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PocketStreamer – Streaming Radio For BlackBerry

by Ronen Halevy on Jan 10th, 2008 at 3:53 pm EST
27 Comments »
 

PocketstreamerHayden just posted on PinStack about a new commercial radio streaming application for BlackBerry. I will start off by mentioning the fact that this application has no trial which will turn off many potential users but hopefully we will review it soon.

The PocketStreamer application is now available for the 8100 Pearl, 8300 Curve, and 8800 series devices and costs $21.95. Luckily it does not have a subscription fee beyond that point but without a trial I do not see many people forking over their hard earned cash. The details are pretty slim but from the screenshots it seems that it is streaming Shoutcast radio stations to your BlackBerry.

They are touting over 100 stations from Pop to Classical music but it makes not mention of the ability to add your own (shoutcast?) radio stations to the mix. I have just sent them an email so hopefully I will hear more about it soon.

If you are interested in taking the plunge you can find the app here on E-mobilesoft.com.

Pocketstreamer3

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 and is filed under News.
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27 Comments to “PocketStreamer – Streaming Radio For BlackBerry”

  1. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 14, 2008 at 1:28 pm EST

    No Demo? Forget about it.
    Thanks for the news, though.

  2. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm EST

    Yeah I know seriously what were they thinking. I really never understood the idea of not offering a demo. I know sometimes vendors hands are tied by 3rd party license agreements but e-media developed this software themselves…

  3. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 14, 2008 at 1:40 pm EST

    Possibly it is easy to break.. Since all they do is provide streaming addresses of the streams.. Does the software have some special way of buffering songs/streams to on board storage memory? If not, there are free applications that do similar thing, but my blackberry had terrible buffering problems.

  4. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 14, 2008 at 2:10 pm EST

    I think the part that is interesting is that this is not just for OS 4.3 devices. The streaming codec ability has only been added in 4.3 so I am not sure how they have implemented this for other devices other than the 8130

  5. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 14, 2008 at 3:01 pm EST

    well as far as I know streaming audio still works in 4.2 on java applications.

  6. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 14, 2008 at 4:09 pm EST

    Yeah it does but as QuickPlay proved it was just not up to snuff. I really hope they manage to fix that. I have actually heard some confidential information that we will be seeing more streaming video and audio VERY soon. Keep an eye on BerryReview when it breaks :)

  7. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 14, 2008 at 4:19 pm EST

    Well, we could start with getting an official update for curve to 4.3! :)

  8. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 14, 2008 at 5:01 pm EST

    I wish… Every one of the Reps at the RIM booth at CES had OS 4.3 installed on their Curve’s. I was jealous!

  9. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 14, 2008 at 5:14 pm EST

    Of course, they are the first guinea pigs! :D

  10. Posted by: twizatch
    January 23, 2008 at 2:09 pm EST

    There is a trial version available on their website now.

  11. Posted by: hyedipin
    January 23, 2008 at 3:13 pm EST

    Thanks for the heads up.

  12. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 23, 2008 at 11:12 pm EST

    Yeah thanks Twizatch! I will mention it tomorrow!

  13. Posted by: Jess
    February 3, 2008 at 12:43 pm EST

    Well guys, I tried out the demo and *I* found it to work great. I was pleasantly surprised to see many decent shoutcast streams available, and having just picked up an unlimited data plan I figured this would be great for being out and about.

    So… the demo stopped functioning (demo expired) and I decided to PURCHASE the program. I bought it off of the e-mobile site (which actually makes the purchase go through handango, and after a slight hiccup which made me re-do the entire order (I hope I didnt get charged twice), I downloaded and installed (after uninstalling the demo).

    Well, it worked exactly ONE TIME.

    I’m dissapointed to relay that now it does nothing except for indicating “LOADING STATIONS” at the main screen and will not go any further than that. Resetting the phone, and all the usual tricks do nothing to solve the problem. To be sure this didnt have anything to do with the phone/demo thing, I tried it on my other (identical) blackberry. SAME problem.

    I *suspect* that it relies on an e-mobile server (or something) to fetch the list of available stations, and I again *suspect* that if that server is down, YOU ARE S.O.L. I could be wrong, but the result is that $21 was just spent to see a pretty blue screen attempting to load stations.

    Good idea, great when I was able to use the demo – didnt have any issue with buffering and the quality was certainly acceptable, but as it stands – it appears to be a waste of money. If it ever comes back on line again – I’ll come back and update this thread.

  14. Posted by: Jess
    February 5, 2008 at 12:06 am EST

    ^^^^

    Update: 2 days later – it works. I’d sent a support request to handango, and shortly thereafter received a support response from the developer. He suggested I change some of my network settings, but before doing that I went back in and tried the program. It worked. I changed nothing. Perhaps they rebooted? :)

    Regardless, now its working again, with a 2-day hiccup. Hope it stays up and working now. If it does, I’ll be very happy. If it doesn’t I’ll post back here.

  15. Posted by: Rhea
    February 20, 2008 at 10:41 pm EST

    Jess, I am having the same problem. I have been looking at this stupid screen that says Loading stations for 2 days now, and this program has only worked once for me. It’s so irritating! I don’t know what to do. Grrr…

  16. Posted by: Jess
    February 20, 2008 at 10:48 pm EST

    Well, I would like to tell you that my experience has been smooth, but unfortunately since posting originally, the problems have persisted. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Reception doesnt seem to be the issue. Hard resets dont make any difference. Its rather unpredictable.

    The only assumption I can make is that its something on their end. Of late it actually HAS been working (in fact just tried mine again 2 minutes ago and it works!) – QUICK, try yours!

    Anyways – I DID receive a prompt reply from their tech support (although their recommendation really had no effect and it was simply time that resulted in it working again). However, you may want to send them a message.

    Here’s hoping for a more stable version of this to come out in the future. I wish I’d spend $5 on this, rather than $20. I just can’t be bothered to get my moola back.

  17. Posted by: rhea
    February 20, 2008 at 10:56 pm EST

    Ugh, I did try mine again and it is still not working. I was hoping for a little something. LOL! I hear ya, 5 bucks would have been better than 20. I did go to handango where I purchased it from, and asked them what I should do. I mentioned that I understood this was a common occurance with the program. Maybe they will offer a refund?? LOL, maybe wishful thinking is more like it….LOL!

  18. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    February 21, 2008 at 10:43 pm EST

    So in short you guys dont recommend pocketstreamer? Seems like it just causes premature gray hairs?

  19. Posted by: rhea
    February 22, 2008 at 12:33 pm EST

    Yeah, really! LOL! Actually I did get it working again, but we will see for how long.

  20. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    February 24, 2008 at 10:21 pm EST

    Seems like a serious pain in the … Reminds me of trying to get my windows mobile handset to work with my email

  21. Posted by: Robert Sreter
    April 16, 2008 at 1:11 am EST

    My program is also stuck at the “loading stations”. I have asked Handango for a refund.

  22. Posted by: Denny
    May 28, 2008 at 3:27 pm EST

    product does not work well. it often lags too much for the programming to start. will handango refund this product?

  23. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    May 28, 2008 at 3:39 pm EST

    Denny,
    I know our store would so I am sure handango would do the same. Just be persistant

  24. Posted by: Tyler
    May 31, 2008 at 3:01 pm EST

    Yeah, I have a Blackberry Curve and am having the same issue with pocketstreamer. . . loading stations. . . and it never moves. Its rediculous that they even list a program that is far from error free and then charge $21 for it.

  25. Posted by: Rachel
    August 3, 2008 at 8:51 pm EST

    Don’t buy this. I installed it on my Curve and like others before me, when I select the app, it stalls on “loading stations”. Worse, when I try to uninstall, everything freezes… my laptop, by Curve, and when I restart, it’s still there. What a total waste.

  26. Posted by: TJ
    August 13, 2008 at 10:24 am EST

    PocketStreamer – Streaming Radio for BlackBerry needs a lot of work. Customer support is not responsive so I thought investing $20 might not be a good idea. The trial version lags and cuts off when on incoming calls. I also experienced a problem with my internet connection. I think it is a good idea as I am really tired of monthly subscription fees, but they really need to do a lot of modifications for this program to function properly and better customer support is a must!

  27. Posted by: Paul Hicks
    August 17, 2008 at 11:05 pm EST

    I appreciate the original review, and the many comments regarding the issues this program is plagued. For these reasons, I won’t be purchasing this program and will continue to look for a suitable streaming program for the Curve.

    Many thanks!