Rhapsody for the N800 (and maemoapps.com)

Last night I started playing with Rhapsody for the Nokia N800. I downloaded it from the Tableteer page and activated a 30 day trial subscription and was playing music in under 5 minutes.

I discovered that it was a great little radio tuning service, but the flaw was that it did not store any of the music locally so could only tune when connected.

Using Verizon's EV-DO via a Bluetooth DUN connection allowed me to stream music, but there was about a five second buffering time between tracks. This means it does not pre-buffer the upcoming track: Only the currently playing one.

I was going to write a full review with a video tonight, but maemoapps.com beat me to it! They even included a video! Here's my mini-evaluation:

Pro:

• Smooth, intuitive interface.
  
• Large, on-demand music selection.
• One subscription for your tablet, PC, or laptop.
• Remembers playlists.
• Takes little internal storage on the N800.

Con:

• Does not buffer songs in a playlist for smooth playback.
• Does not work with all your existing music files.
• Requires a monthly fee.
  
• Limited selection of esoteric artists.
• No option to store files locally for offline playback.

For Rhapsody users, the N800 offers the perfect little desktop radio solution. For people who aren't always in WiFi range, a 4GB SD card with Canola may be a better bet.

On another note, check out the rest of maemoapps.com and their YouTube profile!