I have of late been unhappy with the tools available to access Internet radio on the ol’ Treo. Windows Media Player Mobile does not access all file types and requires entering long URIs with a stylus and/or those teeny keybord buttons. Pocket Player (huh-huh, huh) is not too much better for that, neither. I was about ready to give in and buy one of those iThings because radio is about 97 percent what I use my gizmo for.
See, here’s my situation. I’m a webmonkey by trade. Now, when they named me thus at my organization, I tried to negotiate for a better title: Master of Time, Space, and Dimension (MTSD). I figured at least with that title, I’d have a better shot at getting an office with a window. No avail. So there’s no radio waves, satellite or analog, getting into my office. Now, they’ve lifted the restriction of streaming, but I still like to lean on my own unlimited data plan, for one because I don’t think the Web guy should set that kind of example, and for two because if I use my own radio all day, it gets me better versed on what my own hardware can do. So.
Enter…WunderRadio.
If you’re a radio bug with a Treo, Android phone or, iPhone, you’re going to want this thing. It flawlessly tunes in radio stations from all over the place. It can search for specific call letters. It can browse by genre and by individual program. And it tunes in without a furrowed brow or a “god-damnit.”
This thing lets me tune in just about anything I’d like aside from Howard Stern and Radio B.O.N.K., but I have other apps for those. I can get my moonbat radio programs, C-SPAN Radio AND all the SPANs as well, WTOP, WKSU, and just about anything. And it’s not a subscription service. You just plunk down a few bucks for the software. I don’t know how they can afford to do that…I’d pay for a subscription to this thing.
Of course, the standard warning applies: Have an unlimited data plan, or your radio obsession will put you into the poorhouse. But, tell you whut, I’ll be paying for this app. It is simple, it does only one thing and does it well, and it works. Can’t ask for more than that.
Next: FxIF.
This is a Firefox extension that extinguishes a frequent frustration in my professional life.
I often need to know how big an Internet graphic is. But most browsers do not give up this info in the Properties check by default. So, the old-fashioned way to find out this information was to save it to my hard disc, open it in Photoshoppe, then Image-Size; or to screenshot it and paste it into Photoshoppe and then Image-Size.
Which is just a little bit easier.
(I didn’t link to it because I don’t want to pick a bad Web site and lead anyone to a booby-trap. Probably best to get there with a search on “FxIF” from your “Add-Ons” menu.)
