[EDavid]

Was all excited installing Pandora and or Slacker on my BB 8320. Problem is I get an error message when I try to run the Pandora app. "Could not connect to Pandora. Please insure you have sufficent network coverage and try again" Went to T-Mobile and the girl there downloaded it and ran it on her phone (first time) on the spot. She told me to un-install and try again. Did that. Also downloaded the Slacker app. It "works", slow, always seems to be buffering, and when it does play sometimes it the music sounds like a cassette playing with old batteries. What gives?

[papped]

Use the caching for Slacker, makes it instant. As for the sound quality I have no idea, that doesn't sound right though. Slacker audio quality is far, far higher than Pandora...

[jd914]

The problem is that your on EDGE. You can't expect pandora or slacker to work as it would on a 3G phone. The other issue is that your on an older model blackberry.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[hubermania]

FWIW I have similar Slacker lag issues on my 8220, even on WiFi. Seems like the phone is just barely able to keep up. The 8220 and 8320 probably have the same processor.


I just started using Slacker and Pandora a couple days ago. Pandora doesn't bog down the phone as much and has a better AI. But I could swear Pandora is mono and clamped. Slacker has fantastic sound, good channel separation and reproduces the highs/lows of the original recording. Sounds like caching in Slacker will take care of the bogging down and battery consumption issues.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ninja please]

The problem is that your on EDGE. You can't expect pandora or slacker to work as it would on a 3G phone. The other issue is that your on an older model blackberry.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

that doesn't really make much of a difference, it ran fine on my curve with edge and it rarely ever stopped to buffer. it has more to do with the device itself than the connection, unless your connection is just weak.

[BLAZE X]

slacker ftw out of those 2..

[drnate]

Was all excited installing Pandora and or Slacker on my BB 8320. Problem is I get an error message when I try to run the Pandora app. "Could not connect to Pandora. Please insure you have sufficent network coverage and try again" Went to T-Mobile and the girl there downloaded it and ran it on her phone (first time) on the spot. She told me to un-install and try again. Did that. Also downloaded the Slacker app. It "works", slow, always seems to be buffering, and when it does play sometimes it the music sounds like a cassette playing with old batteries. What gives?

I was having the same problem and went through a number of solutions including. I reinstalled, made sure the firewall is turned off, give Pandora full permissions, tried turning off wifi and downloading OTA to install, removed my media card, checked my network settings, wiped my BB and did a fresh OS install, and even went to T-mobile directly to see if something is wromg with my BB. They verified I have the most up to date OS and even showed me a 8320 sitting right next to mine playing Pandora flawlessly!

After about ten tries and many tweaks to try and make it work I was a little frustrated. I really want Pandora to work as I have my favorite stations on there and Slacker is a little boggy on my curve. I just got a reply from a Pandora tech and he suggested this

First, clear the APN:

1. Launch Pandora, and bring up the Diagnostics screen by holding down the "ALT" key and pressing the "SPACE" bar 4 times. Select the "Advanced" button and then select "Clear APN" (or "Reset Pandora" in 1.0.2 or later)
2. Quit Pandora (hit the Blackberry menu key and choose "Shutdown Pandora").
3. Download the latest version of the application from Pandora - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music[/url] (reboot if prompted)
4. Re-launch Pandora

For T-Mobile

Go to Options -> Advanced Options -> TCP and enter an APN:

APN: wap.voicestream.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: internet2.voicestream.com Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: epn.tmobile.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

This worked for me! I hope this helps others as well to avoid the frustration and massive waste of time. (It seems the primary issue is that there was no APN set in my blackberry for some reason?)

[EDavid]

drnate-Thanks! That totally worked!!

[redsoxrocker]

About slacker, your volume might just be down low, hold down the volume button on the top right of your blackberry - the volume on slacker isn't automatically synced with the volume on your media player for example. Hopefully this will take care of the cassette sounding audio.

Mine seems to be tempermental with the buffering as well, I'm gonna try caching it tonight.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[_Diimplez_]

I was having the same problem and went through a number of solutions including. I reinstalled, made sure the firewall is turned off, give Pandora full permissions, tried turning off wifi and downloading OTA to install, removed my media card, checked my network settings, wiped my BB and did a fresh OS install, and even went to T-mobile directly to see if something is wromg with my BB. They verified I have the most up to date OS and even showed me a 8320 sitting right next to mine playing Pandora flawlessly!

After about ten tries and many tweaks to try and make it work I was a little frustrated. I really want Pandora to work as I have my favorite stations on there and Slacker is a little boggy on my curve. I just got a reply from a Pandora tech and he suggested this

First, clear the APN:

1. Launch Pandora, and bring up the Diagnostics screen by holding down the "ALT" key and pressing the "SPACE" bar 4 times. Select the "Advanced" button and then select "Clear APN" (or "Reset Pandora" in 1.0.2 or later)
2. Quit Pandora (hit the Blackberry menu key and choose "Shutdown Pandora").
3. Download the latest version of the application from Pandora - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music[/url] (reboot if prompted)
4. Re-launch Pandora

For T-Mobile

Go to Options -> Advanced Options -> TCP and enter an APN:

APN: wap.voicestream.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: internet2.voicestream.com Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: epn.tmobile.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

This worked for me! I hope this helps others as well to avoid the frustration and massive waste of time. (It seems the primary issue is that there was no APN set in my blackberry for some reason?)

OOOH thank you so much for this info!!! Worked like a charm! Great sound!!! I'm loving this

[Tylang59]

Slacker v. Pandora? Slacker wins in my book. GUI is better, much better. Pandora is kinda boring...

[Rascalfx]

Thanks! This worked for me. I did not have to reinstall pandora or anything, I just added the first APN on the list, tried again and Pandora worked.

[papped]

They really need to fix the audio on Pandora... The music sounds like it's coming out of a tin can.

[digitalb0y]

They really need to fix the audio on Pandora... The music sounds like it's coming out of a tin can.

I don't know if this depends on connection or what, but I totally don't hear a difference between the two in my car. Neither sounds great (something like a 96k-128k mp3), but both are listenable.

I prefer Pandora by far because of the amount of time I've spent customizing stations. It knows my tastes quite well now. Slacker's WAY too big an app and all it pays is pop. I like the caching and the comedy, but otherwise, Pandora takes care of me just fine.

[princessdenise]

I have an 8330 with Sprint and Slacker works beautifully...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[papped]

I don't know if this depends on connection or what, but I totally don't hear a difference between the two in my car. Neither sounds great (something like a 96k-128k mp3), but both are listenable.

I prefer Pandora by far because of the amount of time I've spent customizing stations. It knows my tastes quite well now. Slacker's WAY too big an app and all it pays is pop. I like the caching and the comedy, but otherwise, Pandora takes care of me just fine.

It's not the connection because I use Slacker cached, which rules out that factor. Slacker cached sounds practically like 192kb. Pandora on the other hand, yeah about 96k...

Edit: actually I can't say for sure on Pandora. Pandora may scale quality based on connection reliability. Slacker does not seem to do so though.

[jakrip]

I liked slacker better I have a friend that has a slacker radio player and it is a great product. So maybe I am more familiar with slacker radio. I tried both over the weekend and thought Pandora did not have the same taste in music as me and since I was more familar with how slacker works i removed Pandora. But it is all depends on what works best for you I have a co worker with a BB and he loves Pandora.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[digitalb0y]

Edit: actually I can't say for sure on Pandora. Pandora may scale quality based on connection reliability. Slacker does not seem to do so though.

That's more what I meant. It seems like Pandora sounds just fine when reception is good. And the ability to create stations with like 15 seed artists a handfull of seed songs, and hundreds with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down makes it infinitely more enjoyable to me than Slacker. I'm a picky SOB and Slacker just doesn't give me enough flexibility to mold my stations. All I get with Slacker is top 40 of whatever genre I choose, and it's not smart enough to distinguish real techno from trance or house. All that and it takes up a meg-and-a-half before cache? Meh. Doesn't excite me.

[digitalb0y]

I tried both over the weekend and thought Pandora did not have the same taste in music as me and since I was more familar with how slacker works i removed Pandora.

Yeah, if you're gonna use Pandora, you need to take the time to teach it what you like using full site on your computer. Slacker isn't sitting there taking note of whether you like major or minor keys, slower or faster tempo, what textural qualities, etc. The "Music Genome Project" behind Pandora is really quite impressive.

Slacker just plays artists that are lumped into the same genres and then you can tell it to stop playing individual songs or to play individual songs more often. If you're really looking for the program between the two that knows your taste, you have to give it to the program that truly learns what you like and how you classify music.

[papped]

pandora has a downside to it's song selection though. The song pool per station is way smaller. The learning is far better though.

[skafri#WN]

Each has its pros and cons. Pandora ends up getting more of my attention because it's more of a seamless transition between songs, but Slacker's caching feature is so great when you're traveling. Slacker also has a better library for alternative music. It's worth having both for me.

[Carolinagirl_22]

I was having the same problem and went through a number of solutions including. I reinstalled, made sure the firewall is turned off, give Pandora full permissions, tried turning off wifi and downloading OTA to install, removed my media card, checked my network settings, wiped my BB and did a fresh OS install, and even went to T-mobile directly to see if something is wromg with my BB. They verified I have the most up to date OS and even showed me a 8320 sitting right next to mine playing Pandora flawlessly!

After about ten tries and many tweaks to try and make it work I was a little frustrated. I really want Pandora to work as I have my favorite stations on there and Slacker is a little boggy on my curve. I just got a reply from a Pandora tech and he suggested this

First, clear the APN:

1. Launch Pandora, and bring up the Diagnostics screen by holding down the "ALT" key and pressing the "SPACE" bar 4 times. Select the "Advanced" button and then select "Clear APN" (or "Reset Pandora" in 1.0.2 or later)
2. Quit Pandora (hit the Blackberry menu key and choose "Shutdown Pandora").
3. Download the latest version of the application from Pandora - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music[/url] (reboot if prompted)
4. Re-launch Pandora

For T-Mobile

Go to Options -> Advanced Options -> TCP and enter an APN:

APN: wap.voicestream.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: internet2.voicestream.com Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

If that does not work, please try the following:

APN: epn.tmobile.com
Username: (Leave this field Blank)
Password: (Leave this field Blank)

3) Save info
4) Restart Pandora

This worked for me! I hope this helps others as well to avoid the frustration and massive waste of time. (It seems the primary issue is that there was no APN set in my blackberry for some reason?)

THANK YOU!!! I actually just asked this question in another thread..thx

[papped]

Each has its pros and cons. Pandora ends up getting more of my attention because it's more of a seamless transition between songs, but Slacker's caching feature is so great when you're traveling. Slacker also has a better library for alternative music. It's worth having both for me.

Basically. I have a feeling that a lot of people who post the negatives of Slacker haven't used the caching feature though...

[digitalb0y]

Basically. I have a feeling that a lot of people who post the negatives of Slacker haven't used the caching feature though...

Oh, don't get me wrong, the caching is awesome, and something I'd love to see integrated into Pandora. It's just that you still only get 6 skips, and something that caches a ton of music you don't really enjoy is only so useful. I love the comedy station, and it has taken me a LONG time to make my Pandora Hard Rock station as good as Slacker gives me, but for most styles, Pandora learns my tastes much more thoroughly and gives me far fewer crappy mainstream cheese to skip through. I ALWAYS use my 6 skips per hour on Slacker. I almost NEVER do on Pandora.

And I agree that the song selection STARTS smaller on Pandora and thus produces more repeats, but since you can add as many seed songs and bands to a station as you want, repeats become more and more scarce. A station with 200 points of reference tends to have plenty more to draw on than a "sounds like artist X" station in Slacker.

I'm still one of those people that gets enough utility out of both programs that they're both still on my phone, I just enjoy listening to Pandora more than Slacker.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[papped]

Yeah I wasn't particularly pointing out this thread. Just in general.