Radio app that streams in background doesn't let you use Safari

[Schtibbie]

Maybe everyone knows this.. I'm using a free streaming radio app from my local NPR station and it works great - EXCEPT that when you click on the "Background" button so you can do other things on the phone, it backgrounds through Safari. Then, it doesn't seem like there's any way to ask Safari to do anything else. You can't open a second window and surf the web.

Is this an inherent iPhone limitation or just the way these apps work? I thought the new 4.x os was to allow certain types of apps to truly run in the background. Does streaming audio not count - yet?

 

[iceterminal]

I would think that this is more of an issue with the app itself and not an issue with the iPhone. Has the app been updated for iOS 4.x that you know of?

 

[Schtibbie]

I would think that this is more of an issue with the app itself and not an issue with the iPhone. Has the app been updated for iOS 4.x that you know of?

I don't know how it could be an app issue. At the point where you ask it to "background", it opens Safari to play the stream and it quits itself as far as I can tell. At that point, Safari itself doesn't seem to allow a way to open a second Safari window to surf the web.

 

[BadaBing!!]

I would think that this is more of an issue with the app itself and not an issue with the iPhone. Has the app been updated for iOS 4.x that you know of?

I agree. I use some rdio app that work OK in background and yo can do anything you want while they are in background

 

[Daveoc64]

I think this is a limitation of Safari.

As you say, it cannot have another tab open when video or audio is playing.

The App you use probably just opens the radio stream in Safari. It might be able to open the stream directly if it was written differently, but there might be a technical reason why they had to do it the way that they did.

 

[Mliii]

I agree. I use some rdio app that work OK in background and yo can do anything you want while they are in background

This^. The app itself could have been written to run the radio stream instead of using Safari. There are plenty of other radio apps that allow for this seamlessly.

 

[scaredpoet]

I don't know how it could be an app issue.

It IS an app issue. The Safari loophole was something that was used by audio streaming apps prior to iOS4 to permit a limited type of backgrounding to happen. Since iOS4, apps no longer need to use Safari to do this. Note that there are plenty of streaming audio apps (SiriusXM, iHeartradio, Slacker, AOLRadio and even NPR's own streaming apps just to name a few) that don't use Safari to background stream and don't need to.

Your radio station needs to update their app. Or, you should download the NPR News app, which will let you stream shows from lots of NPR stations nationwide, and uses proper iOS4 background streaming. there's also the NPR Music App if music is what you're looking for.

 

[ecschwarz]

It IS an app issue. The Safari loophole was something that was used by audio streaming apps prior to iOS4 to permit a limited type of backgrounding to happen. Since iOS4, apps no longer need to use Safari to do this. Note that there are plenty of streaming audio apps (SiriusXM, iHeartradio, Slacker, AOLRadio and even NPR's own streaming apps just to name a few) that don't use Safari to background stream and don't need to.

Your radio station needs to update their app. Or, you should download the NPR News app, which will let you stream shows from lots of NPR stations nationwide, and uses proper iOS4 background streaming. there's also the NPR Music App if music is what you're looking for.

The ESPN Radio app still does this (well, it hasn't been updated for 4.0 yet...and it's a paid app)...The argument can be made that it is also a Safari limitation (nothing else while any audio/video is playing), but in reality, I'll agree with scaredpoet that they need to update their app.