SPB Radio

With unlimited data plans being the norm these days, it only makes sense to take full advantage of them.  I find that the best way for me to maintain my healthy 2.5 to 3 GB per month (or more) habit is to stream internet radio… all day.  There are MANY applications on the market today which can allow you to enjoy almost any radio station you so desire, but not too many come with the reputation, polish, and ease of use that an SPB application brings with it.

SPB Radio allows you to stream literally thousands of different radio stations to your phone over WiFi or 3G.  Stations are arranged by categories: Music, News\Talks, Regions, and other Languages.  Each section contains links to hundreds and thousands of different radio stations.

As far as the performance goes, this application is VERY quick.  I would time it and do some maths, but honestly, the application gets a connection and buffers so quickly that I have a feeling that it would come to an average of about 5 to 6 seconds from the time you press the radio station’s button to start playing – and that’s on 3G.

You can add a direct URL to your favorite stations if they are not listed in the directory simply by entering it in the “Add Station by URL…” menu option.  There is an option to disable Roaming data usage, and the ability to turn off the screen while the music is playing to save battery power.  There is no rewind; there’s not much information other than the name of the station and the bit rate and volume; and you only get a pause button.  Pressing the center d-pad button on my Fuze paused and played the station, and the buffer actually holds a decent amount of data which allowed near instantaneous resume from pausing.

All in all, it’s actually a straight forward piece of software that is short, sweet and to the point in its execution. This app was designed to play audio over the internet, nothing more, and it does it very well.. 

(SPB Radio is available in MANY languages.)

Pick it up over at SPB’s website for $9.95.