VirtualRadio for S60
I bought a copy of VirtualRadio for my Nokia N90. At the time I thought it would be killer to have a shoutcast client on my phone. I don’t listen to mp3’s on my phone (I have an iPod for that), but the iPod can’t stream bassdrive, my background music of choice for slinging code. At $10, I figured it was worth a try partly for the novelty of it actually working, and partly to help justify the costs of my unlimited mobile data plan.
In the paragraph above I did say “at the time” it was a good idea. Turns out that the novelty wore off real quick. The problem is that you need to use a really low quality stream when pulling audio over GPRS (the fastest data option I have with T-Mobile in the States), and low quality audio doesn’t work well for Drum-and-Bass since the “bass” part tends to vanish in the compression. Imagine listening to d-n-b on a mono AM clock-radio stuffed in a pringles can, and you’re pretty close to the sound quality.
VirtualRadio does seem to be a fairly nice application though… except for one minor problem: it stops playing music if you close the flip, if it’s in the background, or if the screensaver comes on. That means you can’t put the N90 in your pocket while you listen to music, and you have to change your screensaver timing while listening as well.
On the bright side, I’ve shared my complaints with a few other mobile industry folks I know, and through that I’ve learned about a couple more shoutcast-on-symbian projects that sound promising. The newer apps may not help the low-bandwith situation, but they could be a viable option for 3G and WiFi phones.
[Update: 2006-04-18]
Nokia has released Internet Radio for S60. This is an open source streaming music client (ie., Shoutcast), which just so happens to be one of the “shoutcast-on-symbian” projects I was referring to. Unfortunately, the code is for S60 3rd Ed., which isn’t compatible with my N90.
9 Responses to “VirtualRadio for S60”
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March 30th, 2006 at 10:46 am
That’s disappointing, the ability to reliably stream a wide range of radio stations is something I’ve been chasing for a while. The bandwidth doesnt’ always have to be an issue — using Virgin Radio’s player, I was able to get decent sound even over T-Mobile’s GPRS network. I think it’s all in the codec — some relatively low bit-rate streams I’ve heard that use AAC+ sound pretty fantastic.
March 30th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
I’ve also heard that AAC streams sound much better in low-bandwidth situations. Guess we need a player to find out…
On a related note, this streaming client looks even nicer then VirtualRadio: http://www.spodradio.com/ Though it will help if you can read German.
March 31st, 2006 at 7:26 am
I just wrote a mini-review about Internet radio (see my blog), before noticing your post :)
March 31st, 2006 at 9:52 am
Jukka — Yeah, good timing :-) Funny too, because Oren was the one who showed me Spodradio as well!
May 20th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Shoutcast not a new thing now. Just believe it would be a branded client applicaion equivalent to VirtualRadio//Virgin Radio or any other mobile internet radio channel.
Any views??
June 7th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Just an update, Erik. The Internet Radio for S60 client now supports 2nd Edition phones (including the N90). It also plays Shoutcast AAC+ streams, but only on 3rd Edition phones, I’m afraid.
June 7th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Howdy Oren! Thanks for the update. I’ll have to give the new Internet Radio client a try. Cheers, Erik
May 15th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Hi @ all
just want to tell you, there are many new high-quality streams (up to 128kbps) available on the VirtualRadio playlist. Just have a look ;-) http://www.vradio.org
If you like to have your favourite station available on the playlist, just contact them and tell them they should contact us for technical details. virtualradio@ninj.com
greetings from switzerland
gabriel
May 15th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Thanks for the update Gabriel! I actually switched to an N73 last Fall (a 3rd Edition device), so my purchased Virtual Radio no longer works. I suppose I should email support…