24
Apr
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[New App] BBC iPlayer Radio Now Available On Android, Complete With Live Listening And On-Demand Downloads

Posted by in Applications, News

The BBC iPlayer video application has been available to Android-totting Englishmen for some time, but the audio equivalent has sadly lagged behind. Today the app finally lands on Android, and it was worth the wait: BBC Licence Fee subscribers can listen to the various radio stations over WiFi or mobile Internet, and it even works when they travel abroad. Unfortunately, the service isn't available to international users at any price.

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The interface of iPlayer Radio is an interesting mix of Holo elements and unique ideas, particularly a station selector that apes an old-school rotary phone dialer. Once you've selected a radio station, you're presented information about the current track or show, along with the standard social sharing functions.

21
Feb
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Qualcomm Announces The RF360, A 40-Band LTE Radio That Plays Nice With All The Networks

Posted by in News

Sometimes Long-Term Evolution wireless is presented as the future of mobile, and the answer to network incompatibility. That's half true. While LTE and GSM tend to play nice (or at least nicer than the entirely disparate GSM and CDMA standards) the bands and frequencies used for high-speed wireless access vary pretty widely in different countries, or here in the US, across different networks. Chip OEM Qualcomm is hoping to banish network anxiety with a new family of LTE radios, christened RF360. You can expect to see the radios embedded on future Snapdragon platforms.

The RF360 will work across a staggering amount of standard frequency ranges: GSM, CDMA and WCDMA, EV-DO, and an impressive array of LTE bands.

13
Feb
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Slacker Radio Updates Paid Model, Adds $10/Month All-You-Can-Eat Option To Its Radio Service

Posted by in Applications, News

As if there weren't enough contenders out there for music subscription service, Slacker Radio has updated its business model. You can still get the standard ad-supported radio station features that were always available. However the company has added a Spotify-like buffet option for $10/month. Pony up the dough and you can remove all ads and listen to as many tracks as you want.

The combination is pretty powerful, as one of the biggest complaints over Spotify is its discovery problems. Slacker Radio never really dethroned Pandora, but it did offer some stiff competition. There has been relatively little overlap between radio and subscription services.

18
Sep
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Bloomberg Radio+ App Launches With Access To Live Finance Radio Talk 24 Hours A Day

Posted by in Applications, News

Finance radio! Are you excited yet? Good. Bloomberg has released an app for the company's 24 hour network of audio shows discussing economics, business, and investment. Through Bloomberg Radio+ you can either choose to listen to whatever's on the air right now, or pull from a list of on-demand shows. You can even download the episodes for offline listening.

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The app actually looks very well made. It's as feature-packed as one would want a streaming radio service to be. There's even a persistent stock ticker at the bottom of the screen. Because you can't talk about money without one.

31
Jul
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Spotify App Updates With Radio Support For Mobile Users, Free Radio For All Users

Posted by in Applications, News

The Spotify Android app typically lags behind not only its counterpart on other platforms, but even its own desktop app. One of the nicest features that the streaming service offers on the desktop is its Radio services. Using your own selections as a starting point, Spotify will put together automated playlists based on your taste. You know, like Pandora. As of today's update, the Radio functions are not only available on mobile but are even accessible even if you don't have Spotify Premium.

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This marks an exciting new era for Spotify. Up until now, if you wanted to get access to tunes on the go from the Swedish-borne service, you had to pay $10 a month for the privilege.

07
Jul
espnradio

ESPN Replaces Its Old, Crappy ESPN Radio App With Brand New, ICS-Ready Hotness

Posted by in Applications, News

ESPN hasn't exactly been the poster child for great app design in the past. While the company has made several Android apps, many of them have looked rather atrocious and a bit too iOS-y. ESPN, however, has re-launched its ESPN Radio app. The old app appears to have been made by independent company Airkast, while the new app has been brought in-house. And, apparently, ESPN's house does a fine job of making an app. Just take a look:

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The old ESPN Radio app

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And the shiny new one

The new app adheres much more closely to Google's app guidelines and looks much better for it.

22
Jun
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[Lightning Review] Geneva Model XS Portable Bluetooth Speaker: Really Cool, Just Don't Ever Buy It

Posted by in Other Reviews

The portable Bluetooth speaker market is rapidly heating up, and one of our favorite designs in recent memory in the super-portable range was the Geneva Model XS. It's sleek, minimalistic, and so retro. Unfortunately, one crippling design flaw (along with some strange control choices) means this $250, almost art-like speaker / clock-radio just doesn't work in the real world.

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The flaw? The hinge on the outer case is made of like, paper-thin plastic. That's it. So, when I was first playing with the Model XS and figuring out how its interesting folding mechanics functioned, I dropped it - from a staggering height of about one foot.

09
Mar
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[New App] Jelli Radio Takes a Democratic Approach To Radio Airplay, Puts You In Control Of The Tunes

Posted by in Applications, News

We've all been there: listening to the radio, hoping the next track is something good. Or perhaps there's a specific track you want to hear, so you listen to the crappy local station for half of the day waiting for the audio goodness that you so desperately crave to grace your ear canal. Thanks to a new app called Jelli, you may never have to deal with what some deejay wants you to hear again.

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Jelli is basically democratic radio, as in, you vote for what track is played next. It works a little something like this: fire up the app and choose which station you want to listen to.

07
Aug
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[Updated] FCC Filing Reveals Motorola Droid Bionic (XT875) Photos, User Guide, 4.3" Screen, LTE/World Radios, And Inductive Charging Cover

Posted by in Bionic, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

The Droid Bionic, Verizon's most anticipated and delayed phone of 2011 (alongside the SGS2), expected to show up around September 8th, just got a few details we were curious about confirmed in its FCC filing docs, along with a slew of photos. Hilariously, it looks like either FCC has been testing this phone in a warzone or they have a pack of wild puppies around the office, because the device looks like it's just been through battle and gotten a Purple Heart.

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Additionally, among all the boring test reports, we have quite a few pages from the Droid Bionic's user guide, which not only confirm a 4.3" screen (not 4.5" as was suspected at one point), a dual-core 1GHz processor, and 1080P HD recording, but also highlight the Bionic's LTE and world radios, in addition to 3G.

06
Jul
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Confirmed: Samsung Nexus S 4G Receiving GRJ90 Software Update With NFC Secure Element And Fix For Radio Problems On July 11th

Posted by in Nexus S 4G (Crespo4g), Samsung, Sprint

The Nexus S 4G is, without a doubt, a great phone - but as of now, many units ship with a major flaw: they often have trouble connecting to 4G or even WiFi. The issue doesn't affect all Nexus S 4Gs, as shown by Android Central's poll on the subject, but those suffering from it are understandably unhappy with their devices.

And though it may have seemed that Sprint was turning a blind eye to these users' woes, it turns out they've actually been working on an update that will address this issue.

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Bearing the build GRJ90, the update will start its four-day rollout on the 11th.

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