Pandora or Sticther or TuneIn?

[laborsmith]

Having reached the point of being tired of the XM-Serious renewal hassle, I have been looking at the three grayed out icons on my MyLink screen. BringGo is in color which allows me to use it.

I only want to go with one, and TuneIn looks like the best for me but I am not well acquainted with any. When traveling around the country, I like weather and traffic updates (XM is severely mimited re the I-65 corridor), CNN and MSNBC, and rock and blues music.

I look forward to responses.


Laborsmith

 

[BriG21]

Not sure what you are asking exactly but all three applications can be used for free. Just download the app to your cell phone and connect your phone to the car via bluetooth and they will light up. Need to have cell service for them to work and will be charged by your carrier if you do not have an unlimited plan. I like pandora a lot. Once you set your personal stations there isn't a song you won't like. I haven't used the other two apps as much but I believe stitcher is mostly talk radio / podcast / etc. and not so much on music. I don't get why you need to choose one, try them all out. I actually can't get BringGo since the app isn't available for my phone.

 

[Preloader]

I don't have much input on which option is best, but I can come in and shake a fist at XM.

I am currently being HARASSED by XM about renewal. Voicemails, emails, letters in the mail. Threats that I've accumulated an outstanding balance. Even though the last time I renewed I specifically told them to shut it off when it expires. If I want to renew, I know where to find them.

I only listen to about 3 stations..... Mostly just one. LiqMetal.

Since then I have gotten a 32Gb iPod and I don't need to pay for any music unless I choose to support a deserving artist on iTunes.

 

[River_Rat]

I'm pretty sure that laborsmith is not using a smartphone. Personally, I love Pandora when it comes to music. I use it on my computer and my smartphone.

However, since laborsmith has specifically stated that he wants the weather, traffic, and news radio, pandora will not do the trick. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on these other two services as I know nothing of them. But they could hardly be worse than XM/Sirius (which I regard as a cruel joke).

 

[Preloader]

I have never been impressed with Pandora myself. It's great for entertaining guests or pleasing diverse groups of friends. But I find that they stick to A-side singles too much.

For example, if I try to listen to rock, no matter how much I try to hone a station, it's only a matter of time before Zeppelin's Whole lotta love or Black Dog comes on.

Don't get me wrong, I love to get the Led out, but if I wanted to hear their greatest hits, I could just listen to FM.

 

[BriG21]

Yeah XM will continue your service until you call them, wait for an hour to actually speak to someone, then dodge all their attempts to make you stay with them. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle. However if you do call you can ALWAYS negotiate a very cheap price. I just got 6 months for 25 bucks. I just set a reminder to call them before it expires and get another deal from them. They are desperate to make you stay even if it means only charging a few bucks a month.

 

[Macehammer]

I'm pretty sure that laborsmith is not using a smartphone. Personally, I love Pandora when it comes to music. I use it on my computer and my smartphone.

However, since laborsmith has specifically stated that he wants the weather, traffic, and news radio, pandora will not do the trick. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on these other two services as I know nothing of them. But they could hardly be worse than XM/Sirius (which I regard as a cruel joke).

No smartphone, none of these apps will work, so...

 

[dkennedy1989]

My xm only lasted a month after I bought my RS, they keep emailing, calling, and mailing me offers that I am not interested in cause I just use pandora through my car anyways. I pay the 3 bucks for pandora so I don't get commercials.

 

[River_Rat]

No smartphone, none of these apps will work, so...

I may have spoken too soon and made too many assumptions. I don't have mylink and don't know how it works. If it has to be connected to a smartphone for any sort of functionality then that doesn't seem very functional at all. I thought that I remembered laborsmith saying many months ago that he did not have a smartphone, but if you have to have a smartphone for bringo, then I was clearly mistaken.

@preloader, I know what you mean about Pandora throwing certain material at you repeatedly. It kept trying to play Johnny Cash when I was listening to the Devil Makes Three. What I like about it is that you can skip it whenever it does that. I feel that it still gives much more variety than xm/sirius, and certainly more than the fm that I'm used to (where you often hear the same song on multiple stations at the same time).

I hate to clutter up the thread with useless rambling, but there it is.

 

[Macehammer]

You need to have a data enabled phone with a tune-in, stitcher, pandora, or BringGo app on it. Presumably an iPhone, android, or windows (heh...) phone device.

I don't think, if any feature phones even have these apps, they would interface correctly with the Mylink in order to "make it work."

The statement about the Mylink my being functional, well, would you rather pay for a data plan for one device or two?

Exactly...

 

[laborsmith]

I did get a smartphone so I could use BringGo even though I get the incompatible message everytime I start it.

I do have unlimited data, although only 5 gigs at 4G.

CNN and MSNBC are what I am looking for as I can go FM radio or maybe figure out how to put music on the smartphone.

Too many choices with all this technology; it is enough to make my brain burn.

Based on responses so far, I think I will try tunein first.

Thanks everyone.


Laborsmith

 

[Preloader]

Yeah XM will continue your service until you call them, wait for an hour to actually speak to someone, then dodge all their attempts to make you stay with them. Sometimes it's not worth the hassle. However if you do call you can ALWAYS negotiate a very cheap price. I just got 6 months for 25 bucks. I just set a reminder to call them before it expires and get another deal from them. They are desperate to make you stay even if it means only charging a few bucks a month.

I got that same deal. It's not the cost that has pushed me away from XM. It's their incessant, and abusive renewal harassment. It just makes me feel like I'm subscribing to a fast food chain. I tend to avoid most companies that overdue it on advertising and marketing tricks. I'm not a son of Walmart I prefer to make my own informed decisions rather than have them deciding for me.

That being said. I have a friend that bought a LIFETIME XM subscription for like $400. That was 8 years ago. That's an average of $4/month, but will continue to drop as years go by. If they still had that deal, I'd go for it.

 

[BriG21]

I did get a smartphone so I could use BringGo even though I get the incompatible message everytime I start it.

I do have unlimited data, although only 5 gigs at 4G.

CNN and MSNBC are what I am looking for as I can go FM radio or maybe figure out how to put music on the smartphone.

Too many choices with all this technology; it is enough to make my brain burn.

Based on responses so far, I think I will try tunein first.

Thanks everyone.


Laborsmith

The beautiful thing is you can download the apps for all three and check them all out. You're not limited to just one. As far as music on your smartphone I believe you can listen to it through bluetooth as well. Personally I just leave an ipod touch plugged into the car and leave it there. Best of luck.

I got that same deal. It's not the cost that has pushed me away from XM. It's their incessant, and abusive renewal harassment. It just makes me feel like I'm subscribing to a fast food chain. I tend to avoid most companies that overdue it on advertising and marketing tricks. I'm not a son of Walmart I prefer to make my own informed decisions rather than have them deciding for me.

That being said. I have a friend that bought a LIFETIME XM subscription for like $400. That was 8 years ago. That's an average of $4/month, but will continue to drop as years go by. If they still had that deal, I'd go for it.

Yeah I hear ya. Some companies are so difficult to deal with they don't deserve the business. I actually stopped doing business completely with Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless because they were horrible companies in the way they do business. I HATE Time Warner, Worst company ever.

 

[ecohauler]

If the MyLink apps won't give you what you're looking for, you can probably find another app that will. Just do an audio link via bluetooth (from the homescreen, select audio, then select bluetooth for your input from the dropdown menu at the top) or the aux port (get a cable and connect your phone's headphone jack to the aux port in the media cubby), then use whatever app you want from your phone. iHeartRadio might be a good place to start for what you're looking for.

I use this method all the time for navigation, since I refuse to pay 50 damn dollars for BringGo when Google Maps is free and works better, but don't get me started on that. I can listen to music from my phone, and then GLaDOS interrupts when she wants to tell me where to go.

 

[laborsmith]

I got tunein to work. Yea! I looked at the iHeart site and may try that oce I get the correct cable.

Thanks again.

Laborsmith

 

[Insanika]

I haven't even attempted to use any of the apps. I hate Pandora, when I use an internet radio at work I have Slacker all over. They are more like a free version of XM, with stations that just play a certain genre of music. I am sure you could use this with the cable as well.

I still love my XM and have to have my daily dose of Jose Mangin I also renewed for the $25 and I think I'll start harassing THEM about this lifetime service. Otherwise it's just like any other bill to me that I have to remember to pay at a certain time.

 

[Swordsmith]

I am happy with XM, which is cheap enough and which has a plethora of "stations" on it, which means there are a handful I will listen to, and thus can switch when something I don't like comes on. Mainly though I like that it comes in nice and clean and it doesn't much matter where I drive, I don't have to keep searching for the next station.

In the workshop, though, I use Tunein on my phone, it provides me access to just about any radio station in the land. I personally listen to the Dallas area NPR station even though I spend 10 months out of the year in PA, I just like their mix better than my local one.

Besides the fact that I don't really enjoy music stations all that much to begin with, I found Pandora to be very repetitive, nearly as much as most FM music stations. I listen to the radio 8-12 hours at a stretch, either working or doing long distance driving, and I really don't want to hear the same thing two or three times today, and then hear it again tomorrow and the next day.

Tunein would probably work great for music too, simply because surely there's somewhere in the country that has a station that's committed to playing variety instead of repetition... it would only take discovering one such station, and being willing to listen to weather and commercials and local interest news for their area instead of your own... which is pretty much what I'm doing listening to KERA.

I doubt, though, that reception is as good using an app like that as it is using XM. Anyone with experience doing a lot of travelling and trying both care to weigh in on that?

 

[Macehammer]

I am happy with XM, which is cheap enough and which has a plethora of "stations" on it, which means there are a handful I will listen to, and thus can switch when something I don't like comes on. Mainly though I like that it comes in nice and clean and it doesn't much matter where I drive, I don't have to keep searching for the next station.

In the workshop, though, I use Tunein on my phone, it provides me access to just about any radio station in the land. I personally listen to the Dallas area NPR station even though I spend 10 months out of the year in PA, I just like their mix better than my local one.

Besides the fact that I don't really enjoy music stations all that much to begin with, I found Pandora to be very repetitive, nearly as much as most FM music stations. I listen to the radio 8-12 hours at a stretch, either working or doing long distance driving, and I really don't want to hear the same thing two or three times today, and then hear it again tomorrow and the next day.

Tunein would probably work great for music too, simply because surely there's somewhere in the country that has a station that's committed to playing variety instead of repetition... it would only take discovering one such station, and being willing to listen to weather and commercials and local interest news for their area instead of your own... which is pretty much what I'm doing listening to KERA.

I doubt, though, that reception is as good using an app like that as it is using XM. Anyone with experience doing a lot of travelling and trying both care to weigh in on that?

The only limiting fact, using an app, is the cost of data. Unlimited data, no problem. Tiered data, welcome to the land of potential expense.

NPR has an app where you can "dial up" any station, too. So you can any station anywhere, at cost of your data plan.

 

[Insanika]

Well the cost of the data as well as phone reception. Where I am I would not be able to rely on a phone app for music as the reception comes and goes and it would be as bad as listening to a long distance FM channel.

 

[Macehammer]

Well the cost of the data as well as phone reception. Where I am I would not be able to rely on a phone app for music as the reception comes and goes and it would be as bad as listening to a long distance FM channel.

No 3G in BFE?