More Mobile Media Thoughts: Mobile XM Radio

Posted on Monday, November 17th, 2003 11:58 AM

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Regardless how cool mobile video is, I realized while driving to work this morning it wouldn't have done me much good because it's hard to drive and watch your phone at the same time. However, after not being interested on anything on the radio today and not having one of those satelite radios installed, it dawned on me that streaming audio over my phone would be a great solution, especially since I have one of those iRock personal broadcasting devices already for my CD-MP3 player.

Why are mobile services skipping over audio in the first place? I know the color screens are neato, and video on your phone is cool, but as one person who criticized MobiTV's framerate said: it's more audio with moving pictures than actual video. (It's not, actually, it really does seem like you're watching TV... but I digress).

If the MobiTV model is valid, then surely Mobile Net Radio is just as valid, no? Why hasn't someone come up with a $10 a month radio service and launched it already? With a device like the N-Gage which has stereo sound, and cutting out all the overhead of video, you should be able to broadcast some decent sounding audio.

I've tried using my Nokia 3650 to play NPR's audio stream using the RealOne player that's installed by default and never got it working - either over GPRS or Bluetooth networking. I haven't tried on my N-Gage yet, but I fear the worst. This is ridiculous! Think about it - the carriers are in the business of selling kbs more and more, I should be able to choose from hundreds of audio sources and start streaming as soon as I buy the phone. Why this isn't done yet, when something like MobiTV has launched leapfrogging that whole experience! It's nuts if you think about it.

Personally, I think a nice J2ME app where I can browse the different radio stations out there, choose one I want, then stream the audio immediately over my headset would be perfect. It's more than possible, so why hasn't a carrier or company done it yet?

-Russ

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