Nseries Workshop » Blog Archive » Nokia Internet Radio

Related |

Nokia Internet Radio

Brett Hill Dec 20th, 2007

Tags

Check out the new Nokia Internet Radio, including N95 screenshots and a walkthrough of how it works. Nokia Internet Radio (beta) is a free application that gives Nseries device users quick access to all genres of music, news and radio shows in a variety of languages from anywhere in the world. Nokia Internet Radio has many advantages in comparison to traditional over-the-air (OTA) radio. OTA radio has a limited number of frequencies, a limited number of stations and is limited to local culture and local reception. Nokia Internet Radio's quality is consistent, its reception is not an issue, it currently offers over 675 internet stations worldwide and it’s growing every day. Users can also add additional compatible stations manually by entering a name and the streaming server address, as shown below. Aside from using Nokia Internet Radio’s Station Directory or adding stations manually, users can connect to even more stations by downloading SHOUTcast playlist (.PLS) files from the Internet. For example, go to http://www.shoutcast.com [1] in the S60 web browser, and click on the “Tune In!” button next to the station you would like to connect to. Once the station is playing, you can choose to save it as a favorite. If you attempt to navigate away from the station and haven’t already saved it, Nokia Internet Radio will prompt you with the option to do so. From the main menu, users can access their most recently played station, a list of saved favorite stations, the station directory and a keyword search function to locate stations by name. The Station Directory is a good way to browse available stations and explore new music, culture and information in the expansive reach of internet radio. Users can browse stations worldwide by genre, language, and country, or view the current list of the top 10 most popular Nokia Internet Radio stations. Nokia Internet Radio further enhances the user experience by optimizing quality and limiting buffering times. Depending on which data connection you are using to connect to the service, the device will download the optimal stream to balance audio quality and buffer time. For instance, when connected to a WLAN, the service will play the internet radio station at the highest bit rate possible by connecting to the highest quality stream available for that station. The service will also choose a high bit rate for 3G data connections, and a standard bit rate for GPRS data connections. These default settings, as well as the default access point, can be changed by accessing the Options > Settings menu. When changing stations, the service automatically fades out of the previous station during the buffering process, and then fades into the new station. This feature is very user-friendly and makes the internet radio experience more pleasurable because it does not cause harsh, startling changes when switching stations, especially when listening at a loud volume. Nokia Internet Radio also automatically stops or pauses the station you are streaming when there is an incoming call. During incoming calls, the station you are listening to will automatically stop to allow your ringtone to begin playing. If you reject the call, the Nokia Internet Radio service will return to the active station and resume the stream automatically. If you accept the incoming call, the Internet Radio stream will be stopped. Once you terminate the call, the device will display the “Now Playing” Internet Radio screen, allowing you to resume your most recently played station with only one keystroke. The “Now Playing” screen displays all available metadata for the current station and content. This screen includes the name of the internet radio station, the names of the artist and track, the bit rate of the stream, the icon to indicate what type of access point you are using and the battery level indicator. When playing a station that is saved as a favorite, the “Now Playing” screen now displays enabled (not grayed-out) previous and next buttons that allow you to quickly change between your favorite stations. The Nokia Internet Radio application is designed for use on Nokia S60 3rd edition devices (N82, N91, N95, N95 8GB) and the Internet Tablet. It supports the SHOUTcast/ICY HTTP streaming protocol for MP3, AAC, and AAC+ encoded audio. This free application/service is now available for downloading, and will be embedded in forthcoming S60 devices. For more details, or to download the application, go here [2]. [1] http://www.shoutcast.com [2] http://www.nokia.com/internetradio