Pocket Tunes Radio for iPhone Updates: More Terrestrial Stations, Improved Compatibility for Web-based Stations such as XM, Sirius, Live365, etc., and Much More

NormSoft has recently released two separate updates for Pocket Tunes Radio. Updates are free to existing owners of the product. Here is a list of the many improvements now available in the App Store:

Version 5.1
* Improved station compatibility (bug fixes and MMSH support)
* Significant increase in the number of stations (thousands) available when performing a search within Pocket Tunes Radio. This change adds many terrestrial based stations not previously available when searching within Pocket Tunes Radio. See listing here: http://www.pocket-tunes.com/radio/list.php?iphone=1
* Added ability to search terrestrial stations by city, state, call sign, or frequency.
* Improved web browsing experience, including: landscape support, and more screen real estate available for web content
* General stability improvements and bug fixes

Version 5.2
* Improved station compatibility, including support for some web-based stations. (e.g. XM, Sirius, Live365, ...) See our recent blog article on this, with accompanying knowledge base articles on how to listen to web based subscription services for XM, Sirius, and Live365.: http://www.pocket-tunes.com/news/?postid=50
* Ability to bookmark web pages to Favorites.
* Further improved performance and battery life for aacPlus streams

Please give the latest versions a try. I'm sure you will enjoy these improvements.

Sincerely,
Mark Belliveau
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
NormSoft, Inc.

Pocket Tunes(R) - Your phone. Your music.(TM)

Pocket Tunes® Radio adds support for Web Bases stations (e.g. Sirius, XM, Live365 VIP)

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let our iPhone/touch customers know about an addition to Pocket Tunes® Radio. We have a new version out that adds support for web based stations.

What this means is that you can now play many stations that insist on you playing them through a web page.

This includes Sirius, XM and Live365 VIP stations.

We have a bunch of Knowledge Base articles on how to do this. Currently it only applies to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Here are the articles for each service:

XM: http://www.normsoft.com/kb/idx/55/291/article/
Sirius: http://www.normsoft.com/kb/idx/55/292/article/
Live365 VIP: http://www.normsoft.com/kb/idx/55/294/article/

There are likely other sites that you might find work now with this change so let us know.

This release also adds the ability to bookmark pages in the web browser. Even pages that have nothing to do with streaming. So you can save your favorite pages to go back to whenever you want to browse n' listen with Pocket Tunes® Radio.

Dave, Director of Quality Assurance and Customer Support

Say Hello to 32 High Quality aacPlus Stations from 1.FM

We've just added 32 aacPlus stations to our catalog from 1.FM (http://www.1.fm/). Both low speed and high speed versions were added so that you can enjoy the best quality sound whether using a slower cellular data network or wifi/3G. 1.FM has everything from Acappella to Reggae. All of the stations are available using Pocket Tunes Deluxe on Windows Mobile or Palm OS or on the iPhone using Pocket Tunes Radio.

Give them a try we think you'll love them.

Existing Palm OS and Windows Mobile users can update their catalog manually. Just go to the Internet Radio area from the 'Tools' menu. Open the menu for that screen and select 'Update', then select 'Get Updates'.

iPhone users will see the stations the next time they search or browse the catalog using Pocket Tunes Radio.

Enjoy!

* 1.FM - 50s & 60s
* 1.FM - 70s
* 1.FM - 90s
* 1.FM - Absolute Country Hits
* 1.FM - Acappella
* 1.FM - Aftrerbeat Eelctronica
* 1.FM - Always Christmas
* 1.FM - Back280s
* 1.FM - Bay Smooth Jazz
* 1.FM - Blues
* 1.FM - Bombay Beats
* 1.FM - Channel X
* 1.FM - Classic Country
* 1.FM - Club 1
* 1.FM - Country One
* 1.FM - Dance Hits
* 1.FM - Disco Ball
* 1.FM - Euro 80s
* 1.FM - Flashback Alternatives
* 1.FM - Fuego FM
* 1.FM - High Voltage
* 1.FM - Jamz
* 1.FM - One Live
* 1.FM - Otto's Baroque Musick
* 1.FM - Otto's Classical Musick
* 1.FM - Otto's Opera House
* 1.FM - ReggaeTrade
* 1.FM - The Chill Out Lounge
* 1.FM - Top 40
* 1.FM - Trance
* 1.FM - Urban Adult Choice
* 1.FM - Urban Gospel

Mark Belliveau - VP, Marketing and Business Development

Pocket Tunes&trade - Your phone. Your music.&trade

Top 20 Podcasts (According To Pocket Tunes Customers)

Now that Pocket Tunes 5 is released with the ability to automatically download podcasts right on your device, we thought we would start publishing a list of the most popular podcasts each week.

Here is the first list:

1. CNN update
2. TreoCentral TreoCast
3. PalmAddict Podcast
4. BBC All Things Considered
5. The Onion Radio News
6. this WEEK in Tech
7. NPR: Car Talk Podcast
8. The Official LOST Podcast
9. This American Life
10. FOX News Radio
11. Cranky Geeks
12. NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast
13. Blog - Stack Overflow
14. Colonial Williamsburg Podcasts
15. NPR: Radio Pictures Podcast
16. Digital Planet
17. CBC Radio: Tapestry
18. BBC Xtra
19. Some Guys in a Car
20. English as a Second Language Podcast

To view the list in Pocket Tunes:

1. Go to the "Choose Songs" screen
2. Select the "Podcasts" folder
3. Select "Browse Podcasts"
4. Select "Most Popular Podcasts"

The list will actually change all that time as we constantly update it to reflect what our customers are listening to.

Enjoy the podcasts!

Dave, Director of Quality Assurance and Customer Support

Pocket Tunes 5.0 for Palm and Windows Mobile Released!

We just wanted everyone to know that NormSoft is very excited to announce the release of Pocket Tunes 5.0 for Palm and Windows Mobile.

We've added lots of new things for you to check out:

Integrated Podcast Support: Automatically download your favorite podcasts and browse/search a growing catalog of over 1,000 most popular podcasts.
Pocket Tunes Sync for iTunes added for Palm and enhanced on Windows Mobile. We've updated Pocket Tunes sync for iTunes, adding support for Palm devices. Also, we have enhanced the features in Pocket Tunes sync adding Album Art transfer and better playlist management.
WMA Streaming: Pocket Tunes 5.0 increases the breadth of supported audio content, adding WMA streaming, used by many Am and FM radio stations.
Expanded Catalog: Expanded catalog of Internet radio stations to give you more stations to chose from.
Last.fm Support: Track played songs to your Last.fm profile - it's called scrobbling&trade . A great way to keep track of what you have listened to and get recommendations on what you might like to listen to.

For more information see the overview page here http://www.pocket-tunes.com/?page=overview .

To download a trial go here http://www.pocket-tunes.com/download.html or use "Check for Updates" on your device:

1. Open Pocket Tunes
2. Go to the Menu and select "Help"
3. Then select "Check for Updates"

Pocket Tunes will then check to see if there is a newer version available and download it directly to your device and start the installer once downloaded.

To purchase a copy of Pocket Tunes Deluxe 5.0.0 for Windows Mobile please go to:

For Palm: http://www.pocket-tunes.com/?page=purchase_palm

For Windows Mobile: http://www.pocket-tunes.com/?page=purchase_win

Dave
Director of Quality Assurance and Customer Support
NormSoft Inc.

NormSoft Introduces Pocket Tunes Radio on iPhone and iPod touch

Today NormSoft announced the availability of Pocket Tunes&trade Radio, bringing the Internet radio features of their award-winning Pocket Tunes application to the iPhone&trade and iPod® touch.

Read today's complete press release at:
http://normsoft.com/press/2008-12-23.html

Learn more about Pocket Tunes Radio at:
http://pockettunesradio.com

Mark Belliveau - VP, Marketing and Business Development

Pocket Tunes&trade - Your phone. Your music.&trade

Happy Holidays from NormSoft! (plus some exciting news)

Hello Everyone,

Happy Holidays!!!

On behalf of everyone at NormSoft, I wanted to wish you all a Happy and Healthy (and musical) Holiday season!!

I also wanted to let you in on some exciting Pocket Tunes news and give you a few links if you are looking for music for this holiday season.

Pocket Tunes Radio for the iPhone and iPod touch now available in the iTunes App Store

Yes that's right, NormSoft has released Pocket Tunes Radio for the iPhone and iPod touch. So if Santa brings you an iPhone or an iPod touch, or you already own one, check out Pocket Tunes Radio. The same great streaming support as our Palm and Windows Mobile versions, plus a few added surprises so check it out in the App store.

Holiday Internet Radio Streams

Here are some places you can go to stream holiday music in Pocket Tunes (Palm, Windows Mobile, or iPhone/touch version):

On the Palm and Windows Mobile versions of Pocket Tunes, navigate to these locations in the web browser and tap on the station you want to listen to and Pocket Tunes will be launched to play it.

On the iPhone/touch version, open Pocket Tunes and go to the web app, enter one of the URLs in and then choose the station you want to listen to. Pocket Tunes Radio will then start playing that stream.

Make sure that you select a stream that is in a format your version of Pocket Tunes supports.

Mike's Radio World: Christmas 2008

Shoutcast Holiday Genre list of stations

EERadio.com World Christmas Music Stations

Enter these directly into Pocket Tunes:

RadioIo Seasons 32K MP3
RadioIo Seasons 128K MP3

Again have a wonderful holiday season!

Dave, QA/Customer Support type dude

A Road Trip with Tunes in Our Pockets

My family had been invited to the wedding of a favorite nephew. The wedding was 350 miles away.

We boarded our dogs and loaded the car with our luggage. My husband and I were not looking forward to being in close quarters with two high energy teenagers for 5-6 hours.

Rain was pouring down, visibility was low, so our attempt at a game of Interstate Bingo was a flop.

We decided to read the books that we each brought with us. It didn't take long for the old nemesis of car sickness to raise it's ugly head. So much for reading.

We tried listening to the radio. We spent the next few hours flipping past static-filled radio stations with seemingly endless commercials.

Finally it occurred to us that we could have been listening to our favorite songs, listening to Internet Radio or even listening to an Audio Book with Pocket Tunes.

We opted to listen to music that we could all enjoy. The kind of songs that everyone knows the words to.

We spent the next few hours singing and laughing together. We were singing Our Grand Finale, "We Are Family" as we arrived at our destination.

Pocket Tunes took what could have been a long, miserable trip and turned it into a party!

Karen, Latest addition to the NormSoft team

Podcasts from iTunes on Windows Mobile

Would you like to use Pocket Tunes on your Windows Mobile phone for listening to podcasts from your iTunes library?

Well you can.

Pocket Tunes for Windows Mobile comes complete with an application that lets you copy playlists from iTunes to your Windows Mobile device. Although this functionality is most commonly used for copying music playlists, it can also be used to automatically copy podcasts as well.

You can do it in two easy steps:
1. Create a new smart playlist in iTunes for selecting the podcasts that you want to copy.
2. Using the Pocket Tunes Sync application, select your newly created playlist for synchronization.

Here is a quick example:
1. Create a new smart playlist in iTunes for selecting the podcasts that you want to copy.
* Within iTunes select "New Smart Playlist…" from the "File" menu.
* In the "Smart Playlist" dialog that appears, create the following three filters: "Podcast is true", "Play Count is 0", and "Date Added is in the last 3 weeks." This will automatically add recent podcasts that you haven’t yet heard.



2. Using the Pocket Tunes Sync application, select your newly created playlist for synchronization.
* Run the Pocket Tunes Sync application on your Windows PC
* Select the smart playlist that you just created from the displayed list
* Select "Synchronize Now"



And there you have it! Now your most recently downloaded podcasts will be copied to your Windows Mobile phone.

For more information on the Pocket Tunes Sync for iTunes application see:
http://www.pocket-tunes.com/userguide/en-win/#InstallAudioThirdParty

Enjoy!

Mark Belliveau

VP, Marketing and Business Development

NormSoft, Inc.

A Streaming Musical Sundae.

I listen to Internet radio with Pocket Tunes a LOT. Sometimes as much as 10 hours in a day. What can I say, it's my job, I HAVE to do it. :-D

I have a particular station that I really enjoy. It's Radio Paradise (http://www.radioparadise.com). To me it's like a musical sundae. Why? Glad you asked.

To call this station eclectic is not really a fair label. It has the substance of some really cool, current tracks (the ice cream). But over that is a fantastic layer of fudge sauce classics. No this is not station that will be playing any candy floss hair band 80's stuff. Nope, they play 'the good stuff'. From classic Neil Young, Bob Dylan etc., to more obscure stuff that you might not have heard before but is totally cool (Vieux Farka Toure doing a version of U2's Bullet The Blue Sky).

Like any sundae there are a few tasty bonuses sprinkled on top. I don't know many stations where you can go from a post-punk, country, Latin, kitchen sink sounds of Alejandro Escovedo, to a trip hop adventure with Portishead, to a masterful Miles Davis track...in seven minutes or less!

And the cherry on top? The artists you may never have heard of but are making GREAT music. Calexico, Yoshida Brothers, Vieux Farka Toure...I could go on.

Unlike a regular sundae, Radio Paradise changes it's flavor all the time. They tend to theme a set of tracks. Sometimes it is an obvious theme, other times not so much. But it's always interesting, often unpredictable and always pays off with some great music. Definitely a taste sensation!

You can check out Radio Paradise in the Top Stations category of the Internet Radio area in Pocket Tunes 4 Deluxe. The trial version of Pocket Tunes allows you to try out this and other great station in the Internet Radio catalog. So if you don't have Pocket Tunes Deluxe yet, you can give the trial a try and check out some great music!

- Dave, Director of Quality Assurance and Customer Support