If there was ever an App that screamed "let me run in the background", it's Pandora Radio. Although I've had this App for quite a while I've never really gotten into it until now. Pandora is a like a customizable personal internet radio station. You simply identify artists that you like and Pandora will start playing songs by that artist at random and other songs that are similar that you might like. You can give a song a thumbs up to hear it and more like it again or a thumbs down to never hear it again. After a while of this type of voting Pandora will get pretty good at knowing what you like to listen too. Sounds great right? The only problem up until iOS 4 was that on the iDevices Pandora always had to run in the foreground meaning that you couldn't do anything else while it was running. That all changed this past Monday when Pandora released their latest update and Apple released iOS 4 with Multitasking for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
Start Pandora playing and then go do something else
Just like the iPod App, you can now start a track playing in Pandora and hit the home button to go to another App while the music keeps playing. If you double tap the Home button you'll be able to see the other apps running for quick switching and if you slide them to the right you can access the Pandora audio controls without having to return to the Pandora App. If you hear a song you like you can tap a link, to bookmark the song or have it take you to the iTunes store to search for the song automatically and all while the music keeps playing. Pandora is also a "+" App, which means it runs natively on the iPad too.
Is Pandora really free? Well yes for most people. The App is definitely free. However, your Free account only get's you 40 hours a month of "free" listening. After that, it's either 99¢ to finish out the calendar month or you can pay an annual fee of $36. However, according to Pandora most people never hit this limit. I never even knew there was a limit until a friend of mine told me that she hit it because she listened to it non-stop at work all week long (40 hours). More details here.
Pandora Radio is now what I would consider a Must Have App for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It's FREE and available here from the 
Pandora Radio
Pandora Radio is a FREE personalized Internet radio station in the palm of your hand.
- Pandora Media
- Get on App Store
- Free
All info was collected on 23rd June, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
I just downloaded iOS4 for my iPod touch 3rd Gen. I have the mulitaksing feautre and can switch between apps with the double tap of the home key, but when trying to keep Pandora open in the backgrounnd as you suggest, it stops the music. When I come back to Pandora it skips to the next track and starts playing again. I was also hoping to do the same with Skype. Open it up, start a call, then switch to another app while I’m talking, by having Skype run in the background. When I switch apps with Skype it hangs up the call and signs me out of the account. Is multitasking supposed to work with the iPod touch? Or do I not have some setting turned on to let me do this. So far, just being able to switch apps isn’t what I wanted. I actually wanted them to run in the background like you are saying you can do with Pandora.
Thanks for any advice or help. Your information is always excellent.
Did you download the latest version of Pandora?
Skype hasn’t been updated yet. Apps will only run in the background if they’ve been updated to do so.
Pandora’s inability to multi-task on my iPod touch 2G illustrates that Apple’s claim that the hardware isn’t up to the task is nonsense. If iTunes can play music in the background, then so can Pandora.
Ditto for Bluetooth keyboard support. If device drivers for Bluetooth stereo sound can fit into existing RAM, then fitting in a mere keyboard driver is even easier. Apple just trying to muscle us into upgrading and my response is likely to be to talk friends into not going with Apple products, lest they get the same treatment.
The answer is easy. On the 3G iPhone and the 2G iPod touch, Apple should quit being paternalistic. Bluetooth keyboards and multi-tasking 1-2 apps should be an option. The pointy-headed Apple bosses should step aside and let us weigh the costs/benefits for ourselves.
when playing pandora on the iphone 4, does the sound only comes out on the right speaker and not on the left? Is the left one a mic and not a speaker?