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Catching up on my Android news this morning, I caught this post over at AndroidGuys that describes a new streaming radio service called FlyCast. It seems to be targeted at WiFi- and 3G-enabled smartphones, but they also offer a desktop client. For Windows and Mac users.

Initially I was disappointed, but then I noticed that FlyCast runs under Adobe Air. And since Adobe recently released an Air runtime for Linux…could it be that easy?! It turns out it is, so here’s how you can try out FlyCast yourself on Ubuntu Linux (I run 8.04, “Hardy Heron”):

1) Download the Adobe Air Runtime. As of this writing, it’s at Version 1.5.

2) Install Air. To do so, open a command line window, navigate to the downloaded installer (AdobeAIRInstaller.bin) and run the following two commands:

chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

This will open up a little installer window; follow the prompts, and within a few seconds Air will be installed.

3) Download the FlyCast air file. I think the easiest way to do it is on the command line, where you can type:

wget http://www.flycast.fm/air/badge/versions/FlyCast-1.air

4) Install the FlyCast client, by launching the “Adobe AIR Application Installer” (I found it under the “Utilities” section of the K menu) and selecting the file (FlyCast-1.air) you just downloaded.

From there, you can run FlyCast and start streaming. There doesn’t seem to be a registration or login required, though there is a place to do so if you have an account. So far, most of the channels I’ve checked out have been pretty damn sweet, though occasionally it seems FlyCast is just a frontend for streams that are already out there. I’ve noticed a few hiccups in the music, and one more-major complaint is that I can’t seem to figure out how to display Artist and Track information, or skip songs (FlyCast advertises unlimited song-skip as a feature). All told, though, it rocks enough to be worth checking out…

Update: After doing some more exploring tonight, I’ve noticed that song skipping seems to be on a per-channel basis; some allow it, some don’t. I’ve also confirmed my suspicion that the majority of FlyCast channels just pass through to streams already available elsewhere on the ‘net. To that end, I wish they’d offer some manner of submitting station suggestions – because it’d be pretty sweet if they had WBER‘s streams listed among the Rochester, NY channels…