Kinoma Notes

Continuing a fine Kinoma tradition, holiday music is once again available in Kinoma Guide!

Through the rest of 2009, just visit the Music > Holiday Music category whenever you need an extra boost of holiday spirit.

We hope everyone reading this has a safe, peaceful, and joy-filled holiday season.

(If you have other favorite holiday music streams we should inclulde, just let us know and we’ll gladly add them.)

SomaFM is independent, commercial-free internet radio. We humbly offer that the best way to listen to SomaFM is on the world’s best radio — Kinoma Play.

If you love music, you’re bound to find a favorite steam or two at SomaFM.

As I write this, SomaFM has 20 unique channels of digital wonderfulness featuring underground electronica, chillout, ambient, downtempo, lounge, space music, indie rock, alt.country/americana and more.

Check out the full list in Kinoma Guide at Radio > SomaFM, or with your web browser at somafm.com.

aacPlus

A couple of their channels are available in the forward-looking aacPlus format, the “new MP3” that enables higher quality with smaller streams.

Kinoma is helping to pioneer aacPlus as the new standard for mobile streaming, and we’ll continue to work with SomaFM to bring even more of their channels to you in this exciting format.

Got favorite podcasts? Radio stations? Video streams?

Send a URL and short description to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy!

Just last week, Nokia launched the new Nokia E72 smartphone. This week, see how Kinoma Play turns the mild-mannered Nokia E72 (and other Symbian/S60 phones) into a mobile media monster.

We really like the E72. It’s built like a tank, and many of us are fans of its messaging-centric form factor. We think you’ll agree that with Kinoma Play installed, this phone really does it all.

(Did you know you can syndicate this video on your own site? Click the YouTube logo to go to the video’s YouTube page, then get the embed code below its description. Tip: Click the “gear” icon to optimize the size of the video for your site.)

Kinoma Guide’s SKY.fm category is a great collection of streaming radio stations. There’s lots of genres, and yet the refined selection makes it easy to find the kind of music you’re in the mood for.

We’ve just released a new Kinoma Guide update that adds all currently-available SKY.fm and DI.fm (Digitally Imported) stations in all available stream formats — including aacPlus.

aacPlus?

AAC is the standards-based successor to MP3. It offers far higher-quality than MP3 at similar bitrates.

Kinoma Play is the only mobile player that supports not just AAC, but also the even more-advanced aacPlus and aacPlus v2 (a.k.a. HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2) formats.

The SKY.fm streams are available in both MP3 and aacPlus formats. Even though the aacPlus streams are 75% smaller (!) than the 96 kbps MP3 streams, they still sound great. Such a low-bitrate stream makes for great reliability, even in very poor network conditions.

Wow, great! Where do I find it?

You can find SKY.fm in Kinoma Guide > Radio.

Got favorite podcasts? Radio stations? Video streams?

Send a URL and short description to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for everyone to enjoy!

Good eeevening, boo-s and ghouls!

Your timing is perfect — we’re handing out treats a night early this year. You’ll find them in Kinoma Guide > Featured > Halloween Treats.

• Big R Radio Halloween Channel — A streaming radio station featuring songs like Ghostbusters, Elvis singing (You’re The) Devil in Disguise, Neil Sedaka’s Little Devil…you get the idea.
• Coverville Annual Halloween Shows — Spooky cover versions of songs from some of the podcast’s annual Halloween shows, including Dead Man’s Party, Ghostbusters, The Theme From “The Munsters”, Monster Mash, Thriller, and selections from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Halloween Atmosphere — Play this streaming radio station for a spine-curdling soundtrack to your Halloween activities. (Dare you to listen to it in the dark!)
• Halloween Radio and Halloween Oldies — More streaming spook-tastic Halloween radio.
• Thriller — Not only do you get the great cover version above, but you also get the entire official Michael Jackson video opus. This scared the candy corn out of my sister and me when we were kids, and it’s still frighteningly fun.
• War of the Worlds — This is the entire 1938 radio dramatization that shocked the world and created nationwide panic among confused listeners, many who missed the warning that it was a dramatization since they tuned in after listening to Charlie McCarthy on another station. For those people, it felt like the beginning of the end.

Have a happy, safe Halloween!