use it every once in a while on my iPhone in my TSX. I find the sound quality of the music to be somewhat crappy. It sounds muddy - I think it's 64kbps quality.
There's an app called ShoutCAST that I prefer. It's basically a directory of internet radio stations. It has all the Digitally Imported streams, which is what I listen to most of the time - including 96kbps MP3 streams which sound a lot better than Pandora.

Richard_P_Harvey

Short of low sound quality Pandora really is a great application. You create a "station" based on an artist you like and Pandora then searches it's database for other artists that have like attributes. It's a great way to learn about artists that you may like but have not heard about yet.

jimsta

iTrader: (1)

Agreed ^^ I use the Pandora app through my iphone, quality isn't there but it works. I'm loving it. too bad though i can't do anythign else when Pandora is running (JB free) but will JB it soon.

typesfever

This is the best thing ever invented it slaps up my ipod.

jeff442

Funny - I have my blackberry hooked up via a sony cassette adapter. The sound is way better than it would be with one of those FM transmitters. I wish I had one of the later model 3rd gen TL's with the AUX input!

Regardless, even with this compromised setup, I still find the sound of Pandora (make sure you have the settings on "high quality" in the options menu) to be better than XM. I believe the bit rate is 128kbps which was the standard for MP3's for some time before 192 gained popularity.

As far as the programming itself, it's almost scary how well some of my stations have nailed down what I want to hear. Plus, if the occasional song comes on that I want to skip, I can just hit "next song". Try doing that on XM! I just hope it stays free...

mrlobaloba

iTrader: (2)

I dont use it in my car, but I do in the office. Great site, but I keep hitting the 40 hour limit and cant bring myself to pay them the dollar for the rest of the month.

jeff442

I just learned about an option called Pandora One that lets you pay $36/year with no 40 hour a month limit (which is a lot anyways), gets rid of the ads (not a problem on the phone) and upgrades the streaming to 192kbps.

I'm just trying to confirm whether this will improve the quality of the music on my phone along with my desktop.

koshia

Pandora's okay... I typically use IheartRadio more than Pandora during workdays through the Iphone.

Jackass

I upgraded to Pandora One as well since I was hitting the 40 hour limit with almost 2 weeks to go in the month. Can't comment on the the sound quality on the phone yet since they still haven't put out an app for the G1 yet.

PhilB81

Pandora doesn't sound that bad to me, but it seems to vary on the station. I do use Shoutcast on my iPhone to listen to ETN.fm, I like it better than DI and in shoutcast you can enable hight bitrate streams like 128 and 256. I never tried 256 but 128 works great.