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It’s always a good start to a day when I can write about my favorite BlackBerry app, Pandora, getting an update. It looks like they’ve made a few bug fixes and added a few new features, which is great. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add some of the current Web features, like the ability to add new artists to a station, but it does bring in better audio quality and the ability to select a high quality or normal quality feed, so you can tailor the the service to your current connection. Thanks to Bla1ze at CrackBerry for finding the change log.

• Significantly better audio quality over mobile network – now using stereo AAC+ (HE-AAC) for both Wi-Fi and mobile connections
• User preference option to select “High” quality stream (64kbit) over mobile network or “Normal” (32kbit) for slower connections. Default is 64kbit. Wi-Fi (if available) will always use 64kbit.
• Create Station screen now has auto-complete functionality as you type
• Added user preference option to enable or disable station auto-start
• Moved “Log Out” from main menu into Options screen, it now shows the currently logged-in username
• Visual overlay when changing volume, more easier to see actual volume level
• Application will check for correct application permissions on startup, and offer to set them to appropriate values if required
• You can now get to the “Options” screen from the menus of both the Station List screen and the Now Playing screen
• Storm: Downward swipe gesture on the Now Playing screen will dismiss the current visual ad (if any)
• Reduced download size of app by about 30-40%

And then there’s a list of bug fixes:

• Fixing problem on some Storm devices where song started over from the beginning after being interrupted by a system alert (phone call, SMS, email, etc)
• Fixed bug where Wi-Fi capable devices without a SIM card or data plan were not able to use Pandora over Wi-Fi
• Fixed reports of “low volume” settings not being low enough – the lower volume settings now go as quiet as possible before being muted
• Fixed bug where album art may not have been displayed for some tracks
• Mute button should now properly sleep the device when holding it down

You can get the BlackBerry Pandora app at pandora.com/blackberry. You’ll need to head there if you’re a new user or if you’re upgrading.

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