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| Software Author: ? |
SelectRadio |
| Product: |
SelectRadio |
| Cost: |
$25 |
| Reviewed By: |
Russ Terrell |
| Rating: |
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I?ll admit it; I?m a big music fan. I have a very eclectic taste in music, which is apparent by my music
collection. Each decade has its on taste and feel in terms of music and I love to explore the depths of
each decade, not just the hits. One of the things the internet has brought us is a huge bandwidth of
streaming music. For starters, most radio stations stream their broadcast on the internet. Both XMRadio
and Sirius offer streaming programming for a reasonable price. Lots of bands stream their music as a
teaser to buy their CDs. Then there are the internet radio stations. There are 1000?s of these stations.
You can find just about any type of programming you want, comedy, music, talk shows, etc. Music
programming isn?t limited to the ?Top 40? on these stations; you?ll find such things as B-sides of Blues
hits of 1963. If you listen to streaming music on your PC you can organize your stations in your
favorites, in your browser. You can also add them to your playlist in Winamp or Media Player. On a Pocket
PC, it?s harder to organize your favorite stations. Playlists aren?t that easy to create on these devices.
There are some mobile web sites that organize streaming links for you. One example is
www.thestreamcenter.com/pda/. The site gives you access to most of the radio stations in the US that offer
streaming feeds.
SelectRadio has overcome the deficiency of playing streaming radio on PPCs. Their program links you to
Shoutcast, radioio, XM Radio Online (for a monthly fee) and any custom channels you wish to add. When you
install the program, you will find tabs for radioio, Shoutcast, XM Radio, SelectPicks and My Channels. My
Channels is empty and is there for you to add your own channels. SelectPicks is the tab that SelectRadio
supplies and they will be updating the selections on a monthly basis. To use SelectRadio, you will need
either a wireless connection or have your PPC in its cradle and connected to the PC with ActiveSync.
Program Features:
- Over 4000 channels available with pushbutton access
- Dedicated tabs for XM Radio Online, radioio, and Shoutcast channels
- Display of what's playing on channels which support
- Ability to manually enter additional MP3 or Windows Media stream URLs
- Create favorite channel groups with easy tab-based access
- Comprehensive genre and description field search of channels
- Patent-pending HyperScan? seeks or skips artists you choose
- Hardware skip button to quickly skip to next channel
- Quickly add playing artist to seek or skip list with hardware button ease
- Tab with monthly SelectPicks? channel updates
There are numerous ways of setting up the program for your personal use. I?ll discuss how I set it up. I
added several XM Radio stations to the My Channels tab to use with the HyperScan option. I?ll discuss this
more later.
You can add your own tabs. I added a tab for Local Radio, Jazz, Rock and Oldies. In the Local Radio tab I
used Channels/New to add channels.
For the Jazz, Rock and Oldies tabs I used the search function to add selected channels to these tabs.
If there?s a certain type of music you want to listen to, you can use the search function to find it. Use
Channels/Search, then use the drop downs to select what you want to search for.
What really sets this program apart from other programs and custom web sites is that you can setup the
program to scan streams for artists you want to listen to. This is called HyperScan. HyperScan only works
with stations that broadcast track and artist information. XM radio does this for all the stations they
stream. Besides seeking artists, you can set the list to skip certain artists. To activate HyperScan, you
can tap on the red circle or go through the HyperScan menu.
Conclusion:
I liked this program a lot. Some nights I have had one song after another coming up on my scan list. The
only thing I wish was that it would revert back to the last station I selected before HyperScan found and
played the artist on my selection.
The online documentation is well written and is very comprehensive. It can be found at www.selectradio.com/documentation.html. I would suggest reading through it before you
get started with the program.
Unfortunately the program is of limited use to me. Ideally this is THE program to own if you have a subscription
to XM Radio. If you don?t have XM Radio, SelectRadio is a bit over priced to just organize and scan
internet radio stations. I?ve found a limited amount of use for streaming radio on my PPC. I don?t have an
extra set of speakers to hook up to my PPC when I have it in the cradle. I can use my headphones, but
that?s a little restrictive. I have listened with headphones in other rooms. I can?t use the program at
work because my company?s firewall blocks streaming media. My suggestion would be to look over the
documentation, download and install the program and get the 3 day trial of XM Radio to see if the program
is worth buying.
I had problems using the program with Magic Button. Certain functions would not work. When you?re setting
up the tabs and stations, I would suggest that you end Magic Button until you?re done. I found the program
a little buggy also. The tabs would reorder themselves from time to time.
They will be releasing Select Radio for Smartphones and Select Radio Pro soon. Pro will allow you to record channels in real time or
schedule a recording. See their web site for more information.
Where to buy it:
SelectRadio
You can download the program and try it out for 10 days. You can also get a 3 day online trial of XM Radio
at XM Radio.
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