rad.io a Smart Streaming Radio Android App
by Paul Wilks
Oct 11, 2011 4:12 PM –
Install
rad.io is a radio streaming app for Android. Featuring a smart user interface, access to thousands of radio channels and the ability to save favourites, the app further features; a radio station popularity chart, recommendations and the ability to search station by genre, topic, country, city or language. Smart, organized, stable and easy to use, rad.io is the top Android radio app you might not have heard of.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Easy to use streaming radio app!
- Helpful search functions & recommendations!
- Include a homescreen widget!
Cons
- Missing many ‘big’ stations.
Features:
rad.io is a smart and well designed radio streaming app. It presents users with a wide and diverse selection of radio stations from around the world in many different languages. While I noticed the app lacked a few of my favourite stations there is still a massive range of choice here.
The app helps you find stations which suit you by providing a variety of search filters. You can find streams based on genre, topic, country, city or language- meaning it’s very easy to use and find content that is relevant to you. rad.io is easy to explore too as navigation is simple and the UI is clearly intuitive and functional.
Perhaps you have played with the app for a while and have selection of stations that you prefer- in which case you can easy tag them as favourites and have them listed in one tab. One element which is great about the application is the way it can provide you with recommendations. Based on your preferences, the app can pool the various stations which match you and provide you with any number of gems which you might not have heard of.
One additional feature with mentioning is the ‘Buy’ feature. If you’re listening to a particular song and like it, there are often links to buy the track within the radio player. This usually create an Amazon.com link based on the text in the song title. While this works mostly, it can be hit and miss at times and feels disjointed.
The app on the whole works really well, but it lacks the community and vibe of something like Pandora or Slacker. However, if you live outside the U.S., and neither of these are available to you, rad.io might be a viable alternative.
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rad.io – Station player view (1)
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rad.io – Station player view (2)
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rad.io – Station player view (3)
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rad.io – Station in-play menu
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rad.io – Station details
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rad.io – Widget
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rad.io – Search function
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rad.io – Search by genre
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rad.io – Menu screen
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rad.io – Log in to get recommendations
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rad.io – Favourites
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rad.io – History
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rad.io – Feedback
Usefulness:
If you are a big fan of live radio this is a great app to enjoy on your Android. It’s not as comprehensive and impressive as apps like Pandora, but it works well and has a flurry of useful search features. While the app lets you ‘Buy’ individual tracks by sending you to Amazon in the browser, this isn’t always functional and you cannot (for example) save tracks for downloading later- which I think might be more intuitive.
Ease of Use:
rad.io is simple to use and very responsive. It is easy to navigate though and finding new stations is simple (as long as they are in the list). Adding favourites, finding recommendations and compiling a relevant list is very straight-forward.
Frequently Used:
Obviously this will depend on the user. If you love radio this might be something you use very regularly. I found however many of my favourite stations were missing. Sadly for me that meant I didn’t use the app very often.
Interface:
The interface on rad.io is relatively smooth and functional without blowing you away. It looks good, without being amazing, and is responsive, bright and easy to understand.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Free Music,
Internet Radio,
Mobile Music,
Music,
Music App,
rad.io,
streaming audio,
Streaming Music App
Categorised in: Media & Video, Multimedia, Music
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