Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Have you got a BlackBerry? A Storm or 8830?



I've just switched from TMobile to Verizon... or actually, my company has.

Both phones were through BlackBerry/RIM, or Research In Motion.

The TMobile 8830 was a totally business-oriented phone. In fact, it even lacks the now social requirement of the required camera. I paid about $400 for it around 7 months or so ago.

The Storm, on the other hand, is a gadget-geek's dream. It comes with both a still and video capability, with a built in flash and a 3.2 meg camera. It also came with an 8 gig removable chip the size of a couple of pencil heads, side by side... capable of holding 32 gigs of music, video and other files, if you install a 32 gig chip. It cost the company $199, with the 8 gig chip and car kit included.

But that's not the reason for this post. This post describes another feature that really flips my switch:

The ability to receive radio over the cell signal.

First and most vital is that you make sure you sign up for the unlimited data program... 35 or 40 bucks a month, which sounds spendy, but these phones also have the ability to be used as either a bluetooth or tethered broadband modem for your laptop.

So, as I'm learning about the BB Storm, I stumble across a website called, quite appropriately, CrackBerry.com.

And in there, since I've had some issues with my Bluetooth headset connection sound quality, I stumbled across the question about Storm compatibility with XM Radio (Satellite) another service I use, mostly for my cars.

But down towards the bottom of the thread, someone mentions that they use moodio.fm, and they get whatever radio station they want... for free!

While I am something of a skeptic (Duh!) I thought I would check it out. And it is all that, and more.

You sign up to get an account, free. You search for the stations you want and pick them, free. AND IF THE STATION YOU WANT ISN'T THERE, THEY HAVE A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS YOU TO ADD IT TO THEIR LIST (AND, OF COURSE, YOUR BB), FREE.

You then log into m.moodio.fm using your BB Browser (Remember to make sure you use the "m." before the "moodio.fm" on your BB browser); you'll see the list of channels you've picked; you click on one... and voila'! You get a digital sound station over your cell! How cool is that?

These people don't ask for any intrusive information, they don't ask for credit card numbers or any of that; this isn't a "trial" kind of thing. This is a straight forward way to get local or national radio anywhere you can get a cell signal.

And free is a damned good price.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled political cynicism.
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1 comment:

yourmuze said...

moodio.fm changes its name to yourmuze.fm today. moodio links will work for the rest of 2010. A few nice new features the same great price!