Using a smartphone as an internet radio???

Greenman

Hello,
I can get a sim card with 500 mb for €5 so as I like to listen to internet radio out in the car I thought of getting a smartphone.

I think RTE Radio 1 is 32 KBPS that would mean 14.4MB an hour.

Has anyone any views or experience?, I stand corrected.

I thought of the HTC Wildfire using an App called Tunein, would the Wildfire be up to it? I really want the smartphone just for the radio so other phones would be considered but not dearer than €250.

All comments welcome.

JD.

Davy

Nokia have a decent internet radio service, and probably get a cheaper enough handset for it. It has thousands of stations on it

https://irbcast.nokia.com/nmds/index.action

http://store.ovi.com/content/57159

Dj

I have a Nokia E52 it came with an internet radio pre installed its a good phone you should get it for around €200

You can browse by genre, language or country. Ireland has 69 stations

Greenman

Dj wrote: »

I have a Nokia E52 it came with an internet radio pre installed its a good phone you should get it for around €200

You can browse by genre, language or country. Ireland has 69 stations

Have you used it on the move? say in a car or train? Was they're any breakages in reception? How was the battery life on it?

I see the E52 for €200 locally here.

Thanks JD.

Greenman

Davy wrote: »

Nokia have a decent internet radio service, and probably get a cheaper enough handset for it. It has thousands of stations on it

https://irbcast.nokia.com/nmds/index.action

http://store.ovi.com/content/57159

Did anyone try www.tunein.com ?

Thanks JD.

bd250110

I love tuneIn radio. Probably one of my most used Apps!

I find the quality excellent and have not had problems with the stream breaking up, etc. I have to say I have never used it in the car though.

I was using 3 or home WiFi, no problems at all.

cookie1977

I love tunein. Best radio app that I've ever used.

Greenman

bd250110 wrote: »

I love tuneIn radio. Probably one of my most used Apps!

I find the quality excellent and have not had problems with the stream breaking up, etc. I have to say I have never used it in the car though.

I was using 3 or home WiFi, no problems at all.

cookie1977 wrote: »

I love tunein. Best radio app that I've ever used.

Thanks for that.:)

Well thats looking good, what phones are you using.

Would the HTC Wildfire be up to the job? This phone will be used for Tunein I would say mostly so I won't be filling the phone with Apps.

JD

Dj

Greenman wrote: »

Have you used it on the move? say in a car or train? Was they're any breakages in reception? How was the battery life on it?

I see the E52 for €200 locally here.

Thanks JD.

I was just using it on the wifi around the house, no breakages in signal the battery seems to use the same as the normal radio on the phone.

Solair

There are a few good ones for iPhone and Android, but they murder your data allowance.

Best to stick to WiFi!

The Sparrow

Solair wrote: »

There are a few good ones for iPhone and Android, but they murder your data allowance.

Best to stick to WiFi!

They don't really. Once you have a cap of around 500gb you should be fine for moderate use. About 15-20mbs an hour in my experience of listening to 5 live via Tunein. So 3-4 hours a week when you are out and about is grand and then wifi when you are at home or at a hotspot.

OP, in terms of battery, every smartphone will realistically need to be charged every night. But you would get hours of radio use from a full charge.

Have you considered the Orange San Francisco? It's an excellent budget option and Tunein works perfectly on it. Only catch is that it is only sold by Orange UK so you have to pick it up there or have someone get it or you. Costs about £110 including free credit that Orange make you buy.

Great phone though and a brilliant entry into smartphones. There is a big thread in the Android forum.

cookie1977

I have a Blackberry 9700 on the Three network with all you can eat data. The signal where I am is very stable and the radio never drops out plus I don't need to worry about listening to it too much as I've unlimited data for 30 euro per month sim only plan (same plan with an upgrade/new customer buying phone, would be 40 euro).

bd250110

Greenman wrote: »

Would the HTC Wildfire be up to the job? This phone will be used for Tunein I would say mostly so I won't be filling the phone with Apps.

I'd steer clear of the Wildfire, TBH. My other half has it and the phone really struggles when running more than one app at a time. It's very slow to get anything done and really frustrating. Also the creen resolution is terrible, everything looks horrible, very pixilated. The new Wildfire S is supposed to have adressed some of the issues and should be a bit faster.
I would say if you can stretch to something like the original Desire or Samsung Galaxy S, you would be better off.

mollser

If you plan on using this in the car, you should narrow your search to a Nokia phone that has an FM transmitter built in - therefore you can wirelessly broadcast the internet radio to the car stereo. This will make the experience much better and complete. I use this feature all the time on my N8, this probably more than you're looking to spend though. I'm not sure if there's any other makes that include a transmitter built in, am open to correction if wrong!

Am sure there's a list of such phones on the interweb

Greenman

mollser wrote: »

If you plan on using this in the car, you should narrow your search to a Nokia phone that has an FM transmitter built in - therefore you can wirelessly broadcast the internet radio to the car stereo. This will make the experience much better and complete. I use this feature all the time on my N8, this probably more than you're looking to spend though. I'm not sure if there's any other makes that include a transmitter built in, am open to correction if wrong!

Am sure there's a list of such phones on the interweb

Thanks for that, I plan to use the 3.5mm jack output on the phone to the car radio via the Aux 3.5mm in.

Still not sure which to get dose a smartphone exist that is mainly button orientated ie not too much touchscreen?

Since this phone will be mainly radio from Tunein maybe anybody else can give their 2 pence.

Thanks JD.

Greenman

Greenman wrote: »

Thanks for that, I plan to use the 3.5mm jack output on the phone to the car radio via the Aux 3.5mm in.

Still not sure which to get dose a smartphone exist that is mainly button orientated ie not too much touchscreen?

Since this phone will be mainly radio from Tunein maybe anybody else can give their 2 pence.

Thanks JD.

Just to report back.

I bought a ZTE Blade/San Francisco locally for €150 plus €5 for my 500MB for 1 month option and I'm up and running in the car listening to radio from around the world as drive around :-)

Setting up was interesting as I set up manually which was a learning curve with APN etc

Need to get a cradle plus charger for the car and I'm done, the 3.5mm output of the phone is fed to the input AUX of the car radio.

Just one problem with Tunein I cannot receive RTE Radio I just get Stream is over???? Dose someone know another player or fix?

All in all I'm delighted.:)

cookie1977

It could be the apn is restrictive. What network are you with? O2?

Greenman

cookie1977 wrote: »

It could be the apn is restrictive. What network are you with? O2?

Whatever that means?

I'm with BASE in Belgium.

Working great.

JD:)