Livio Car Internet Radio. Stream Music, Internet Radio and Calls via Bluetooth!
by Antonio Wells
Nov 15, 2011 8:00 AM –
Install
Livio Car Internet Radio is a cool Internet radio station app to listen, browse and search potentially thousands of free stations. It’s smartly integrated with Bluetooth devices; even sweeter when paired to Livio’s own home and car aftermarket Bluetooth devices. This review focuses on the Android app plus features, however, we have a hand-ons video review of Livio Radio Kit to accompany the app. Read more to see why you should buy it!
Price: Free, $4.99
Tested on: Nexus One
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Get access to thousands of free streaming Internet radio stations in the paid version!
- Works splendidly, mostly, with Livio’s Bluetooth car and home devices!
- Favorite stations, share songs plus tag songs to access later!
- Enables Bluetooth hands-free calling and even voice actions when paired to Livio Radio Kit.
Cons
- Inconsistency in automatic launch to play experience when paired with the Livio Radio Kit device, which resulted in force close errors.
Features:
Livio Radio allows you to browse by category and search thousands of free Internet radio stations (in the Pro version, limited in the freebie.) You can also preset your favorite radio stations, with the Livio Radio Kit, you can easily flip back and forth between the stations with the Previous/Next buttons on the device. The winner here is the app/device combo which offers all the cool goodies of streaming Bluetooth music, Internet radio and calling experience with out complex know-how’s or expensive installations… you’re looking at just over $100 bucks retail.
There is a simple integration with your Phone and Contacts app if you need to make/answer calls via Bluetooth, and this is audible through your speaker system.
Sharing songs and Internet radio stations is possible with the Livio Radio app, however, I strongly suggest setting this up when not driving or have your passenger share to social media for you. For example, sharing to Facebook requires you login and accept giving Livio Radio app access to your Facebook account. Thereafter initial setup, sharing is a couple clicks but requires you to take your eyes of the road ever so slightly. In addition to sharing in social media you can also share via other Android apps like email, text, and more.
Tagging is a cool and convenient way to store artist and song information for later should you want to research for possibly purchasing. Within this interface you’ll find only a basic list of the songs you’ve tagged and a mechanism to email the list to yourself.
By default the Settings for the app are just fine, but you can take a trip there to adjust things like playback settings, buffer times, sleep timer, and more.
Watch on Mobile
Watch on Mobile
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Livio Car Internet Radio
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Livio Car Internet Radio Menu
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Livio Car Internet Radio Browse Stations
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Livio Car Internet Radio Favorites
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Livio Car Internet Radio Tags
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Livio Car Internet Radio Sharing Options
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Livio Car Internet Radio Settings
Usefulness:
You don’t necessarily require Livio’s hardware Bluetooth home or car radio aftermarket products, as it can be used simply as an aggregate of possibly thousands of other streaming Internet radio stations. A few use cases that come to mind in this respect; if you’re commuting but have a favorite music or talk radio station, you can continue that listening tradition without having to be tethered to a radio per se. Also, if you’re a traveler and want to listen to your home radio station in another city, granted they have an Internet radio station, geography is a non-issue. That said, you can even listen to radio stations around the world… so there’s plenty to entertain here.
Ease of Use:
I’ll explain this in two ways… with and without the Livio Radio Kit. With the Bluetooth Kit, initial set was a breeze; simply plug it into the cigarette charging port, turn on the device, tune your car radio station to the station on the Bluetooth device, ensure “Bluetooth” is enabled and it will automatically pair with the device (no need to enter pairing passcode), then launch the Livio Car Internet Radio app. I must admit after initial setup I did experience inconsistent connections, meaning, sometimes getting in the car alone was enough as the device automatically starts the Livio Radio app and plays the first Favorite Internet radio station. 
Other times this resulted in the app failing and forcing close errors. 
There were even times where the settings stated the device was paired, I could hear no audio from the phone (as it was streaming to the device), yet the device did not stream to the car speakers. With a bit of resetting both phone and device these finicky issues can be worked through.
Frequently Used:
This could possibly be a daily to multiple times daily flyer, really dependent on how often you listen to Internet radio. Where it increases in uses is if you have the Livio Radio Kit in your car or other home Bluetooth devices.
Interface:
The user interface is actually built for operation in a car, whereas, the main streaming screen is very large with station, artist and song information scrolling past. And with a click of that area stops and starts the music. Livio Car Internet Radio app also features a jog wheel to spin and tune into stations very much like retro radio dials. Though I would like to see the tag and song information buttons be made larger. There’s also a widget you can drop on your home screen for faster navigation.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Listen to Music via Bluetooth,
Livio Car Internet Radio,
Livio Car Internet Radio Lite,
Livio Car Internet Radio Pro,
Livio Radio Kit,
streaming audio,
Streaming Music App,
Streaming Radio
Categorised in: Media & Video, Music
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