Internet Radio Pro – L33Tech. Streaming Radio app to access thousands of Internet stations via SHOUTCast & Icecast
by Paul Wilks
Aug 28, 2012 1:00 PM –
Install
Internet Radio Pro – L33Tech is a stable, robust and functional Internet radio application for Android. It allows you to scan and search thousands of radio stations using Icecast and SHOUTCast, so there’s always something to find based on artist, genre or songs. It also features of number of user-friendly options for refining your listening experience. If you like listening to the radio on your device, this might be one you want to check out.
Price: Free or $0.99 for the ad-free version
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Huge range of stations to discover based on your preferences!
- Easy to add favourites and customise your experience!
- Utilises both SHOUTCast and Icecast services!
- User-friendly and convenient functionality!
Cons
- Relatively drab UI.
- Unable to find popular stations directly.
- Adding your own stations is tricky.
Features:
Internet Radio – L33Tech is a relatively no-frills radio streaming app. Its power lies in the utilisation in both the SHOUTcast and ICEcast services for streaming thousands of radio stations and a number of handy and intuitive functions like adjusting the bit-rate for smooth listening and use of customised volumes depending on things like headphone input or Bluetooth.
To get a negative out of the way, the first thing you really notice about the app is the user interface. While it’s functional and responsive, it’s terrifically dull compared to just about every other radio app available in the Google Play Store. While radio apps are clearly about audio rather than looks, I think we’ve come to expect a bit more visually from apps. Certainly if you check out apps like Slacker Radio or TuneIn Radio, they look infinitely better than Internet Radio Pro – L33tech.
You search for radio stations using either SHOUTcast or Icecast, reputable online streaming services that cater to thousands and thousands of Internet stations from around the world. Simply add a genre, an artist or even just a song and the service will generate a number of stations to check out. As with any huge database of results, stations you find can be a little bit hit and miss, but there are obviously plenty of gems to unearth too. If you do find a keeper, you can simply add it to your favourites, making it simple to look up in the future.
Perhaps the most useful aspects about the app is the user-friendly controls. While you can automate the service to begin playing your last played station when you open Bluetooth or put your headphones in (oddly this is default- as if the app is the only reason you would ever use headphones, making it massively annoying if you put your headphones in to listen to music or a podcast only to have to enter the app and switch it off). The ability to adjust the bit-rate and customise volumes is perhaps most useful. It means your listening experience can be as smooth as possible, essential if you’re listening over a 2G network for example.
While these features are user friendly, they’re not specifically new or unique to the app. Other apps manage to include this functionality and look nice too. While there is great endeavour in creating Internet Radio Pro – L33Tech, there are simply far better radio apps available in the Google Play Store.
Watch on Mobile
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Shoutcast, station playing
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Main screen
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Menu
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – More
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Favourites
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Genre choice
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Search
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Select server
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Timer
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Internet Radio – L337Tech – Preferences
Usefulness:
For listening to radio from a massive selection of stations, while out and about, it’s a capable and nice app to use. It perhaps lacks in usefulness considering it doesn’t come with a widget and finding popular and well-known stations is impossible unless they’re on either Icecast or SHOUTcast.
Ease of Use:
The app is mostly easy to use. But say you want to add your own station- perhaps a popular national station like they have here in the UK. If I want to add a BBC station, I have to enter the whole URL into the app. There’s no logging into the service or access to a web dashboard which would make this easier either, which is hugely unintuitive.
Frequently Used:
This ultimately depends on the user and how often they like to tune in to the radio stations included in the app.
Interface:
To be fair to other radio apps, the user interface in Internet Radio Pro – L33Tech is a bit of a let down. Massively simple and perhaps lacking the smoothness and colours of more established and popular radio apps, it’s very underwhelming. It works fine, but looks very basic indeed.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Icecast,
Internet Radio Pro - L33Tech,
radio,
Shoutcast,
streaming audio,
Streaming Radio
Categorised in: Music
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