New or updated freeware goodness for iPhone and iPod touch users

Jan 8, 2009 12:01 GMT  ·  By

Pandora Radio, a personalized Internet radio service, has been updated to version 2.0, adding the ability to create a station from the current song or artist, or based on genre. This and two more freeware picks for iPhone and iPod touch users are described below. The apps' titles are also direct download links via the iTunes App Store.

Pandora Radio

Pandora now includes artist biographies, streaming samples of bookmarked songs, a song progress bar, and other features, including the duo mentioned in the introduction. The application acts as your own personalized radio that can stream music on your iPhone. You simply tell it the name of one of your favorite artists, songs, or classical composers, and Pandora will create a “station” that plays their music and more music like it. It's that simple!

“Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Projectm,” the app's developer writes on the Pandora website. “It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together, our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song.”

Pandora is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch, and requires the 2.0 Software Update.

Thai Stock Watch

“Thai Stock brings the trading room with you,” the App Store description says. “Thai Stock enables you to view real time SET index, graph, and price on your iPhone. You can create your own stock lists, set threshold for alert.” According to its maker, Thai Stock Watch boasts the following capabilities:

- SET index; - Active Stocks; - Most active stocks; - Active Sector; - Gainer/Loser; - Alert setting; - Stock calendar; - Money Exchange rate.

Best of all, the finance application is free! So, if you're losing money in the trading room, at least you'll have some comfort in knowing that the tool showing you just that didn't cost a dime.

Thai Stock Watch is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch, and requires iPhone Software 2.0.

Wi-Fi Finder

“With more than 200,000 locations in 135 countries, JiWire's Wi-Fi Finder makes it easy to search for free- and pay-access Wi-Fi hotspots, wherever you are, or plan to be,” JiWire Inc reveals. JiWire’s app taps into the world’s largest verified registry of hotspots, making them all available on one Apple device. Users can also submit free-access hotspots themselves.

Wi-Fi Finder costs nothing to download and use, and is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. iPhone Software Update 2.0 or later is required to run the app.