I had big plans today. I was going to give a glowing review to Pandora, an Internet radio application for the iPhone that surpasses just about anything else like it. But this morning when I attempted to open the app, all I got was a dialog popping up that said, “Pandora cannot be opened.” It looks like after a weekend of tinkering with it, I broke it. Yup, I broke Pandora. 

I’ve heard of other people having this issue with their apps, as well. Seems like I just need to re-download it. But I digress. I will pretend this inconvenience did not occur and proceed with my review. 

Pandora is not new. It’s been online for quite sometime, but now on the iPhone it makes traveling with music–any music you want–much easier. Plus, it’s free. It works like this: 

• Open Pandora
• Click the + sign and type in the name of an artist or song title
• Let Pandora work its magic

Now, sometimes the song you want to listen to will play right away, or you’ll get something the Music Genome Project thinks you will like. This is a very intelligent program because while it may not always play the specific artist you requested, it will play you songs that are very similar–and will give you the reasons why it’s similar. And if it plays a song you dislike or feels is not related to your initial query, vote it a thumbs down. And be sure to give songs you like a thumbs up.

I spent hours playing with this app over the weekend and it’s fantastic. However, there were a few times when it got off on a musical tangent, though that was probably my fault for not voting each and every song. 

The only real drawback is you can only skip songs six times within an hour due to their music licenses. That’s a bummer, especially when it goes off on a Steely Dan tangent. Hey, no offense to Steely Dan, but that’s just not what I wanted to listen to when I typed in “The Eagles.” 

Oh well. Good app, nonetheless. Now, if I could only get mine to work again!

Update: Just reinstalled Pandora and we’re back in business!