Iphone radio application review:

***disclaimer:  all of these applications were tested on the AT&T 3G network for consistency***

AOL Radio (Free)

•  History and favorites contribute a lot to the overall experience and ability to recall
• One of the fastest and simplest app’s on the list
• Occasionally has trouble with connection errors
• Could really excel if it gained the ability to run in the background of other app’s

Pandora (Free)

•  Runs very smooth, fast and easy to understand (not a lot of extras)
• Functions very similar to the original player (tied with AOL for the most efficient player)
• Good aesthetics (very neat and simple album-art view)

Slacker (Free)

• Mobile player is easier to navigate (clean & organized) VS web-browser player (busy & messy)
• Fun and enjoyable album-dragging touched based interface
• Slightly slower buffer than AOL and Pandora

Last.FM (Free)

•  Effectively emulates the full web-browser experience from your pre-existing account
• Can feel a little bit crunched and cluttered in doing-so
• Can be devastatingly slow (loading and buffering)

WunderRadio ($5.99)

• Offers a listing of over 30,000 stations from around the world (including am, fm, web-only, EMS scanners, NOAA Weather Underground, Radio-Time, locomotive traffic and shortwave)
• Strong search function and Favorites list help keep this vastness in check
• Only displays an EQ, ‘related stations’ list and station logo in ‘Now-Playing’ mode

Tunin.FM (Free)

• Similar in principle to WunderRadio but on a smaller scale and ‘slicker’ user interface
• Gives users the option of selecting the stream rate (29k or 128k)
• Still very slow loads at either speed

iDeejay (Free)

• Spanish/Latin-American utility
• Mixes live programming with scrolling interactive headlines and accompanying photo albums with archived, downloadable podcasts all-in-one

College Radio Tuner (Free)

•  Good effort made by Intercollegiate Broadcasting Systems to help affiliates but it felt thrown together (used the very common ‘slot-machine’ style interface.
• Very slow, undependable and confusing
• Low-end distribution for student / volunteer based stations to can’t expect too much

Public Radio (Free)

• Listings organized by city (appropriate for terrestrial stations
• Effective GPS tracking
• Big easy to read button labels and very sharp cropped logos
• Not much else going on while playing

Corus Entertainment – powered by Stream The World (Free)

• Comprehensive listing of diverse terrestrial stations in Canada
• Well organized and very visual for stations (by city Or name) displaying frequency and logo in menu (huge advantage as opposed to the typical text based listings)..helps user make an earlier judgment of a station
• Suffers from varying bit-rates
• No ‘Now-Playing’ or Album art to keep user interested in coming back which is unfortunate as they have constant banner ads running

NPR Mobile (Free)

• Not typical radio player – distribution agent for ALL NPR podcasts
• Browse by topics, columns, series, programs or GPS for affiliates
• Directly stream a quicktime file podcast or read the accompanying RSS article
• Podcasts can occasionally experience slight lag

Stitcher (Free)

• Same idea as the NPR tool but hosts many more resources (CBS, Prairie Home Companion, Ask a Ninja, Onion, The Moth and many more sub-categories)
• Search function, history, source tracking vs. topic tracking, favorites
• Consistent podcasts but a little sluggish on the uptake
• Ads by google
• Good for those who do not want to sync and store podcasts on phone’s hard drive

Virgin Radio (Free)

• Simple extension of Virgin Record Store in-house music channel
• Super slow connection

XFM (Free)

• Literally did not work at all

105 Classics  & Radio 105 (Free)

• Miscellaneous streaming clients made available for ‘chunks’ of Radio 105 streams
• Very straightforward, inaccurate and unreliable  

Classic FM (Free)

• Another quickly assembled pot-luck of classical music
• Crashes frequently

Flycast (Free)

• Extremely visual with totally customized menus, banners
• Browse terrestrial by a detailed guide in genre, city or name with links to homepages
• Fun rating system
• Check ‘What’s On Now’ to get immediately directed towards major programs (Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh)
• Channel listing of major networks (FoxNews, CNN, etc..) where you can further search non-radio content
• Search function is a little clunky
• Good priorities:  uses most of its resources to get audio running, THEN brings in logos and info
• Banner ads on homepage but not in player
• Powered by SHOUTcast and need an account to use

SHOUTcast (Free)

• Barebones of Flycast
• Functions as almost as quickly as Flycast but encounters more connection issues

Iheartradio (Free)

• Feels like it was trying to copy-cat AOL in interface while trying to make it look a little flashier and therefore have sacrificed functionality
• Consistent great quality sound … that all too often just quits and drops connection or crashes the software
• Decent list of the Clear Channel stations; tag-able features
• ‘Shake It’ lets you mix up stations by genre and location to get a random fix

+Top 40 (Free)

• Not radio but provides functional top40 song/album listings (for US and UK) as accompaniment
• Direct links to itunes store fore more info

I would be happy to go into more detail or try to demonstrate some of these effects if you would like.  There was lots of variety across the board for these as far as purpose, but its not too hard to guess who came out on top as far as overall best based in speed, user interface, aesthetics, quality and draw (back to the player screen.)  Only a couple of rotten eggs really stood out in a group of fun and progressive applications.  I enjoyed this project and look forward to more like it.