Cool Tool of the Week: PandoraBoy for Macs: The Social Path

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David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie & Company. He's also a contributing editor to Adweek's blog, AdFreak.com.
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Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie who can usually be found knee-deep in analytics and sarcasm.
Contact: E-mail | Twitter

Welcome to this week's installment of Cool Tool of the Week, a plain-English pitch for stuff I think you'll find useful. This week's winner is PandoraBoy, a free download that lets you listen to your favorite music from just about anywhere (in the United States) with Internet access.

How it describes itself: "Love Pandora.com, but tired of having to run it a web browser? Ever wish you could control pandora without even being at your computer? Well then look no further."

How I'd describe it: An amazingly simple download that lets you listen to music you love — for free. It's like a collection of radio stations that adapt to your tastes and help you discover other great bands.

How our IT manager would describe it: "A bandwidth-devouring tool of the devil. If everyone starts using it here at work, I'll post your entire Web browser history on the lunchroom fridge."

Getting started: Just visit this Google site and click on the link under "Featured Downloads." There might be more than one choice. I tried the newest version (called PandoraBoy-0.5.2.dmg), and it worked fine. Open the download, double-click the icon, and you're all set.

To start listening to music, simply enter the name of a favorite song or band. Based on what other fans have liked, the software will try to guess other songs you might enjoy and that are similar to your first pick.

Why you'll use it: Pandora.com is a great service, but it's a bit annoying to always have it open in a Web browser. This handy tool lets you enjoy all the benefits of Pandora without any hassle. You can network with friends, share favorites, create multiple stations for your many moods, etc. And if you find something new, you can easily click to buy it on iTunes or Amazon.

Shortcomings: Sadly, it only works in the U.S. Also, this download is for Macs only. But if you're on a Windows PC, you can try the similar PandoraBrowse, recommended by the tech junkies at Lifehacker.

In summary: If you've ever dreamed of having easy access to unlimited music that you're destined to love, then this is the download for you. And if you're our IT manager, this is your chance to redirect all my bookmarks to Jonas Brothers fan sites.