Pandora, described as a custom Web radio service, has been quite well-received over the years. Though it started off solely as a Web page catering music streams based on users’ personal musical preferences, it’s grown to provide a voluminous catalog to everyone from PC owners to mobile broadband subscribers to those keen on bringing Web-based audio to their home theatre systems in streamlined fashion. This week Pandora added another option for listeners, once more with a focus on computer users, through the release of an Adobe Air application called Pandora Desktop Beta.
Suffice it to say that upon installation of the browser-less utility Pandora loyalists will feel right at home. Within the confines of the Adobe Air platform, Pandora is virtually indistinguishable from its ancestor. It only seems to lack a subtly-placed square button, in evidence in the browser version, which would be useless for Desktop Beta users anyhow. So, on the whole, Pandora Desktop Beta is a carbon copy of the original.
In the brief time I spent with the Air application, I came across no flaws to speak of. It functions the same as it would in, say, Firefox or Internet Explorer. It should be said that the links located within the topmost menu on the page will trigger your default Web browser installations, rather than open within the application, which may annoy some users. But if music is your main focus, not sharing a QuickMix or reading the company blog, then Pandora Desktop Beta will prove useful in most circumstances. And I wouldn’t think it too far-fetched to say that more refinements to the download are in the works.