Nokia kicks off mobile Internet radio

Nokia today gave owners of its 3G smartphones a new alternative for music with the launch of its self-run Internet Radio service. The software is built not just to stream radio directly to the phone but also to encourage finding new music through filtering radio stations: users can not only sort the "hundreds" of stations Nokia says it lists by their names or genres, but narrow them down to specific countries or even languages; top ten lists also let users find stations based on their popularity. Like many streaming services, Nokia's service also features track data whenever available.

The app supports bookmarking favorite stations and letting users pick stations that match the bandwidth of their Internet connections, preventing audio drop-outs on the fringe of service. The radio software is a free download for the N82, N91, N95, and the N95 8GB as of today but should work with future hardware and should be preloaded on some upcoming handsets.