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'NPR News' App Now Available in App Store

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Apr 12, 2001
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151508-npr-newscast.jpg


National Public Radio, a producer of news, talk, and entertainment programming, has launched an iPhone app to allow easy on-the-go access to its news articles, programs, and stations.

NPR's press release states that the app will offer users "the option to read, browse or listen to a robust selection of news stories and programs, or read and listen simultaneously if they choose."

The app's News tab shows the current top news stories and the ability to view more stories by category. The Newscast section allows users to listen to the most recent NPR Hourly Newscast. The Programs tab gives access to over 25 talk and entertainment programs, which can be streamed directly from within the app directly, or downloaded or streamed via the iTunes app through an included shortcut button. Users can also create a playlist of programs to listen to while browsing news stories. As with other third-party apps, audio played through the NPR app will not continue in the background once the app has been closed.

The Stations tab provides access to NPR radio stations across the country, including the ability to mark selected stations as favorites and use the iPhone's built-in GPS receiver and/or location triangulation to find the closest station.


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The NPR app is free and can be found in the App Store here (link opens iTunes). It is compatible with all iPhone and iPod touch devices running firmware 2.0 or higher.

Article Link: 'NPR News' App Now Available in App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/17/npr-news-app-now-available-in-app-store/
iphones4evry1

iphones4evry1

macrumors 65816
Nov 26, 2008
1,197
0
California, USA
I predict this will quickly rise into the list of Top Apps in iTunes. NPR is very popular. If you aren't familiar with NPR, download the App and test it out -you will be glad you did.
 
H

hartjo1

macrumors newbie
Aug 17, 2009
2
0
Does anybody know if this is a compliment to or a replacement of the current Public Radio Tuner app, also put out by NPR. Public Radio Tuner is a great app in theory, but the streams are completely unreliable. Hopefully this is a full replacement, but that seems unlikely since they jsut revamped PRT with a 2.0 version a month or so ago.
 
optophobia

optophobia

macrumors 6502a
Oct 26, 2007
877
24
Hudson MA
hartjo1 said:
Does anybody know if this is a compliment to or a replacement of the current Public Radio Tuner app, also put out by NPR. Public Radio Tuner is a great app in theory, but the streams are completely unreliable. Hopefully this is a full replacement, but that seems unlikely since they jsut revamped PRT with a 2.0 version a month or so ago.
Click to expand...

Not sure about you but my public radio streams are solid.
Might be your location, or your phone
 
swarmster

swarmster

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2004
640
113
hartjo1 said:
Does anybody know if this is a compliment to or a replacement of the current Public Radio Tuner app, also put out by NPR. Public Radio Tuner is a great app in theory, but the streams are completely unreliable. Hopefully this is a full replacement, but that seems unlikely since they jsut revamped PRT with a 2.0 version a month or so ago.
Click to expand...

Public Radio Tuner is not put out by NPR. NPR is one of a number of radio organizations that cooperated with Public Radio Exchange's development of the app. NPR News is NPR's official app.
 
H

hartjo1

macrumors newbie
Aug 17, 2009
2
0
I didn't realize that the PRX tuner was not put out by NPR. Thanks for the clarification.

I agree that the PRX application is great in many ways, but the streaming has been less reliable than under the 1.0 version. It may simply be that more people were "tuning in" by the time 2.0 came out. Most of my listening is during drive time, weekend, while I'm making dinner, and other "peak" times. Perhaps the "bandwidth exceeded" messages were indicating that too many people were on the stream. I don't know. But I tried several variations of the local stream (even the AM stream) and had the same issue. Switched the NYC stream, same issue.

What I can tell you is that I've been using the NPR app for an hour now and have not lost the stream once. Of course, I'm not losing the Public Radio Tuner stream either. Maybe because it's "off peak?" I'm not sure how streaming works as far as bandwidth is concerned, so it may be an issue that is entirely independent of the app.

Has anybody else had problems with WSHU/WHYY in southern Connecticut and Phili?
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
^^ My impression was that PRX Tuner used streams made available publicly by the NPR stations to begin with, and from that, I would guess that, just as far as the streams themselves go, that PRX Tuner and NPR News are using the same sources and would be affected similarly...

I was using NPR Tuner through 1.x and the early days of 2.x extensively, listening to it on my (walk) commute, but since I've been on a couple of months of R&R before starting my fellowship, I've slacked off some since I'm not waking up early in the morning and going anywhere. :eek: As late as June however I don't recall ever experiencing the server bandwidth exceeded issue. The problem I had was mostly that it was not that good at dealing with a dropped connection while going through staircases and then re-acquiring automatically on the other end.
 
F

fredf

macrumors 6502
Oct 31, 2008
277
1
for Canadians: CBC Radio

This is just out a couple of days ago. It's free.
Streaming of all CBC Radio and podcasts.
Easy interface and excellent.
 
TitoC

TitoC

macrumors 6502
Jun 15, 2007
311
26
hartjo1 said:
I didn't realize that the PRX tuner was not put out by NPR. Thanks for the clarification.

I agree that the PRX application is great in many ways, but the streaming has been less reliable than under the 1.0 version. It may simply be that more people were "tuning in" by the time 2.0 came out. Most of my listening is during drive time, weekend, while I'm making dinner, and other "peak" times. Perhaps the "bandwidth exceeded" messages were indicating that too many people were on the stream. I don't know. But I tried several variations of the local stream (even the AM stream) and had the same issue. Switched the NYC stream, same issue.

What I can tell you is that I've been using the NPR app for an hour now and have not lost the stream once. Of course, I'm not losing the Public Radio Tuner stream either. Maybe because it's "off peak?" I'm not sure how streaming works as far as bandwidth is concerned, so it may be an issue that is entirely independent of the app.

Has anybody else had problems with WSHU/WHYY in southern Connecticut and Phili?
Click to expand...

I have had the same issues here, except I live in Asheville, NC. When version 1 came out, I had streams that would hardly drop out. By the time version 2 came out, the streams seems to drop out about every 5 - 6 minutes.

When I had taken it on the road, visiting different cities, same problem. I hope that this app does better.
 
ThunderSkunk

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,814
4,036
Milwaukee Area
Sweetness.

Awesome! Now something to enjoy in the spaces between This American Life, Planet Money, & the Garrison Kieller podcasts. First rate productions, all.
 
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