New service brings radio to Sprint phones

[Looselips]

http://news.com.com/New+service+brings+radio+to+phones/2100-1041_3-5650749.html?tag=nefd.top

[DallasJayhawk]

http://news.com.com/New+service+brings+radio+to+phones/2100-1041_3-5650749.html?tag=nefd.top

just signed up for it and am listening to some groovy tunes as I type. I can see myself using this in airports on biz trips, on family road trips when the kids are watching videos in the car, mowing the lawn, eating lunch by myself at a restaurant, etc... might need a backup battery for my 7400 now. sound quality is good through both headset and speaker. plays in closed flip position so I'll probably start using the belt clip now.

[skooter]

http://news.com.com/New+service+brings+radio+to+phones/2100-1041_3-5650749.html?tag=nefd.top

I signed up too, sounds pretty good! I hope they add some more stations over time 8-)

[TimothyHC]

I don't see it on sprintpcs.com, I suppose you have to call CS to subscribe?

[skooter]

From http://www.mspot.com/

MSpot Radio is now available on the following Sprint PCS handsets:

Sanyo MM-5600 and Sanyo MM-7400.

Its easy to sign up for MSpot Radio directly from your phone!



1. Select Media Player from the main menu on your Sprint PCS phone.

2. Select the MSpot Radio Channel from the “Available Channels” menu.

3. Using the keys on your phone, follow the prompts to preview and purchase access to the MSpot Radio Channel.

MSpot Radio will now appear in the My Channels section of your Media Player menu.

[Jeff]

Do you guys notice if the radio "bufferes" a lot like the Sprint TV does? Does it sound "chopy" ?

[skooter]

In over an hour of listening it only buffered once, other than that i have been listening all the way through on a bunch of different stations. I actually emailed them and suggested they add an Electronica station ;-)

[SingSongBird]

Lemme guess.... for just a mere, measly $5 I too can have radio on my phone? :lol:

[optimus28]

I tried it and I cancelled it because it kept on buffering and pausing. Plus the quality was not good at all.

[michelle]

ooh i am trying it on my sam a790. it sounds pretty good! i think i'll buy it...

edit: am listening to the 80s station right now. a bit tinny but not bad. this is much more fun than mobitv.

[SingSongBird]

NO :ahh: they are just luring you in... don't do it. You need your 5.95 to fix that broken nail. j/k.

[michelle]

but i just cut my nails! :D anyway, i fear for the battery life of my phone much more now...meh...i wish the outer lcd would dim while the player is on. but it doesn't!!!

ps. i guess any multimedia phone can access mspot. but the site is only featuring the sanyos. can someone w/an a700 try it?

[SingSongBird]

The site says only 5600 and 7400 at this time. Hmmm... I'm like chelle someone try it on a sammy. Let us know.

[kccasey]

Wirelessly posted (TREO 650: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/hspr-H102; Blazer/4.0) 16;320x320)

I'm suprised that someone hasn't flat out asked what the sound quality is yet. so I guess I will.


WHAT IS THE SOUND QUALITY FOR THIS SERVICE? is it something like128-bit. anything close to CD quality at all? if someone could gove a little bit more detail about this, that would be great!

[DallasJayhawk]

one negative is that I don't know when someone is trying to call me. I see the voice mail alert on the display but no vibe or ring during the call.

It also has a feature/habit that vibrates my phone every 10 minutes and a message on the display says "if you want to remain connected then touch any button on your phone". This is good to save your battery if you walk away and forget it's on but 10 minutes is a little too frequent for my tastes and it becomes annoying.

I don't know what kind of buffer there is but you do get the occassional skip when the phone is in a poor signal area which is to be expected and just like dropping a call it will shut off when you run out of signal.

Still though, I think it's a better application for phones than video and now that I think about it I'm surprised that it didn't happen before the video services since audio doesn't require as much bandwidth as video. I wonder how many competing radio services will pop up? I bet the ESPN Sprint MVNO will have some pretty good audio content thanks to ABC, Disney, ESPN. The future is now and it sounds pretty good.

[dfwtxpatrick]

Well, I just got it and after listening to it for about 10 minutes, I didn't have any problems as listed above. I'll let it go longer to see if I get the "keep connection" as listed above later.

The biggest bummers are these:

Cannot rec' calls when using utility.
Battery life due to screens staying on.
No local stations. That was the biggest reason for the having the 6225.
More content needed. (I guess that will come down the road.)

But I will keep trying it out until something better comes along.

And Michelle, how are you listening to it? I see that you have the Samsung a790?

[Raptor22]

well, I have the channel and I as well am enjoyint the sound and stations availble. I listen to all those songs except country really(not dissen country folks fyi, just not my taste). I do agree of battery consumption but I have set up my phone backlight in a way so it wont cause major battery consumption so thats ok, but for the little pop up asking you to press a key other wise the program will shutdown is neat and bad at the same time(im sure you know why). But this is a keeper on my list. Another is having this app live meaning vision use is constant which unables user to recieve any calls(believe that is a major fallback for most). But I dont mind. Im sure people can understand. I dont want to go to beach and listen to music via cell phone and all of a sudden someone calls and interrupts my music. For some odd reason the media player on my phone didnt want to work at my house until I left and starting messing with it while on the road. Did this 3 times to me. But will be checking this out again to see if it is recurrent.

[dmaul3300]

how many sports channels does it have?
does it have espn radio?
or any stations that carry baseball games? i know mlb audio isnt available for the 5600..

[steb0ne]

Okay, this sounds like a duplicate Music Choice channel with a few more channels, with has been out for a while now. It seems run the same way (via the MediaPlayer) sound quality's about the same as Music Choice. It may be a better deal being that you get more channels of content for the same price. I think I'll be switching from Music Choice to MSpot Radio


*FYI-Upon reading their news release it looks like this company is getting ready to offer more services in the future:

http://www.mspot.com/pr03-14-05.html

....MSpot’s first subscription service, MSpot Radio, is now available on select phones on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network with 13 live and on-demand music, news, sports, finance, weather and talk channels. MSpot has plans to introduce additional mobile entertainment services in the coming months, including major motion pictures, premium video programming and mobile-exclusive original programming. Through its partnerships with mobile carriers, film studios and the most popular media corporations, MSpot is poised to emerge as the leading provider of premium mobile entertainment services.

Sounds promising!

[steb0ne]

how many sports channels does it have?
does it have espn radio?
or any stations that carry baseball games? i know mlb audio isnt available for the 5600..

The Sporting News is the only one

[Raptor22]

Okay, this sounds like a duplicate Music Choice channel with a few more channels, with has been out for a while now. It seems run the same way (via the MediaPlayer) sound quality's about the same as Music Choice. It may be a better deal being that you get more channels of content for the same price. I think I'll be switching from Music Choice to MSpot Radio


*FYI-Upon reading their news release it looks like this company is getting ready to offer more services in the future:

http://www.mspot.com/pr03-14-05.html

....MSpot’s first subscription service, MSpot Radio, is now available on select phones on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network with 13 live and on-demand music, news, sports, finance, weather and talk channels. MSpot has plans to introduce additional mobile entertainment services in the coming months, including major motion pictures, premium video programming and mobile-exclusive original programming. Through its partnerships with mobile carriers, film studios and the most popular media corporations, MSpot is poised to emerge as the leading provider of premium mobile entertainment services.

Sounds promising!

How did music choice work for you anyways? Did the channel have video?

[steb0ne]

How did music choice work for you anyways? Did the channel have video?


It works okay. Depending on the area you're in and how the data network is functioning, that's what would cause the buffering and reloading problems. The service itselft if fine. The quality I think is better than m2Spot, but not by much

The Music Choice has: Entertainment News for the day video, Play of the Day (Music Video) and several different artist interviews (video) (usually updated daily)

I have been using music choice for a few months now, just recently started having problems streaming in my area. It appears to be a data connectivity problems with the Vision network, several others I know are having the same problem.

[Raptor22]

It works okay. Depending on the area you're in and how the data network is functioning, that's what would cause the buffering and reloading problems. The service itselft if fine. The quality I think is better than m2Spot, but not by much

The Music Choice has: Entertainment News for the day video, Play of the Day (Music Video) and several different artist interviews (video) (usually updated daily)

I have been using music choice for a few months now, just recently started having problems streaming in my area. It appears to be a data connectivity problems with the Vision network, several others I know are having the same problem.



yeah, I was thinking of purchasing that channel before Mspot came out but I only use the visual part of the media player when viewing movies and things, I dont really watch music videos. Thats when Mspot came in and got me interested. I have channels for me to look at and then for everything else to listen I have Mspot. I havent tried the music choice so I cant really say which is better but so far having fun with the mspot channel.

[michelle]

so far i like it. i wish i had headphones to use though. and no, thankfully it doesn't give me an alert after 10 mins to let me know if i want to continue. i think this is going to drain my battery big time...

and i cancelled mobitv...

[steb0ne]

..., thankfully it doesn't give me an alert after 10 mins to let me know if i want to continue. i think this is going to drain my battery big time...

and i cancelled mobitv...

Yeah, you're right. Time for an extended battery

[Raptor22]

Man, i dont like how the extended battery makes my 7400 bulgy. :( thats ok.

[mrvid]

What happened tp mradio on my 5600, it's gone and the phone says it won't support it.

[michelle]

Crap. Mine is gone too! :mad:

[skooter]

Crap. Mine is gone too! :mad:

This may be the problem, mine is gone too:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63294

[17Hz]

I like the concept of radio on the phone, it needs to let you know you have a call, a special tone and /or pop-up

I've been to Mspots website, very interesting

aslo will the 7400 give you stereo??

[LoWw]

Why isnt this available on the A700? This doesnt make sense!! :mad:

[remydagreat]

Will it work for the Sanyo VM45 models

[RecoiL]

hey i got a quickquestion, in the mediaplayer on my 7400, to buy a channel its like $3-5 or so is this a montly charge or what? can u cancel it?

[master1m]

well i would get it but I have to wait tell I upgrade my phone

[Carterism]

hmmm i wonder if the radio is clear...also, does it only work on MM phones?

[enigmatl]

Is anybody paying for this for more than just having a novelty? Honestly, there are just things Sprint is gonna have to do before you can honestly look at this and say "This doesn't suck."
(1) It's a cell PHONE. I had to cut my vision use way down because it makes the line busy. Sprint really needs to stop and think this one out before it gets a bad first look by too many people. I sure as heck did not sign up with Sprint to miss phone calls. So, I canceled radio and all other vision pay services (not Vision itself) because of this reason.
(2) When I had the service, I was also in the process of trying different phones and I have tried them in a pretty large area and Sprint's service is pretty solid in these parts. Rarely do I see less than 4 bars. Granted I have good hearing and I am particular about my audio but the radio services when turned up to an audible volume have a metalic sounding high pitch to them. The sampling rate is just too low.

conclusion/recommendation/opinion: For now, if overnight, it became that important that you must have music with you that you didn't already have, buy a transistor radio for $10 bucks and it'll sound better. It's free and it will not make your phone line BUSY. OR, you can continue to blindly subscribe to this service and maybe Sprint will never make Vision so that it leaves your line free. I understand some of you are gadget freaks and that's actually cool. But if we just keep blindly taking every feature Sprint sends down the line without voting (with our wallets) to fix some problems that are deep at the core of vision, they will never ge fixed. Sprint is merging with Nextel so this is probably a time when some of Sprint's biggest decisions are being made. If enough of you actually call (like I did) and tell them how you love these services BUT they disrupt the core reason why you have a cell PHONE, they will listen.

If you must have a frill, I recommend blowing the money on Ready Link. It too is not perfect but it is a lot better than Vision although I say ALL these services really need to not interfear with the others. I want my AIIM messages while I"m on the phone (and I get them) and I want my phone calls when I'm on the web. I want my readylink beeps when I'm on the phone and I want my phone calls when I'm in a readylink chat.

So am I a pig or a realist? You guys decide but I think a cell phone's primary functions need to take priority and would like to see all functions be more usable while using other functions.

[mandar]

Called the guyz !! they use AAC - which is iTune compatible.
I had their radio on the 8200 and now have their MM on the 8300.
Just love their hip-hop.

[harris]

Wirelessly posted (MM7400: Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone MM-7400/US/1.0) NetFront/3.1 MMP/2.0)

Sirius radio sounds better IMHO. Especially if your phone supports stero sound. ie. MM8300

[mandar]

Well, not sure how !! i have both on my 8300 and I can tell they are the same. The reason for me to keep MSpot was the additional stations. They both seem to be using stereo on the 8300 - and the 7400 doesnt support stereo at all.

[tgold]

Not sure if you guys know this already but you can listen to podcasts for free on your phone. Point your browser to www.pod2mob.com/mobile/main and you can listen to tons of different podcast in decent aac quality audio. Check it out.

[Seattle Junk]

Not sure if you guys know this already but you can listen to podcasts for free on your phone. Point your browser to www.pod2mob.com/mobile/main and you can listen to tons of different podcast in decent aac quality audio. Check it out.

That's great advice. THanks.

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