Radio is the oldest form of automotive electronic entertainment -- and the original driver distraction that some people sought to ban when it was first introduced. Now an internet connection through a smartphone has breathed new life into the 80-year-old technology and makes it possible to listen to favorite local and distant stations and other content in the car.
The free iheartradio app for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices is a mobile extension of the similarly named website that's part of the broad reach of terrestrial radio giant Clear Channel. And while it allows tuning in, say, a New York City station while cruising the California coast and also get features such as album art, celebrity deejays and exclusive video content, for the most part you still have to endure all those annoying commercials.
The main screen of the iheartradio app allows accessing local stations, searching by city or genre, tuning in celeb stations and content by other radio personalities, getting premium content from people like Dr. Laura and Sean Hannity and checking out daily features such as exclusive videos.
The local stations are mostly limited to Clear Channel affiliates. So conservatives can't expect the app to fetch FOX News and progressives can't tune in NPR. And mixed in with local stations is content from the Personalities tab, such as Sixx Sense with Nikki Sixx and the Obama-bashing White House Brief.
The All Cities tab lets you stream stations from dozens of metro area as well as hot spots like Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, while Genres covers everything from Alternative to Hawaiian music and also includes video content. A Favorites tab at the bottom of the app allows saving stations and songs you like so that you can easily call them up later, and the Shake It tab performs a roulette-wheel spin of adjacent cities and genre columns to randomly land on some combination of the two. A Settings tab can be used to clear the app's autoplay memory and to report issues.
The iPhone version of the app also allows iTunes Tagging and stations are streamed in Apple's AAC format, which while not the best quality is big a improvement over FM audio. That is, unless you stream the service to your car's stereo using an FM transmitter.
ralphhightower says:
02:51 PM, 10/24/10
If I can find a radio station that streams "Sam's Garage" http://www.samsgarage.com/, then I need to buy a Blackberry or an Android!
imag1 says:
12:53 PM, 10/25/10
If you don't want commercials, use XiaaLive, which uses ShoutCast radio: http://www.xiialive.com/. I believe it's Android only.
I have no affiliation, I just like the app. And when I had a fix, I emailed the programmer and he responded immediately, and was really nice. That's worth something.
viss1 says:
05:59 AM, 10/27/10
People still listen to commercial radio?