Guys and gals, I�ve made some VERY serious tests.
First, my generic remarks:
[LIST=1][*]Will it receive aacPlus (aka AAC+ and HE-AAC) support some time? Right now, it only (fullY) supports the, in webcasts, very-very rarely used AAC streams. Sure, it does play aacPlus streams too, but downsampled and in mono only, while the vast majority of these streams are stereo, even at 24 / 32 kbps, and only really the slowest (around 10 kbps) are mono. (AAC decoders can be used to decode aacPlus at a much lower sound quality, as was also the case with the MP3 Pro / standard MP3 set-up.) And, of course, Music Player in the N95 already contains aacPlus support (a decoder) � why not use it?
This question is particularly topical as mainstream Windows Mobile players doesn�t really have HE-AAC support as can also be read HERE; some of the most popular ones (for example, Pocket Player) not even plain AAC support (as yet). Seamless aacPlus support on Symbian could be the killer application even for some WinMo users (if you want to make the platform more appealing to them, that is).
[*]The bug several of you�ve already reported, that is, app�s inability to start is a real pain in the back because it necessitates removing the app altogether and reinstalling it. You can very easily reproduce the bug (if you haven�t already run into it) by just clicking THIS 24k aac+ link. After you exit the radio player, upon a subsequent restart, it�ll no longer run and you�ll need to completely reinstall it. (Tested on the N95 with firmware version v20; tested with both the internal memory and the card)
[*]It doesn�t register the M3U extension, only PLS. This should be changed � after all, it�s SHOUTcast / Icecast / MP3-compliant and many radio stations use MP3.
[*]What about adding OGG support? 😉 In several countries, where aacPlus isn�t (at all) used, for example, Finland, it�s still the only way to converse bandwidth (as opposed to the about two time more bandwidth-wasting MP3 streams). (I whish I Finnish stations switched to aacPlus though so that they could become accessible with GPRS only.)
[*]I�ve created a demo web page where you can test the different stream types, M3U extension etc. It also links to some link repositories. It�s available HERE. [/LIST]
Second, in addition to my past tests (see THIS), some additional 24 kbps + GPRS power usage tests taking over an hour total:
A 24 kbps 44 kHz stereo aacPlus stream playback (of course, as there is no aacPlus support, only in mono and 22 kHz):
24 kbps 24 kHz mono MP3 stream playback:
Both via the built-in speakers (unlike with the prev. test, where I utilized A2DP too) at moderate volume.
As can clearly be seen, AAC and MP3 playback consume approximately the same power AND the results are pretty similar to those published earlier. (Don�t forget that these are 2G results, not 3G ones! A 3G connection would have had about 600 mW more power usage.)