iPhone Roadtrip Part 1: Entertainment

I ended up having to take a bit of a road trip this weekend. 4 1/2 hours last night, another hour to my destination this morning and then 5-6 hours home later today. Not terribly much in the scheme of things but certainly more than I am used to driving. What I discovered came as no surprise… the iPhone makes for a great traveling companion.

Yesterday’s drive was actually rather nice. It was a beautiful fall day in the Northeast, the roads were pretty much clear and my iPhone kept me entertained throughout most of the 4 1/2.

For the first part I listened to…

Pandora–

Streaming over the 3G (and sometimes Edge) connection worked rather well and Pandora didn’t miss a note.

I have been using it enough that my most common stations have really gotten to know my likes and dislikes. As a result I heard some of my favorite songs from someone of my favorite musicians but also heard new songs from some of my "about to be favorite" musicians.

Unfortunately, as I got toward South Jersey reception went south as well so I turned to Plan B-

iTunes Genius Playlists.

The new Genius Playlists in iTunes 8 (and available with OS X iPhone 2.1) have received mixed reviews. Personally, I love it!

Prior to leaving I had created a few Genius playlists in iTunes and then synced them over to my iPhone.

One playlist was built off a song by Duran Duran. As a result, while driving yesterday I got one 1980’s 2nd British Invasion song after another. Duran Duran, New Order, Depeche Mode. I heard song after song that had been favorites but had not reached my ears in years.

At one point I got a bit tired so I decided to put on something even a bit louder and faster. I had built a playlist off a song by the Kaiser Chiefs. That did the trick. A bit later I decided to build a Genius Playlist on the fly. I tapped the "Genius Playlist" icon in the playlists, selected a song from the list synced to my iPhone and in seconds I had a third playlist of excellent songs. In all, I found that I only skipped one song the entire time I was listening to my iPhone through the genius Playlists.

Finally, when I got to the inn where I stayed last night I turned on Saturday Night Live. OUCH! Boy has it gone down hill. Instead, I watched an episode of the BBC show Torchwood that I had purchased on iTunes. Much better.

In all, my iPhone served me well with regard to keeping me entertained yesterday. It is a good thing because I have no less than 6 hours of driving to go before the day is done.