The Tuner is now a Play-ah

Posted: July 19th, 2009 | Author: Rekha from Public Radio Player | Filed under: Version 2.0 | 21 Comments »

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!

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21 Comments on “The Tuner is now a Play-ah”

  1. Geoff said at 6:25 pm on July 31st, 2009:

    After 30 min of it being in the “loading” mode twice on my iphone I gave up……bad app. Please let me know when the app actually functions in a timely and effective manner. Thanks.

  2. Rekha from Public Radio Player said at 10:17 am on July 29th, 2009:

    Hi everyone,

    We have a new release coming soon that should address some of the performance issues.

    Best,
    The Team

  3. Rekha from Public Radio Player said at 10:17 am on July 29th, 2009:

    Eddie – what device and OS are you using? WLRN works fine on my iPhone. Please email publicradioplayer at prx dott org with the details.

  4. Eddie Nunez said at 8:47 am on July 29th, 2009:

    WLRN is shown on the new application but there is no connection . I had to keep the old tuner in order to get WLRN in Miami. can you update the link?
    7-29-09

  5. Joe said at 12:00 am on July 23rd, 2009:

    This was the app I used the most, until the upgrade to 2.0. Now it loads far too slowly. I will not be wasting any more time with it. Is the previous version available anywhere? It worked great.

  6. Public Radio Player (Heck yeah) « /blog {words} said at 2:20 pm on July 22nd, 2009:

    [...] via Public Radio Player » Blog Archive » The Tuner is now a Play-ah. [...]

  7. Public radio endangered by an iPhone app? - L&C Tech Talk said at 2:00 am on July 22nd, 2009:

    [...] Ali, writing at PaidContent.org, says the recent release of The Public Radio Player may put local stations at risk with its new features. The app lets you listen to almost any public [...]

  8. iNexxFear said at 7:52 pm on July 21st, 2009:

    So why 2 apps then, why hasn’t the old tuner been removed from the app store? This is confusing to users!

  9. Marc said at 3:40 pm on July 21st, 2009:

    The use of WebKit for the whole UI makes the interface SO SLOW, its barely unusable.

    You have a huge AppKit at your disposal and you make based on HTML?

    Performance sucks.

    Fail.

  10. Steve said at 3:25 pm on July 21st, 2009:

    Can’t get the on-demand stuff to play… what am I doing wrong?

  11. Charlie said at 11:13 am on July 21st, 2009:

    Wonderful upgrade. Thanks.
    Question: Can you provide a filter to find only stations that are not in fund-raising mode? That’s one of my main uses for the app. (AFTER I’ve contributed to my local station, of course)

  12. Public radio endangered by an iPhone app? | yKvz Blog said at 8:58 am on July 21st, 2009:

    [...] Ali, writing at PaidContent.org, says the recent release of The Public Radio Player may put local stations at risk with its new features. The app lets you listen to almost any public [...]

  13. Ben Robertson said at 7:06 am on July 21st, 2009:

    Did I say nuke the favorites? No, I meant please do not nuke the favorites, but please feel free to nuke the featured section. Oops.

  14. Ben Robertson said at 6:58 am on July 21st, 2009:

    Please address the performance issues ASAP. Installed the “old” tuner from APM because of slowness, hangs, restarts, and the general clunkyness of the UI. And I would second the call to nuke the favorites. Sorry – I imagine y’all are working hard, but this app has some serious problems (and I am using a 3G).

  15. @digimindshare said at 5:42 am on July 21st, 2009:

    All good…how about an Android version for us non-iPhone wonks? ;-)

  16. Rekha from Public Radio Player said at 5:36 pm on July 20th, 2009:

    @Geo,

    We absolutely promise not to nuke the Favorites from now on. Truly sorry about that. Glad you’re enjoying the app, though.

  17. Sean said at 3:17 pm on July 20th, 2009:

    I love this app. Hopefully the scrolling speed and draw glitches will be addressed, but it’s otherwise awesome!

  18. Jason said at 3:11 pm on July 20th, 2009:

    The 2.0 update is gorgeous and I appreciate that the audio starts incredibly early in the loading of the app. However the rest of the app hangs at this screen. It won’t ever get into the app so that I can change the station or anything. Also, why the pallette swap? I liked the red, white and blue.

  19. Geo said at 10:55 am on July 20th, 2009:

    Love it.

    One small request–in the next update, could you not nuke the “Favorites” selections? Every update thus far makes us start over.

    Keep up the good work!

  20. Mike said at 12:41 am on July 20th, 2009:

    I appreciate the new functionality, but this app is unusably slow on my iPhone 3G when compared to previous versions. Full reboots after install made no difference, launching and navigating this app’s various modes are truly painful. Please don’t optimize this potentially great app only for the newest hardware!

  21. Tim Fitzgerald said at 10:24 pm on July 19th, 2009:

    A fantastic upgrade from the previous version. The work that went into the fit and finish is noticeable, and appreciated. A true job well done.