Everyone loves Pandora right? How can you not. These are the guys giving you the Music Genome Project where they are mapping out music, one song at a time. Pandora is a fantastic way to get commercial-free music from a browser or application, all based on a single song, artist or genre. Simple create a station and start immediately enjoying similar sounding music (defined by over 400 attributes). Click Thumbs Up if you like a song or Thumbs Down if you don’t (and that song won’t play again). The more ratings you make, the more Pandora “learns” and fine-tunes your station.
Until recently, you could only get Pandora through your browser or a cell phone app. My old non-active iPhone’s sole purpose right now is to simply stay connected to some speakers and stream Pandora. About a month ago, I was loaned a Livio Radio whose primary purpose is to receive Internet music and audio streams via a wifi or wired connection. There are a few other devices out there that allow you to stream your Pandora music to them, however, the Livio seems to be one of the only ones that actually dedicates itself to doing this task.
Appearance/Aesthetics
The Livio Radio reminded me a lot of an old Sony tabletop radio that my family had when I was younger, except this looked like it had been updated. The front is simple and not cluttered. On the left is a large speaker and on the right are the controls and display. The display is backlit with and LED blue and the main volume-like knob has blue light emanating when on. The main knob is used to control volume but also helps you navigate the various menus. Other buttons on the face are small so as not to be obtrusive and include: Power, Fav, Back, Skip, Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down. The remote that is included with the Livio Radio also has similar functions. There is also a headphone jack on the front that, when headphones are plugged in, mutes the external speaker.
{ 10 comments }
