DR. GIRLFRIEND  When it's working, PandoraJam is fantastic. It's paid for itself many times over in my mind, by helping me discover new music and turning me on to new bands without the added burden of having to run a browser in order to use the Pandora.com service.

That being said, there are some quirks that you should be made aware of:

-Not compatible with ClickToFlash

-BetterPrivacy (Firefox addon) needs to be carefully configured to keep PandoraJam running smoothly.

-Flash Player's Settings Manager needs to be carefully configured to keep PandoraJam running smoothly.

-Little Snitch needs to be carefully configured to keep PandoraJam running smoothly.

If you're the least bit privacy conscious and feel the need to clean your system's cache, you're going to notice some weirdness as far as PJ is concerned. Tips:

-ClickToFlash. Turn it off while PJ is running; it's too much trouble to run simultaneously.

-In BetterPrivacy, make sure you protect the pandora.com folders and the settings.sol folder. Unfortunately, you'll also have to allow clearspring super cookies for the PJ app to run.

-Go to the Flash Player Settings Manager here:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html

Follow these tips here:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcs4kx8q_21dtz8dt

http://blog.pandora.com/faq/

-In Little Snitch, Allow TCP connections (for PandoraJam) through ports 443 and 80 on everything PJ asks to connect to except: google-analytics, onestat, doubleclick, and beacon.

4 out of 5 stars because the dev is not very responsive to support questions. Nevertheless, Enjoy!  
(Version 1.4b290)

ROBK  This is a GREAT program to listen to Pandora but it is NOT a great program for recording Pandora and importing the tracks into iTunes.

The big problem lies with the NEW codec that Pandora is using to stream music. As of 2007, Pandora uses AAC+ and streams at 64 bps.

AAC+ is a GREAT codec but unfortunately iTunes does NOT support it NOR can you add it via Perian etc. Yes, you can play back the AAC+ tracks in iTunes BUT at with POOR audio quality. All the treble is GONE. (iTunes can play back the AAC+ tracks BUT at a low 22050 sampling rate. POOR).

If you want to play back the AAC+ tracks properly (with all the treble at the 44100 sampling rate), you will need to use either VLC or Songbird.

Ideally, PandoraJam should have an OPTION to convert the recorded AAC+ tracks into regular AAC files (or MP3 files) BEFORE importing them into iTunes. It does NOT.

P.S. To my knowledge, there are NO easy to use programs on the Mac that will convert these AAC+ tracks into regular AAC tracks. (Audialhub, Switch or QT will not do it). But you can do it via the command line using the FAAD2 program which you can install via fink or darwinports. FAAD2 will convert the AAC+ tracks to WAV files. You can then use any Mac audio conversion to convert the WAV files into MP3, regular AAC files etc.  
(Version 1.3b250)

ROBK  If you are not a Pandora One subscriber, Pandora streams the music in AAC+ (or HE-AAC) format. The NEW iTunes 9 is supposed to be able to play the new AAC+ (or HE-AAC) format.

But for some reason the AAC+ tracks recorded by PandoraJam do NOT play back as AAC+ (or HE-AAC) tracks in iTunes 9 or 9.0.1. According to iTunes, the sample rate of these trcaks is 22050 Hz (not the 44100 Hz it should be). In other words, all the high notes are lost.

I am not sure whether this is a bug in iTunes or Pandorajam. But I do hope the developers of Pandorjam find a fix or workaround.  
(Version 1.4b290)

DR. GIRLFRIEND  Thanks for the update, Bitcartel, but the issue still persists: if "Tag recording with album artwork" is NOT selected, the artist and song title is added to iTunes under the same field (Name). Also, the album title is not tagged at all.

Workaround for users who prefer to apply their own higher quality album art is to keep "tag recording with album artwork" selected in PandoraJam, then manually remove the PJ applied coverart while in iTunes, and reapply higher quality album art with iTunes or the tagging app of your choice.

Still no 64bit love either :(  
(Version 1.4b290)

LVWOLFMAN  I've tried several other Pandora apps including the official Pandora program and while they all worked well, I like PandoraJam the best. Basically they all do the same things... recording to iTunes is frosting. Well worth the $15.  
(Version 1.3b256)

EODTECH  Some recent updates to PandoraJam..

* Pandora One support. If user is a subscriber to Pandora One, recordings are high quality 192kbps MP3 , exactly as broadcast.

* Genre tag is now set on recordings.

* Recordings are added to the correct playlist if user changes radio station at end of track

Pandora has also has an upgrade to itd free service. " Pandora One " service has a few added benefits - increase timeout increased from 1 to 5 hours, you get high quality streaming at 192kbps, no pesky advertising.

I had a couple nuts and bolts questions for the Pandorajam developer - he answered my inquiry in one hour and five minutes.

This application pays for it self in the first half hour of down loads, which go right on to your iPod or iPhone - a BIG savings here.

Pandorajam is also supported in Growl, another nice touch.

This is probably the the first Mac application that has put money IN my pocket, with no more $$$ going toward iTunes.

a true 5 star application for your Mac, you really need to register this software - it's money in your pocket.  
(Version 1.3b256)

SSNICKERER  Anyone else having trouble hiding PandoraJam? I press cmd-H, the window becomes inactive, the application "next in line" becomes active, but the window simply does not go away.

Else, PJ = teh awesome!  
(Version 1.4b291)

DR. GIRLFRIEND  Bug: Tag recordings with album artwork implants album art even if this option is turned off.  
(Version 1.4b291)

ROBK  Here are the release notes:

Version 1.4 (build 290)

What's new:

Fixed issue where on launch, loading the music player could take a long time

Workaround a Snow Leopard issue where closing or hiding the window results in stream of error messages logged with system.  
(Version 1.4b290)

STILL_SPARKLING  After months of flawless performance, PandoraJam is giving me problems.

1. Does not auto load my user account and stations unless I specifically open Pandora.com via my browser (Firefox or Safari) and sign into the pandora.com website first. I then have to close the browser and re-open PJ. If I don't login via the browser first, PJ stays in the "new user" state and doesn't respond to attempts to login from within the program. Very annoying!

2. Song and artist info are garbled together in the “Song” field in iTunes; this makes it necessary to manually edit each recorded item and separately download cover art too. Ugh!

3. Sometime iTunes will not auto open even if the songs from PJ are set to auto record.

4. App does not respond to clicks on the menu (i.e. thumbs up, thumbs down, skip song, etc.).

5. Tons of errors in Console (but that’s nothing new; previously I just ignored them because the app worked fine). Ex. 8/3/09 2:49:52 PM PandoraJam[5113] *** -[WebHTMLView sendNullEvent]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0xd849db0 or 8/3/09 3:01:09 PM [0x0-0x24d24d].com.bitcartel.pandorajam[5248] AtomicParsley: option `--genre' requires an argument.

All of these things used to work properly prior to this version. I do not have a PandoraOne account and wonder if these bugs are due to the implementation of new features for PandoraOne users.

I wish I’d kept my previous version. Does anyone know where to download the older, more stable versions?  
(Version 1.3b256)