SPB Software announced today the release of SPB Radio, an internet radio application for Windows Mobile.  SPB Radio looks to provide a clean, finger friendly interface for taking advantage of streaming radio stations from the world over.  Using your device’s wifi or high speed data connection, you can choose from over 1,500 built in choices sorted by genre, location and language.  See below for the full SPB Radio press release and be sure to check back soon for my full, hands on review!

SPB Radio: A World of Radio in the Palm of Your Hand

St. Petersburg, July 30th, 2009 – SPB Software, a top mobile usability expert and mobile applications developer, releases SPB Radio – a high-quality Internet radio player for Windows Phones, which gives subscription-free access to an unlimited number of live streaming radio stations from all over the world. SPB Radio features a modern touch-interface with adaptive skins and on-screen controls. The application has a built-in catalog with over fifteen hundred radio stations, categorized by genre, geographical region, and language.

SPB Radio allows searching the built-in catalogue by name of station, keeping a list of favorites, and easily adding more custom radio stations to the catalogue. While playing, SPB Radio displays the current station’s name and bit rate. SPB Radio makes it possible to enjoy the most pressing international news, live sports, talk, and entertainment shows in remarkable digital radio sound quality. SPB Radio delivers the diverse voices of the world’s multitude of live radio stations directly to the speakers of mobile phones: anyplace, anytime.

Main Features of SPB Radio 1.0:

* Finger friendly interface
* Adaptive skins
* On-screen volume control
* Built-in radio stations catalog with 1500+ stations
* Easy setup of more custom radio stations
* List of favorites
* Digital radio sound quality
* Real time radio streaming
* Current Bit rate indicator
* Screen turn off

Pricing and Availability:

SPB Radio 1.0 is available for Windows Phones running Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional and Standard editions. A free, 15-day trial can be downloaded, or SPB Radio 1.0 can be purchased for 9.95 USD, from www.SPBSoftware.com. As a web radio player, SPB Radio requires an active Internet connection via Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, or EDGE.

Further Information and Downloads:

SPB Radio web page (Windows Mobile touchscreen):
http://www.spbsoftware.com/pocketpc-software/radio

SPB Radio web page (Windows Mobile non-touchscreen):
http://www.spbsoftware.com/smartphone-software/radio

Music news from the band Nine Inch Nails that I wanted to share since it’s my way of shamelessly plugging my favorite band iPhone- and Blackberry-App related. Currently on tour in Europe, frontman Trent Reznor shed some light on the NIN.com forum about iPhone App version 1.0.5 and the pending Blackberry application:

Blackberry NIN app / Android: the Blackberry version has been much more difficult than expected and will obviously not be done in time for any NIN shows. It’s not dead, but it’s not right around the corner. Android – the priority was on the BB version, so don’t hold your breath. Apple 3.0 bug-fix: finished for over a month but rejected by Apple a second time for reasons so stupid it’s not worth going into.

This isn’t the first time Reznor has encountered resistence from Apple. Perhaps developers and musicians out there can attain a breadcrumb of solace that when it comes to the riddle-filled maze of getting an app approved, we’re in this together.

WMExperts is reporting that Microsoft is sending the dubbing “Windows Mobile” packing with the release of their next major mobile OS update.  The rebadging that we will come to know will be “Windows Phone“.  To Microsoft with all sincerity, I say “thanks”.

Let’s take a moment to consider Microsoft’s wisdom here…  A few years ago I started working for a software company that specializes in mobile computing.  Myself being primarily a Palm OS user at the time, I had to learn a LOT about all of the different platforms that the company provided software for.  With solutions for all of the Windows Mobile incarnations being one of the supported platforms, I had to learn all of the different naming conventions.  Looking in from the outside, let’s just sum it up by saying that there was a fair amount of confusion as I mastered the differences between Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Professional, Windows Mobile Standard, Windows Mobile Classic, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone, and on and on and on and on.  Then we had 2003, 2003 SE, 5, 5.x, 6, 6.1 and the upcoming 6.5.  Looking down the road, 7.  Could it be any more confusing?!

In my opinion, “Windows Phone” makes sense.  It makes sense to me as a current user of Windows Mobile devices.  It makes sense to me as a former outsider looking in, trying to make sense of a completely non-sensical naming scheme.  Could Microsoft be trying to make their Windows Phone OS offering more appealing to outsiders?  Could the name change actually help perception?

What are your thoughts on this?  Let us know in the Comments section below!

Welcome to the newest series here at JAMM, 30 Apps in 30 Days.  Basically, the point is to get the ball rolling on the Palm Pre App Catalog.  To do that, we are going to cover a different app every day until we make our way through the entire App Catalog.  Now, some of you astute readers may have noticed that with the addition of two new apps earlier this week, there are actually 32 apps in the App Catalog.  While that is true…30 Apps In 30 Days just had a much better ring to it than 32 Apps In 32 Days.  So, the title stays, even with the addition of new apps in the store.

Without further delay, let’s get on with our first app, which is my favorite app on every platform: Evernote.   For those of you who are not familiar with Evernote, it is a universal-cross platform note taking program.  You can access Evernote from Windows, Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and plenty of other platforms.

Like many apps available for the Palm Pre, Evernote is a web-based app.  This means you must be connected to the Internet in order to access it.  None of your data is stored locally.  As you might imagine, this has pros and cons.  On the one hand, if you switch devices or computers, then you do not lose any data.  You can also access your data from any computer or mobile device in the world.  On the other hand, if you lose Internet connectivity for any reason, then you are out of luck.

When you access Evernote on the Palm Pre, you will be faced with a list of your notes.  While you can use the buttons on the bottom to switch between list view and tile view,  I was a bit disappointed to find no way to filter or sort notes.  In the online app, for example, I have created different notebooks  in order to sort my notes.  It would be nice if I could view only the notes in individual notebooks on the Pre.  It does help, though, that you can search for a specific note by simply typing a keyword.

From the Pre, you can also instantly create a new online note (text note, snapshot,or photo roll).  Just tap the “+” icon and select which type of note you are creating.  For those of you who are wondering, a snapshot note will take a picture with the 3 megapixel camera; while the photo roll note will use a picture which is already stored on your device to create a new note.

One nice thing here was that unlike reviewing notes, you can save a new text note in any notebook associated with your account.

I was absolutely thrilled to find Evernote in the App Catalog, and I installed it so quickly, I almost forgot it was not included originally on the Pre. Evernote for Palm Pre is available as a free download from the Palm Pre App Catalog.

For several years now, GPS devices and GPS enabled phones have been a part of our lives.  It all started out with having a GPS navigation device in our automobiles to help us get from here to there.  Now, we have smartphones and dumbphones that incorporate this technology in the palm of our hands.  We use it to navigate around, sure; but we also use it for other things as well.  We use it for tagging our photographs, our tweets, and other things.  Take a look at the iTunes App Store at how many apps rely on pinpointing your location with the GPS.  It truly has become a technology that has far exceeded its original purpose.

Now, the company that makes the chips for GPS devices, SiRF Technology has came out with a brand new chip: the SiRFstar IV, which touts many improvements that could help all of us that utilize this fantastic technology.  According to the manufacturer, this new chip consumes 20 times less power than its previous model.  The updated chip will also take less time to get a lock on its position, due to a lower power state.  The new chip is also cheaper than its predecessor, which makes it very attractive.

All of these new features make it seem like this new chip is a perfect fit for a smartphone, which is exactly what SiRF Technology wants.    Recently, phone manufacturers have moved away from a dedicated GPS chip to an AGPS setup, which relies on cell tower triangulation to fix your position.  This new chip appears to be a response to this trend, and an attempt by SiRF Technology to reintigrate true GPS into smartphones.

I believe that SiRF Technology’s new chip is a step in the right direction.  Assisted GPS is okay; but if a dedicated chip with these specs was placed in a smartphone, it would offer a quite an improvement.   This new chip would signfiicantly cut those times down, if not out.  That would be so nice!   The right direction is faster locking, less battery, and dedicated chip.  Hopefully we will start seeing this one make its way into some of the upcoming smart phones soon.  What do you think?