Apple made several interesting announcements yesterday during its music event.
Here’s one that we’re particularly looking forward to: iOS 4.1. This update to the relatively new iPhone/iPod operating system releases next week, and we think it will improve the experience of 3G iPhone owners using the Public Radio Player and other apps, too. Simply put, iOS 4.0 does not play well with the older, 3G iPhones. For some people, this means your apps, including the Player, may move more slowly or crash more often.
While one never knows how a software update will work until it’s ‘out in the wild,’ we suspect many 3G owners are looking forward to next week. Public Radio Player users have something to look forward to as well in a couple more weeks: An update to the Player that will enable multitasking on your devices.
Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which develops the Public Radio Player, will be part of the mobile technology festivities this afternoon at Xconomy’s Mobile Madness event in Cambridge, MA. Jake Shapiro, our executive director, gets a full minute to explain our iPhone development strategy to New England’s business and technology community. In that brief span of time, he’ll introduce the Player and our This American Life app, and talk about plans for future apps, including one for Boston station WBUR.
It’s a good thing he talks fast.
The event is sold out, but if you already got your tickets, come by the PRX table to say hello and maybe score a freebie.
Happy holidays to all. We’d like to take a moment to welcome those who unwrapped a new iPhone or iPod Touch this season. We like to think of it as receiving the key to the Public Radio Player kingdom.
We’ll be rolling out some major performance and feature enhancements in the next couple of months, so be sure to download those app updates when iTunes tells you to. Subscribe to this blog for details.
The Public Radio Player application can’t run in the background*, but our team certainly can… and we are. We haven’t blogged in a while, but we’re on Facebook and Twitter, and we’re keeping an eye on your questions and comments.
The real evidence of our ongoing efforts is in the app itself. Player users will have noticed lots of new content in recent weeks. As public radio stations and programs from across the U.S. submit their streams and podcasts, we add them.
If you’re even tempted to think that “public radio” means just one kind of programming, give a listen to some of our newcomers:
Radio Arte in Chicago, Illinois – A “Latino-owned, bilingual, youth-driven” public radio station with a mix of Latino alternative music plus news and information
WKNO in Memphis, Tennessee – This news and classical station offers its HD1 and HD2 channels (yes, the Player has lots of HD Radio streams!)
Radio Bilingue – Public radio’s only national distributor of Spanish-language programming
KMRE in Bellingham, Washington – The American Museum of Radio and Electricity’s low-power FM station “broadcasting some of the finest educational, cultural and historically significant recordings ever produced”
WQXR in New York, NY – “The nation’s first commercial classical radio station” was just acquired by public radio station WNYC (already in the Player), and quickly took advantage of its newfound eligibility to be in the Public Radio Player
Youth Radio in Oakland, CA – This talented group of young people brings us their All Day Play, “a wide spectrum of musical tastes, news, and commentary”
WPVM in Asheville, NC – A low-power FM station that’s part of the Mountain Area Information Network, “a nonprofit community network using integrated media technologies to expand the local public sphere”
All of these streams can be found in the Live section of the app. With so much choice, don’t forget to use the Favorites, Local, and Search features to keep it simple.
* Translation: Third-party applications like the Player aren’t allowed to run while you do other things on the device (e.g. play a crossword or use the calculator); you have to exit the app first. Only native apps like iTunes can “run in the background.”
There are many reasons to watch our brief video demo. Maybe you’ve been using the Public Radio Player but have a nagging feeling there are more features you’re not using. Maybe you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and are deciding whether the Player is for you (though frankly, it’s free, so we say give it a go). Or maybe you don’t have an iPhone or iPod but want to know what the hype’s all about.
All good reasons. So here it is. (Re-posted on YouTube to be viewable on iPhones and iPods, too.)
Anyone who has used the Public Radio Player can tell that this app is powered by some serious code. Giuseppe Taibi is a key member of our development team. His iPhone skills are big in Italy. (His family makes delicious olive oil, too.) For those of you with a technical mind and ample curiosity, Giuseppe provides a tour of the Player’s architecture.
My involvement with this project has been primarily as an expert in hybrid development techniques for the iPhone. Hybrid apps are a class of apps developed primarily using web standards (HTML, CSS and Javascript), then wrapped around a native Objective C/Cocoa Touch so that they can be conveniently distributed as binary via iTunes App Store. There are several advantages of following this approach to building iPhone apps:
Short learning curve: Objective C is not as easy to learn as Javascript
Faster development time: no need to compile app to test it as Javascript is interpreted
Tapping into a large pool of talent: there are far more web developers than Objective C ones
Portability: WebKit, the core engine for Mobile Safari, is also the core engine for other evolved smartphones web browsers such as Android, Palm Pre and Nokia’s Symbian.
WebKit is the fastest web engine on earth. It is also the one with the lightest footprint and, to top it off, it is also open source.
Now live in the iTunes Store: The Public Radio Player! We used to call it the Public Radio Tuner, but this version is so awesomely different that we’ve given it a new name, a new logo, and even a new Facebook page.
What’s so different? The Player has the station schedules and on-demand streaming that we’ve promised for months. (Incidentally, in that big survey we recently invited you to take, 75% of Tuner users requested each of those features. Done and done.) Such significant additions required a revamped user experience design. Nor did we let new development distract from the basics: We’ve improved stream performance, too.
As with all major releases, there are some quirks. We are reading your feedback and looking into the issues.
A note to stations: Check the Guide for Stations soon for Web graphics with the new logo and some fun on-air and online promos. Thanks as always for being the force behind the app’s success!
The Public Radio Tuner has been around long enough now that many, many iPhone users have had a chance to try it out, and even make it a part of their lives.
That’s just about the right time to ask you to take a survey.
What kinds of stations do you listen to?
When do you use the Tuner (exercising? cooking? falling asleep? waking up (we hope)?)
News or Music or both?
Live or On Demand or both?
Chocolate or Vanilla or swirl? (just kidding)
The survey is hosted by NPR. Please give us a few minutes of your time. Not only will it help improve this iPhone app (with version 2.0 due out soon, we promise), it will inform all sorts of public radio mobile efforts, iPhone and otherwise.
Plus, it’s anonymous, so you can tell us what you *really* think.
The Public Radio Tuner has been downloaded 1.5 million times. Thanks to those of you who helped get us here by spreading the word! But we’re not done yet. We want to be on every iPhone and iPod Touch out there (who wouldn’t?). You can help by joining our Facebook group, twittering about the app, and, of course, simply TALKING about the Tuner with your real-world friends. Given the interesting tug-of-war happening in the iTunes reviews, you might be tempted to participate there, too.
What happened to the Public Radio Tuner, you ask? Nothing, really. It’s still the same iPhone app, but with some key new features. The Public Radio Player (aka “version 2.0″) is working its way through the iTunes review process and will go live in the next few weeks.
The Player community continues to grow, with over 1.5 million downloads since January. We want to thank the hundreds of stations who have submitted their streams and promoted the app on air and online. Your content makes the Player compelling, and your enthusiastic listeners have made it a certifiable success!
You last heard from us in April for an all-station webinar. Well, it’s high time for another. This one will be on:
The webinar is open to anyone in the public radio system, particularly stations, whether or not you’re already in the Player. We’ll update you on the project so far, share thoughts for the next phase, give pointers on stream formats and metrics, and invite your feedback and ideas. April’s webinar was well attended, and we’d like to see that happen again. So feel free to forward this email to people at your station.
A Google Group for you
We’ve created an invite-only Google Group for stations and other system members to share ideas and questions — promotion strategies, metrics tips, feature requests, etc. It will be a low-volume moderated list, and we’ll post occasional project updates there, too. Request to join now!
The Public Radio Tuner so far
The original version of the Public Radio Tuner was developed and launched by American Public Media in November 2008. With support from CPB, Public Radio Exchange helped bring together APM, NPR, Public Interactive, and PRI to collaborate on further development and promotion of the Tuner, launching a new version in January 2009 and version 1.2 (currently live in iTunes) in April 2009.
PRX also set up PublicRadioTuner.org (soon to be PublicRadioPlayer.org, though destination remains the same) as a blog and information center about the app and the project overall.
Since January, the app has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. It has consistently been in the top ten free music apps, and has spent significant time as the top free app in the iTunes catalog of over 45,000 other apps. People have expressed their love of (and sometimes confusion about) public radio in App Store reviews as well as comments at PublicRadioTuner.org. The Tuner has had significant buzz in blogs and twitter feeds, and has appeared in mainstream media outlets including TUAW, MacWorld, Slate, WashingtonPost.com, AdAge, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. NPR’s “All Things Considered” interviewed PRX Executive Director Jake Shapiro about public radio’s own new media phenomenon.
In April, the Tuner was moved from APM’s store on iTunes to the PRX store. APM handed off the management of station stream submissions to Public Interactive. Submit your streams here.
Coming up: the Public Radio Player
In a few weeks, the Public Radio Player will go live on iTunes, replacing the existing version 1.2. The new version 2.0 will include a dynamic, searchable program schedule and access to select on-demand content.
We’re planning a promotional push in July, and we welcome testimonials from individual stations. What impact has the Tuner had at your station? What have you heard from listeners? How have you gotten the word out? Why is being on the app important to your station? Do you have plans to create your own app of some kind? Post your thoughts to the new Google Group or email us at iphone [at] prx [dot] org. Let us know if it’s ok to include your comments in promotional materials.
We want to help you promote the Player, too. If you already are please tell us how so we can share with other stations. Graphics and promo copy are in the Guide for Stations, which we’ll update with the name change. Plus, once the Player is live, visit the Guide for audio promos recorded by a public radio celebrity who shall go unnamed to pique your curiosity.
These improvements are intended to further the Player’s original and enduring purpose: to grow awareness of public radio and engagement with public radio stations, to reach public radio fans wherever they want us to be, and to grow the audience to new listeners as well. This project has resulted in code, process, and promotion insights that we plan to share with all of you to support your own mobile efforts.
Not already part of the Public Radio Player? Sign up!
Tuner users are always asking for their local stations’ streams. It’s never too late to submit your streams for inclusion in the app (a great way to get more exposure for your HD streams as well). We’re continually adding content.
To be eligible for inclusion in the Player your station must be one or more of the following:
CPB qualified
NPR (member station)
APM (affiliate)
PRI (affiliate)
PRX (paid station membership)
National Federation of Community Broadcasters (participant member)
Public Radio Player
The Public Radio Tuner has been around long enough now that many, many iPhone users have had a chance to try it out, and even make it a part of their lives.
The Public Radio Tuner 
