Mobile tunes

So it's Monday again, and time for more thoughts about the iPhone. I had a whole post planned for this week, but two things happened. I decided I need to do a bit more research before I posted on [deleted by editor], and I stumbled on an unexpected application of a normal app.

First, the app. If there are any of you who are not already aware of Pandora, just stop reading this right now and go to Pandora.com. Really. I'll wait. OK, now that all of us are Pandora fans, here's the rest of the story. The iPhone app is visually, nearly identical to the desktop app that they released a year ago. Plus, it's free and available for all the smart phones, so you Crackberry addicts can get it too.

I have a weekly commute of 80 miles, one way, and I'm always looking for something to fill the 90 minutes. Most weeks, that's podcasts, but man cannot live by cast of pod alone. So I was looking for music for the drive. As luck would have it, my iPhone needed to be charged as well, so as I plugged it in, and I thought about connecting the iPhone to the speakers and Pandora. I works like a champ, and I don't have to take my eyes off the phone every few minutes to change the music or skip a song. The only downside I've seen is that it seems to suck up the batteries a little quicker than expected. My battery meter guesstimator says it should last 3 1/2 hours on a full charge, but it looked to me like it would be closer to 2. Still, that is more than enough to walk the dog or for a quick jog. (And as I mentioned, I already had it plugged in this weekend.)

Pandora in the car is just double plus awesome.