App name: RadioTime by RadioTime, Inc.
Description: Enjoy the largest selection of radio in the world, now with more than 30,000 stations streaming live. You’ll find hundreds of music formats, talk personalities, national networks like BBC, NPR and SWR, podcasts, live sports, news, weather, even scanners.
How it works: If you’re tired of just listening to your old MP3s now you can get RadioTime and listen to all sorts of radio like local stations or stations in Europe or Asia.
Once you have some stations looked up you can save them to presets. On the station screen you can select the stream rate, see schedules (or talk or sports radio), gives a option to see other stations you may like based on selecting that station and reporting a problem.
The initial stream rate varies with different stations are automatically 64k or better some have varying stream rates. Also it shows a time left on some stations which may be a daily timer but I couldn’t find any details on the RadioTime or the RadioTime website. The app doesn’t have any ClearChannel stations because they are associated with the IHeartRadio Android app.
This is a paid app for 1.99.
Opinion: After listening to the app for awhile it is great. But one caveat is that it is great when it works. Some streams have a tendancy to just stop and getting them has given me FCs. Sometimes choosing a different radio station gives me a FC also, which is frustrating for a paid app. The website does mention to use the report a problem link but sending multiple emails to report simple things like streams cutting out can be frustrating, but glad the developers are giving a route to report problems.
The stream quality is very good I listened with my headphones and was impressed. I am hoping to see it last longer cause I would like to use it listen for things I cant get on my MP3 player like AM stations.
Ratings:
- Speed (3.5/5) – Once you select a station the streams open quickly and I haven’t noticed any lag with multiple stations tried. FCs with selecting a new station or after a stream cuts out is frustrating.
- Features (3/5) – There isn’t any settings or info screens and it could use a widget.
- Theme (4/5) – Basic UI but it shows album art.
- Overall (3/5) – RadioTime is a great app for radio. But needs works to fix the multiple FCs that are occuring.
Pros:
- Good stream quality
- Lots of radio stations to choose from
- Album art displayed while playing
Cons:
- FCs when choosing new radio stations sometimes and after streams cut out.
- Needs a desktop widget
Conclusion: RadioTime is the best radio app I have found. IHeartRadio never worked for me so getting FCs can be frustrating but the stream quality and the fact I have a lot of radio to listen to with this app makes up for that. Just give this app a widget and fix the transitions I will be very happy.