The competition is really heating up in the streaming music space these days. What with players like Apple and Twitter setting their sights on the lucrative business, it seems like every streaming service in the industry is trying to step up their game.
And in recent months, the focus of these services has turned to their mobile apps. Hot on the heels of Apple releasing a beta version of its new iTunes Radio app, Rdio added some big new features to its iOS client. And today, Pandora followed suit…
Pandora updated its iOS app this afternoon, bringing it to version 4.4. Here’s your full change log:
• Stuck with a flaky connection? We’ve improved playback buffering to keep your favorite music stutter-free.
• Never miss another great song: if you mute your phone, we’ll pause your music for you.
• More links to more of what you love: all the URLs that work on Pandora.com now work just as well on your phone.
• Bug fixes and improvements to keep your music playing as it should.
I’m typically on Wi-Fi when I use Pandora, and if not I have great cell service, so I can’t speak to the playback buffering enhancements. But I can say that the new auto-pause feature is great. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s not more prevalent in other music apps.
As a whole, though, I still think Rdio’s app is much more user-friendly. In fact, I really just like the service better overall. But for those of you who like using Pandora, this is a solid update worth grabbing. And as usual, you can find it in the App Store for free.