Apple Considering Standalone iTunes Radio App for iOS 8

I literally thought of this seconds before it was published! I need iTunes Radio as a separated App.

I really hope that they rework Radio from the scratch. The featured stations section is not only hideous, but also extremely bothersome, since it hides all my stations at the bottom. Moreover, the extremely large cover arts of the stations make it impossible to see more than four stations at one time.

Just make it more like Pandora: list view, lyrics for most of the songs, no featured stations, better ads, etc. The only reason I use iTunes Radio is that I need a VPN to listen to Pandora. When it's available in my country, I'll switch instantly, for sure!

BasicGreatGuy said:

Either way is fine with me. My main gripe is what appears to be the limited selection of songs played.

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I experienced this too! The solution for this problem was to change the slider from hits to 'variety' or 'discovery' !




You can access this by clicking on the small 'i' in your 'Now playing' view.

I can just imagine whats going to happen this year at WWDC. "From today we're making iTunes Radio available to the following countries". I've been paying for iTunes match and not getting the same benefits as the Americans just so they can get a round of applause at WWDC.

Won't be renewing this year as i haven't been impressed with songs that don't match in iTunes playing the next track before the previous one even finished. Sharing my sisters Napster account which is much better.

hharzer said:

I literally thought of this seconds before it was published! I need iTunes Radio as a separated App.

I really hope that they rework Radio from the scratch. The featured stations section is not only hideous, but also extremely bothersome, since it hides all my stations at the bottom. Moreover, the extremely large cover arts of the stations make it impossible to see more than four stations at one time.

Just make it more like Pandora: list view, lyrics for most of the songs, no featured stations, better ads, etc. The only reason I use iTunes Radio is that I need a VPN to listen to Pandora. When it's available in my country, I'll switch instantly, for sure!




I experienced this too! The solution for this problem was to change the slider from hits to 'variety' or 'discovery' !


Image

You can access this by clicking on the small 'i' in your 'Now playing' view.

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Thank you for the tip. I appreciate it.

iapplelove said:

This would be great because I don't use iTunes Radio at all and I'm sick of iTunes opening to radio on all my devices no matter if I keep it running.

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I wonder why it does that, my devices all open the music app to whatever function I was using when I closed it.

I'd like just iTunes Radio full stop… I know iOS updates are free, and I shouldn't really complain, but I also upgraded to a iPhone 5S keeping myself in the ecosystem based on advertised features, that so far, have not materialised.

In their plans all along...

I believe that they planned to do this all along. It was simply easier to initially add it to the existing music app on iOS. Now that iTunes Radio is well known, it makes sense for them to separate it into its own app. They should only do this if it means that the service will work better.

If they do this, I'll likely stop using it. I want it conveniently in the music app, which is in my dock. I usually switch back and forth between my music and iRadio. I don't want to change apps to do this. Plus, it'll be shoved in a folder on my last page with the rest of Apple's useless apps.

Ludatyk said:

Of course, I am aware of that. But still it's an unwanted app that I don't care to use.

They are grabbing percentage of users using iTunes Radio from within the Music App why would they make a standalone app for it. Heck, if they go that route what's stopping them from making iMessage a standalone app since they can have a larger percentage of users using that.

I find it better for it being in the App Store and giving users a choice to download it or not, I don't use iTunes Radio at all.

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They should put it in the App Store but preinstall it. Or better yet, ask them to download the app during setup.

Chatter said:

I would probably like it free standing but its another app that cannot be deleted. Not sure how that balances in general. For ex, I never use the stocks app but I cant delete it.

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I have most of my apple apps in one folder. I use several of them regularly. I don't remember the last time I saw my stock app. It is in that folder buried, like it doesn't exist.

It makes sense to split out the radio to its own app. The phone runs on distinctive apps. I don't use the music app except for radio, so cleaning it up helps. Just like when they split off podcasts.

Ludatyk said:

Of course, I am aware of that. But still it's an unwanted app that I don't care to use.

They are grabbing percentage of users using iTunes Radio from within the Music App why would they make a standalone app for it. Heck, if they go that route what's stopping them from making iMessage a standalone app since they can have a larger percentage of users using that.

I find it better for it being in the App Store and giving users a choice to download it or not, I don't use iTunes Radio at all.

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iMessage is a stand alone app called messages. It also does text messages. It is not really a good comparison.

Still not sure about those folks hung up on an app they can't delete when it is trivially easy to hide it in such a way as you would never, ever, ever see it. That petty, and easily worked around, issue does not outweigh the real benefit of splitting out radio.

Arndroid said:

iMessage is a stand alone app called messages. It also does text messages. It is not really a good comparison.

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There's Facetime App and the Phone app.

iMessage can become a standalone app as well its the same thing.

I'm not up in arms about it..I just prefer it not to be a preinstall app, would prefer it being a choice.

Ugh... Enough with the needless splitting of apps.

Ihatefall said:

I hate iTunes Radio. Sometimes in the morning I plug in my headphones, double click the mic button on the headphones and iTunes Radio starts. All data plans are capped here in Japan so I am trying to save data.

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Softbank has had unlimited plans from 4200円 to 5400円 depending on 3G or LTE for as long as I can remember.

3G
http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/price_plan/3g/packet/

LTE
http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/iphone/program/iphone-5s/


My phone bill is less than 10,000円 ／ month and the only time I'm not using data is when I'm sleeping.


__________________________________________________________

Off topic...

Unfortunately you cannot share data between devices like I can when I'm in Canada on Rogers or something. I have one data plan and use iPhone iPad on one plan. This is impossible in Japan and you will get laughed at.

Japanese carriers also charge you a "sayonara" fee of 10,000円 simply to terminate a 2 year contract that has already expired. And...if you'd like to get your wife or mother to terminate the contract on your behalf say two weeks after you've left Japan for convenience sake forget about it. WTF?! I'm giving my Immediate family authorization to terminate!!!

I can't wait for Japanese carriers to suck it when everyone moves on to almost free Voip apps like I have already done. I have a Retina iPad Mini and iPodTouch using one GLOBAL Skype number that I use for work, banks etc. LINE/QQ/WeChat for friends/gf. Everyone can reach me and I only pay Skype $8?/month for the global telephone number. Between the Skype WiFi app and Starbucks free WiFi, I have phone service everywhere. That's not even including all the other free WiFi that exists everywhere.

I used to think I had to have a mobile signal all day everywhere until I realized that was crazy. I can afford to wait a few minutes to get to a cafe or connect with Skype WiFi etc.

Unless you urgently need real 3G/LTE for work/kids I urge everyone to ditch their carrier and send all these carriers a message.

10 years of paying these guys (for 2 devices on separate plans) could pay for a good chunk of tuition).

Why do you think FB paid $19 billion for WhatsApp and Rakuten bought Viber for almost 1bill and the list goes on? They know what the future is.

Enough of all these stupid pointless individual apps taking up space. Photos, videos, music and radio should all be in a media app which would bring us closer to a file system.

This obsession with splitting apps just for the sake of it is clutter for its own sake and goes against the idea iOS 7 was sold on. It is a lot more work switching apps than changing tabs within an app.

Ihatefall said:

They do if they install a jailbreak tweak called iTunes Radio unlimited!

Jailbreaking.....get into it

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I'm not leaving the stability and speed of 7.1 to jailbreak

Aluminum213 said:

I'm not leaving the stability and speed of 7.1 to jailbreak

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I've been jailbreaking ever since I learnt of it back in '09.

There's pros and cons of having it jailbroken as you stated the potential cons. I'd argue the pros outweigh the cons. But to each has it's own opinion. Back when iOS 7 was released and I was jailbroken on iOS 6... I took the plunge.

But with potential tweaks like ProWidget and Auxo 2, even the awesome keyboard tweak NinType, IntelliscreenX or BiteSMS... I'm ok with being jailbroken.

patent10021 said:

Image

Softbank has had unlimited plans from 4200円 to 5400円 depending on 3G or LTE for as long as I can remember.

3G
http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/price_plan/3g/packet/

LTE
http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/iphone/program/iphone-5s/


My phone bill is less than 10,000円 ／ month and the only time I'm not using data is when I'm sleeping.


__________________________________________________________

Off topic...

Unfortunately you cannot share data between devices like I can when I'm in Canada on Rogers or something. I have one data plan and use iPhone iPad on one plan. This is impossible in Japan and you will get laughed at.

Japanese carriers also charge you a "sayonara" fee of 10,000円 simply to terminate a 2 year contract that has already expired. And...if you'd like to get your wife or mother to terminate the contract on your behalf say two weeks after you've left Japan for convenience sake forget about it. WTF?! I'm giving my Immediate family authorization to terminate!!!

I can't wait for Japanese carriers to suck it when everyone moves on to almost free Voip apps like I have already done. I have a Retina iPad Mini and iPodTouch using one GLOBAL Skype number that I use for work, banks etc. LINE/QQ/WeChat for friends/gf. Everyone can reach me and I only pay Skype $8?/month for the global telephone number. Between the Skype WiFi app and Starbucks free WiFi, I have phone service everywhere. That's not even including all the other free WiFi that exists everywhere.

I used to think I had to have a mobile signal all day everywhere until I realized that was crazy. I can afford to wait a few minutes to get to a cafe or connect with Skype WiFi etc.

Unless you urgently need real 3G/LTE for work/kids I urge everyone to ditch their carrier and send all these carriers a message.

10 years of paying these guys (for 2 devices on separate plans) could pay for a good chunk of tuition).

Why do you think FB paid $19 billion for WhatsApp and Rakuten bought Viber for almost 1bill and the list goes on? They know what the future is.

Click to expand...

That was the way it was. Now if you use 7GB in one month, they slow you down to 128kbps. You have to pay to have the your speed brought back if want a usable speed for the rest of the month. Softbank is the worst of the 3, who will slow you down for 24 hours if you go over 1GB of usage in the pervious 24 hours.

They all do it now. It started with the release of the iP5, you had unlimited unless you used tethering then you had the 7GB cap.
Then with the release of the iP5S they got rid of the unlimited option altogether.
We decided to go with docomo because we like to go on trips to the countryside and docomo tends to have more coverage there. But softbank has way more coverage in the city.

Strangely enough in my speed tests, AT&T LTE was almost twice as fast as my docomo LTE.....

It's just another reason why I don't like it here, companies love to stick it to you anyway they can.

Oh and if you buy an unlocked iphone at the apple store and try to use it, you'll be only able to access 3G.....

Another icon to get lost, keep it in the music app, and while you're at it, combine that with the iTunes app, for optimum consistency, ay?

Pretty skeumorphic icon for a native Apple app these days, no??

This would make me actually use it less. Right now, it's part of an app that sits on my bottom row, but I don't have a spot free for another app. It would end up getting buried in my "Music" folder on my second page of apps, and I'd rarely ever touch it. Leave it alone, please!

Ihatefall said:

That was the way it was. Now if you use 7GB in one month, they slow you down to 128kbps. You have to pay to have the your speed brought back if want a usable speed for the rest of the month. Softbank is the worst of the 3, who will slow you down for 24 hours if you go over 1GB of usage in the pervious 24 hours.

They all do it now. It started with the release of the iP5, you had unlimited unless you used tethering then you had the 7GB cap.
Then with the release of the iP5S they got rid of the unlimited option altogether.
We decided to go with docomo because we like to go on trips to the countryside and docomo tends to have more coverage there. But softbank has way more coverage in the city.

Strangely enough in my speed tests, AT&T LTE was almost twice as fast as my docomo LTE.....

It's just another reason why I don't like it here, companies love to stick it to you anyway they can.

Oh and if you buy an unlocked iphone at the apple store and try to use it, you'll be only able to access 3G.....

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What you're talking about is called throttling and I'v never experienced it on Softbank. I know so because I also monitor my peer connections for nefarious reasons

Yes, we agree that Japanese carriers suck! lol I can't wait for them to come crawling to MaMa. Please help us, we're losing all our money to free Voip apps.

cmChimera said:

I don't mind it in the music app per se, but it takes one of my precious tabs. I use it just enough to not want to have to move it to "more" but I also want to put "songs" as a tab. Having it as a separate app solves my extremely minor first world problem. So I can dig it.

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You know hat could fix that? Bigger screen.

Traverse said:

You know hat could fix that? Bigger screen.

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True. Guess I won't have a problem anymore when I get an iPhone 6.